Tuesday 28th January 2014Getting your artwork online and presented in the best possible way can be quite a challenge. Once you've created your masterpieces, and you've taken your digital photos using a colour-calibrated workflow (check out our recent posts on those topics if you missed them), you're going to need a good quality image editor to finish off your images. No, MS Paint doesn't count, but fortunately there are a ton of other great editors out there.
In many cases, your digital camera will come with some sort of image editing software. While those options are usually more or less acceptable (Capture NX from Nikon or PIcture Style from Canon, for example), they often leave something to be desired. If you're lucky, your camera may come bundled with more professional and well-designed software like Lightroom, but not everyone is so lucky.
For those of you with the budget and the desire for serious image editing power, Adobe Photoshop is the gold standard for any kind of computer image work, but it comes with a gold standard price tag that can be off-putting to many people who won't end up using the full range of its capabilities. Adobe Lightroom is a cheaper alternative that still packs some editing punch, but it's designed more for photographers who work with large numbers of images on a regular basis. Adobe Photoshop Elements, the stripped down version of Photoshop designed for more casual users is also an excellent choice, but if you're a starving artist like many of us, you'll want to check out the free options we've found before you start deciding between Photoshop and paying the rent.
The open source community has long been pushing its competitor to Photoshop, the relatively unfortunately-named GIMP (General Image Manipulation Program). It's completely free to download, and it offers almost all of the functionality of Photoshop, but it leaves a great deal to be desired in terms of ease of use. The latest version is much better than previous iterations, but the user interface and help system are decidedly lacking when compared to any of the Adobe products mentioned above.
If that's not your style, there's a new kid on the block, which takes a unique approach to the problem - you don't have to download any software at all, because it works entirely within your web browser - and it's also free. Dubbed 'Pixlr', you simply upload the photos you want to work on and then you can use a set of functions relatively similar to Photoshop Elements that should provide most of the image editing tools you'll need. The downside, of course, is that you have to be always on the web to work, which isn't an option for some of us.
Posted on January 28th 2014 on 01:23pm