Image Editing Software
Image Editing (aka photo editing, bitmap editing) software lets you edit scanned photos, screen captures and other such "raster" or "bitmap" graphics - pictures composed of colored dots or "pixels".
Examples of image editing programs:
- Windows includes a very simple program called Paint.
- Some versions of Office include Photo Editor, which is a bit more advanced than Paint and is useful to have around for a few special tricks; when in doubt, include it when you install Office, even if you have a more full-featured image editor
- Full-featured editing programs like Adobe Photoshop, Corel PhotoPaint, JASC Paintshop Pro and Micrographx Picture Publisher do just about anything you can imagine with bitmaps. And a bunch of things you never thought of.
- Programs that specialize in viewing, printing, modifying, converting images. These are usually inexpensive or even free programs that tackle a small range of tasks and often do it very, very well. A few of my personal favorites:
- BreezeBrowser from BreezeSys is the best way I've ever found to turn a folder full of photos into an attractive web site. It's quick, it's easy and it's fully customizeable.
- IrfanView by Irfan Skiljan is a goldmine grab-bag of image conversion, sampling, viewing and batch processing tools. No computer should be without it. At these prices, you can afford to give it to all your friends. For personal use, it's free.
- Snag-It from TechSmith is commercial software that vastly simplifies and speeds up the process of capturing screen images for technical documentation and other purposes.
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