Photo Editors, Converters, Programs and Helpful Tips to Tell Clients, Family, & Friends About...

Recently, my boss (yes, I have a part-time regular job, still. I’m still, in the learning and needing money on a regular bases stage, to not have one.) Anyways, my boss asked me to give a presentation during our next office meeting on “Easy, Free Ways to Convert and Edit Photos and Other Documents”, that we can tell clients about.

Off, the top of my head, I could already think of a few, other than Photoshop that I use on regular bases. But I figured, if I was going to make a presentation on something like this, I might as well do the full research, I mean, I could always learn something new. And then, I thought since I’m writing this stuff out anyways, I might as well share it with you guys. I don’t know about you but, I’m always having clients and friends asking me how or what they can do and use to make changes to photos, covert files, or edit PDF’s. And, although Photoshop is easy for me and I had to get Acrobat the full version, most people can’t afford or can even grasp how to use them. So here’s the list I came up with… (I even found stuff for MACs)


Programs Most People Already have (Comes with Windows):

Paint - You can open and resize (under, Image-Stretch and Skew) then save as a jpeg, bmp, tiff, gif or png.

Microsoft Office Picture Manager - Most XPs have this, easy to use editor, basic enhancements, resize, crop, and compress any image. It can be found in the start menu under Microsoft Office Tools or by right clicking and choosing, open as. You can export your image if you need it any other format. (jpeg, gif, tiff, bmp, tiff, or png)

Vista Windows Photo Gallery - You can do everything in Microsoft Office Picture Manager right from this updated picture viewer in Vista.

Microsoft Photo Editor – Can be found on older versions of Windows, easy to use editor, basic enhancements, resize, crop, and compress any image. It can be found in the start menu under Microsoft Office Tools or by right clicking and choosing, open as. You can export your image if you need it any other format. (jpeg, gif, tiff, bmp, tiff, or png)


Free Downloadable Programs:

Adobe Photoshop Album Starter Edition 3.2 http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshopalbum/starter.html
Make basic edits and enhancement with it, it’s great for organizing photos. Downside, doesn't have “save as” or “export” feature you must click "Share" and email or send to... To get your edited photo and it only resizes using a list of standard Pixel dimensions. Big plus, Starter Ed, lets you extract images from PDF files, it will scan your PDF's and take out all images so you can edit them.

Picasa 3 - http://picasa.google.com/#utm_source=en-all-more&utm_campaign=en-pic&utm_medium=et
Easy to make basic edits and enhancement with, great for organizing photos. Downside, only "save as" or "exports" as Jpeg files and you can only resize in Pixel dimensions.

Irfanview - http://www.irfanview.net/ Looks easy to use, it’s free; but I haven’t used it.

For MACs:

Gimp - http://gimp.org/

Seashore - http://seashore.sourceforge.net/screenshot.php


Free Online Photo Editing Sites (Edit a photo from any computer with a browser):

LunaPic - http://www.lunapic.com/editor/
Upload and edit any picture, then download it back to your computer. Downside, it's a little more advance than the other software and it has ads on it's site.

Adobe Express - https://www.photoshop.com/express/landing.html
2GB limited and must create an account and a little more advance than the other software.

Picnik - http://www.picnik.com/
5 photos at a time limit and you must create an account


Cheap Software to Buy:

Adobe Photoshop Elements - Cheaper and more user friendly than regular Photoshop (Photoshop for Dummies or the Poor).

Paint Shop Pro - Cost less than Photoshop but is about as easy to use as regular Photoshop.

Photo Paint (Corel) - Cost less than Photoshop but is about as easy to use as regular Photoshop.

iPhoto - Inexpensive and works with Mac's (comes with iWork).

*Note: Most printers come with some type of photo editor software (HP, Epson, and Lexmark do)


Converting, Exporting, Saving As, and Cutting and Pasting:
You can convert most files into different file types with most programs by going to ”File” and looking under the "Save As" or "Export" options.

Word - Coverts to HTML and different types of word processing program files. Word also has built-in image editing tools you can crop, resize, and adjust the contrast, then cut and paste the updated image to where you need it or into paint and "Save As".

Publisher - "Saves As" HTML, different types of word processing files, as well as jpeg, png, tiff, gif, ps, word clipart files, and bmp. Publisher also has a built in image editing tools you can crop, resize, and adjust the contrast, then cut and paste the updated image and "Save As". Downside, when saving Pub files as images you get a thin black line down the left side of the image, also, you won’t get high resolution.


Making and Editing PDF:

Adobe Acrobat - Easy to use, integrates into every program on your computer, so you can export or print a PDF file from any program. Downside, it cost a lot and doesn't always work well with Microsoft programs.

CutePDF Writer - http://www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp Easy to use integrates into every program on your computer, it's free, and has no problems with Microsoft programs. (To use you must send your file to print and choose this program as your printer)

PDFill - http://www.pdfill.com/download.html Easy to use integrates into every program on your computer, it's free, BONUS, you can also use it to covert any file into image files jpeg, tiff, bmp, gif, or png. (To use you must send your file to print and choose this program as your printer)

PrintToPDF - (For Mac and free) http://www.jwwalker.com/pages/pdf.html (To use you must send your file to print and choose this program as your printer)

Edit PDFs Online at http://www.pdfhammer.com/ (Free) upload your PDF and use the online site to make changes to your file then download the updated file back to your computer

*Note: PDF, PS, AI (Adobe Illustrator), and EPS files are vector based files and are interchangeable, meaning if a program can open one or edit one, it can usually open or edit the others. You might have to go "File-Open” and select "view all files" or you can even just change the file ending (ext.) to the one you need it to be, from file manager.