Free Online Photo Editors

Web-Based Photo Editors

The Internet offers many venues for sharing photos and images. In response to the popularity of sites like Flickr and Facebook, several websites have cropped up offering online image editing services that you can use for free. I don't know which one you tried, but there are some pretty amazing online photo editors now. Some of them rival the features found in expensive professional image software. These programs don't require cash, downloads or commitments, however, they do have some limitations. Let's take a look at some of these web-based photo editing tools.

Adobe Photoshop Express

If you want to work with an online photo editing site that is associated with a well known and trusted brand name, then consider Adobe Photoshop Express.

This browser based photo editing site is free to use, it allows you to store up to 2GB of photos online and it provides you with many of the most common editing tools offered by Adobe Photoshop products. Some of the tools offered on this site include resizing, tinting, distortion, Pop Color, hue, tint, B&W and sketch. This site also allows you to organize your uploaded images in your own photo gallery.

Pixlr

The folks behind Pixlr aren't shy... they claim to have "the most popular online photo editor" in the world. And wow, I was amazed at the breadth and depth of the editing features they offer. Both casual and professional users will find the tools they need to accomplish the most common photo and image editing operations. I recommend that you start with Pixlr Express, a simplified (but powerful) interface that offers crop, resize, rotate, autofix, sharpen, red eye removal, color effects, image overlays, borders and text annotation. The full Pixlr photo editor has a fully stocked image editing toolset, offering all of the above, plus drawing tools, layers, dozens of image adjustment tools, format conversions (JPEG, PNG, BMP, TIFF), and the ability to store images in an online Pixlr, Facebook, Flickr or Picasa account.

Pixlr runs on any computer with a web browser and an internet connection - there's nothing to download or install. You can also find mobile versions that run on your iPhone, iPad or
Android devices. Did I say wow? Wow.

FotoFlexer

FotoFlexer also makes the bold claim to be "the most advanced online image editor." FotoFlexer lets you upload your own image, or grab one from your Photobucket, Facebook, Flickr, Picasa or Smugmug library. You'll find a wide range of tools, with a focus on photo editing. Auto fix, red eye correction, cropping, resizing and rotating are all wasy to find on the Basic menu. The effects menu lets you posterize, "heartify", go retro, pixelate, or apply a variety of cool effects such as Blur Edges, Comic, Blueprint or Painting. You'll have a blast playing with these. The Decorate menu lets you add text, stickers, draw, do color fills, or add borders. The Beautify menu lets you focus on the face, with options to smooth, sharpen, fix blemishes or remove wrinkles. Advanced users will want to explore the Distort, Layers and Geek menus.

FotoFlexr might not have all of the advanced image editing tools found in Pixlr, but I give it an A+ for the fun factor, and ease of use.

Splashup

Another free browser based photo editing website that you can use is Splashup, which was formerly known as Fauxto. This is a very basic program that offers more along the lines of drawing and annotation than a full scale photo editing program. However, you can still touch up photos with basic tools offered by Splashup. The best features of this website are that it allows you to work in layers and you can create five unique paint brushes. Splashup also interfaces with Picasa, Flickr and Facebook, but I had trouble getting this to work in Firefox.

Picnik

Picnik is yet another option that you have for free online photo editing. Like the others, this site is browser based, which means you don't have to download anything. Once Picnik is up and running you will need to create an account before you can use the editing tools. The editing tools are pretty basic. There are auto fix, rotate, crop, resize, exposure, color, sharpen and red eye fix options. One of the best features of this site is that there are quick access buttons for sending your edited photos to sites like MySpace, Flickr and Picasa Web Album. NOTE: Picnik has been acquired by Google, and will cease to exist as a stand-alone service on April 19, 2012. After that date, you'll be able to find the same photo editing tools in Google+.

Pros and Cons of Online Photo Editing Sites

I'm finding more and more free software that's totally web-based, meaning that it runs right in your browser, and there's nothing to download. I like this trend, because it really simplifies my life. Nothing to install, and I can access my programs and files from any computer with an Internet connection.

So, online photo editing sites provide you with basic editing, markup tools and some advanced image manipulation options. This is great if you're away from your home computer and have photos you want to share, or when you don't have photo editing software of your own. Another advantage offered by these sites is that they are usually connected to social network sites and you can quickly send your images to your favorite websites.

On the other hand, while these sites are free, fun and functional, there are limitations to what they have to offer. First of all if you have a dial up connection these sites will be very slow. Also, if you're a power user of PhotoShop or other photo editing software, you may not find all the fancy tools to which you're accustomed. And here's one important tip to remember... Don't hit the Back button in your browser while editing a photo. Always use the navigation buttons provided by the website, or you will lose all your edits in a single click.

All in all, free online photo editing websites are very useful. For many users, they can serve as a replacement for the traditional "download and install" photo editing software. These sites are still being perfected and some bugs are still being worked out. In the future, you can look forward to many more features and options to choose from when editing your photographs online.

Do you use an online photo editor? Tell us which one you like by posting a comment below...