Photo Editing Software

PhotoShopping Around For Alternatives

Adobe's Photoshop has established itself as the incontestable standard of image editing software. For professionals and consumers alike, its exceptional performance, seamless integration with other Adobe graphics and multimedia applications, as well as the proliferation of available effects plug-ins that infinitely increase its versatility, make for quite an irresistible package... that is, until you catch a glimpse of the accompanying price tag.

Adobe's upcoming releases of Photoshop, dubbed CS3 and CS3 Extended, will run users US$649 and US$999, respectively, for non-upgrade versions, and if you require only relatively basic editing features and file format conversion, then this is, to say the least, overkill. Even the company's stripped-down version of the application, aptly named Photoshop Elements, which targets, as they put it, the "casual photographer," costs US$99.99.

But there are a number of image editing programs available that incorporate essential functionality, such as the ability to crop, rotate, and resize images, as well as do color adjustment, while still maintaining a modest price, thus allowing users to continue "casually photographing" without an added financial burden.

Resize, Colorize and Emphasize - On a Budget

One of the most popular low cost (or, in this case, no cost) image editors is GIMP. Originally developed for UNIX, GIMP (short for GNU Image Manipulation Program) is an open-source application, supporting Linux, Windows and Macintosh platforms, and includes all of the necessary tools for transforming, retouching, or otherwise editing photographs. Customizable brushes and patterns complement its built-in drawing capabilities, and its proprietary plug-in architecture supports an ever-growing number of filters and effects, which currently stands at over 100.

Though you certainly can't argue with GIMP's price, there are many other freeware and shareware image editors that offer, to varying degrees, the necessary tools and effects to manipulate your photos in most any way imaginable. Some of the perennial favorites among critics are definitely worth looking into. Of particular note are IrfanView, Serif's PhotoPlus 6, and J-T-L Development's Ultimate Paint.

If you have purchased a new Macintosh computer or Apple's Mac OS X operating system in recent years, then you already have a handy little photo editor at your disposal. iPhoto is included in Apple's iLife suite of "digital lifestyle applications," which retails for $79.00 for a single user license. But chances are, if you have a Mac that isn't completely outdated, you already have the program. iPhoto, mainly used for its image organization and sharing features (storing up to 250,000 of your pictures), also includes some useful editing functions, such as the ability to crop, rotate, and resize images, as well as color enhancement and adjustment, photo retouching, red-eye removal tool, and a handful of preset effects.

Perhaps the most cost effective solution for the Mac OS, however, is Lemkesoft's GraphicConverter, which boasts file import compatibility with an astounding 200 different file formats and will export roughly 80, reason enough to spend the US$35 asking price. GraphicConverter includes the standard array of editing and drawing tools, but also incorporates an impressive variety of filters and effects for further image enhancement and alteration. To add to its versatility, the program employs a plug-in architecture compatible with Adobe Photoshop, which enables users to implement the literally hundreds of free and purchasable Photoshop plug-ins available from a staggering number of developers. The program offers full TWAIN support for scanning photos and negatives, and, in addition to its recent Universal Binary releases for both PPC and Intel-based Macs, Lemkesoft is one of the few software companies that continues development for Macintosh's Classic (pre-OS X) environment.

The availability of such inexpensive image editing applications proves that there is, in fact, life beyond Photoshop. Consumer friendly and equally useful for professional quality work, these editors, although lacking in certain features that you could only gain by handing over hundreds of dollars to Adobe (if you were to need them at all), provide more-than-sufficient means of photo manipulation without the bulk (in size as well as cost) of their larger competitor.