Free Image manipulation and photo management software
Thought I'd start a thread for those on a limited budget, with some links to some half way decent, but free image manipulation and management software.
Image manipulation
GIMP
Gimp 2.4 Image manipulation
About GIMP
GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed program for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring.
It has many capabilities. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter, etc.
GIMP is expandable and extensible. It is designed to be augmented with plug-ins and extensions to do just about anything. The advanced scripting interface allows everything from the simplest task to the most complex image manipulation procedures to be easily scripted.
GIMP is written and developed under X11 on UNIX platforms. But basically the same code also runs on MS Windows and Mac OS X.
This is a free open source program and like the well known Adobe Photoshop, can do an awful lot to improve and manipulate your photos. Although I haven't really played too much with it, I know people who use it and they rate it quite highly, the price certainly cannot be beaten. :)
Image Management
Faststone
Faststone Image Viewer 3.5
FastStone Image Viewer is a fast, stable, user-friendly image browser, converter and editor. It has a nice array of features that include image viewing, management, comparison, red-eye removal, emailing, resizing, cropping and color adjustments. Its innovative but intuitive full-screen mode provides quick access to EXIF information, thumbnail browser and major functionalities via hidden toolbars that pop up when your mouse touches the four edges of the screen. Other features include a high quality magnifier and a musical slideshow with 150+ transitional effects, as well as lossless JPEG transitions, drop shadow effects, image annotation, scanner support, histogram and much more. It supports all major graphic formats (BMP, JPEG, JPEG 2000, animated GIF, PNG, PCX, TIFF, WMF, ICO and TGA) and popular digital camera RAW formats (CRW, CR2, NEF, PEF, RAF, MRW, ORF, SRF and DNG).
No Adware No Spyware
Free for Home Users
Just started using this and like it very much, it is quick and easy to use, have set Photoshop as my default editor and can move from viewing to editing with a simple key press. :)
Picasa
Picasa
Find, organise and share your photos.
Picasa is a free software download from Google that helps you:
* Locate and organise all the photos on your computer.
* Edit and add effects to your photos with a few simple clicks.
* Share your photos with others through email, prints and on the web: it’s fast, easy and free.
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This is a very useful Free image management, manipulation and presentation program, have used it for a while and find it great. :)