If you are not, you do not really have that much choice at all. Perfect365, a free makeover software for Windows and Apple iOS devices, could be a solution.

You are asked to load a portrait when you first start the application. You can alternatively use one of the sample photos to test the program’s functionality.

The portrait is displayed in the middle of the interface once it has been loaded. It is then possible to use one of the modification profiles or filters on the left, or make changes to particular areas of the face on the right side.

The application ships with 21 instant looks that can be applied with a single click. This ranges from organic, natural and pure looks to a wide variety of looks that are only interesting to modify female portraits as they add eyeliners or lipsticks among other things. If you ever wanted to find out how you look with red lipstick, eyeliners and colored contacts, it is your chance to find out.

The options on the right are very extensive. They are displayed in groups like skin, eyes or mouth. Each group lists multiple modifications that can be made to the portrait. From removing blemishes or circles to whitening the skin or teeth, lifting the cheeks, enhancing the nose or deepening the smile. Most of the options are configured with sliders that range from 0 to 100. checkmarks indicate which modifications are currently active.

If you upload your own photo you should click on Adjust key points first to make sure that the program uses the right proportions. You are basically asked to click on certain locations like the ears, eyes, mouth or nose.

Once you are satisfied with your modifications you can print the photo, share it on social networking sites or save it to the local computer. The free version supports a maximum resolution of 600×600 which should be fine for profile photos or photos on most websites.

Interested users can check out the Perfect365 website for additional information and download options. The program is compatible with all recent 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system.

Wallpaper Manager

One of my biggest complaints about most wallpaper managers is a lack of a functional full-screen mode. IrfanView can open a picture full-screen or you can make one full-screen from a window (double-click the image). You can see the next and last images with the space bar and backspace key. You can go through an entire folder in this manner, seeing what a wallpaper really will look like before selecting an image.

Once you have found the new wallpaper you want, there are several key combinations to set the image in place. To center an image, use crtl+shift+c. To tile an image, use ctrl+shift+t. To stretch (and possibly skew) an image, use ctrl+shift+s. To stretch (without skewing) an image, use ctrl+shift+x. The last shortcut as added in the most recent version of IrfanView, so be sure to update the program.

To create a shortcut to open an image full-screen, you will need a few things. You have to specify the path for IrfanView, your image, and the /fs switch. The “fs” stands for full-screen. It should look like this:

i_view32.exe D:\Wallpaper\Image.jpg /fs

Tip: Start with a shortcut of IrfanView. Right click the shortcut, select “Properties,” and add parameters after the program path. This ensures you have the correct path to the application.

Randomize Wallpaper

A shortcut can be created that can randomize your wallpaper from a file selected within a folder or list. Place it in your “Start Up” folder to have a new wallpaper every time you boot your computer. Place it in your “Scheduled Tasks” to have it change in any intervals you want. You can always put it in the Start Menu (or even on the desktop) for convenient access.

To create a shortcut to change your wallpaper, you need to specify the path to IrfanView, the folder with the images, and the image types. After that, use the parameters shown:

i_view32.exe D:\Wallpaper\*.jpg /random /wall=0 /killmesoftly

Screenshot Maker

IrfanView has a great screen capture tool. Just press “C” to use it. It will bring up a dialog box that lets you grab the whole screen, just one program, or an area/box you draw with your mouse. Other settings can be found here, such as the file name pattern and directory (such as one in a network share or Dropbox). You can then use a key combination to activate the capture or set an automatic, repeating timer.

You can create shortcuts to use the screen capture features directly. There are a lot of options in the help file. More than likely, one of these two is the one you would want to use.

Capture the foreground window:

i_view32.exe /capture=2

Capture a rectangle selection:

i_view32.exe /capture=4

Basic Image Editing

While IrfanView is mainly a viewing tool, it does have image editing features. It will not replace powerful tools like PhotoShop or GIMP, but it will complement them. Fast load times, precision selections, and bag of tricks make it more useful than you might expect. You can resize, crop, and convert image types with ease. Enhancing an image or making it black and white is done with one click of a menu item. Adjusting the brightness/contrast, and tweaking the hue are all can be performed through intuitive dialog boxes. You can even blur, sharpen, use other filters (e.g. oil painting). All of these things are right in the Image menu.

Summary

IrfanView is a versatile tool. If you are just using it to view images, then you are not using its full potential. As you can imagine, taking screenshots is something a writer here has to do often. Being able to do it quickly, and right the first time, makes the work easier. Have some other clever uses for IrfanVIew? Let us know in the comments.

Photos can be added by dragging and dropping them into the program interface or by using the file browser which offers a handy option to add all images located in a folder. Each photo is displayed with its name and size in the interface. The photo editing options are located in the right sidebar and allow a user to resize, convert, watermark or rename the photos that have been added.

Several presets are available in the resizing section that allow the user to resize the photos to match devices like iPods or iPhones but also websites like Twitter or Facebook. It is also possible to select a custom size for the images. The photo conversion supports the most common image formats that include jpg and png among others.

A few photo editing options can be changed in the program’s settings. This ranges from the opacity level of the watermarks to the compression level of the jpg images. Image Tuner (via Neowin) is a handy photo editing software that’s especially useful to batch process photos on the local computer system.

Image editing software programs like Seamonster make it now possible to reduce the size of images without loosing to much of its quality. Take a look at the following image to get a better understanding of the technique involved if you have not seen it before.

Seamonster is a demonstration of this technique. It is a image editing software for the Windows operating system that requires the Microsoft .net Framework 2.0. Images can be loaded into the interface that consists of a preview area and a sidebar on the right containing the image editing tools.

The tools can be used to carve or squash the image by pressing the buttons of the same name. Several parameters can be defined in the sidebar from the seam function to bias mode and energy function.

The techniques can be applied horizontally, vertically or optimal which will select the best direction automatically.

It does not look like this software is going to be updated by the developer in the near future as it was build in 2007. It does work surprisingly well though although it is missing some features like manual selection of areas that should be removed first.

So instead, I gave Paint.net another go, an application which I have tried before, but gave up because I heard GIMP was so awesome. Paint.net is a graphical application just like Photoshop, but without many of its fancy tools. If you just need some cropping, resizing and positioning action for images in your blog, Paint.net will be great. At around 6Mb in size, it doesn’t take a toll on your system either.

For me it works quite well for basic web design too, simple gradients, some web 2.0 style reflections, nothing too complex. The two things which I miss most about Photoshop though is the text capabilities and vector graphics. Text capabilities in both GIMP and Pain.net are shabby compared to PS, and Paint.net doesn’t really have great pen tools either. If you need way more power than the simple Windows Paint, but way less than Photoshop, Paint.net is a solid, well built, lightweight image editor for you.

So let’s break The GIMP’s UI into its constituent pieces and make using this excellent application a snap to use.

When you open up The GIMP it defaults to three main windows: The Main Window, The Toolbox, and the Utility Window. These are the meat and potatoes of The GIMP. To get a better understanding of the whole we have to break it down into its pieces. We’ll start with the Main Window.

Main Window

Main Window

From the Main Window all actions can take place. But the main action with the Main Window is opening and saving images. If you were a user prior to 2.6 this is where you will notice the biggest changes. One of the issues new users had was that once an image was opened they didn’t realize there was a right click mouse menu they could use when they were working within images.

Mouse Menu

As you can see, in the image above, the Main Window now has a built in menu. Prior to 2.6 the Main Window didn’t include this menu. To get to this menu you had to click on the right mouse button. Now 2.6 has both. This menu contains pretty much everything you need to work with your image. But you don’t have to count on just these menus for your work.

The Main Menu has one other very nice feature. You can drag an image into this window to open the image. To do this open up Nautilus (or Dolphin, or Konqueror), select an image, and drag the selected image to the Main Window. When an image opens the Main Window seems to disappear. What really happens is the images opens up within the Main Window. When you close the image the Main Window returns to its former self.

Toolbox

The next window is the toolbox (as shown in the image to the right). This window allows you to quickly access all of the tools available.

Toolbox

When you click on a tool the lower half of the window will change according to the tool. This window is handy to keep open because it gives you fast access to every tool available. Another nice option with the Toolbox is, when you customize a particular tool you can save your customizations. The bottom left corner is the save button for saving tool customizations. You can also customize this window. The small left-pointing arrow near the middle is actually a menu. Click that and you will find other options you can play with. You can add tabs with this menu, lock the tabs to the dock, and save your options.

Utilities

The final window is the Utilities Window. This window is one of the more often overlooked tools of The GIMP. It shouldn’t be. This is where you deal with layers, channels, paths, etc. And you can add/remove as many tabs from this window as you like.

Utilities Window

One of the most powerful aspects of The Gimp is the ability to do layering, channels, and paths. The Utilities Window (shown at the left) allows you to add or remove tabs that relate to just about any task you need. By default the Utilities Window has four tabs open: Layers, Channels, Paths, and Undo History. You can add tabs by clicking the left-pointing arrow and then navigating through the Add Tab submenu. Each utility tab is different from the next depending upon the utility. The Layers tab, for instance, has six buttons near the bottom of the tab (which is actually near the center of the window): New Layer, Raise the selected layer, Lower the selected layer, Duplicate the selected layer, Anchor the selected layer, and Delete the selected layer.

You will also notice, at the top of the Utilities Window, a drop-down box. This allows you to select an image to work on when you have more than one image open.

Final Thoughts

And that’s it – the basics of The GIMP user interface. Once you get used to this interface you will find it very simple to navigate and much more user-friendly than you thought.

The GIMP is a very powerful application that can handle most any image manipulation needs. Although The GIMP and read and write most every known graphic format, its native format, xcf, is not widely supported. But why would you want or need The GIMP? And who would best fit as a user of The GIMP?

Let’s first take a look at the feature list of The GIMP.

• Customizable interface
• Photo enhancement
• Digital retouching
• Wide range of hardware support
• Huge file format support
• Cross platform
• Plugin support
• Scripting language built in
• Built in file compression
• Layer support
• Masking
• Full alpha channel support
• Animation support
• Profession-level color management

That is just a sampling of what The GIMP has to offer.

As I stated before, I have used The GIMP for quite some time and for a great many projects. I have yet to find anything The GIMP can not do. And every time I use this application I am shocked that more people don’t use it. I am pretty sure the main reason why most don’t use The GIMP is familiarity. The masses simply do not know The GIMP exists. If they did they would gladly download and use a professional-quality graphics application that came free of charge.

But for those that have dabbled in The GIMP in the past, one of the biggest complaints has been the user-interface. The GIMP is not a clone of Photoshop. The interface is actually different. But is the interface difficult? No. The interface is actually one of the most intuitive interfaces I have used. And not only is it intuitive, it’s flexible. If there is something you do not like about the interface, change it! The complaints about the interface became all too obvious with the latest release (2.6). With this release came some minor changes to the look and feel of the UI. For the most part these changes not only made sense, they also enhanced the experience.

The GIMP Interface

For those who are unsure if they would like The GIMP it’s a win-win situation. You download the binary for the correct architecture from The GIMP website, you install it, and you try it. It’s not a demo that will time out…it’s free. And when you find yourself wondering “How can they give this away for free?” you’ll know you’ve found yourself a keeper.

The GIMP can be used by anyone in nearly any setting. It runs on practically any hardware (even older machines), can be employed for home, schoool, business, enterprise, professional graphics, you name it. And anyone that has used a graphics application before (be it Photoshop on down) will quickly figure out the interface.

If you haven’t given The GIMP a go you should. If you have a need, on any level, for graphics manipulation or creation, and you want a solid, reliable application (that won’t bring your machine either screeching to a slow painful crawl or crashing) The GIMP is where you should look.

The user can choose from a selection of more than 100 photo filters like reviving colors, adding a night effect or making it look like it was drawn with a black pencil. Another interesting feature that is selectable is the Photo Mask feature. It basically makes use of preset masks which are nothing more than grayscale images with white being the opacity color while the different shades of gray increase the opacity.

A set of photo masks is available and custom ones can be created easily. Photofiltre can be expanded with so called plugins which add new features to the application. This ranges from red eye removal to removing dead pixels or curling images.

Photofiltre is most likely not the tool that users who own Adobe Photoshop would use but it is quite suitable for anyone who wants to manipulate images by adding filters to them.

One of the main features is the photo editor which can be used to perform basic operations such as resizing, sharpening or removing red eyes from the photos. The same menu provides access to a few effects that can be applied, among them interesting looking ones like changing a photo to a black and white image, adding text or additional objects to the photo.

The batch editor makes it easy to resize multiple images at once with the usual options to reduce, adjust, crop or stretch the photos using various interpolation settings and filters. Another interesting option of the free photo editing tool is the animated gif creator. It can create animated gifs seconds. All the user needs to do is select the photos and effects.

Everything works smoothly and results are most of the time shown in previews to give the user the chance to accept or undo the changes. The list of features include:

• Viewer: View your folders photos, slideshow
• Editor: resizing, brightness and color adjustment, white balance, backlight correction, frames, balloons, mosaic mode, adding text, drawing pictures, cropping, filters, red eye removal, blooming
• Batch editor: Batch editing multiple photos
• Page: Make one photo by merging multiple photos at the page frame
• Combine: Make one photo by attaching multiple photos vertically or horizontally
• Animated GIF: Make one animation photo with multiple photos
• Print: Print portrait shot, carte de visite, passport photo
• Splitter: Divide a photo into multiple parts
• Screen Capture: Capture your screenshot and save it
• Color Picker: Zoom in screen on images, search and pick the color
• Rename: Change photo file names in batch mode
• Raw Converter: Convert RAW to JPG

The portable version of the free photo editing tool can be downloaded at the portable freeware website.

Qtpfsgui is such a high dynamic range image creator. It basically takes a set of images in jpeg, png, ppm, pbm or tiff (8-bit) format and transforms them into a high dynamic range image. This works best with identical images of the same scene taken at different exposure levels.

The software program is Open Source and available for Linux, Windows and Apple Macintosh computers. It can also load HDR images directly to edit them in the program’s interface.

The biggest advantage of Qtpfsgui is that everyone can create high dynamic range images with just a few mouse clicks. Advanced users will like the editing options that the program provides but they are not necessary for creating great results.

You can get the best of both worlds though with a nifty addon to Gimp called Gimpshop. This reorders your menus and restructures them to resemble Photoshop’s, and very closely at that. Many items that have caused mix-ups have been changed, for example Gimp’s convolve tool has been renamed to “blur/sharpen”, something actually understandable.

Menus have been reordered to, so if you’ve grown accustomed to Photoshop, you’ll feel right at home in Gimp too. I’m sorry to say there is no Windows version yet, only Mac and Linux, but there is one on the way! If you’re a developer you can grab the source from the homepage though. I like many-many things in Gimp and I’d rather support free software which is as good as its $600 counterpart, so it’s Gimp with Gimpshop for me!

I found a video on youtube demonstration how powerful this way of image editing is. Enjoy the show.