Photo editors are a dime a dozen, both as software and browser-based apps. Programs like Photoshop and GIMP are far ahead of browser apps in terms of the functionalities they offer. However, […]
Over the years I have used countless Linux desktops and window managers. But no matter how amazing a desktop (read: Compiz-Fusion) I always seem to wind up going straight back to Enlightenment. […]
Image Analyzer is a portable image processing tool that can be used to analyze, edit and enhance images. It is not comparable to a fully fledged image editor like Adobe Photoshop or […]
Having a strong will and motivation, it's amazing how much one can learn from tutoring resources shared by both amateur and professional contributors on the web, be it traditional tutorials enriched with […]
Rescue Time is a web based time management and analytic application that collects its data from a software called Data Collector that is available for Windows XP, Windows Vista, Mac OSX and […]
Even if you take accumulated PC junk out of the equation, the most important factor in in how well your computer runs is the hardware specifications. Windows Vista provides some kind of […]
I wrote wrote a post last week about online desktops and gave what was in my opinion, the best three of the bunch. Some of you where pretty interested in the topic […]
I'm still not finished with the installation of all applications that I want to use on my new computer but the essential ones are there. Essential are those that are needed to […]
Twins Visions is an image management software that is currently in beta stage. It has a unique interesting way of viewing and managing images that differs a lot from normal image viewers […]
Animated gif files are a great way to get your profile pic or avatar to really stand out from the rest of the crowd. I’ve seen software that will make gifs for […]
Max was nice enough to send me an invite for the online application service Aviary, or more precisely the main website and the image editor application which are freely accessible after registration. Users can access their dashboard through the main interface which displays a list of featured images, collaborations and recent images alongside your latest activities.
I was thinking on rounding up some of the net's best freeware apps and putting them into one easily installable pack. As these things go, it seems like some clever people have […]
I once had to add a image into a Word document that had a black background which looked awful when printing the document. Microsoft Word comes with a few basic possibilities to alter graphics that are added which includes changing colors of the image and defining a transparent color for the image.
The majority of computer users are probably using GIMP, Adobe Photoshop or Paint.Net when it comes to the editing images on their systems. Sometimes though those programs are overkill and there are […]
Thumbwin was mentioned by a few readers in my Bring Order to your Desktop and Taskbar article which described a software called Minimize which allowed the user to display minimized windows as thumbnails. Thumbwin is apparently a software of choice for some of my readers and that is good enough for me to take a look at it and review it here at Ghacks.
I have to regularly resize images to make them fit into my articles here at Ghacks which I used to create using a combination of a screenshot software and the image manipulation software GIMP. While this method worked flawlessly it simply took to long to start GIMP and resize the image.
Userbars can be used to display custom messages in signatures that are displayed in forums and other places. The difficulty is creating those userbars which normally requires knowledge of image manipulation applications such as Adobe Photoshop or Gimp. There are several softwares that take that burden from the user and make it quite easy to create userbars with a few simple clicks of the mouse.
Gili over at Connected Internet compiled a list of 15 applications that he calls the best free software for your computer. We all know that it can be quite difficulty to compile a list with the best because the best is nothing more than a personal judgment. I would agree that about half of the recommended softwares are must haves while the other half are nice to have but not really required.
My biggest complaint that I have when using Open Office is the speed of the application. It loads terribly slow for instance and it only topped by the time GIMP needs to startup. Way to slow to edit a document quickly in my opinion. The guys at Zolved found a way to speed up Open Office by editing a few settings in the software's settings.
Roman commented on my article about removing fonts to increase system startup speed yesterday mentioning the free software Font Frenzy which could remove all non system fonts with the click of a button. This is way more elegant than the suggested manual way that I came up with yesterday which is why I would like to write about Feed Frenzy today.
I normally do not have to create a lot of thumbnails, maybe one or two per day for my articles but that is it. I use GIMP for the purpose, definitely not the best choice because of the long loading times but good enough for the few that I have to create. Sometimes however I'm in the position to create thumbnails of hundreds of images and there is no way to create them with GIMP because it would take a very long time.
I thought it was not possible to to improve CoolSwitch but I was obviously wrong. Xilokit.com came out with another interesting concept that brings an interesting concept to Windows. It's a freeware application called Deskloops which offers an refreshing idea on how to handle windows in Windows.
I'm always going the extra mile when I take screenshots in Windows XP. I hit the Print button on the keyboard, open GIMP and paste the contents into a new image, cut the part of the image that I need, resize it and finally save it to be able to upload it to my ftp.
The worst part of this job is that it takes a lot of time to complete all the steps and I think I found a nice free screen capturing software with the name MWSnap which can optimize this process.
Four different ways of creating screenshots are supported by MWSnap: Fixed Rectangle, Any Rectangle, Window / Menu or Full Desktop. The Any Rectangle method is working best for my purposes.
CopyRightLeft is a Open-Source application that has two processing modes. The first is an image by image mode that manipulates one image at a time. You can use the tool to open […]
Many users are disappointed with the selection of bootlogos that are preinstalled in Windows Vista and many would like to change the bootlogo to a custom one. The process of creating a custom boot logo is pretty easy. You do need to download the boot logo generator which can be freely obtained at the authors homepage.
http://www.computa.co.uk/staff/dan/wp-trackback.php?p=15
If you ever wanted to paint again the way you did when you were in Kindergarten then Art Rage is the right program for you. The free version is limited but sufficient for everyone who just wants to play around. I think it would especially be a very nice application for kids because they surely will enjoy the ease of use and ways of painting that art rage offers to them.
Today I'm going to write about my master plan to install Ubuntu Linux and Windows Vista on my system to have them at my disposal next to my current Windows XP installation. I personally try to make the switch to Linux because I'm fed up with all the restrictions that Microsoft build (on pressure I assume) into Windows Vista. Nevertheless more than 99% of all my readers use Windows XP and I will continue writing articles for XP and Vista.
Lifehacker.com recently profiled the release of PortableApps Suite 1.0, a polished, light weight application that adds new functionality to USB keys, mp3 players, and external media by transforming these storage platforms into portable, private, personalized vehicles for launching programs and storing data.
I promised to write a second part of the article Top XP Freeware that every user needs and here it comes. I was concentrating on security aspects in the first article and will not write about every other freeware that every windows user should have on his system. I might miss one or two but I know that you will comment on this and help you me out.
Everyone in the world seems to have a digital camera nowadays and many seem to be happy using the software that came with the camera. I'am going to introduce some of the free products that I'am using with my camera - you might have heard about some already but I'am sure some are relatively unknown to most of you.
Sometimes I create thumbnails of screenshots and include them in my articles to give you a preview of the subject I'am writing about. I normaly tend to use the print key on windows to make the screenshot and fire up gimp to reduce the size to be able to add it to the article. To be honest, this process takes way to long and I thought of ways to optimize it.
If you want to make a screenshot by using the print key on your keyboard you have to paste the copied screen to an image manipulation program like gimp and save it from within that program. Would not it be much easier if pressing the print key would immediatly result in one of the following actions specified by the user: a) copy to clipboard (default behavior) b) sent to printer and print the screenshot and c) automatically save the screenshot on your hard drive.
The Adbobe PDF document that is currently loading is slowing down the whole computer ? Quicktime takes ages to initialise ? Media Player is unbelievable slow and tries to phone home ? Why don´t you try freeware alternatives to those heavyweight programs ? I´am already using alternatives and my system became faster and more stable while keeping the same functionality.
I´d like to present five freeware tools that everyone should at least take a look at and try out. They are not the "normal" freeware applications that you find in every top ten list like firefox and open office. I write about tools that many users don´t know but would be grateful if they knew they existed. Please be aware that this is my top ten list and that your´s most likely would have different applications in it.
