Photoscape – The Number One Downloaded Free Photo Application

I spent part of the weekend looking at the photos I snapped this Summer, which is on the way to a downshift into Fall, here in the Northern hemisphere. Some were very cool and worth saving as is, some weren’t worth the HD space they took up, and some were “keepers”, but needed corrective editing.

I keep a bunch of photo editing software on my computer including IrfanView, a fast, light, basic photo editor , which I use frequently throughout the week. But, for the kind of editing I had in mind (not heavy Adobe Photoshop specialty editing), I had to look at another application – Photoscape.

In the two years, or so, that I’ve been using this free application, it’s come out of nowhere to become the most popular photo app download on CNET, with over Sixteen Million downloads (300,000 downloads in the last week alone). I’m not at all surprised.

Photoscape is a terrific photo application that’s small (under 17 MB), fast, free, and sports an intuitive interface that’s easy to use; especially for those with only modest previous experience.

You don’t have to take advantage of all of the powerful features built into this impressive application of course – see fast facts below. You can just stick to those tools you are most familiar with, including resizing, cropping, correcting red eye, .…………

As well, you can perform a wide variety of additional image adjustments, including brightness, contrast, and applying a host of special effects.

An unusual aspect of the Photoscape opening screen interface is its circular layout, as this screen capture illustrates. A very cool presentation!

Photoscape offers feature rich online help, supplemented with video for those of us who are into, “show me how” mode. The following screen capture illustrates the video running the Bright/Contrast help feature. I give this a big “thumbs up”.

If you’re in the market for a fully featured photo editor, then Photoscape is worth a very close look.

Photoscape Fast Facts:

Viewer: View photos in your folder, create a 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, clone stamp

Batch editor: Batch edit multiple photos

Page: Merge multiple photos on the page frame to create one final photo

Combine: Attach multiple photos vertically or horizontally to create one final photo

Animated GIF: Use multiple photos to create a final animated photo

Print: Print portrait shots, passport photos

Splitter: Slice a photo into several pieces

Screen Capture: Capture your screenshot and save it

Color Picker: Zoom in on images, search and pick a color

Rename: Change photo file names in batch mode

Raw Converter: Convert RAW to JPG

Paper Print: Print lined, graph, music and calendar paper

Face Search: Find similar faces on the Internet

Languages: English, Korean, Chinese, Traditional Chinese, German, Dutch, Spanish (Spain), Spanish (Mexico, Latin America), French, Japanese, Russian, Polish, Italian, Portuguese, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Colombian), Thai, Hungarian, Turkish, Catalan, Slovak, Czech, Norwegian, Bulgarian, Ukrainian, Swedish, Estonian, Danish, Romanian, Hebrew, Galician, Finnish, Indonesian and Arabic.

System requirements: Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP/Vista/Win 7.

Download at: Download.com

For the Geeky Photographer:

Image Analyzer 1.30

If you’re a geeky photographer, then Image Analyzer could be just the program you’ve been searching for. This very small (1.24 MB), free, advanced, feature-rich image editor, comes complete with serious enhancement and analytical tools.

At the advanced level, this is not a program for the faint of heart, and requires a good understanding of photographic techniques. Check it out at “A Seriously Advanced Photo Tool – Free Image Analyzer 1.31”, on this site.

Lighter grade free photo applications – fast, small, and flexible.

FastStone Image Viewer

XnView

IrfanView

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Download Photoscape – Intuitive Photo Freeware

Most of us don’t need the power of a high end (read: expensive), photo editor like Adobe Photoshop, the trendsetter/innovator for all photo editor and image manipulation software.

Instead, we’re looking for an application that’s small, fast, and hopefully free, with an intuitive interface that’s easy to use; especially for those with only modest previous experience.

Photoscape, last updated May 29, 2010, is a free photo editing application with a drag and drop interface, that meets, and in fact, exceeds those requirements.

You don’t have to take advantage of all of the powerful features built into this impressive application of course – see fast facts below. You can just stick to those tools you are most familiar with, including resizing, cropping, correcting red eye, .…………

As well, you can perform a wide variety of additional image adjustments, including brightness, contrast, and applying a host of special effects.

An unusual aspect of the Photoscape opening screen interface is its circular layout, as this screen capture illustrates. A very cool presentation!

Photoscape offers feature rich online help, supplemented with video for those of us who are into, “show me how” mode. The following screen capture illustrates the video running the Bright/Contrast help feature. I give this a big “thumbs up”.

Photoscape Fast Facts:

Viewer: View photos in your folder, create a 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, clone stamp

Batch editor: Batch edit multiple photos

Page: Merge multiple photos on the page frame to create one final photo

Combine: Attach multiple photos vertically or horizontally to create one final photo

Animated GIF: Use multiple photos to create a final animated photo

Print: Print portrait shots, passport photos

Splitter: Slice a photo into several pieces

Screen Capture: Capture your screenshot and save it

Color Picker: Zoom in on images, search and pick a color

Rename: Change photo file names in batch mode

Raw Converter: Convert RAW to JPG

Paper Print: Print lined, graph, music and calendar paper

Face Search: Find similar faces on the Internet

Languages: English, Korean, Chinese, Traditional Chinese, German, Dutch, Spanish (Spain), Spanish (Mexico, Latin America), French, Japanese, Russian, Polish, Italian, Portuguese, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Colombian), Thai, Hungarian, Turkish, Catalan, Slovak, Czech, Norwegian, Bulgarian, Ukrainian, Swedish, Estonian, Danish, Romanian, Hebrew, Galician, Finnish, Indonesian and Arabic.

System requirements: Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP/Vista/Win 7.

Download at: Download.com

For the Geeky Photographer:

Image Analyzer 1.30

If you’re a geeky photographer, then Image Analyzer could be just the program you’ve been searching for. This small (1.24MB), free, advanced, feature-rich image editor, comes complete with serious enhancement and analytical tools.

At the advanced level, this is not a program for the faint of heart, and requires a good understanding of photographic techniques. Check it out at “Free Image Analyzer 1.30 -Professional Photo Editor” on this site.

If you found this article useful, why not subscribe to this Blog via RSS, or email? It’s easy; just click on this link and you’ll never miss another Tech Thoughts article.

XnView – An Irfanview Competitor?

For those readers who prefer XnView over Irfanview, here is an older post (April, 2008), which reviews this graphics editor. XnView is a free utility for viewing graphic files, and the simple and easy conversion of those files.

Having XnView installed on your system allows you to resize, crop, correct red eye, flip, rotate, and carry out a wide variety of image adjustments, including brightness, contrast, and gamma.

With XnView you can import more than 400 graphic file formats then convert them to other formats such as GIF, BMP, JPG, PNG, multi page TIFF. As well, you can export more than 50 graphic file formats.

The Image viewer (Browser) resembles the very familiar Windows Explorer. You simply navigate the directory structure and any image files found in a directory, are displayed in miniature (Thumbnails). This gives you an overview of the images available and at the same time lets you rapidly view and select specific images.

XnView doesn’t stop there however; it also provides you with more advanced features such as Web page creation, contact prints, multiple conversion (format and transformation), slide shows, screen capturing and twain support for scanners and digital cameras.

Quick facts:

· Import over 400 graphic file formats

· Export over 50 graphic file formats

· Multipage TIFF, Animated GIF, Animated ICO support

· IPTC, EXIF

· Resize

· Copy/Cut/Crop

· Adjust brightness, contrast…

· Modify number of colors

· Apply filters (blur, average, emboss …)

· Apply effects (lens, wave …)

· Full screen mode

· Slide show

· Picture browser

· Batch convert

· Thumbnail create

· Screen capture

· Contact Sheet create

· Multi-page file create (TIFF, DCX, LDF)

· TWAIN support

· Print support

· Drag & Drop support

· 44 languages support

System requirements: Windows XP/2003 Server/Vista

Download at: Download.com

Download IrfanView – Free, Small, Fast Photo Tool

I have always been a big fan of Adobe Photoshop, the trendsetter/innovator for all photo editor and image manipulation software.

The downside for typical users though, (other than its price – which is formidable), is it’s huge size on disk, it’s very challenging platform requirements, and an extreme learning curve which demands time and training.

Most of us don’t need the flexibility, or the power of a high end (read: expensive), photo editor. Instead, we’re looking for an application that’s small, fast, and free with an intuitive interface that’s very easy to use; especially for those with only modest previous experience.

IrfanView which is one of my favorite photo applications, not just mine; there have been over 34 million downloads, is not just an image viewer, but an image browser, converter, and an editor as well. Best of all, you’ll find the interface intuitive and very easy to use. If you’re curious, this application is named after its developer Irfan Skiljan.

With IrfanView you can fix and enhance digital photos including resizing, cropping, correcting red eye, flipping, and rotating. As well, you can perform a wide variety of image adjustments, including brightness, contrast, and applying special effects such as sharpen and blur.

I have been using this neat little program for years and with every new release it just keeps getting better.

Fast Facts:

Free

The most downloaded Image Editing Software, out of 2618 products, on CNET

Small – only 1.2 MB

Many supported file formats

Multi language support

Thumbnail/preview option

Slideshow (save slideshow as EXE/SCR or burn it to CD)

Show EXIF/IPTC/Comment text in Slideshow/Full screen etc.

Support for Adobe Photoshop Filters

Drag & drop support

Fast directory view (moving through directory)

Batch conversion (with image processing)

Multipage TIF editing

Multimedia player

Print option

Change color depth

And much more

Unless you have unusual image editing requirements, IrfanView should more than meet your needs. If you’re into portable applications, the good news is – IrfanView can be run as a portable application from a USB drive.

System Requirements: Windows Vista, Windows XP

Download at: Download.com

For the Geeky Photographer: Image Analyzer 1.30

If you’re a geeky photographer, then Image Analyzer could be just the program you’ve been searching for. This small (1.24MB), free, advanced, feature-rich image editor, comes complete with serious enhancement and analytical tools.

At the advanced level, this is not a program for the faint of heart, and requires a good understanding of photographic techniques. Check it out at “Free Image Analyzer 1.30 -Professional Photo Editor” on this site.

Irfanview – The Best Little Photo Editor in Texas (or Elsewhere)!

I have always been a big fan of Adobe Photoshop, the trendsetter/innovator for all photo editor and image manipulation software.

The downside for typical users though, (other than its price – which is formidable), is it’s huge size on disk, it’s very challenging platform requirements, and an extreme learning curve which demands time and training.

Most of us don’t need the flexibility, or the power of a high end (read expensive), photo editor. Instead, we’re looking for an application that’s small, fast, and free with an intuitive interface that’s very easy to use; especially for those with only modest previous experience.

IrfanView which is one of my favorite photo applications, not just mine; there have been over 34 million downloads, is not just an image viewer, but an image browser, converter, and an editor as well. Best of all, you’ll find the interface intuitive and very easy to use. If you’re curious, this application is named after its developer Irfan Skiljan.

With IrfanView you can fix and enhance digital photos including resizing, cropping, correcting red eye, flipping, and rotating. As well, you can perform a wide variety of image adjustments, including brightness, contrast, and applying special effects such as sharpen and blur.

I have been using this neat little program for years and with every new release it just keeps getting better. The latest version – version 4.20, released July 16, 2008, includes plug-in support for most image, video, and sound formats, including MP3, AVI, audio CD, and WMA. An added bonus in the latest version is you now have the ability to Draw, Erase, Fill, Rotate, and Draw an Arrow.

(Click pic for larger)

Fast Facts:

Free

The most downloaded Image Editing Software, out of 2618 products, on CNET

Small – only 1.2 MB

Many supported file formats

Multi language support

Thumbnail/preview option

Slideshow (save slideshow as EXE/SCR or burn it to CD)

Show EXIF/IPTC/Comment text in Slideshow/Full screen etc.

Support for Adobe Photoshop Filters

Drag & drop support

Fast directory view (moving through directory)

Batch conversion (with image processing)

Multipage TIF editing

Multimedia player

Print option

Change color depth

And much more

Unless you have unusual image editing requirements, IrfanView should more than meet your needs.

System Requirements: Windows Vista, Windows XP

Download at: Download.com

For the Geeky Photographer: Image Analyzer 1.30

(Click pic for larger)

If you’re a geeky photographer, then Image Analyzer 1.30 could be just the program you’ve been searching for. This small (1.24MB), free, advanced, feature-rich image editor, comes complete with serious enhancement and analytical tools.

At the advanced level, this is not a program for the faint of heart, and requires a good understanding of photographic techniques. Check it out at “Free Image Analyzer 1.30 -Professional Photo Editor” on this site.

For a great review on a terrific alternative image viewer, checkout FastStone Image Viewer, by my good buddy Rick Robinette, on his site What’s on My PC.

IrfanView – Odd Name – Best Free Photo Editor

I have always been a big fan of Adobe Photoshop, the trendsetter/innovator for all photo editor and image manipulation software.

The downside for typical users though, (other than its price – which is formidable), is it’s huge size on disk, it’s very challenging platform requirements, and an extreme learning curve which demands time and training.

Most of us don’t need the flexibility, or the power of a high end (read expensive), photo editor. Instead, we’re looking for an application that’s small, fast, and free with an intuitive interface that’s very easy to use; especially for those with only modest previous experience.

IrfanView which is one of my favorite photo applications (not just mine; there have been over 34 Million downloads), is not just an image viewer, but an image browser, converter, and an editor as well. Best of all, you’ll find the interface intuitive and very easy to use. If you’re curious, this application is named after its developer Irfan Skiljan.

With IrfanView you can fix and enhance digital photos including resizing, cropping, correcting red eye, flipping, and rotating. As well, you can perform a wide variety of image adjustments, including brightness, contrast, and applying special effects such as sharpen and blur.

I have been using this neat little program for years and with every new release it just keeps getting better. The latest version – version 4.20, released July 16, 2008, includes plug-in support for most image, video, and sound formats, including MP3, AVI, audio CD, and WMA. An added bonus in the latest version is you now have the ability to Draw, Erase, Fill, Rotate, and Draw an Arrow.

Fast Facts:

Free

Small – only 1.2 MB

Many supported file formats

Multi language support

Thumbnail/preview option

Slideshow (save slideshow as EXE/SCR or burn it to CD)

Show EXIF/IPTC/Comment text in Slideshow/Full screen etc.

Support for Adobe Photoshop Filters

Drag & drop support

Fast directory view (moving through directory)

Batch conversion (with image processing)

Multipage TIF editing

Multimedia player

Print option

Change color depth

And much more

Unless you have unusual image editing requirements, IrfanView should more than meet your needs.

System Requirements: Windows Vista, Windows XP

Download at: Download.com

Free Photo Commander 5 – Save 40 Bucks!

Ashampoo, a German software company noted for developing top quality, easy to use applications, occasionally makes available free, current versions of their retail products. The last time I recall a similar offer from Ashampoo was this past Xmas when they offered 6 of their programs for free.

This time Ashampoo is offering their outstanding Photo Commander 5, (still available at retail for $39.95), at no cost. I believe this a limited time offer and there is no guarantee the offer will not be withdrawn without notice. So as the hot dog guy at the ball park says, “get em while they’re hot.”

Ashampoo Photo Commander 5 makes managing and organizing even the largest collections of digital photos easy. Its powerful integrated photo editing tools make it a one-stop solution. Instead of switching to a graphics application you can do all your adjustments and enhancements directly in the organizer. Remove red-eye effects, adjust colors, contrast, hue, resize, crop, rotate, and add a wide range of special effects and more.

As well, you get a suite of powerful and easy-to-use creativity tools: You can generate web albums of your photos that you can post to your home page. You can send your photos to friends by email, create collages, calendars and greeting cards, add picture frames and vignettes, insert text bubbles, add text, create slide shows and view them on your computer, or burn them to CD or DVD, complete with a viewer program so that anyone can play them. You can also back up your images to CD or DVD, all without leaving the program.

Quick Overview:

Photos

In addition to viewing and managing your photos you can also edit them, correct red eyes in seconds, adjust the colors, display slide shows or burn them to CD and DVD, create photo albums you can publish on the web and order high-quality prints online. You can also rotate, tilt, flip, resize and print your images and send them to friends by email, create animated images, apply borders, convert your images to other formats and take snapshots of your screen.

Videos

Videos are displayed in the organizer with thumbnail images, just like photos. You can zoom in, play them in full-screen mode, extract screenshots, and create video play lists.

Audio Files

Plays audio tracks just as easily as it can manage your photos

Multimedia

Ashampoo Photo Commander 5 is also a multimedia management tool. It displays videos and plays audio tracks just as easily as it can manage your photos

Batch Processing

The Batch Processing tool doesn’t just convert multiple selected photos to other formats it can also resize the images, adjust brightness and contrast, apply effects like drop shadows and sharpening, and adjust the color depth. If you’ve ever spent hours adjusting hundreds of photos you’ll understand immediately how useful this feature can be.

Supported Formats

Over 60 graphics, video and audio formats are supported. Exclusive: Version 5 now includes full read and write support for transparent JPEGs (.jng files).

Registration is required. After installation go to Internet on the toolbar and register the program online.

Ashampoo loves to remind you of the value of their full software lineup, so if you find it bothersome to receive this type of email, you’d be better off passing. Personally, I find it easier to stay in the loop on new software developments, when I do receive emails soliciting my business for new applications.

Watch a video of the features and benefits of Photo Commander 5 on YouTube.

Download at: Ashampoo

XnView – Free and Easy Photo Tool

XnView is a free utility for viewing graphic files and the simple and easy conversion of those files. With XnView installed on your system you can resize, crop, correct red eye, flip, rotate, and carry out a wide variety of image adjustments, including brightness, contrast, and gamma.

With XnView you can import more than 400 graphic file formats then convert them to other formats such as GIF, BMP, JPG, PNG, multi page TIFF. As well, you can export more than 50 graphic file formats.

The Image viewer (Browser) resembles the very familiar Windows Explorer. You simply navigate the directory structure and any image files found in a directory, are displayed in miniature (Thumbnails). This gives you an overview of the images available and at the same time lets you rapidly view and select specific images.

XnView doesn’t stop there however; it also provides you with more advanced features such as Web page creation, contact prints, multiple conversion (format and transformation), slide shows, screen capturing and twain support for scanners and digital cameras.

Quick facts:

· Import over 400 graphic file formats

· Export over 50 graphic file formats

· Multipage TIFF, Animated GIF, Animated ICO support

· IPTC, EXIF

· Resize

· Copy/Cut/Crop

· Adjust brightness, contrast…

· Modify number of colors

· Apply filters (blur, average, emboss …)

· Apply effects (lens, wave …)

· Full screen mode

· Slide show

· Picture browser

· Batch convert

· Thumbnail create

· Screen capture

· Contact Sheet create

· Multi-page file create (TIFF, DCX, LDF)

· TWAIN support

· Print support

· Drag & Drop support

· 44 languages support

System requirements: Windows XP/2003 Server/Vista

Download at: Download.com

Share this post :

Save 40 Bucks – Get Ashampoo Photo Commander 5 Free!

From time to time Ashampoo, a German software company noted for developing top quality, easy to use applications, makes available free, current versions of their retail products. The last time I recall a similar offer from Ashampoo was this past Xmas when they offered 6 of their programs for free.

This time Ashampoo is offering their outstanding Photo Commander 5, (still available at retail for $39.95), at no cost. I believe this a limited time offer and there is no guarantee the offer will not be withdrawn without notice. So as the hot dog guy at the ball park says, “get em while they’re hot.”

Ashampoo Photo Commander 5 makes managing and organizing even the largest collections of digital photos easy. Its powerful integrated photo editing tools make it a one-stop solution. Instead of switching to a graphics application you can do all your adjustments and enhancements directly in the organizer. Remove red-eye effects, adjust colors, contrast, hue, resize, crop, rotate, and add a wide range of special effects and more.

As well, you get a suite of powerful and easy-to-use creativity tools: You can generate web albums of your photos that you can post to your home page. You can send your photos to friends by email, create collages, calendars and greeting cards, add picture frames and vignettes, insert text bubbles, add text, create slide shows and view them on your computer, or burn them to CD or DVD, complete with a viewer program so that anyone can play them. You can also back up your images to CD or DVD, all without leaving the program.

Quick Overview:

Photos

In addition to viewing and managing your photos you can also edit them, correct red eyes in seconds, adjust the colors, display slide shows or burn them to CD and DVD, create photo albums you can publish on the web and order high-quality prints online. You can also rotate, tilt, flip, resize and print your images and send them to friends by email, create animated images, apply borders, convert your images to other formats and take snapshots of your screen.

Videos

Videos are displayed in the organizer with thumbnail images, just like photos. You can zoom in, play them in full-screen mode, extract screenshots, and create video play lists.

Audio Files

Plays audio tracks just as easily as it can manage your photos

Multimedia

Ashampoo Photo Commander 5 is also a multimedia management tool. It displays videos and plays audio tracks just as easily as it can manage your photos

Batch Processing

The Batch Processing tool doesn’t just convert multiple selected photos to other formats it can also resize the images, adjust brightness and contrast, apply effects like drop shadows and sharpening, and adjust the color depth. If you’ve ever spent hours adjusting hundreds of photos you’ll understand immediately how useful this feature can be.

Supported Formats

Over 60 graphics, video and audio formats are supported. Exclusive: Version 5 now includes full read and write support for transparent JPEGs (.jng files).

Registration is required. After installation go to Internet on the toolbar and register the program online.

Watch a video of the features and benefits of Photo Commander 5 on YouTube.

Download at: Ashampoo

Free Photo Editing – XnView – Simple to Use Photo Tool

XnView is a free utility for viewing graphic files and the simple and easy conversion of those files. With XnView you can resize, crop, correct red eye, flip, rotate, and perform a wide variety of image adjustments, including brightness, contrast, and gamma. You can import more than 400 graphic file formats then convert them to other formats such as GIF, BMP, JPG, PNG, multi page TIFF.  As well, you can export more than 50 graphic file formats.

 

The Image viewer (Browser) is similar to Windows Explorer. You simply navigate the directory structure as desired and any image files found in a directory are displayed in miniature (Thumbnails). This lets you have an overview of the images available and at the same time letting you quickly view and select specific images.

As well as offering easy image viewing, XnView also offers more advanced features such as Web page creation, contact prints, multiple conversion (format and transformation), slide shows, screen capturing and twain support for scanners and digital cameras.

Here Are XnView’s Key Features:

 • Import over 400 graphic file formats

• Export over 50 graphic file formats

• Multipage TIFF, Animated GIF, Animated ICO support

• IPTC, EXIF

• Resize

• Copy/Cut/Crop

• Adjust brightness, contrast…

• Modify number of colors

• Apply filters (blur, average, emboss …)

• Apply effects (lens, wave …)

• Full screen mode

• Slide show

• Picture browser

• Batch convert

• Thumbnail create

• Screen capture

• Contact Sheet create

• Multi-page file create (TIFF, DCX, LDF)

• TWAIN support (Windows only)

• Print support (Windows only)

• Drag & Drop support (Windows only)

• 44 languages support (Windows only)

Download at:  Author’s Site

For additional free graphic tools, please see my article elsewhere in this Blog at:

The 6 Best Free Video & Graphics Apps.