Brr! Bundle Up With Serif Software’s Super Line Of Freebies

Regular readers will remember yesterday’s link to Acronis True Image Personal 2010 – a freebie offer, in which participation was restricted to the United States and Canada.

Today, lets take a look at how a highly regarded U.K. based software developer, Serif Software – a company which understands that the World Wide Web is indeed, World Wide – generates interest in their product line. With over 6 million customers, Serif is a strong player in the application marketplace.

Recognizing, that restrictive download policies are a non-starter – Serif seems to be driven in this respect by – You live where? We don’t care! You want it?  You got it!

Serif had, for years, provided free access to slightly older full versions of  their full product line – top quality popular products which I’ve reviewed here many times. Here’s a stat which helps put some perspective on how just popular Serif products have been on this site alone – 71,000+ download clicks in the last 3 years, or so.

Now here’s the puzzler – virtually all of those clicks came from European and Asian users. I suspect, that’s a factor of name recognition in local markets.

There’s been a major change since I last had an opportunity to drop in on the Serif site (a visit prompted by the Acronis offer) – a very positive change, I think. Serif’s focus is now on providing Starter Editions of  all their current software.

I use Starter Editions of several popular applications – including Microsoft Word (who can afford MS Word on every machine  ). While Starter Editions do not have all of the features of the full product – generally, I’ve found these applications meet, or exceed, most of my needs. Realistically though – that is not always the case.

Application available for download include – desktop publishing, image editing, graphic design, web publishing, and more.

As an added bonus – free web templates, as well as free print templates, are available for download.

Please note: As is so often the case – you will be required to “open” an account.

Following which you’re good to go – as illustrated below.

Subsequent downloads will require you to sign into your account. Having downloaded several applications this morning, including MoviePlus and PagePlus, I was pleasantly surprised to see how simple subsequent downloads are.

Just another day in Toolbar land – so, caution is the byword – as always.

All Serif applications are Wizard driven so, don’t worry if you lack experience in using a particular application – here’s a quick shot of MoviePlus Starter Edition which I’ve just opened to take for a quick spin.

System requirements: Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Download at: Serif Software

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.

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