I think Microsoft Digital Image Suite 2006 is good. It's easy to work with.
I had allready bought Adobe PhotoShop 3.0 I had never dealt
with anything like it and I had a very hard time learning how to use it. I was warned but I didn't know any better at the time.
You can make Gif Files with it and I don't think you can with Digital Image Suite 2006. Not sure.

Gif File

Paint Shop Pro is one the most affordable of the purchased photo editors and has a following here at the Garden Web. The Computer Graphic forum might have more on that.

The Rolls Royce of photo editors is Adobe's PhotoShop and inherent offpsrings.

Microsoft is well, Microsoft. Its not good, its not bad, you can get some good results especially with .bmp files. But its hit and miss. They are spreading themselves a bit thin. They are not known for photography, although Vista is putting their foot in the door.

Canon had a Arcsoft photosoftware complete with their multi-function printers about 4 years ago, I thought it was boss for free. I really liked the results. It was easier to use than Paint Shop Pro, especially for ironing out the kinks in older scanned photos.

There are a plethora of free photo-editors. Adobe has Photoshop Album Starter 3.0. You can also upload photos from 3.0 to a Kodak site and share your photos/slideshow online by email invitation only. Its a lot more private and personal than photobucket. Adobe prefers the .jpg file format, and the free version is very limited when it comes to photo-editing.

A complete list photo editors including IrFan View and its plugins as well as Picasa2 two very popular free photo-editors are below at Major Geeks.

When it comes to photo editors, its almost as personal as the photograph. Some people can work with one easier than another for no other explanation than "because".

marf

Here is a link that might be useful: Graphics at Major Geeks

I use Corel PhotoPaint 12 and it has a huge learning curve similar to Adobe Photoshop. After perhaps 6 years of versions 3, 8 and 12 I might have a vague idea of perhaps 5% but it is a great program. Yet I still need to go to Irfanview occasionally, it is an excellent free program.

Owbist, you are a genius!
I stick with simple, easy and free Picasa. My hubby likes Picture IT but also uses Adobe. I'm just deciding if I like dealing with photos. It's so time consuming.

Jane

To be very honest most of my editing is done with IRFAN VIEW freeware program mentioned above. So easy to learn and so very fast since it doesn't go thru the registry. I primarily use cropping, resizing, color tint sometimes (including changing a color photo to black & white), sharpening, and gamma correction does a fantastic job ln lieu of 'lighten'. I like being able to control the jpg compression on a scale of 1-100. Or saving it as a bmp instead. I seldom use its insert text feature but on occasion nice to have.

However, now and then I have a photo which needs only certain areas lightened or sharpened. Or I want to do something artistic with it. I use ADOBE PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS for sophisticated improvements/changes. I am still learning the program --- very slowly. It runs fairly quickly on my Pentium 4, 1700 Mhz, 512 RAM system. If you're a serious photographer it's an excellent choice at an excellent price. Be sure to have a good reference book nearby. I'm using 'Photoshop Elements: The Missing Manual'.

Friends who take multitudes of photos and never toss any away love the organizer part in versions 4 & 5 of PS ELEMENTS.

Thanks for your help everyone! Lots of programs to pick from I checked Major Geeks and other forums before I posted. I have IrfanView and Picasa (on my 98) and feel they are time consuming or I'm just lazy:-) Most of my time I am on my XP so I need/want something new to test my patients...LOL.

Fast Stone has a very high rating at Major Geeks, 188 people averaged one the highest of all of them. That might help with the slowness issue. I don't know anything about it, it looks interesting. What else can I say?

marf

Jeez. I typed all that info and you already knew Irfan View.

My 2 favorite "easy" photo programs are MGI Photosuite 4 & PictureIt Express. When I need to resize something for forums, Photsuite is the easiest - you can see a small tutorial here

Picture It Express came on an MSN disk years ago. When I need to work with photos, this is my choice. I can also use it to make business cards. Resizing pics takes some practice, but overall, it's a decent program. If you'd like to try it, email me from my member page. I keep a copy online for friends.

Personally, I use Adobe and an older Paint Shop Pro (I found in the bargain bin software at Best Buy). My absoulute favorite was Arc Soft, but I can't find the disc it came on after my hard drive failed and new one was installed. Such as life.

The only thing I mentioned about Irafan View and Picasa2 was that they were two very popular free programs that were listed among many free programs at Major Geeks. If you assumed that meant that I was using them, I do apologize.

If you are in dire straits like I am, or would rather just save your money, you probably would prefer a free program. There is nothing wrong with saving.

After your post, I did start playing around with some of the graphic programs. Some are very interesting. They unfortuantely, many times, require skill that I do not possess. Art Rage 2 Free is a pared down program from the purchased software that still allows a photo to be used as a outline or trace to be filled by "painting over it" with "oils" "chalk" "marker" "crayon" or "pencil". Tux Paint and Tux Paint Stamping Collection are just a riot for kids aged 3 to 300 years.

There's so much to try out, for what you want to do, I would say Paint Shop Pro. As I said I bought one from the bargain bin for a few bucks back in 2004, Paint Shop Pro 8, and I still can't figure it all out. Especially for layers and highlights and dropping down backgrounds, hues and saturation levels as well as resizing in a multitude of file formats.

Were you serious about typing out my post? You don't have to that. I don't know how the save clippings thing works here, or even if it is still working but that, I assume, is one way of saving advice. The most obvious is notepad, just highlight and copy the replies to Notepad and save in My Documents. Or copy it and paste it to an email that you send yourself.

I just flip back and forth by opening new windows when comaparing advice or sites.

Again my apology. Even at Geeks IrFan is very popular and well tested.

There's so much a person can do with computers...I could play all day.

marf

marf, I like the looks of Fast Stone. I have never been happy with Picasa and fear the worst if I remove it.

iris, Thanks for reminding me what I like about IrfanView! Your time was not wasted so many people view these posts.

roselr, How nice thanks for the offer.

I also recommend Microsoft Digital Image Suite. The Newest version is Digital Image Suite 2006 - and it is quite affordable - especially on eBay. If you have ever used the older Picture It software - it is the same - only better.

You can make .gif files with DIS 2006.

The one drawback is that it does not handle RAW format.

It is a very easy program to use and will do anything Photoshop Elements can do - only easier, IMO, lol!

You can also make cards, scrapbook pages, video CD slideshows, etc. with it.

Well, I'm really mixed up as usual, can you tell that I'm trying to give up coffee...again?
I got Iris mixed up with Tumbleweed...that's stretch by any stretch of the imagination.

Former Red Bull Babe,

marf

Well, I was looking at more of these graphic programs...INKSCAPE looks very complicated but marvelous, I am so out of touch what can be done today and done for free, it is overwhelming.

The best picture is the screenshot of the teacup that is not a photo...I am not even going to try to guess how that was done ... there are some amazing shots...and some with highlights added. Marf

Here is a link that might be useful: Inkscape ... for the hearty

Photofiltre is another good free program from what I have read. I did download it long ago and seem to remember that a couple of posters spoke quite highly of it. Linked below

Here is a link that might be useful: Photofiltre

Photofiltre is my favorite for a quick crop, no clicking a selection tool or looking for crop on a dropdown menu. Just run your mouse around the area to crop, right click - crop image, click the save button.

If you like paint programs Pixia from Japan is really smooth.

I am learning The Gimp and enjoying it. I had it before on another computer and did not use it. This time I found a good site for tutorials that makes it easier to understand. You can do animations and even add photo shop add ons. It is free and a very powerful program.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tutorials

I've gotten lazy so when I saw Ifran View knocking XNview I tried it. XNview is simple for lazy people that want to do quick basics on photo's and such.

At least AutoLevels and all the basic works fine and makes file handling simple enuff.

I'm checking them all out think I will stay away from beta software?

http://www.getpaint.net/index2.html

MarthaPartha, I couldn't help looking at the teacup you mentioned. It's a marvelous job he did. What amazes me most is it is a vector image and not raster. Then, I tried examining it closely and can see pixel edges around the saucer, so I have to wonder. Nevertheless, it's still a really good job for not having been a photograph.

Tumblenweed, knowing what types of things you want to do may narrow your pool of suggestions to some degree. You say you don't want things to take so long, but of the 4 or 5 editing programs I use, simple things like lightening, sharpening, and such are a breeze. Therefore, I'm not sure of your skill level or rather the types of manipulation you wish to attempt and cannot guess at what or how much you would like to learn. If you want to get into some serious image editing, I would suggest programs that have a great deal of tutorial sites and forums to take you from beginner stages to more intricate detailed work. Those I am most familiar with having a sundry of tutorial sites are Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, and PhotoImpact. Adobe products are industry standard programs, so if you ever need to take your work to a service center (or even Kinko's) to have printed, Photoshop is the editing program they will have. Otherwise, they can't work with your work unless you give them standard Windows formats like jpeg/jpg, bmp, or tiff/tif images. Those may not always be the best if, for example, you are looking for enlargements.

bestlawn, you made some good points! I'm inexperienced and forget steps - time, patients and sad times has kept me away from adding a personal touch to pictures, cards or trying a new projects on paper, material or canvas. I am not a professional and I no longer sell my wares. I like one or two things from each program I use and agree that lightening and sharpening is a breeze.

I use:
Ms Graphics Studio Greetings, Ms Clip Art Gallery, Word Art, MS Word, Print Artist (Sierra), Photo Resizer, IrfanView and Picasa.

Faststone looks like my next pick.

I use Adobe Photoshop Elements - it has always served me well. It came with my camera (Olympus).

I wish my Olympus came with Adobe Photoshop Elements. Mine came with their carpy Camedia software. I hate it.

I am trying to post pics to a website that says they are too big; I've tried to resize tham ,but each time I try , it says to creat a program in my control panel folder options for this. Can someone explain, please ? windows xp.
salbwil

For those interested, you can download Photoshop Elements 5.0 at the Adobe website for a 30 day free trial. It is the full version and reminds you every time you run it how many days are left in the trial. I wound up buying it a Best Buy the day after Thanksgiving for 49.98 which is half price.

What file are the pics you are trying to post? .jpg or .jpeg etc is often preferred because it takes up less memory than .bmp.

You probably need to convert your files and then change the res.

You already have a file converter with Microsoft Paint. Open the photo with Paint and then 'save as...jwhatever'.

Adobe Photoshop Album 3.0 is free and might automatically resize and change to .jpg by altering the contrast.

That's where I save my screens of games and game moves. The original screenshot is a darkened Microsoft (by 80%!) Office .bmp file and then I lighten it (with about three other photo editors) through Adobe .jpeg (my final editor) and its auto resized from a full size screenshot.

What website areyou trying to post to?

marf

Hello marf,
Thanks for helping. The web site is hearth.com; I'm trying to get some help there with a problem fireplace ( thank Heaven for web help!) I am trying to post a picture to the site, but am told it's too big. It is, I believe, a jpg file. Every time I attempt to resize, I get the "create an association in the folder options control panel". I have tried, believe me, to do just that, but.....
salbwil

Salbwil what program are you using to resize your image? Also what size is the maximum over at hearth.com? I went there but could find nothing to suggest where to find this info.

I found the info and will paste at the end of this post but the picture can be pretty big. salbwil just tell us what program you are using to resize and right click on the picture and click properties on the drop down menu and tell us what size it is. Here are the posting instructions from the webmaster at hearth.com:
OK, so hereÂs the deal - your member photos (in your member profile) is limited to a small size - about 150 pixels (dots) square. The little Avatar next to your posts is limited to the same or maybe 100 each way.....

Regular pictures, like in this forum, can be fairly large - almost full screen (1000 wide by 1000 high) and up to 200KB (200,000 bytes).

But, many folks donÂt know the basics of email and web pics - IÂll try to explain.

Pictures sent to the web and by email are best at what is called "screen resolution" meaning that they somewhat match the size od the dots on our monitors. For our purposes, this is aout 72 DPI (or dots per inch).....

What the average person needs is an "Image Management Program" and NOT the one that comes with Windows! If you are a PC user, download the free program called Picasa - This will organize and store all the photos on your disk and also allow you to export smaller copies (for web, etc.) and to even fix the photos up a bit!

Apple users already have an image management program, iPhoto, which comes with every mac. To prepare web photos in iPhoto, simply select the photo or photos, go to Export (or it might say Share in newer versions) and when the dialog box comes up use the part that says "scale no bigger than" to select what you want the size of the exported photo to be.

For purposes of this board, a photo with a width of 400-700 is ideal.

Now, with Picasa, it is pretty much the same thing. Select the photo or photos and go to Export to Folder- the box shown in the picture below will come up and then you can select the picture size - say 480 wide as in this example. The other slider will compress the file size so the picture loads faster. In most cases, anything over 50% is good.

If you want to learn more about this stuff, dig around on the links at: http://www.hearth.com/hcc/ - these are links from a course I teach at night school.

If you are a user of Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, use the "Image Size" dialog bx to convert your photo to 72 DPI and approx. 400-600 pixels wide (the height will work out automatically) - then use "Save for Web" and tryjpg "medium", file size should be really small. Of course, donÂt save changes to the original picture since you still want that big on your computer and for yourarhiving and storage.

I just ask questions, and then I have all these wonderful men do the work for me...because I truly haven't a clue what to do.

There's a few smart ladies here too.

Aren't they great?

marf

Yay ! I did ; it does , and you are all brilliant !
Muchas Gracias !!
salbwil

How can I get Adobe Photoshop Elements 2 to recognize my camera for downloading?

Myra