Using Photoshop or its free GIMP alternative for certain basic photo editing operations is not wise, especially if there are much simpler and faster programs to use. We recently saw the best alternative graphics programs to Photoshop and, in the past, some of the best web photo editing applications to edit photos.
It can be difficult to choose among all these alternatives, therefore, it is worth knowing which tool to use for some basic operations on photos and image files, to be done without Photoshop
focusing heavily on some free Photoshop or GIMP free tools simply cropping an image is silly. These powerful tools are great, but sometimes a simple program is enough. Here's how to make some of the most common changes with simple, free, online tools.
1) There are three alternatives for cropping and resizing photos :
Fotor, Pixlr Touch UP or Irfanview .
Fotor is a simple but powerful and feature-rich web application with cropping tools, to resize photos, to keep an area and remove everything else.
To crop photos with Fotor just open the fotor.com website, click on " Edit Photo ", select it, press the CROP button and then move the cursors on the image to choose what to cut and what to keep.
You can also set specific dimensions by writing the numbers in the boxes and maintaining the aspect ratio to ensure that the image returns smooth and not squashed.
Click on Apply, then on the floppy disk icon to save it.
If you prefer to resize the photo without cropping it, you can press directly on the Resize button.
Fotor is one of the applications with multiple photo cropping and resizing options and, above all, the fastest to use.
Irfanview is instead a light program that works very well as an image viewer on the PC.
We have already seen in another article how quick and easy it is to edit photos with Irfanview and therefore make photo editing operations such as cropping and resizing.
Finally, Pixlr Touch UP is an application for Google Chrome, which opens as if it were a program installed on your computer, with basic editing tools such as crop (crop) and resize (resizing) under the Adjusts section.
2) Color correction: Pixlr Editor
In another article we saw how you can correct the colors of photos with Photoshop, Gimp or Paint.net.
Much more easily you can use Autodesk's Pixlr Editor program / web application, which has some tools comparable to Photoshop, but much easier to use.
Open the Pixlr online site, select the image to edit and look at these options in the adjustment menu.
- Levels to modify and filter the colors of the image by means of convenient cursors to be dragged on a histogram curve.
- The Curves, one of the best color correction tools, which requires a specific guide to use like this.
- Hue and Saturation to make the colors more vivid and adapt them to different shades.
There are also several other adjustments and adjustments to be made in the menu and many of them can be used to perform the same operation in different ways.
Pixlr's interface is also translated into Italian, therefore made easy to understand, even if a little complex and full at first glance.
3) Also for the layering operation, Pixlr Editor can be used, which supports layers or layers to superimpose multiple images on each other .
Like Photoshop, Pixlr Editor has excellent support for layers that you can use from the small box on the right side.
Click on the New layer button to create a transparent layer and draw on the image or paste a selection of another image added on the screen.
In this way, multiple images can be superimposed and, using the opacity slider, choose the level of overlap, transparency and visibility.
Unfortunately the selection tools in Pixlr leave something to be desired and are not so simple to use, but it is always a free tool with which you can adapt.
4) Adding words, text and titles to photos
We have seen several online tools to write on images to create virtual posters.
To add text and letters on the photos, the simplest is however Fotor, which allows you to preview the fonts so you know immediately how the writing will look.
The option in Fotor is the one with the T icon at the bottom of those on the right.
You can choose a computer font or one of Fotor's very nice and well-designed fonts.
Click on the Add Text button, write and move the text box by resizing it as you prefer.
In the box that appears on the right side of the image you can change the alignment, bold, italic, transparency and spacing.
READ ALSO: 10 complex photo editing effects easy with free online tools
