When my daughter was creating an invitation for her sister’s baby shower, she had no problem finding the perfect image to decorate it.
It was an illustration of a pretty little mother-to-be, who, with bright blue eyes and dimpled grin was a close to perfect caricature of the guest of honour. The only difference was the hair. This, however, presented no problem for our daughter, who’s a bit of an image editing whiz.
Most people these days know you can change images to suit your needs. What most don’t have, however, is the software to do it. For people starting in small business or for folks just working on a personal project, it’s not economically feasible or even worthwhile to purchase expensive software.
Fortunately, however, there are many affordable online alternatives. The variety is good news too as what works for one might not be the ideal for another. Individual needs and capabilities are as variable and complex as the world-wide web itself. So some time ago, I went on a small quest to see what options I could uncover. What came as no surprise was that I found one website that did most of the work for me: mashable.com . This provided links to, an information about, a number of possibilities, including two of the most familiar to me.
For people in search of a manipulation program that works well for photo retouching and image creation gimp could be the perfect solution, while GetPaint is image and photo editing software for Windows computers.
Here is a précised version of what Graphics Toolbox had to say about the others:
ultimate paint is a speedy graphics program, also for Windows, with plenty of features.
Skencil is a vector drawing program with may features, such as gradient fills and bezier curves.
A vector graphics editor, Inkscape is a good option for people interested in something akin to Adobe Illustrator or CorelDRAW.
SmoothDraw is a freehand drawing tool, which will also smooth lines drawn with a mouse.
For people who like to paint without the mess DogWaffle is a functional program developed for the PC.
A freeware paint and drawing program for Windows, Artweaver has a wide range of painting tools and comes in free and cost versions.
So what’s it all mean? Finding the right program needn’t mean a big outlay of cash or settling for something you don’t find user-friendly. Do a little research and you might be surprised by the options that suit your needs. Remember all of the above were the result of a quick search. If nothing here appeals, don’t be deterred.
