Coolest “Web Based” Image Editors
// March 10th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Cool Links, Cool Websites, Design, Design Resources, Featured, For Geeks, Graphic Design, Graphics, I recommend, The Best of.., Useful, art, free, web tools, webdesign
Here is a list of web-based image editors that I found to be the coolest.
Web based editors allow you to make changes to an image from anywhere without having to install applications for example when you are not at home or on your laptop. Or for support techs like me — I work with Financial Advisors helping them develop their own websites and most of them have no use for photoshop and asking them to download a program like Infranview just to crop or resize one picture for their website would be illogical - so I’m always looking for easy to use web based image editors to link them to…which brings me to why I researched this topic and wrote this post. 
I hope some of you also find it useful.
SumoPaint
which can be used as a paint program and photo editing program, and which was recently upgraded with a claimed 100-plus improvements, and a totally renovated web site to make it easier, faster, and more attractive, and several new tools. Layer FX, Change Layers With Blending Modes, change layer alpha, Shapes Tool, Brushes, Ink Brush Tool, Gradient Tool, Shape Trails, Zooming, Symmetry Tool , Color Picker, Swatches, Smudge Tool, and Custom Shape Tool. Sumo Paint’s user interface is Mac-like in a Photoshop-ish sort of way. Check out the Sumo Paint user manual here. Sumo Paint works with any browser but you must have the version 9 Flash player plugin installed, which you probably already do. http://Sumopaint.com
Fotoflexer
Another free online image editor I liked a lot was Fotoflexer, which is impressively fast and slick, with no registration or login necessary. Fotoflexer doesn’t have as many tools as Sumo Paint or some of the other online image editors I tried, and they’re laid out in a non-orthodox configuration, but it’s pretty intuitive, fast and responsive, and the adjustments refresh in real time so you can finely tune your enhancements visually as you move the sliders. Fotoflexer is also integrated with social networking sites such as Flickr, Picasa, Photobucket, Facebook, MySpace and more. It comes in handy when you’re looking for some quick common photo-editing needs such as cropping, resizing, and rotating. http://fotoflexer.com/
Picnik
Picnik is an image editor that was recently purchased by Google. Picnik lets you quickly edit all your photos online. Picnik has a fast startup and no login hassle, but I didn’t find the free version of this one up to par with the others. You would want to upgrade to the premium version, which costs $2.08 to $24.95 a month. Picnik is directly connected with many photo sharing sites like Myspace, Flickr and Facebook which is cool. http://www.picnik.com/
MyPictr
MyPictr is basically just a picture resizing service, which allows you to create a custom profile avatar for your favorite social network. You don’t need to install any programs: just upload your picture, resize it online and download it. MyPictr gives you enough time (approximately 10 minutes) to download your picture, then your file is automatically removed. MyPictr is free to use. http://mypictr.com/
Pixer.us
If you’re looking for an application to meet your simple photo-editing needs, check out pixer.us – a free, web-based photo editor. It has an intuitively simple interface which I really liked plus your basic yet useful photo-editing features like cropping, resizing, and rotating. It also has some color adjustment options such as Saturation, Brightness, and Contrast adjustments. You can save your work as one of the four popular digital image files (PNG, JPG, GIF, or BMP). PIXER.US requires no sign-up or account to use. Simply access the site, upload an image from a local computer, and start editing. When the editing is done, download the finished product. There are however, a couple of features missing. For example, I couldn’t find a way to import images from online photo-sharing sites such as Flickr or Photo-bucket. The program itself has all the basic features and functions usually found in this sort of app. These include features such as “rotate”, “flip”, “resize” and “crop”. The “resize” feature is nice, with a slider to make a picture bigger or smaller which I like because my clients don’t usually know what pixel sizes to choose but the slider would help make resizing more logical for them. http://pixer.us/
OnlinePhotoTool
OnlinePhotoTool is a service that uses Java to edit and save your images, screenshots and photos online. You can use photos and images from your hard drive as well as pictures on the Internet. If you want to save your images online you need to register. You can download photos from the internet using their Onlinephototool.com import bookmarklet. The editing tools seem typical — you can resize, crop, rotate, flip, paint as well as use other advanced tools. The site is simple, direct and functional. http://www.onlinephototool.com/
pic2color
pic2color is a tool that helps you extract colors from any images. It helps you creates sophisticated color schemes from images effortlessly and offers seamless integration with GenoPal Online for individual color exploration. Users can also integrate it into their website by posting some HTML code. Free to use. http://www.pic2color.com/
picmagick
PicMagick – Simple yet Powerful Online Photo Editor http://www.picmagick.com/
Flauntr.com
a unique online imaging service that combines photo editing, printing, sharing and storage in a single seamless service. FlauntR by Fotodesk, is a digital effects website more then just an online image editor. Flauntr allows you to upload images from your computer or Flickr account and then add fun special effects. Create avatars, MySpace comments, or digital scrapbooks. http://www.flauntr.com/
Cellsea
Cellsea is a site that lets you rotate, resize, and crop photos to get the exact composition and size you need. There are over 15 ways to correct color, exposure, and lighting problems. You just need to click and drag your mouse to ripple, circle, sphere and curl the photo. It is also possible to add professional-looking blur effects to your photos. You can load from your PC or from an URL. Free to use. http://www.cellsea.com/java-cellsea/media/index.htm
makeagif.com
Use a form to upload several pictures at a time that you want to animate together. Makeagif takes the images and creates an animated GIF out of them, then your redirected to a download link so you can save it or share it. Very unique and very cool. I highly recommend you at least check it out. I was curious why I’ve never seen something like this before. http://www.makeagif.com
myImager
myImager is a web-based image editor. You can upload images from your computer and from anywhere on the web and edit them freely with the dozens of tools and filters that this tool offers. Uploaded files can not be larger than 500 KB. myImager is completely free to use. http://www.myimager.com/
Aviary Phoenix
Phoenix is a powerful web-based image editor by Aviary. This online image editing suite, has a range of functions from basic image retouching to complex effects, providing the key features of a desktop image editor, with the simplicity and accessibility of a web-based application. Its suite of creation and editing tools includes undo and redo, brushes, magic wand, and blend modes. Phoenix also supports layers, groups, and layer masks, and has an intuitive drag and drop interface. To fully appreciate the potential of this excellent image editor Check out this list of tutorials. Aviary delivers the key features of a desktop image editor with the simplicity and accessibility of a web-based application. It allows you to import images from popular photo sharing websites. http://aviary.com/home
Pixlr
Another online image editor is Pixlr from Sweden. It’s free, it starts up very quickly with no login required, and has a good selection of tools, adjustments and filters that work quite similarly to functions in Photoshop, including tools such as layers, image adjustments, and the magic wand, and which I found generally work well, although one thing I didn’t like is that the adjustments don’t refresh in real time as you move the sliders. Pixlr plugin for Firefox turns your browser into an image editor. Once the plugin is installed, you’ll notice a little icon in the Firefox status bar that you can click to automatically import any web page you’re on to Pixlr for editing. http://www.pixlr.com/editor/
Splashup
Online & Downloadable Image Editing Program. Splashup is integrated with popular photo sharing services like Flickr, Picasa, and Facebook. One of the coolest features Splashup offers is that you can access your photos remotely, Key features include Capture images from webcam, Layers with blending modes, filters and brushes. It’s easy to use, works in real-time and allows you to edit many images at once. http://www.splashup.com/
72Photos
I was really impressed with 72photos.com! 72photos is an image host kind of like Fotki.com, where you can also edit your photos. They offer the basic editing options- like rotate, crop, enhance, plus some special effects. Once you’ve uploaded your photos you can tag them and edit them if you wish. You can organize them into categories, tag them , label them, and add them to different galleries. Sharing your photos is another plus to the site. Post your photos on; websites, forums, blogs, or send them to friends. There are many great photos on the site so take advantage and browse through them. You can view photos by the day they were uploaded to the site by clicking on the days of the calendar. Go to the popular galleries and popular profiles to take a look at the photos.. 72photos.com is a great place to host your photos and appreciate other people’s skills. http://www.72photos.com
Diva Geek Thinks:
Based on what I found.. Sumo Paint, Pixer.us, Fotoflexer or Pixlr would be my choices to recommend to my clients. I personally use Photoshop to do most of my photo editing and if I need to do a quick crop or resize I use a small program called Infranview* which I’ve been using for many moons! and I still love it.
FYI..Many Moons = 6-7 years.
*IrfanView: is a very fast, small, compact and innovative FREEWARE (for non-commercial use) graphic viewer.. but you can also use to resize, crop, rotate, flip, paint as well as use other advanced tools like create a gallery, a slideshow, batch conversions etc.. it’s a very handy and useful tool that I think all web developers should at least try it.
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