Althouse: Free Photoshop.

March 27, 2008

Free Photoshop.

It's part of the "software as a service" trend.

18 comments:

Roost on the Moon said...: AAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!

AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!

AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH!

(I bought this a week ago.); 3/27/08, 9:00 AM
Bob said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 3/27/08, 9:05 AM
Peter V. Bella said...: Are you going to try it?; 3/27/08, 9:06 AM
Bob said...: I almost sent you a link to that story when I saw it this morning. :); 3/27/08, 9:07 AM
sixty-five said...: Looks as if it's trying to be a Flickr competitor? Trying it now. Upload time for a sample group from Picasa (which it found and linked to with no prompting from me) seems excruciatingly slow. Maybe just me...; 3/27/08, 9:21 AM
Ann Althouse said...: I'm stuck on iPhoto.

If I wanted to learn something new, I'd probably choose an Apple program.

If it involves a poky website... who needs it?; 3/27/08, 9:22 AM
TMink said...: Roost, save your distress! This is like Photshop Elements Lite reduced feature version for people who do not need to do much to their photos!

It is nothing like the power of even Photoshop Elements, which I use, or Photoshop the real McCoy which I lust after.

Very basic and it does not offer much in the way of controling the process. Cool idea though, and it should be OK for lots of people.

Trey; 3/27/08, 9:27 AM
Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 3/27/08, 9:43 AM
Jonathan said...: This looks like a good option for people who want to edit a few jpegs. However, for larger jobs (more files, RAW, extensive editing), bandwidth limitations will quickly cap this product's usability. But many of the people this product is aimed at (Flickr users?) probably don't edit their photos now, and wouldn't otherwise buy Photoshop. Adobe has nothing to lose by offering such people online editing software. What I don't understand is why Adobe didn't pair up with Flickr (or maybe they tried), since Flickr's network/community features attract many users and will be difficult for Adobe to duplicate.; 3/27/08, 10:24 AM
Beth said...: Theo, I love GIMP. I discovered it last year when I had my students do a special project, creating a graphic novel. Most of them needed some sort of photo and image editing software, and I couldn't afford multiple copies of Photoshop for our lab. GIMP was a fine solution.; 3/27/08, 10:57 AM
sixty-five said...: I heard about GIMP recently and dl'd it only to be utterly baffled. Windows? It's more like DOS. Still, I plan to persevere. Help file has to be separately dl'd from an FTP site (!). A google search on "gimp tutorial" provides a bunch of hits and a ray of hope.; 3/27/08, 11:04 AM
Balfegor said...: I like the GIMP too, but given that I use these kinds of programs mostly for drawing (using a Wacom tablet and now, a tablet PC), it has one major deficiency -- it doesn't have good brushes that pick up colour, for smearing and blending and so forth. There are fairly cheap programs like ArtRage (free version with limited features, full version only $25) that have much more sophisticated brush systems -- Artrage's system is actually kind of fantastic once you start playing around with it. My favourite is Painter, which is, in my opinion, easily the best program of that sort available commercially. Kind of expensive, though, even at the upgrade prices.; 3/27/08, 11:29 AM
Balfegor said...: Re: Beth

Theo, I love GIMP. I discovered it last year when I had my students do a special project, creating a graphic novel. Most of them needed some sort of photo and image editing software, and I couldn't afford multiple copies of Photoshop for our lab. GIMP was a fine solution.

For a graphic novel (if you do a project like that again), Inkscape is also a fine free tool (vector, rather than raster).; 3/27/08, 11:41 AM
Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 3/27/08, 12:21 PM
Beth said...: Thanks, balfegor. I've bookmarked ArtRage and Inkscape. I've have a bad time trying to work on my Wacom tablet with GIMP.

Fortunately, my students were more advanced in their abilities. The course topic, graphic novels, drew a mix of art students, film students and some English majors. Most of them were techno savvy. Lots of Mac users, too.

By the way, the end result will be available online in the Katrina Digital Memory Bank (www.hurricanearchive.org) after I finish a little editing, probably by the end of April. There are 9 chapters, and it's an anthology of fiction and non-fiction stories with Katrina as a starting point. I'll link to it on my Blogger identity page if I can.; 3/27/08, 1:53 PM
blake said...: What sort of tablets do y'all use?

I picked up one and it's sort of fun, but way too coarse for me to actually be comfortable drawing with it.; 3/27/08, 2:09 PM
blake said...: Meanwhile, I'll second GIMP and Inkscape, and add IrfanView.

IrfanView is graphic viewing software with an assortment of tools. It's way lighter and good for screen caps, removing red eye, stuff like that.

This is what you give people when you don't want to train them in Photoshop/GIMP/etc.; 3/27/08, 2:13 PM
Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 3/27/08, 2:39 PM