Image Tools

To create your perfect website you need to be able to manipulate images and graphics to get them into the right size and format. Probably the best now tools for this are the Adobe Suite of programs with Photoshop for images and Illustrator for vector graphics. The programmes are unfortunately far from cheap and few can afford the investment for relatively light use. There is (if you search for it) a version of Photoshop CS2 available for download along with a genuine key. I believe that Adobe recognise that many users of cracked versions of their software want and need only minimal functionality that is all available in the CS2 product. Perhaps they hope that if you really love Photoshop you will eventually invest in the current version. There are, however, open source programmes available that will more than meet the needs of most users.

GIMP

https://www.gimp.org/ GIMP is a cross-platform image editor available for GNU/Linux, OS X, Windows and more obscure operating systems and as it is open source software it is free. Although it is open source free ware, GIMP provides you with sophisticated tools to get your job done. As you become more proficient you can further enhance your productivity with GIMP by using the man customization options and 3rd party plugins. GIMP began life in the 1990s as the GNU Image Manipulation Program, and the free, open-source image editing tool has evolved in both complexity and ease of use alongside the personal computer, itself. The latest version, GIMP 2.8, maintains the program’s legacy as a powerful and up-to-date, yet totally free image editor. GIMP is modular in appearance and structure and accepts all kinds of plug-ins and tools. It’s a paint and drawing tool, a photo re-toucher, and a batch processing and conversion tool, all in one, with sophisticated features like layers, filters, and effects. You can script virtually anything GIMP does, too. But don’t be put off by GIMP’s considerable talents: Not only is its layout logical, intuitive, and even attractive (in a form-follows-function way) but it also comes with tons of assistance; from multiple Help files (Help; Context Help; User Manual) and considerable online resources such as a forum, FAQs, documentation, tips, source code, and much more. When first run, GIMP looks for data files, queries plug-ins, and attends to other housekeeping before actually launching the program and that can take a while. GIMP keeps you informed of each step, tracking the procedure with the usual green progress bar. On subsequent launches, GIMP loads very quickly. GIMP’s modular, dockable user interface saves desktop real estate by dividing functions among three separate, free-floating windows:

• a toolbox,
• a navigation,
• a work panel,
• and a main window.

Selected image files, that also loaded quickly, are shown in GIMP’s main window. Now I’ve not played extensively with GIMP because I needed to “unlearn” Photoshop because functions are in different places but a quick “scout round” shows that the functions and feature that most users would need are there and that has only just scratched the surface of what GIMP can do. So what can GIMP do well – just about anything related to digital images. GIMP like other similar long-running open-source projects, for example WordPress, in which the skill and commitment of its participants yield freeware with features, capabilities, and support that even expensive packages (like Photoshop) find it hard to match.

Inkscape

https://inkscape.org/en/download/ Inkscape is an Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Adobe Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw, or Xara X using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format. Supported SVG features include shapes, paths, text, markers, clones, alpha blending, transforms, gradients, patterns, and grouping. Inkscape also supports Creative Commons meta-data, node editing, layers, complex path operations, bitmap tracing, text-on-path, flowed text, and direct XML editing. It imports formats such as JPEG, PNG, TIFF, and others and exports PNG as well as multiple vector-based formats. Inkscape’s main goal is to create a powerful and convenient drawing tool fully compliant with XML, SVG, and CSS standards. It also aims to maintain a thriving user and developer community by using open, community-oriented development process, and by making sure Inkcape is easy to learn, to use, and to extend. Inkscape creates, converts, and edits images, applies filters and effects, and packs a host of brushes, stamps, templates, and tools. Inkscape can manage and modify layers, paths, and extensions, and its Help menu includes a manual, tutorials, FAQs, a Command Line option, and many more resources, not to mention the support and regular updates typical of open source projects. So what has Inkscape got in its favour – well it’s open source freeware with developers and enthusiasts donating their time to keep Inkscape free and at the cutting edge of features and performance. The Inkscape user interface has a familiar look (but it’s not a Photoshop clone and ,for example, the scrolling spectral line (with colour numbers) and axis display in the bottom panel not only set Inkscape’s layout apart from Photoshop’s but also improve upon it. It has some interesting additional features (that not everyone will need) like an XML Editor, input device configuration, and bitmap copies. However it’s not quite Photoshop – Inkscape is an impressive superbly performing programme but it can’t quite match Photoshop and similar software in features and extras. The bottom line is that Inkscape is a strong performer, packed with features and extras, supported by a dedicated community, totally free and the general user rather than a professional graphics designed it should more than meet your needs.

PNG Guantlet

http://pnggauntlet.com/ Even though the image you have is the correct physical size and colour for your needs it is probable that the “definition” of the content is far greater than is needed for the web. If you want to print a good quality image then you need one with a minimum of 300 dpi (dots per inch) and preferably 600 dpi. For the internet 72 dpi is perfectly adequate and the only people that might complain are nerds with very high definition PC monitors. The image will also probably contain far more colours than are needed and don’t believe the marketing guys with their Retina displays and 64 million colours – you just don’t need them. You can reduce your file size for PNG files by using PNG Gauntlet (it’s freeware) to optimise them before you upload them to WordPress or your website host.

RIOT

http://luci.criosweb.ro/riot/ You often find yourselves needing to compress or resize an image but feeling reluctant to fire up a full-featured photo editor and deal with its attendant hassles. RIOT is a no-frills way to get images ready to be shared via e-mail, social networks, instant message, or anywhere else smaller files are needed. The program’s interface is intuitive and easy to navigate even if it is simple and not particularly attractive. The original image and the edited one are displayed in two preview panes. You resize images by specifying their width and height in pixels and additionally compress images by specifying how many kilobytes you want the image to be. You can adjust brightness, contrast and gamma additionally you can specify whether you want various types of metadata to be included in the new image (generally you would exclude this unnecessary data). Images can be saved in JPEG, GIF, or PNG formats and the application supports batch processing that is idea for, for example, producing thumbnails for a set of products. The application would benefit from a detailed Help file as it only comes with an HTML Readme that contains a listing of RIOT’s features rather than instructions for using them. Although this is a little unfortunate most novice users should be able to figure out the program’s major features but they will have very little to go on when it comes to some of the more advanced and obscure tools like chroma subsampling. For the most part, though, RIOT is easy to figure out, and it’s a great option for adjusting image size, compression, and quality without a lot of fuss. RIOT comes as a ZIP file, but installs and uninstalls without issues. We recommend this program to all users.