Basic graphics editor needed

[george46227]

I do occasional html/asp/vbscript pages, very plain database front ends, no graphics, notepad to edit or occasionally FrontPage. I do need to add or edit simple things like a gif/jpg logo bar at times. I don't really do any graphics or have any graphics tools - just use whatever I can find installed somewhere.
Can anyone recommend a basic freeware tool to do some editing of simple graphics files please? I am not at all skilled with complex graphics programs so something basic and simple is what I need.

Thanks
George

 

[chessbot]

How much capacity do you want? More than MS Paint?

--Chessbot

"So it goes."
Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five

 

[SPYDERIX]

Check out

http://www.gimp.org

if you want a decent free photo editor.

NATE

http://www.mainframehosting.net

Got a question? Search G O O G L E first.

 

[DaRNCaT]

if you don't need to do more than crop or resize then irfanview might do it

http://www.irfanview.com/

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Sometimes, when my code just won't behave, I take it outside and make it listen to britney spears music, and when it comes back it's really well behaved. I wonder if it's suffering from post tramatic stress syndrome now..

 

[george46227]

Typically i have to open a graphics file on a web site, created by someone else in who knows what program, usually a jpg or gif (or sometimes tif?) and edit the "text" for a hop-spot link or maybe just the text in a logo bar - company changes names for example.

George

 

[george46227]

http://www.irfanview.com

link is no good, it takes me to

http://www.xeran.com.

I'll pass on gimp for now, it seems to be Unix based/GNU, source code only is available but there are links to "packages" for windows (I've had bad luck with these type of packages in the past - these packages usually require other libraries which have to chased after and then installed, etc.), Also it says it will work on Win98/NT/2000/XP but "recommend" NT/2000 - I need something that I can load on whatever machine I have available at the time including the customer's machines (often Win98).

Thanks for trying
George

 

[DaRNCaT]

If you are trying to edit a jpeg or gif, that is already on a website, then the imgae will have been optimised for the web, and chnaging it is going to be messy.
I think perhaps you should try a google, I found this page

http://www.cs.ubc.ca/spider/ladic/software.html

which might help

----------------------------------------
Sometimes, when my code just won't behave, I take it outside and make it listen to britney spears music, and when it comes back it's really well behaved. I wonder if it's suffering from post tramatic stress syndrome now..

 

[george46227]

Please explain what you mean "optimized for the web"? The web server is private-hosted, if I didn't "optimize" it who did? or is that automatic with IIS?

George

 

[DaRNCaT]

no, I mean, when you create an image, say by taking a digital photo, usually the image is a 100 percent jpeg, which means it's file size (kbs) will be very large, when you publish images for the web, you reduce the quality, usually reducing jpegs to 80%-60% to reduce the file size.
Images which have been optimised in this way don't look good when you try to alter them again, you are better to alter the original file and resave it for the web.

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Sometimes, when my code just won't behave, I take it outside and make it listen to britney spears music, and when it comes back it's really well behaved. I wonder if it's suffering from post tramatic stress syndrome now..

 

[algraff]

PaintShop Pro is what I use most. The current version is a time limited trial version, but if you go back to version 4.14, the time limit isn't enabled. The 4.14 version is hard to find since it's so old, but it's still great for basic editing of graphics. It works with anything from Win95 thru XP. Here's a link that I found that still has it for download:

ftp://ftp.uni-koeln.de/pc/win32/graphics/psp414.exe

http://www.algraff.com

:

http://www.sunshine-church.org

http://www.stanleysauctions.com

http://www.bv.k12.oh.us

 

[johnwm]

You can also use PaintShopPro (and others) to reduce your image size to the size you intend to show, rather than setting image size on your web page. This cuts down loading times and doesn't rely on browser resizing.

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[mrmtek]

try

http://www.w3.org/Amaya/

or

http://www.nvu.com

as a start - I use both and bluefish....

 

[george46227]

algraff

Paint Shop Pro looks good so far, it may be what I need. Question - you said it is not time-limited but the readme says 30 day trial. I don't have a budget for buying it, will it stop after 30 days? or nag me or what?

George

 

[HelloMike]

4.14 and earlier just keep on going.
4.15 and later stop after 30 days.

Cheers, Mike.

 

[VEWebGuy]

How about Vicman's?

http://www.vicman.net/vcwphoto/photo_f.htm