No Photoshop? Try These Free Online Image Editors

[Eric Suesz]

Don't have skills with Photoshop or other image editors? Don't worry. There are a ton of free online image-editing services that will let you create an image to use as your header — or for whatever else you need. I'm going to give you a half-dozen to start with. Use these if you ever need to edit an image, create a logo, or just run a favorite photo through some nifty-looking filters to give it a unique look.

One of our favorite free online image editors is Pixlr. It offers an easy-to-use Photoshop-like interface. It has a wide range of tools and is a solid choice. I'd make it your go-to choice if you want a straightforward online image editor.

Another really excellent tool to try out is PicMonkey. It's strength is that it lets you try out all kinds of neat filters on your images (kind of like you would using Instagram). Tons of experimentation you can do with this, especially if you like distressed looks.

Splashup is another decent choice. One thing this editor has in its favor is that it can let you pull in your existing Flicker, Picasa, or Facebook photos. Very handy if you need that kind of thing.

A lot of tools follow the Photoshop model very, very closely. SumoPaint is one of those. It has an impressive number of tools to choose from (including layers), so if you have more advanced skills, this one might be the one for you. They also offer a downloadable version in addition to their web-based version.

If all of these are too complicated, there are tons of more newbie-friendly choices. If you just want something basic, try DrPic.com.

Incidentally, we don't mean to pick on Photoshop. It's the gold standard for image editors, and they actually do offer a free "lite" online version, Photoshop Express, that you may want to check out. It isn't as full-featured as some of these others, but it carries the weight of brand trustworthiness and familiarity if you've used Photoshop before.

[Note: Almost all of these kinds of online tools will require the Flash Player. Your browser probably already has that installed, but you may want to update to the most recent version of Flash if you haven't done that in a long time. ]

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BONUS!

Two more tools that might come in handy when editing images:

• Web Photo Resizer is a simple tool that just resizes things for you. It can optimize images for you. Got a massive file that you don't know how to best shrink? Use this.

• Need to figure out how to resize something to fit a specific size? Use this Aspect Ratio Calculator. For example, if you use an HTML template to send out a regular newsletter and regularly need to make your images fit a predetermined size, this is a great and simple tool for that.

[Glenn Lynch]

lunapic.com is great too. Thanks Eric! Pixlr is great

[Eric Suesz]

I haven't tried that one yet. I'll give it a go. Thanks!

[Janettee McCrary]

I actually just discovered PicMonkey recently and now I use it for my professional photography business:) In fact - I'm really hoping that I can share a photo with you on the 1st that I took from "good" (with basic editing in Photoshop) to AWESOME using PicMonkey alone:) I have to wait until then because it's one that I submitted for publication in the magazine I just started working for, Glass Hat Magazine, and they have exclusive publication rights for an entire month.

Pic Monkey is a little bit inconvenient because of the huge ad at the bottom, but I think it's worth the annoyance:)

Google+ took over Picnik, which I USED to use, but having it inside this service has made it just a big clunky for me.

[Abel I. Arenivar]

este he colocado yo en mi red para que los usuarios editen sus fotos se llama 

Pixlr 

http://pixlr.com/express/

muy bueno y cumple las necesidades básicas para los usuarios!

[Writer Chick {Diane}]

GIMP is free and it's more user-friendly than Photoshop.

[Glenn Lynch]

Gimp is amazing I love Gimp, I have been using it for about 4 months now and I love it!

[Trieu Thanh Tuan]

I love http://www.online-image-editor.com/.

[Emmanuel Ace]

I started with pixlr then Gimp now Photoshop.
If you are a Gimp user I recommend you to upgrade to Gimpshop also free.
Gimpshop is like a copy of gimp but with more features

[Eric Suesz]

Yeah, Gimp is great. I haven't tried Gimpshop, so thanks for the tip!

[Damien Hannah]

Personally, I have tried a lot of editors. Realistically, they are all good, depending on what you are looking for. I found that for my photography based network, having both Pixlr Express and Advanced editors is exactly what I needed. I've used Gimp, and Photoshop, both are great. I wanted to offer an editor online in network and Pixlr works exactly in that manner. Now my members do not need to leave the network to edit photos. They can do it directly, which is exactly what I wanted.

[Mistah Wilson]

www.fotoflexer.com 

[Debbie]

Thanks! Eric,

Here is something I use and it is free. :)

FastStone Image Viewer 4.6