Paint.NET is another good alternative, however the .NET already suggested it is for Windows. Therefore, GIMP is the open source software that you may want to try it out (if you are not using Windows).

GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program. From its name, we know that it’s a software like Photoshop or Paint.NET. It can do task like photo retouching, image composition and image authoring.

GIMP is also:

• a simple paint program
• an expert quality photo retouching program
• an online batch processing system
• a mass production image renderer
• an image format converter

It supports multiple file formats from common ones like JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF to special use formats such as TGA, BMP, XWD, XPM, PIX, CEL, MNG, PPM, PCX, etc. Like Photoshop, GIMP has a list of plugins to enhance its functionality too.

It looks similar to Photoshop but if you will need some time to get use to it (if you have been a heavy Photoshop user).

However, you can always go through the tutorial provided by the official GIMP website to learn how to use GIMP the easy way.

GIMP supports multiple platforms including:

• Linux (i386, PPC)
• Microsoft Windows (XP, Vista)
• Mac OS X
• Sun OpenSolaris
• FreeBSD

Tip: Ubuntu Linux distro has GIMP pre-installed.

Download GIMP.

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Uploading photos to Photoshop Express, before editing.

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Adjusting the color by applying the “Auto Correct” function and choose the outcome.

The interface is quite user friendly, spend sometime studying it and you will start to love it. It has association with Facebook, Photobucket and Picasa, for easier login. Try it now and registration is FREE.

Paint.NET is free image and photo editing software for computers that run Windows. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools.

If you want a free image editing software which is small and powerful, this is for you. It’s small in size and can do more than the default Microsoft Paint and almost equivalent to professional software such as Adobe Photoshop.

Some claimed it as “free version of Photoshop”.

Why will you want to use Paint.NET?

• It’s free!
• It requires just a small portion of your hard disk space.
• It can let you do things like a professional.
• It’s not as laggy as Photoshop (for computer with lower spec)

You need Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 in order for this to work.
Download: Paint.NET

Although I depend a lot on Photoshop, I find this very handy when I want to do some notes on the screenshots that I have taken. I can easily draw arrows, lines, boxes, add text whenever I want. Although you can do such things in most editing software like Photoshop, Microsoft Paint or even IrfanView, this is still the most convenient one for me.

Now, I can easily finish doing a pictorial guide within minutes. The following image is what I did for a printer configuration tutorial using Paint.NET.

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Because it’s easy to use and FREE!
IrfanView not only supports graphics file, it also supports video/audio format such as .mid, .avi. You can also view format such as .ogg, .mp3 and many more (provided you have the required plugin installed).

Software Information:
Operating System: Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista
License: Freeware (non-commercial only, ie. home user)
Genre: Graphic viewer
Format supported: Click here to view full list
Features:

• Many supported file formats (click here the list of formats)
• Multi language support
• Thumbnail/preview option
• Paint option – to draw lines, circles, arrows, straighten image etc.
• Toolbar skins option
• Slideshow (save slideshow as EXE/SCR or burn it to CD)
• Show EXIF/IPTC/Comment text in Slideshow/Fullscreen etc.
• Support for Adobe Photoshop Filters
• Fast directory view (moving through directory)
• Batch conversion (with image processing)
• Multipage TIF editing
• File search
• Email option
• Multimedia player
• Print option
• Support for embedded color profiles in JPG/TIF
• Change color depth
• Scan (batch scan) support
• Cut/crop
• IPTC editing
• Effects (Sharpen, Blur, Adobe 8BF, Filter Factory, Filters Unlimited, etc.)
• Capturing
• Extract icons from EXE/DLL/ICLs
• Lossless JPG rotation
• Many hotkeys
• Many command line options
• Many PlugIns
• Only one EXE-File, no DLLs, no Shareware messages like “I Agree” or “Evaluation expired”
• No registry changes without user action/permission!
• and much much more

Official Website:
Screenshot:

Although IrfanView does not have fancy interface, it has easy-to-use features. Normally, I use it to copy & paste, crop and resize images. The screenshot shown above is an example.