Basic software for editing images

This page gives details of some basic image editing tools that are available. Some may already be on your computer as part of your operating system, and the others can be downloaded for free from the web. The programs listed have been chosen either because they are provided by a reputable company or they have been widely recommended within higher education. However, this list represents only a small selection of the many free image editing programs that are available on the web and you may find others that are equally suitable.

Microsoft Office Picture Manager  | Microsoft Photo Gallery  | iPhoto  | Picasa  | Irfanview  | Picnik  | Microsoft Image Resizer

Microsoft Office Picture Manager

This is available on all University PCs as part of the Microsoft Office suite (find it on the Start menu under All Programs, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Office Tools). As well as allowing you to browse images stored on your computer, it offers some basic image editing facilities, such as the ability to crop, rotate, and resize images, adjust brightness, contrast, colour, and perform red eye removal. In addition, you can convert images from one format to another and batch rename files.

The following web tutorials explain the basics of using Picture Manager:

• London School of Economics - guide to Picture Manager
• University of Massachusettes Amhurst - Picture Manager tutorial

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Microsoft Photo Gallery

Available either as standard on Windows Vista or as a download for Windows XP, Microsoft Photo Gallery (also called Windows Live Photo Gallery) is an image organisation tool that can also carry out basic image editing, allowing users to crop and resize images, as well as adjust them for colour and exposure.

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iPhoto

This Mac-based image organisation software, included with more recent versions of the Mac OS X operating system, provides some basic image editing tools, including rotating and straightening images, cropping, resizing, adjusting colour, brightness and contrast, and sharpening images.

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Picasa

Picasa. Although Picasa is very easy to use, you may find it helpful to look at the  Concordia University - guide to using Picasa. Unfortunately, Picasa is not available for Macs at the time of writing.

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IrfanView tutorial

IrfanView tutorial from 'Instructional Endeavour' for a comprehensive overview of how to use the program.

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Picnik tutorial

Picnik tutorial from 'Brilliant Prints', plus a video tutorial Basic image editing with Picnik.

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Microsoft guide to Image Resizer

Microsoft guide to Image Resizer gives brief details on how to use it.

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