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The creator of VerMan's Art Converter admits in the program's documentation that he created the program to impress a girl (and to practice his C+ skills). The girl wasn't impressed, but we were, at least to some extent. In terms of useful software, VerMan's Art Converter ranks pretty low on the list, but if you want to play around with word art, it's worth checking out.

The program has a plain interface that's easy to navigate, as each step in the process is outlined for you. First, select the image you want to work … Read more

Creating icons is a necessary task for software developers, but they're not the only ones who make icons; average Joes and Janes also enjoy customizing their desktops with icons of their own creation. Whether you need to make icons for business or pleasure, Imagicon is a simple way to do it. It has advanced features for more-experienced users, but even newbies will be able to master its basics.

Imagicon's interface is just a small square with a few menus across the top; using it isn't an entirely intuitive process, but we were able to figure it out … Read more

Pixia is a free image-editing and drawing program. It's essentially the English language edition of a popular Japanese application. Like many such tools, it offers Photoshop-like capabilities such as layers, multiple undos, and plug-ins; it will even accept Photoshop's plug-ins. The difference, of course, is that Pixia is free, something Photoshop certainly is not.

Pixia's installer is so polite, it even asked to be associated with its proprietary file format. The program's interface resembles similar applications' layouts. Pixia uses pop-ups to configure items like filters and masks, and expandable Palette, Color, Pen, and Layer windows that … Read more

Vectorization sounds complex, but in fact it's the fairly simple process of converting raster images, which we'll call "pictures," into vector sets that can be used in CAD, GIS, CNC, and similar digital design, control, and automation environments. Simple, yes; but elaborate in methods and processes. That's where WinTopo Standard enters the picture. It's a free tool for extracting vectors from JPEG, GIF, PNG, and other images. It's essentially a pared-down version of a pro tool, but its results are more than good enough for millions of users, apparently.

WinTopo's interface resembles … Read more

Uploading images is to Net newbies what parallel parking is to new drivers: it takes a lot of trial and error to get it right. And Megabyte-size snapshots hog Facebook bandwidth. Fileminimizer Pictures 3 from Balesio is a free tool that promises to help solve both issues. It resizes image files by up to 98 percent without zipping and without sacrificing quality. Its Facebook Uploader Module also makes it easy to post your pictures on Facebook.

Fileminimizer's interface is businesslike but attractive, with subtle but effective use of color and highlighting to differentiate the various icons and controls. Most … Read more

Chances are, if you've had your computer for any amount of time, you've burned a CD or DVD and needed a cover for it. UnderCoverXP makes it easy to create covers for a variety of types of digital media. It's not a design program, exactly; it's more of a utility for scaling images to the right size and printing them so that they'll fit in whatever type of case you're using. This takes a lot of the guesswork out of making covers; UnderCoverXP gets the dimensions right every time.

The program's interface is … Read more

The first time we tried to use Foxonic Professional, we didn't understand it. But we hadn't slept well the night before, so we decided to set it aside and come back to it when we were feeling a little more focused. Our second attempt at understanding Foxonic Professional was more successful, but the fact remains that some aspects of the program just don't make any sense.

The program's interface is plain and not particularly intuitive. For the most part it just consists of a file viewer that allows users to navigate to and select the files … Read more

As its name would suggest, Konverter does indeed give users the ability to convert their files to a wide variety of different file formats, and it does so with ease. But its other included features didn't quite measure up.

The program's simple, self-explanatory main interface features drop-down menus lining the top of the window, as well as frequently used commands. We started by testing the Convert option. The program offers an impressive list of file format options, including PNG, PTIFF, SGI, and more. We selected a JPEG file and, using the Convert menu, opted to convert it to … Read more

Digital camera owners will love Mihov.com's Image Resizer, a tiny, efficient bit of freeware that resizes your digital images, converts JPEG, GIF, and BMP formats from any one to the other, rotates images, performs grayscale conversions, and does a few more simple tasks related to getting your digital pics into the right size, orientation, and image quality for whatever you want to use them for: posting online, saving in a scrapbook, printing them out as snapshots, or emailing to friends and relatives.

At 363KB, Image Resizer is about as small a bit of software as you'll encounter … Read more