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General discussion

looking for a free photo editing program to download

Mar 19, 2010 2:43AM PDT

Hello, I'm looking for a free photo program to download that comes with editing tools like cropping and stretching, but also comes with frames like picture frames a person would use to hang a photo on a wall. Gold, plain, wacky, ornate, whatever. I sell antique, rare books, and everyday books, so I'd love to find a program that comes with frames, so that when a person goes to a book store that's on line, and 35 people are selling the same 3 little kitten golden book, mine will stand out or be noticed. Thanks in advance Ann

Discussion is locked

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I would try Irfanview
Mar 19, 2010 6:38AM PDT

From http://www.irfanview.com/

It's a fully functional image editing software. Your additional requirement for frame effects is a little more difficult.

It might be that Adobe's Photoshop would do that, (I don't know for sure), but that is not free.

However, you could cheat! Make your own frames using something like Windows Paint, (aka Paint or MSPaint), which is installed on all Windows Systems, or scour the internet for interesting frames, save the images to your hard drive, then edit the frames in Paint or Irfanview. You may need to check copyright issues, but there will be many free images available.

It will take time, but I've done it myself and it is very satisfying.

Mark

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Simple frame
Apr 3, 2010 1:14AM PDT

A simple frame can be had by taking a textured background and stampng the image on top of it, then triming to fit.

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Have you tried online?
Mar 21, 2010 11:11AM PDT
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Picasa
Apr 2, 2010 12:06PM PDT

I highly recommend Picasa as a free photo management tool. It can help you organize your photos, edit them, and share them. The editor is remarkably simple and flexible.

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Blast from the past
Apr 2, 2010 4:35PM PDT

The best tool for your purpose would be MS Picture It! Photo (version 7 and up), except it has been phased out as many other good things. It used to come bundled with MS Works on the better XP machines, so should you have access to one, check whether it is hiding there.

Irfanview, as the name suggests, is supposed to be mainly a viewer. For beefed-up editing/manipulation, you would need to download plugins that can be tricky to install and integrate, as I find on my Vista notebook. FastStone Image Viewer would seem preferable; it has some basic Border Effects in the editing menu. Otherwise it is all the way to the GIMP and plenty of fun - with plenty of spare time on your hands.

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Three suggestions...
Apr 2, 2010 10:54PM PDT

Simple stuff - Irfanview

Slightly more complex - Paint.net

Full Function - The GIMP - as capable as Photoshop but as user friendly as a hungry lion! If you have the time, learn it - you won't regret it.

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Free Frames
Apr 4, 2010 2:21PM PDT