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#1
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Photo editor
The question of photo editors comes up often. I don't
remember whether this one ever got mentioned. I came across the code awhile back. It's written in VB6. The code is freely available. The program seems to work nicely and does much of what a full editor can do, including "effects" plugins. Yet it's only 52 MB installed. Disadvantages: * No help file. * A curious oversight in terms of functionality. There's no line or shape tool! (At least I can't find them.) * A kiddie-style, Metro-esque UI that takes up too much space. But it has a full stock of filters, color adjustment, layer functionality, etc. There's not much missing that you'd get in Photoshop for a very steep price, in a spyware package, with a rental model, and a wildly bloated installation. The lack of line and shape tools is odd. I use those regularly and in terms of code they're much easier than creating effects like "oil painting" or "windblown". But for someone who only wants to work on photos without doing graphics, Photo Demon looks like a very good choice. https://photodemon.org/ |
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#2
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Photo editor
On 12/31/18 9:13 AM, Mayayana wrote:
The question of photo editors comes up often. I don't remember whether this one ever got mentioned. I came across the code awhile back. It's written in VB6. The code is freely available. The program seems to work nicely and does much of what a full editor can do, including "effects" plugins. Yet it's only 52 MB installed. Disadvantages: * No help file. * A curious oversight in terms of functionality. There's no line or shape tool! (At least I can't find them.) * A kiddie-style, Metro-esque UI that takes up too much space. But it has a full stock of filters, color adjustment, layer functionality, etc. There's not much missing that you'd get in Photoshop for a very steep price, in a spyware package, with a rental model, and a wildly bloated installation. The lack of line and shape tools is odd. I use those regularly and in terms of code they're much easier than creating effects like "oil painting" or "windblown". But for someone who only wants to work on photos without doing graphics, Photo Demon looks like a very good choice. https://photodemon.org/ Have you tried either GIMP or Photoshop CS2? The latter is free now, as they seemed to have discarded it as too old to support. I use GIMP as it's easier to flip from Windows to Linux and still have the same design. |
#3
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Photo editor
In article , Big Al
wrote: Have you tried either GIMP or Photoshop CS2? The latter is free now, cs2 is *not* free. it's available for those with existing licenses. |
#4
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Photo editor
On 12/31/18 12:38 PM, nospam wrote:
In article , Big Al wrote: Have you tried either GIMP or Photoshop CS2? The latter is free now, cs2 is *not* free. it's available for those with existing licenses. So much the better then since I've stopped using it. I say 'so much the better' meaning I'm not violating anything. But thanks for the correction for the OP. |
#5
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Photo editor
"Big Al" wrote
| Have you tried either GIMP or Photoshop CS2? The latter is free now, | | cs2 is *not* free. | | it's available for those with existing licenses. | | So much the better then since I've stopped using it. I say 'so much | the better' meaning I'm not violating anything. | That's an interesting situation. They posted all of their v. C2 programs with keys and a notice that use of them was only valid if they were obtained from Adobe. Check. But apparently they didn't expect that a lot of people would be content to use an old version rather than buy new. (I'm guessing it was originally intended as a way to dump support for their old customers while also releasing a teaser demo to get new customers. It backfired.) So later they posted a notice that the software and keys were only for people with existing licenses and I think they required personal info. Why would they offer a download if the keys were only for people who already had the software? Their patch-up on the situation made no sense. So... If you downloaded it from an unrestricted link then it's perfectly legal. On the other hand, Adobe has a lot more money and lawyers than you do... So your legal rights don't mean much. I was tempted to use Acrobat, but found PDF Xchange Viewer free version, which does what I need in terms of PDFs. I prefer not to have any involvement with anything from Adobe. Much of it is bloated malware magnets, anyway. (I've never installed Flash and haven't had the monstrously bloated Adobe Reader since probably the 90s. Nor would I ever touch AIR. That's 3 products they've tried to use to take over the Web with proprietary software.) And I never had much interest in Photoshop or their web design stuff. Too bloated and with absurdly high prices. (They bought out Dreamweaver at one point, but that's just another overpriced, bloated mess for web designer who don't know how to write HTML/CSS.) I've tried GIMP over the years, but never been satisfied. It's been over 20 years in production and they still can't even create a proper MDI (multiple document interface) window. Then they decided to call any file format but their own an "export" rather than a save. With one version the menus didn't even work. Like so many OSS projects, they have lots of talent but not much in the way of adults involved. No one seems to care about a usable end product. Personally I use PSP, v. 5 and 16, and Aftershot Pro for RAW. I don't need something else. But people periodically ask for something fairly easy to use and free. I think Photo Demon is a good contender. It's pretty much got all the gimmick filters, undo, layers, and color adjustments, presented in a small, free program with a clear GUI. Often the answer people give is IrfanView, but while I consider IV to be arguably the best-written program I've ever seen, you just can't edit photos without a UI workspace, layers, and multiple undo. IV just isn't designed for that use. Though I use it for everything else. For basic image viewing and resaving as a different format I use IV. But once I need to crop, paste, or even just add a little text, IS is too much trouble. Much of that is possible in IV. It's just not convenient. So it's nice to have a real editor as well. |
#6
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Photo editor
On 12/31/18 2:00 PM, Mayayana wrote:
"Big Al" wrote | Have you tried either GIMP or Photoshop CS2? The latter is free now, | | cs2 is *not* free. | | it's available for those with existing licenses. | | So much the better then since I've stopped using it. I say 'so much | the better' meaning I'm not violating anything. | That's an interesting situation. They posted all of their v. C2 programs with keys and a notice that use of them was only valid if they were obtained from Adobe. Check. But apparently they didn't expect that a lot of people would be content to use an old version rather than buy new. (I'm guessing it was originally intended as a way to dump support for their old customers while also releasing a teaser demo to get new customers. It backfired.) So later they posted a notice that the software and keys were only for people with existing licenses and I think they required personal info. Why would they offer a download if the keys were only for people who already had the software? Their patch-up on the situation made no sense. So... If you downloaded it from an unrestricted link then it's perfectly legal. On the other hand, Adobe has a lot more money and lawyers than you do... So your legal rights don't mean much. I was tempted to use Acrobat, but found PDF Xchange Viewer free version, which does what I need in terms of PDFs. I prefer not to have any involvement with anything from Adobe. Much of it is bloated malware magnets, anyway. (I've never installed Flash and haven't had the monstrously bloated Adobe Reader since probably the 90s. Nor would I ever touch AIR. That's 3 products they've tried to use to take over the Web with proprietary software.) And I never had much interest in Photoshop or their web design stuff. Too bloated and with absurdly high prices. (They bought out Dreamweaver at one point, but that's just another overpriced, bloated mess for web designer who don't know how to write HTML/CSS.) I've tried GIMP over the years, but never been satisfied. It's been over 20 years in production and they still can't even create a proper MDI (multiple document interface) window. Then they decided to call any file format but their own an "export" rather than a save. With one version the menus didn't even work. Like so many OSS projects, they have lots of talent but not much in the way of adults involved. No one seems to care about a usable end product. Personally I use PSP, v. 5 and 16, and Aftershot Pro for RAW. I don't need something else. But people periodically ask for something fairly easy to use and free. I think Photo Demon is a good contender. It's pretty much got all the gimmick filters, undo, layers, and color adjustments, presented in a small, free program with a clear GUI. Often the answer people give is IrfanView, but while I consider IV to be arguably the best-written program I've ever seen, you just can't edit photos without a UI workspace, layers, and multiple undo. IV just isn't designed for that use. Though I use it for everything else. For basic image viewing and resaving as a different format I use IV. But once I need to crop, paste, or even just add a little text, IS is too much trouble. Much of that is possible in IV. It's just not convenient. So it's nice to have a real editor as well. I agree with the bloated software comments. The full Photoshop CS# is full of stuff that I've never thought of or knew of. My daughter works as a graphics editor for an ad agency and they have the latest and greatest of Adobe anything, and she uses probably every tool and app in the complete line, knows more keyboard shortcuts, can fix an image in a matter of a minute where it takes me over 1/2 an hour. I find myself emailing her photos I just give up on. I do say that the Photoshop CS2 I've used works better than GIMP, but for what I need, GIMP does my work for me, and in Linux. I need a few layers, some gradient effects, a few filters and I'm happy. I'm easy to please. Good to hear some of your thinking though. Al |
#8
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Photo editor
In article , Big Al
wrote: I agree with the bloated software comments. The full Photoshop CS# is full of stuff that I've never thought of or knew of. My daughter works as a graphics editor for an ad agency and they have the latest and greatest of Adobe anything, and she uses probably every tool and app in the complete line, knows more keyboard shortcuts, can fix an image in a matter of a minute where it takes me over 1/2 an hour. I find myself emailing her photos I just give up on. photoshop is professional software, for professional work. it's not for consumers. pros *do* need what it can do and do not consider it bloated. photoshop elements is the consumer version, and priced accordingly, $99 msrp and usually about $50-60 street price, and even that does more than most people need. |
#9
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Photo editor
In article , Mayayana
wrote: | Have you tried either GIMP or Photoshop CS2? The latter is free now, | | cs2 is *not* free. | | it's available for those with existing licenses. | | So much the better then since I've stopped using it. I say 'so much | the better' meaning I'm not violating anything. That's an interesting situation. They posted all of their v. C2 programs with keys and a notice that use of them was only valid if they were obtained from Adobe. Check. But apparently they didn't expect that a lot of people would be content to use an old version rather than buy new. (I'm guessing it was originally intended as a way to dump support for their old customers while also releasing a teaser demo to get new customers. It backfired.) as usual, you guess wrong. at the time the cs2 activation servers were taken offline, cs2 was roughly a decade old and didn't work on then current systems (even less so now), so there was no point in keeping them online anymore. nobody was buying new copies of cs2. however, existing cs2 customers might need to reinstall on the hardware they had, so adobe needed to provide a solution for that situation. in other words, it's the exact *opposite* of dumping support for their old customers. adobe went out of their way to continue supporting them. So later they posted a notice that the software and keys were only for people with existing licenses and I think they required personal info. Why would they offer a download if the keys were only for people who already had the software? Their patch-up on the situation made no sense. it wasn't a patch-up, it makes perfect sense, and they don't require personal info. again, the cs2 keys were for *existing* cs2 users who needed to reinstall on their existing hardware. extended support. it was never intended as a freebie for everyone. people incorrectly *assumed* that. So... If you downloaded it from an unrestricted link then it's perfectly legal. On the other hand, Adobe has a lot more money and lawyers than you do... So your legal rights don't mean much. it's not legal to use unless someone previously purchased cs2. period. however, the reality is that it's impossible to enforce and people will pirate it anyway, which they were doing all along. |
#10
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Photo editor
"Big Al" wrote
| I do say that the Photoshop CS2 I've used works better than GIMP, but | for what I need, GIMP does my work for me, and in Linux. I need a few | layers, some gradient effects, a few filters and I'm happy. I'm easy to | please. | That's interesting. I don't know that I've ever heard of anyone who actually prefers GIMP to any other free option. (One can even get PSP5 free now. I paid $100 for it originally.) And you don't mind the floating toolbars? Last I saw it was possible to sort of make them sit still, but there still wasn't a parent window to contain it all. |
#11
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Photo editor
On 12/31/18 2:35 PM, Jean Fredette wrote:
Big Al posted: So much the better then since I've stopped using it. The Adobe installer may still be located where it was in this old list below. apowerrec https://www.apowersoft.com/record-all-screen artweaver https://www.artweaver.de/en/download/artweaverfree audacity http://www.audacityteam.org/download/windows/ avicodec http://avicodec.free.fr/ avisynth http://avisynth.nl/index.php/Main_Page avisynth2 https://sourceforge.net/projects/avi...atest/download blender https://www.blender.org/ camstudio https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/camstudio.html cartoonist http://www.vicman.net/cartoonist/ v1.3 codecinstaller http://www.jockersoft.com/downloads/...aller_full.exe cole2kcodecs http://www.cole2k.net/ cs2 https://www.techspot.com/downloads/4...uite-free.html cutescreenrec http://www.videotool.net/screen-reco...ee-version.htm cutescreenrecorder http://www.videotool.net/screen-reco...ee-version.htm debutvideocapture https://www.nchsoftware.com/capture/index.html draftsight https://www.3ds.com/products-service...free-download/ dvdvideosoft https://www.dvdvideosoft.com/product...o-Recorder.htm ezvid https://www.ezvid.com faststone http://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDownload.htm ffmpeg/lame https://lame.buanzo.org/ fotor https://www.fotor.com/windows/index.html fotosketcher http://fotosketcher.com/download-fotosketcher/ freecadweb https://www.freecadweb.org/ gfie http://www.greenfishsoftware.org/gfie.php ghostscript https://www.ghostscript.com/download/gsdnld.html gimp https://download.gimp.org/mirror/pub/gimp/v2.4/windows/ greenshot http://getgreenshot.org/downloads/ gspot http://gspot.headbands.com/ handbrake https://handbrake.fr/ iavidemux https://sourceforge.net/projects/avi...atest/download icofx https://www.icofx.ro/downloads.html id3tageditor http://id3tageditor.com/ inkscape https://inkscape.org/en/ irfanview https://www.fosshub.com/IrfanView.html ispring https://www.ispringsolutions.com/ispring-free-cam jsprep http://www.jsware.net/jsware/pprep.php5 klitecodecs http://www.codecguide.com/download_k..._pack_full.htm mediainfo https://sourceforge.net/projects/med...atest/download mpc http://www.codecguide.com/download_kl.htm oxelon http://www.oxelon.com/media_converter.html paintnet https://www.getpaint.net/download.html paintstar https://sites.google.com/site/wangzhenzhou/ pdfcreator http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/ pdftk https://www.pdflabs.com/tools/pdftk-server/ photodemon https://github.com/tannerhelland/PhotoDemon photopad https://www.nchsoftware.com/photoeditor/ phototoolkit http://www.vicman.net/phototoolkit/index.htm psp5 http://www.oldversion.com/windows/do...-shop-pro-5-01 shotcut https://www.shotcutapp.com/download/ shotcut https://www.shotcutapp.com/download/ sketchup https://www.sketchup.com/ sumatra https://www.sumatrapdfreader.org/dow...df-viewer.html super http://www.videohelp.com/tools/SUPER/old-versions videoinspector https://kcsoftwares.com/files/videoinspector_lite.exe virtualdub https://sourceforge.net/projects/vir...irtualdub-win/ vlc https://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.php Faststone. Haven't heard that name in years. I paid for their software back in what seems like Windows 1.0 but I know it was probably w95 or XP days. I really liked it for some feature, I think making photo montages. PS your list has shotcut in there twice. I've got a bookmarks folder like this that contains links to all the software I've used, tried or might like to one day. Al |
#12
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Photo editor
On 12/31/18 2:55 PM, Mayayana wrote:
"Big Al" wrote | I do say that the Photoshop CS2 I've used works better than GIMP, but | for what I need, GIMP does my work for me, and in Linux. I need a few | layers, some gradient effects, a few filters and I'm happy. I'm easy to | please. | That's interesting. I don't know that I've ever heard of anyone who actually prefers GIMP to any other free option. You have to note I'm running Linux so that has a lot to do with GIMP decision. I am making notes however. I'm always interested in alternatives, even if I do have to power up the ol' Windows. grin |
#13
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Photo editor
On Mon, 31 Dec 2018 14:00:22 -0500, "Mayayana"
wrote: "Big Al" wrote | Have you tried either GIMP or Photoshop CS2? The latter is free now, | | cs2 is *not* free. | | it's available for those with existing licenses. | | So much the better then since I've stopped using it. I say 'so much | the better' meaning I'm not violating anything. | That's an interesting situation. They posted all of their v. C2 programs with keys and a notice that use of them was only valid if they were obtained from Adobe. Check. Yes, I downloaded when I saw the offer, but never bothered to install. I still have them backed up somewhere. Can they revoke something they said was "free" ? It's like delivering a "free" car and after you've kept it in the garage for a while billing you for US$ 50.000 because they "have a new policy". []'s -- Don't be evil - Google 2004 We have a new policy - Google 2012 |
#14
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Photo editor
"Big Al" wrote | You have to note I'm running Linux so that has a lot to do with GIMP | decision. I am making notes however. I'm always interested in | alternatives, even if I do have to power up the ol' Windows. grin I see. You might be able to run PSP5 or Photo Demon under WINE. Last I saw WINE was spotty, but that was some years ago. |
#15
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Photo editor
On Mon, 31 Dec 2018 14:55:34 -0500, "Mayayana"
wrote: "Big Al" wrote | I do say that the Photoshop CS2 I've used works better than GIMP, but | for what I need, GIMP does my work for me, and in Linux. I need a few | layers, some gradient effects, a few filters and I'm happy. I'm easy to | please. | That's interesting. I don't know that I've ever heard of anyone who actually prefers GIMP to any other free option. (One can even get PSP5 free now. I paid $100 for it originally.) And you don't mind the floating toolbars? Last I saw it was possible to sort of make them sit still, but there still wasn't a parent window to contain it all. I saw this recently: http://m.majorgeeks.com/files/detail...op_layout.html Didn't try it. []'s -- Don't be evil - Google 2004 We have a new policy - Google 2012 |
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