Image manipulation

[Slinkoff]

Bit O/T but does anybody know of a small preferably free graphics program that can:

1. Open any image virtually instantly, so no loading screens/looking for plugins etc

2. Do all the basic resize/crop/edit functions simply

3. Has the ability to draw lines and shapes on the image


Photoshop, The Gimp, PSP are all overkill and take too long to load.

Programs like Picasa2 and ACDsee are great in their way but are more for cataloguing and touching up, I want to draw.

I currently use Irfanview which is great and fast but it lacks the ability to draw on the image, instead it invokes mspaint to do it and it's not ideal.

Basically, I often have a need to take a screenshot, crop it and draw a diagram or line on it or circle something and want something that will let me do that as easily as possible.

Thanks.

[Andy98765]

Not sure if this will totally meet your requirements but if you go to adobe.com or if you have acrobat on your PC (go to updates in Help). You can download a simple graphics package for free.

[Slinkoff]

thanks, but I think that's their photoalbum software along the lines of Picasa and ACDSee, not really what I'm after.

[Ajax]

I think irfanview will do what you need.

[Slinkoff]

I currently use Irfanview which is great and fast but it lacks the ability to draw on the image, instead it invokes mspaint to do it and it's not ideal.

...

[Singh400]

Macromedia Fireworks maybe?

[Slinkoff]

thanks, looks a bit overkill for my needs though, $299!

[DannyM]

...

http://www.irfanview.com/

[dejongj]

It sounds like Snagit fits the bill....I love that little program, especially to take 'screenshots' of a whole webpage within a browser for which you otherwise had to scoll and stich them together...Very fast on my machine as well and great for anotations....

[Slinkoff]

http://www.irfanview.com/

:rotfl: :suicide: .. but thanks for taking the time to post a link ;)


It sounds like Snagit fits the bill

Great, I'll check that one out. Thanks for the tip.

[nwgarratt]

Photofiltre.

http://www.photofiltre.com/

[Slinkoff]

aha, now that looks just the ticket, shame the crop keyboard shortcut is a bit awkward but hey. can't have everything. Thanks for that.

[Ajax]

...

That'll teach me not to read the whole post!!! :oops:

[dejongj]

To post the link...http://www.snagit.com :)

[S_Bob]

GIMP
http://www.gimp.org/

[Slinkoff]

Photoshop, The Gimp, PSP are all overkill and take too long to load.

GIMP
http://www.gimp.org/

Reading of posts isn't really done round here is it!

Anyway, have gone with Photofiltre, is just what I need.
Thanks

[S_Bob]

Reading of posts isn't really done round here is it!

Anyway, have gone with Photofiltre, is just what I need.
Thanks

heh. i was surprised no one had mentioned it

[PlexShaw]

I know you've already settled on one, but I quite like Paint.NET (even if it does require the .NET Framework 2.0):

http://www.getpaint.net/index.html

[Slinkoff]

I haven't settled on photofiltre yet, i'm using it and it's pretty good but it's not without its quirks. I'll take at look at Paint.NET to see if it fares any better.

Cheers.

[dejongj]

I haven't settled on photofiltre yet, i'm using it and it's pretty good but it's not without its quirks. I'll take at look at Paint.NET to see if it fares any better.

Cheers.

Have you tried snagit? I noticed there is a free full version (v7) on PCPRO's coverdisc.....

[Slinkoff]

Thanks, I've tried the trial version of snagit and while it looks like a great program I'm looking for a more general photo/image manipulating program with quick simple features. Snagit is geared towards the capturing and then the editing, I often take images from the web or from files and don't need to capture them first so snagit had features I wasn't really bothered about.

Paint.NET has taken the prize, photofiltre came a close second but there were a couple of issues I had with it. Paint.NET is a great little program though.

Thanks to everyone for all the suggestions.