photo editing.

[pacha mama photography]

anyone know of (free) image software that can do most of the basics:

cropping, color editing, contrast correction etc.?

[ricer]

GIMP<br>

<a href="http://www.gimp.org/">http://www.gimp.org/</a>

[daniel_mcdonald]

<p>IrfanView</p>

 

<a href="http://www.irfanview.com">http://www.irfanview.com</a>

[lex_jenkins]

Picasa.

 

Irfanview is faster for many purposes, especially batch file conversions. But it has very limited editing capabilities.

 

Picasa is a bit slower for batch processing but it offers more editing features, including a histogram display. Like Irfanview it can work with most common RAW files.

 

Picasa also offers some nifty utilities, including a very simply way to make "gift CDs" which create autorun slide shows for family and friends. The files on these slide shows are saved in standard JPEG format so the CDs can be plugged into any Kodak or Fuji/Aladdin (or other) minilab kiosk for making prints.

 

What can make Picasa run slowly on some older PCs is the option to automatically update the inventory of image files on a continual basis. You can turn off this option and choose to update the inventory when it's more convenient for you.

 

When I first tried Picasa I griped about some of its quirks but now I find myself using it fairly often for certain purposes.