Digital cameras often come with free photo editing software that can be installed on a computer. There are even open source photo editors, and expensive professional photo editing suites. Macintosh computers even come with a basic photo editor, iPhoto, pre-installed. But what about editing photos directly from Facebook, MySpace or Flickr? Or how about editing and emailing photos from a public computer when you're on vacation?
That's where free online photo editors come in, and there are many to choose from. Most don't require any kind of sign up. Simply upload a photo from a computer, or pull a photo from any number of online photo sharing sites, and begin editing.
Got red eye? No problem. Want to take a high resolution photo and make a smaller, email version? Online photo editors have it covered. Cropping, adjusting color balance and removing blemishes are common editing options on most image editing websites. After editing, save the photo to a computer or website. That's all there is to it.
Online image editing services vary, but all the large online photo editors are integrated with photo sharing websites like Flickr, photobucket, Picasa, and even smaller sites and social networking sites.
Three free Online Image Editors
Picnik offers all the basic photo editing functions for free: red eye removal, crop, resize and limited special effects. The free version is intuitive, easy to use, and you can enter any web address to pull photos from any website (a personal blog, for example). To access advanced tools and effects, there are premium subscriptions offered.
FotoFlexer offers both basic and advanced photo editing features for free. This includes some special effects for making e-cards. It integrates with all major photo storage websites. The FotoFlexer editor is available in over 20 languages, allowing for global use. It takes a little longer to load than the other photo editors, but there are also many more options for altering photos.
Splashup offers basic and advanced photo editing features, both free, and it comes in two versions: Splashup or Splashup Light. The Light version is a stand-alone photo editor that's downloaded and installed on the computer. This might be redundant if the computer already has photo editing software installed, but the Splashup interface is easy to use. The regular version opens in a pop-up window for full featured online photo editing, similar to commercial software.
There are many other free online photo editors out there. Some image editors are much more basic than these. For simple red eye and blemish removal, photo editors with less features work well because they load quickly. For cropping and creating e-cards, a more advanced online photo editor like the ones listed above are worth checking out.
Whether on the road, at a public computer, or simply editing photos on the fly from photo sharing websites, free online image editors make quick work of photo editing.
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