Free image editing options

Saturday, March 7th 2009 by Wes Fryer

Visual literacy is powerful, and it is important for teachers at all levels to understand the importance of appropriately using visual images to support the learning process. Dr. Lynell Burmark of the Thornburg Institute is one of my favorite experts on visual literacy. Several years ago I heard her present on this topic, and state that the human brain processes an image 60,000 times faster than text. Where people reading English and other Latin-based languages start at the top of a page or screen and move from left to right, top to bottom, this is not the case with images. No one “tells” your brain where to begin processing a visual image. Your brain can start and move anywhere inside a visual image, and images can significantly enhance the “stickiness” of an idea within your brain.

Many school districts have a standard set of approved software applications which they support and install on teacher computers. That collection has typically included productivity software, but not always multimedia software. Given the power and importance of visual literacy, this should not be the case. There are now a variety of open source multimedia software programs which can be freely and legally installed on all computers at school and at home. I would include the audio editing program Audacity in this list of “standard install” software programs, as well as the open source image editing software program “The Gimp.” The Gimp does not include all the functionality and ease-of-use features of commercial image editing programs like Adobe PhotoShop and PhotoShop Elements, but does include a LARGE number of functions which are part of commercial image editing programs. A variety of executable Gimp installers for Windows-based computers are available. Macintosh users may want to use the alternative Gimp distribution “Seashore.” It is also free, and does not require technical skills (like compiling source code) to install and use it. Seashore also does not require Apple/Macintosh users to have X11 installed either, which is beneficial.

The falling pricepoint of Netbooks is making these computers more and more attractive for educational laptop initiatives, but limited hard drive space on Netbooks requires that many applications on them run off the Internet as web applications rather than running as “traditional” client-based software programs. When it comes to image editing, Picnik is a handy and free website which permits web-based image editing. Doug McIntosh has created the Visual Imagery Using Still Images workshop website addressing the basics of digital photography, visual literacy, and editing digital photos online using Picnik. Hat tip to Señorita Murrell for this link.

Picassa is a free image editor from Google which also allows users to perform a variety of basic image editing procedures, including resizing and cropping. Picassa runs as a client-side software program which must be downloaded and installed first, before using it. On Apple computers, iPhoto comes as a free, pre-installed software program and also offers robust image editing as well as organizational functionality.

Do you have other FREE image editing software recommendations, which are either downloadable (client-side) software programs or function as web apps?

11 Comments

Michael Witnauer

Saturday, 7th March 2009 at 3:13 pm

try this online drawing program: http://www.pixlr.com/

Neil Stephenson

Saturday, 7th March 2009 at 4:16 pm

Wes, thanks for the great info about visual literacy. I am a strong believer in using images in the classroom, and what I love about technology is not only being able to access images, but have students manipulate and remix digital images to demonstrate understanding. I love how images can be used to share information, as well as a tool for students to communicate understanding. I’ve built a year-long history project around students using images to communicate historical understanding. http://edcommunity.apple.com/ali/story.php?itemID=15826

Jan-Marie Kellow

Saturday, 7th March 2009 at 7:27 pm

My favourite online image editing app. is Fotoflexer: http://fotoflexer.com/

Neil Winton

Sunday, 8th March 2009 at 2:04 am

My current fav is Sumopaint which is absolutely fantastic! It’s a very workable cross between Photoshop and Painter.

The other biggy that you haven’t mentioned is Aviary. This is building into a suite of very powerful image editing tools, and they have ambitions to become the one-stop online creative hub for all sorts of media. It’s free to try at the moment, but I think that will be changing in the future.

If you haven’t tried either of these, then I apologise now for having stolen the rest of the day from you! ;o)