Given Up Emulating. Free Photo editing software,suggestions?

fro · Agent Joined: Aug 18, 2005 Posts: 15

Hi if you read the emulation windows thing i have tried it but it is just too slow and the programs stuggles to work so can anybody recommend any free software. Please include the best placen to download, thanks.

jakeOSX · Ninja Joined: Aug 12, 2003 Posts: 1373

well, depending on what you are doing, iPhoto works great. if you need a more photoshop like prog, then the gimp is the way to go (it is an X11 program)

-j

Glenner · Oracle Joined: Feb 03, 2004 Posts: 241 Location: Scotland

An earlier version of ArcSoft's Photostudio used to be freely available. But I do not know whether they still offer the download.

knoxer · Agent Joined: May 28, 2003 Posts: 18

Yeah, the gimp is really nice, but it is an X11 program... You can get a good version with a nice installer here: http://gimp-app.sourceforge.net/

There is also a project underway to create a native cocoa app that uses the gimp format as it's native format. It's called Seashore. It's a little rough around the edges still, but it's already capable of quite a bit. Find out more about Seashore here: http://seashore.sourceforge.net/

There are several other simple free photo editors, but nothing comes close to the features of the GIMP until you start parting with some money.

JKT · Posted: Tue Aug 30, 2005 7:33 am Post subject:

If you have MacOS X 10.4 (Tiger), you can install Core Image Fun House from the Developer tools which allows you to apply the Core Image filters to files. If you don't want to install all the Developer tools just to get the one app, you can get Pacifist which will allow you to install the specific .pkg file(s) you want.

Another free app that has some basic features is Toy Viewer.

Having said all that, I'd also recommend the GIMP, even if it is an X11 app - its as good as Photoshop if you only do a few basic things. Btw, you will need to have X11 installed as well - it is one of the options in the OS X install process and, again, you can use Pacifist to install it from your system CD/DVD.

P.S. Good places to search for Mac apps are Versiontracker and MacUpdate.

fro · Agent Joined: Aug 18, 2005 Posts: 15

I'll try gimp then. All you guys seem to think its the way to go. Get Back To You soon.

fro · Agent Joined: Aug 18, 2005 Posts: 15

No worries i'm getting photoshop cs off my a parents friend. My family aren't mac users so they could help with it. Any views on photoshop anyone?

OPENSTEP · Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2005 11:50 am Post subject:

(ok, I'm biased...but...)

Photoshop is great when used sparingly, but I'm a "previsualization" nut and love film because you *can't* delete....it makes you think more to try to get it right before you trip the shutter Smile

Regardless...

I find Photoshop to have some of the best format conversions of any program, especially the PNG/JPEG exports. I used to use it exclusively until the volume of photos I processed got too large. Now I use ImageMagick.

Unsharp mask is a godsend. If you start from a good quality digital camera or a good quality scan, you can really pull some amazing sharpening techniques without making the photo look really fake.

Make the "healing brush" tool introduced with Photoshop 7 your friend if you're still shooting film (which I am and will be until they pry Kodachrome from my cold dead hands). It really is an amazing tool for removing dust, lens flare, and other artifacts.

ed

JKT · Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2005 4:33 am Post subject: Re: Emulating

fro · Agent Joined: Aug 18, 2005 Posts: 15

No i am very intersested in photoshop, i was a hard core photo editor with paint shop pro which i learnt due to a free trail but as i am now on mac and i'm getting it free ff a friend LEGALLY i thought i might as well learn it, my brother mentioned something about i being "Industry Standard" I wish i could post one of my pictures on here it is quite good, i moved christa berg to a different background and fired an aspargus at him. What i I.T. project that turned out to be!!!!