Free Graphics Software - (Mostly for Windows PCs)

Photo Editing and Graphics
Apps for editing and organising digital photos or other graphics. The top one to replace Photoshop is 'The Gimp' but the more artful 'Krita' also has its advocates. 'Darktable' (all one word) has become a serious contender for the paid-for Lightroom. For the most basic edits (crops, contrast, brightness, lossless rotate, etc.) and album arranging, I would suggest 'XnView' or the very similar 'FastStone.'

Key: W = Windows, M = Mac, L = Linux.

• Art of Illusion - (W, M, L)
  Horribly fiddley yet powerful 3D modelling program. A serious designer might find it worthwhile, but AutoCad it ain't.
• Autostakkert - (W, L using Wine)
  One for the astronomers. This is a photo-stacking app which can process a series of telescope pictures (or video clip). Although it is a Windows program, it also works in Linux using 'Wine.'
• Blender - (W, M, L)
  Serious 3D creation suite with a good reputation but definitely for the professionals, where it has a strong following. It could just about fit in the 'video' category too, as it has can be used for video games and video clips. Too clever for me.
• Cinestyle - (Win only)
  This is a camera utility from Technicolor as a profile affecting the contrast range of the Canon EOS camera, to bring out the fullest tonal range suitable for colour grading. It appears to be intended for video work but it is included here too for if someone can find a use for it.
• Darktable - (W, M and a wide range of Linuxes and Solaris)
  A free, open source alternative to Lightroom. Darktable 'manages your digital negatives in a database, lets you view them through a zoomable light table and enables you to develop raw images and enhance them.' It has a good range of adjustments, including lens correction, vignette compensation, chromatic aberration adjustment and highlight recovery. See Rico on Youtube for some tutorials.
• Eizo Monitor Test (W & M)
  A very small, free-standing program that steps through various tests. It looks as though it was from the CRT era. For some reason, the page is now German-only.
• FastStone Image Viewer (All Windows versions from XP)
  Similar to XnView and with similar features, such as red-eye removal, crop, lossless JPG rotate, resize, contrast, convert, etc. It can open Raw files from most cameras and create a contact sheet with control over layout dimensions, colours, text, etc. A nifty feature is how it handles GPS data in photos, making it easy to visit the taking location on Google maps. Unlike XnView, Faststone can export to PDF.
• Fix Picture (Online)
  This is from the same source as XnView and a simple way to re-size photos without having to install anything, Hint: for Facebook, make the maximum size in any direction 2048 pixels and save as a PNG format for minimal loss of quality when uploading. Unlike JPGs, PNGs ("Pings") use a lossless compression, so you can cut out one re-compression using PNGs on social media.
• The Gimp - (W, M, L)
  Advanced image editor (sort of Photoshop, Paintshop Pro sort of thing). It had a horrible user interface until they gave the option to gather up all of the windows into one app. Not a great name for an app either but it has become very powerful and some people regard it as good as Photoshop (which has gone to monthly subscription - yak!).
• Google Earth (W)
  One of those things you install early on a PC or laptop. Handy to rehearse a drive to somewhere so that you recognise the features and which way to turn at junctions. Another interesting feature is to view older views from several years earlier. You can make a video clip of a n area much like swooping down with a drone (see the free video software page).
• Inkscape - (W, M, L)
  Vector graphics editor along the lines of Adobe Illustrator or Corel Xara. I vaguely recall that it was tricky to use but that might have been another program.
• Krita - (W, M, L)
  For concept art, texture and matte painters, illustrations, comics and images for animation. The website graphics suggest fantasy scenes and manga drawings. It says: 'Krita is a free and open source painting tool designed for concept artists, illustrators, matte and texture artists, and the VFX industry.' It is well-suited for graphics tablets. The project started from the Linux world in 1998, with the first release in 2004. It can save to a good range of formats, including PNG, Gimp-Image, Photoshop PSD, Jpeg-2000 and PDF.
• NVidea Canvas - (Win 10)
  Not tried but a link to this came through with a driver update and it looks interesting. The intro page shows rough sketches being transformed into realistic piantings. See the User Guide . (Still in Beta, Aug 2024).
• Photofiltre - (Win only)
  Small graphics editing program from France with interesting-looking effects. There's also a portable version you can run from a USB stick without having to install it. Free for non-commercial use. Last update was 2013.
• Registax - (W)
  Another photo-stacking app for astronomers. Not often updated and the current version is stuck in 2011. See also Autostakkert above.
• QR-Code Kaywa (Online)
  Something a bit different, a QR-Code generator. The idea is to put a URL into the box then the online utility will create a graphic which is readable by smartphones. A poster could then direct potential visitors to a website, by them scanning the code with their phone.
• QR-Code Studio (W, M)
  This one has not been tested by yours truly but it looks legit and free. Same idea as the item above, put in your URL and it makes a smartphone-readable graphic which you might put on a poster. From Tec-IT.
• Sweethome 3D (W, M, L and Solaris)
  Interior design application. Draw the floor plan of your house and arrange furniture on it, recommended by Computer Active mag to replace the over-complicated Sketchup Make, which is no longer supported.
• XnView (Facebook) - (W, L, 32 or 64-bit) Freeware for private or educational use (including non-profit organisations).
  View or convert a wide range of graphics formats. One of my great favourites for years. Useful for sifting through and organising digital photo albums, batch renaming and basic editing (crop, rotate, red-eye removal, lossless jpg rotate, bright/contrast/gamma, re-size, colour balance, sharpen, convert and more). It can create a contact sheet jpg or webpage. It includes a limited video viewer, which might crash if auto-play is turned on (turn it off) and anyway you would do better to install VLC Media Player to view videos (free video software). The auto-contrast feature is a useful quick fix to correct colours on faded pictures. The rotate feature is very good, superimposing a grid to line up the picture (much better than Paintshop Pro). The Linux version was always a poor version but it might have been improved in later versions but you can use Wine to run the Win version without problems. XnView is not like Gimp or Photoshop but it is a great little program for quick fixes, controllable rotates, batch renames, re-sizes and quick photo touch-ups.

See also Wikipedia's Comparison of Raster Graphics Editors.

Grab a Photo
Dead easy for most pictures on photo-sharing websites. Using Flikr as an example, bottom-right below the picture, you usually click the down-arrow symbol and, on the list of resolutions available, right-click the 'Original' option for the best quality, then save it to your PC. If instead of a list of resolutions the message is 'View all Sizes' they don't really want you to download it. Click it anyway and you will see the picture full screen, with a choice of other resolutions at the top. Click one of those and it will resize. Now you will be tempted to right-click the picture to save it but that won't work.

What will work (if you don't do too many) depends on your choice of web browser. With such as Vivaldi, Opera or Firefox, there are 'Developer Tools' available to inspect the coding as a right-click option. Select 'Inspect' and see a load of HTML code which will baffle your eyes. Just scroll down one line and you see the picture's actual web address with 'jpg' at the end, something like: https://live.staticflickr.com/1234/56789012345_fred69_k.jpg (which I just made up). Right-click that link and 'open in a new window' to see the picture on its own, detached from its display page. Now you can save that, if you must. It sounds long-winded but it is easy to do and is likely to work on a variety of websites. If you download a lot, the website will block your downloads as 'out of memory' or similar; that is until the next time.

Something similar can work for videos as well but video websites often 'nest' their HTML coding to such an extent that it is not worth the effort looking for the right link. You can install video downloaders but they can be risky as they operate outside the law and installing might give them access to personal details (never use your real email address) or add a computer virus. Don't do it. On the other hand, Flikr videos are easy 'right-click to save' once you have started and paused a playback. They don't block their videos.

Windows Utilities (Built in):

• Print Screen Button 'PrtSc' - (All Windows Versions).
  A well known keyboard shortcut to grap the entire desktop and save to clipboard. Move the mouse cursor off the picture and press the 'PrtSc' button. Then you open any graphics program and import the clipboard (typically Control + V). This might also work in Linux.
• Problem Steps Recorder (Windows 7 and above).
  Capture a series of desktop images with comments. It saves to a chosen location as a zipped MHT file. The un-zipped MHT can then be opened as a webpage in your browser and its images saved from there. To actuate: Press Winkey + 'R' (case not relevant) to call up a 'Run' box (or from the Start Menu), then type psr (or its full name) and Enter.
• Snipping Tool - (Windows 7 and above).
  Something like 'Print Screen' but it captures a mouse-defined area of the desktop and lets you save it. From the start menu, type 'Snipping Tool' and there it is. It will prompt you to drag out a square with the mouse.

Set up the Monitor

• Calibrize - (Win only)
  Not an editor but a Windows freebie to set up a monitor correctly in the absence of a proper calibrator, for consistent results when editing pictures and video. You might find problems trying to adjust laptop displays but this should work with a desktop system.
• Spyder 5 - (Win, Mac)
  Better still, go out and buy a proper calibrator, follow the instructions and it will do the job properly for just over £100.

Colourise a Monochrome Photo

• Palette.fm - An online utility to add natural colour to a black and white photo. Browse to a file or drop one in and watch the magic. It gets it a bit wrong, with footballers wearing different colour socks for example and blue leather boots but it gets the faces, arms, legs, clothes and grass about right. Not bad at all for a freebie. If the colour picture is poor resolution, you might be able to scale it to the same as the original and (such as in Gimp or Paintshop Pro) add a new layer to blend it in for colour-only, resulting in a sharp but coloured image.

Depth of Field Gizmo

• DoF Simulator - Give it the focal length and f: stop settings and it can calculate how deep is the focus range for that lens at a particular distance. The graphic gives an impression of what happenes to the background focus as you adjust the sliders. It even shows diffraction blurring at small apertures.

Online File Convertor

• File Convertor - Drag and drop an image file then choose Tiff, Jpeg or PNG. Another freebie from Shutterstock.

Choosing a Camera
You can find plenty of advice out there but I know of two sites that are helpful:

• Film Photography - Getting started from Redshark. Perhaps a dying art.
• DPreview - Compare camera and lens features and read their in-depth reviews.
• Camera Labs - A friend put me on to this one. I like the lens reviews, even if they are usually the unaffordable ones.
• Camera Pricebuster - Price comparison site. It gives discount codes for some offers.

Paid-for Photo Editing
I always liked the good old Paintshop Pro but each new version adds more confusion than features, so I wouldn't really recommend it. On the other hand, it is far more intuitive to use than Photoshop and a lot cheaper. The free Gimp does the same if you can adjust to its complicated interface.

• Affinity Photo - Win/Mac (Pro - £50). Corrections, retouching, drawing tools, lens profiles (to correct geometric distortions), plus all the usual gimmicks and brush shapes and sizes. I've not tried it but it looks good for £50, no subscription and it looks the business.

Panasonic Camera and Lens Updates

• Panny Firmware - Includes Micro Four Thirds Lenses.