Going by your very modest requirements, Irfanview is all you need.
I recall a wordpress plugin that could do basic editing, including cropping and flipping etc. Who even needs a separate program! I had tested it, and it worked just fine. I don’t remember which plugin though.
You could start looking for it here http://codex.wordpress.org/Plugins/Images. If I can figure out which plugin that was, I’ll return here with the info.
@lhk – yes, that slicer tool is great. it foils image snatchers and gives the perception of faster download time. if the user sees a section of a sliced image start downloading after 1 second, that’s the perceived load speed, even if it takes a complete 10 seconds to download the entire image.
I use lots of programs for lots of tasks:
For general picture organization and common adjustments: Picasa is excellent. This has gotten a lot more use since I got a Picasa Web account for storing albums online.
IrfanView is the old standby for picture viewing and quick editing. Lightweight, fast, effective. Free.
The GIMP is quite good, but frankly a pain to actually use. It makes things way more difficult than they need to be because of the poor UI. There are UI replacements for it out there, including one that makes it look and work almost identical to photoshop.
But then, I do have a copy of Photoshop as well. It’s invaluable when you need to actually change a picture in a meaningful way. Get a student version or something. But don’t get it until you actually need it, because 90% of the time, you don’t.
If you don’t know image editors, I’d agree that even something like Picasa might just do the job. Crop your images, keep them internally in native size, but export at your ‘high’ but lower res for the site.
-d
Thread Starter
ronam
(@ronam)
lhk wrote: [ @ronam: Instead of moaning the living hell outta people here, go and take a look at the GIMP and Irfanview links. If all you want to do is prep photos for inclusion in your blog posts, these two will readily let you do that without problems.]]
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‘Instead of moaning the living hell outta people here’ ? ?
ihk: in fact, my posts are always gracious and always grateful to whoever responds. those who respond are out there just to be helpful and i am always grateful. in fact, i did find good info in your response, (notwithstanding your barking!) and what am i moaning about? $600 for photoshop just to post pics in my blog seems to me a heap of money. of course, if i were a web designer, that is another matter. i will now look into GIMP. you must also understand that i am concerned about the learning curve, i don’t want to spend precious time learning one graphic software and having to migrate to another one and spend fresh precious time learning a new one. i just want to learn one and start blogging away.
i do use Firefox, but i am not aware about ‘ad-barring functions’. i will look into it.
your post of 2006-06-24 09:04:21 was great…you seem to know your stuff pretty well. i am certainly a newbie.
thanks.
Thread Starter
ronam
(@ronam)
mucho gracias!
since posting my message last night (pacific time), i am delighted that so many have responded with very useful info. i will now be looking into the links for the graphics software provided by you kind folks out there. perhaps there is hope for someone like me who has never used a graphics software before. maybe a year from now, i will be on the other end helping a newbie along.
i will be checking this thread again to see if there are more guides, advice.
i am grateful to you all for spending the time to share your knowledge.
honestly, I think photoshop rocks. I bought v7.0, and feel like I’ve easily gotten my money’s worth, (no I didnt pay full-price) I havent thought of even upgrading, I am so used to it by now. “Sides, if it aint broke, im not going to fix it.
I think I found the wordpress plugin I used to crop, flip, rotate and scale images. (looks like the one). http://www.soderlind.no/archives/2006/01/03/imagemanager-20/. If you want to be able to edit your images from any computer, this will do ya.
I use GIMP, in fact I dont have photoshop at all. I am just a bits and pieces designer, GIMP is more than enough for me!
I’ve used Paint Shop Pro (jasc.com) for years. Never had a problem with it. Easy as pie to use – never had a client complain about my graphics, either.
I actually use both Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro (PSP – the Jasc product). PSP will often run you no more than $30-$50 if you get it on sale, and works quite well.
I learned graphics management/creation on PSP, and then “upgraded” myself to Photoshop. But for quickie things PSP is fantastic. (Takes a helluva lot less time to load up than Photoshop, too!)
I use Jasc Paint Shop Pro and it’s very easy to use.
I crop with MS Paint myself. 🙂
Locked down terminals. You make do. 🙂
Fireworks = $299 (149 upgrade)
Photoshop = $649 (169 upgrade)
@whooami – what can I do with Photoshop that I can’t do with Fireworks? (just curious)
Since Adobe now owns Macromedia, they’re probably going to merge the two – “Photoworks” or something. (this is why I have not upgraded from Fireworks 7)
I doubt they’ll mess with Dreamweaver – it’s way too popular.
