A Safe,simple And Free Photo Editor

[Almendros]

Hi, I know this has been a topic already but I can find no answers less than 2 years old. I need something very simple just to crop, maybe sharpen and light adjustment and that's it. The MSPaint is no good.It will show 25% of the picture only. It is on Large in settings and 'normal' is greyed out. Looking at zoom it is
on 100% and nothing less.Why safe? Because searching, I tried out Aneesoft
free image ed.It was bad news my computer nearly stopped and it took me half a day to get rid of it (google it and you will see) Looking for another I had a look at Paint Net.This also had users saying,dont. I know there are programmes in the clouds as it were but that's not for me as I want to use it without being online. I am nervous of loading one now, unless I can get some up to date advice. I am sure there are others with this problem. I am on Firefox/XP

[ToraToraTora]

windows media player can do that, you probably already have it.

[ivor4781]

"irfan view" or "gimp" both fre and excellent for most users

[ivor4781]

tora tora ,really ?

[ivor4781]

http://www.gimp.org/downloads/

http://www.irfanview.com/

[SeaJayPea]

I'm using XP and Firefox and I have both Windows Media Player and Microsoft Office Picture Manager. Guess the latter comes with Office so you may not have that, but Windows Media Player comes with XP, doesn't it?

[Buenchico]

Wow! There's a MASSIVE amount of difference between GIMP and Irfanview!!!

GIMP is an outstanding piece of free software, which seeks to emulate what the 'full' versions of Photoshop can do and is, indeed, used by many professional graphic designers, etc. However, just like Photoshop, it's got a GIGANTIC learning curve and is therefore definitely NOT what Almendros is seeking.

Irfanview, however, deserves a place on everyone's computer. (Indeed, if I set up a new computer it's always one of the first programs that I install). At it's most basic level it's just a (free) picture viewing program, which is still vastly better than Windows Picture and Fax Viewer (which is what comes with XP). However it also offers loads of photo-editing options when you delve a little deeper.

For example, to crop an image in Irfanview you simply use your mouse to draw a rectangle around it and then go to Edit>Crop Selection (or just press Ctrl and Y together).

Going to Image>Color Corrections (or simply pressing Shift and G together) brings up 'before' and 'after' images together with sliders that allow you to adjust the brightness, contrast, colour balance, gamma setting and saturation of an image. Simply tweak the sliders until you're happy with the result and click on OK.

Removing red-eye is easy too. Just draw a rectangle (using your mouse) around a reddened eye and then go to Image>Red-Eye Reduction (or press Shift and Y together).

There are loads of other things that Irfanview can do but, fortunately, they don't get in the way of the basic functions.

Irfanview is definitely what Almendros needs. Go for it!!!

[Almendros]

Thanks buenchico, Ifran sounds like all I would need so I will go ahead with that one. Thanks to all . Almendros