Photo Editor recommendations?

Gypsy · 08-08-2006, 19:13

Posted a while ago for suggestions on a new laptop. Got a pretty sweet deal on an IBM Thinkpad and am pretty happy with the choice.

This laptop came loaded with OS MS 2K Pro, and MS Office 2003. Unfortunately, the photo editor gets removed when you load Office 2003 according to the MS site so I was browsing for some shareware vice purchasing the new photo editor from MS at this time. The "fix" on MS indicates using the disk for XP...but I don't have that OS. Probably will eventually upgrade to XP just not right now.

A member directed me to Tucows.com and I browsed around trying to find a "name brand" program that would be safe to use. I found a couple with high ratings; one is by Silvereaglesoft.com called Amazing Photo Editor. There is also Adobe Photoshop as well as several others.

My basic "need" is just to have a program on my hard drive, so when I save photos I will be able to size them and such...nothing fancy.

Any experience with Amazing Photo Editor or any others? From previous experiene I wasn't terribly impressed with Adobe, but that was a long while ago.

vsvo · 08-08-2006, 20:05

Gypsy,

Congrats on the Thinkpad, it's a great choice. Office 2003 removes Photo Editor because it replaces it with MS Office Picture Manager. If you have a typical install of Office 2003 it should be included. Do you have Picture Manager on your laptop? Check Start -> All Programs -> Microsoft Office -> Microsoft Office Tools, and see if Picture Manager is listed. Another way to check is right click on a JPEG file and select "Open With" then see if MS Office Picture Manager is listed.

Picture Manager is easy to use, and good for resizing and such. It also has rudimentary photo editing capabilities.

Gypsy · 08-08-2006, 20:09

Hi vsvo, thanks for your response. No, that is the problem it is not part of my OS. My options to open when I click a jpeg are IE or "Imaging". Could that be it?

vsvo · 08-08-2006, 20:13

Hi Gypsy,

Picture Manager is part of the Office 2003 suite, not the OS. You don't see it in the path? Did the laptop come with the Office 2003 CD as well?

Gypsy · 08-08-2006, 20:15

LOL I meant Office 2003. No, it is not in the path and didn't come with a CD. I'll have to call the place where I bought it and ask if he has it. (Got it from a service/repair shop near my old office). I can open it with "Imaging" and that seems to have several edit options though...

vsvo · 08-08-2006, 20:20

Hmm, could be a slim install of Office where they deselected that option. I'm not familiar with "Imaging." Looks like we'll have to wait until Kyo, Martin and the rest of the gang take a look!

Gypsy · 08-08-2006, 20:26

Thanks vsvo!

jfhiller · 08-09-2006, 00:44

Gypsy,

For your needs, I recommend that you check out Picasa. It's a free Google app and works quite well for basic photo editing and management. I've been using it off and on for several months along with some other software for more advanced manipulation (like my famous Lebanon photos

). You can download it at the link below.

http://www.google.com/picasa/

If you want to spend some money, Adobe Photoshop Elements is also good and relatively inexpensive. It comes free with quite a few graphics/printers/displays/etc. hardware and software purchases so you might keep that in mind if you're in the market for more tech acquisitions.

jfhiller

Poolshark · 08-09-2006, 06:16

Photoshop is a good program for imaging, but if you want to get full use of the editing it will cost money.

I know alot of webdesigners and people in digital imaging who like opensource programs.

GIMP is a good program (according to others) and it is free and fairly easy to use

http://www.gimp.org/ I dont know if thats exactly what you need, but it should help a bit.

Poolshark

x SF med · 08-09-2006, 06:29

Gypsy-
go to www.download.com - it's the C-Net site, and there's a ton of freeware to look at with reviews - they've got photo/imaging editors.

Gypsy · 08-09-2006, 17:56

Thanks for all the great info and help everyone! I like that download.com site x_sf, it's another great resource for me.

x SF med · 08-09-2006, 19:29

Caveman, cook, computer geek, sailboat racer, Monty Python fan, rabid NCO, MBA - watch out.... never know who'll turn up. Ok, gotta go now, the voices in my head are calling for attention, and they can get really loud and obnoxious.

Gypsy · 08-09-2006, 19:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by x_sf_med

Caveman, cook, computer geek, sailboat racer, Monty Python fan, rabid NCO, MBA - watch out.... never know who'll turn up. Ok, gotta go now, the voices in my head are calling for attention, and they can get really loud and obnoxious.

You forgot lace lover.

x SF med · 08-09-2006, 19:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gypsy

You forgot lace lover.

Gypsy, my dear, that was just plain evil - Lace is best seen on women, hmmm, in the right circumstances, you might be correct. Therefore, I must retract the comment ending in "...evil." Have fun on C-net, it's a great resource if you want to check out software (not the lace kind of soft wear). gotcha last, I quit.

Gypsy · 08-09-2006, 19:43

'Tis at that x-sf lots of things to check out there, I downloaded Ad Aware also. Thanks!