Photo editing software
 

I had a MS program that allowed me to crop, resize, and change format of photos before a major system crash. (the thing is ten years old. No complaints) I'm looking for something similar that doesn't cost big bucks. Any ideas?
My wife sometimes lets me shoot pics for my own use and would have kittens if I posted them here un-edited. (sorry)
Thanks in advance for any tips.

You could try Picasa. You can get it from google on the internet for free, it will allow you to do all those things. Or there's Thumbsplus, which is good for simple editing. It goes without saying that Photoshop is the best, the latest version (CS5) allows to to easily remove objects from photos and to remove blemishes and so on from skin with just a few mouse clicks, but I'm assuming you don't want to spend that sort of cash.

Thumbsplus
 

Thanks for the quick reply. I used to have Picasa and ended up getting rid of it because it wanted to take over my whole computer and run all my videos, podcasts, music, etc. etc. It also made duplicates of any files I saved in the 'My Pictures' folder. I'm going to give the Thumbsplus a try. Thanks!

Try and find a copy of Paint Shop Pro 4 (which used to be a computer magazine cover CD favourite) its excellent for those looking for something that falls between too basic and far too elaborate for quick editing.

Thanks for the suggestions.
 

I ended up going with Picasa. Had to figure out how to use it again. Have to blur the wifes face before posting or she'll never let me photograph her again!
The other program, Thumbsplus, wanted me to rename my C drive. Not going to happen.
I may try the third one yet. Middle of the road sounds like what I need. Crop and selective retouching. I don't need to mess with color balance and fake lighting fixes.

Thanks again for the ideas!

some free photo edting software here

http://www.snapfiles.com/freeware/ca...oto/index.html

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Whats wrong with MS Paint?

People generally overlook it but it does all of the basics you mentioned without having to install anything new on your system.

The Gimp is another free program that is worth a look PaintNET another. Serif also have their Photoplus also for free at freeserif.com that you could look at too.

I guess you would want to do the masking etc. online, but Adobe also has a cut-down version of Photoshop to use.

Any other help gratefully given..

PC: Irfanview. Will adjust colours, re-size and adjust compression. Easy to flick through pictures using mouse wheel.

Mac OSX: Xee. Not as full function as Irfanview, but will flick through pics using a left/right arrow on toolbar. (I just found this app. Will re-size and alter compression.

Non of these are true photo editing software, but basic manipulation tools.

Photo editing software
 

You can still find the old Microsoft Photo Editor, which is the one I think you referred to. I works still on XP, not tried on Vista or Windows7. Freely available, just search. I use this to resize, compress, convert to jpg from other formats, and most important, make compilations.

For editing, like masking faces, touching up, and adding lighting (for those ladies who wear black and no bra!), I use Photo Editor. It is available at hxxp://pho.to/editor. It is currently on version 1.1, easy to use, no manual required.

For general resizing, cropping, red eye fixes, auto colour or brightness, I use Microsoft Office Picture Manager.

Hope that helps.

This works.
 

I downloaded and tried the pho.to editor and it most closely resembles the MS Photo Editor I had. One of the functions I wanted was the ability to change formats. I have some bitmaps that I want to convert to jpeg and although the others will crop and resize, most won't allow a format change. MS paint works for editing but is a little tedious to use.

Thanks again to those who replied to my call for help!

Just if you or somebody else is following this thread Polyview from polybytes.com handles batch image conversion to multiple formats. It is shareware so might not suit all, but at least you could give it a go. It can even run on Windows 95/98 and NT so could be a way of keeping an old machine doing something useful.

Photoscape
 

by far i found photoscape to be the best free editing software out there. I would recommend it to anyone.