Free Photo Editing Software We All Have Access To
The other day I posted a training tutorial called Where to Get Free Pictures for a Website. In it I mention how you can use any CC0, Creative Commons Zero, photo in any way that you would like for your website and social media. See link below.
Where to Get Free Pictures for a Website
On the last page of the above training tutorial I explain how you can find other free images within a larger picture. Below I will give a visual example of what I mean. However I would first like to talk about a Free Photo Editing Software that we all have access to right now.
AVAILABLE ON ALL WINDOWS PCs
Every single computer ever sold with the Windows Operating System, going all the way back to Windows 1.0, has a pre-installed photo editing software called Paint, also known as MS Paint. You can easily do screen shots, resize, crop and edit pictures with it.
I often see WA members asking what is the best or free photo editing software? If all you are looking for is software to do screen shots or editing the size and look of images you find online, Paint for Windows is all you need AND you already have it on your computer.
It is very easy to find it, even on Windows 10 which is replacing it with Paint 3D come the March 2018 update of Windows 10. If you cannot find Paint in your app listing do the following. Type the word Paint in the Windows search box next to the Windows Start Button.
IS PAINT AVAILABLE ON A MAC?
One of the disadvantages of a Mac is that they do not have a simple photo editing software like Paint pre-installed. However they do have something similar called Paintbrush, which was actually the original name for MS Paint when it first came out.
Paintbrush as well as a couple of other photo editing software is free to download on to your Mac if you do not have it already. But if you are like me and you have a Windows PC, you already have access to a very simple yet robust enough photo editor.
If you have Windows 10 like I do, you still have access to MS Paint, but as of the upcoming March 2018 update, MS Paint will no longer be updated, though I doubt it will be removed. However if it is completely removed, Paint 3D is a very capable free photo editing software tool.
HOW TO FIND OTHER FREE IMAGES INSIDE A BIGGER PICTURE LIKE A SCREEN SHOT
I am a fan of black and white photography. It is a type of photography that even looks good when slightly blurry. The above picture of parked cars came from another bigger picture.
Do you have a niche website promoting comfortable casual shoes and sneakers? The above picture would make a great header image or part of a logo. The above picture of female sneakers came from another bigger picture.
Perhaps you need a black and white image of a woman in a casual thinking view? The above image would be a good option and yes, it came from a bigger picture which I captured from an entire screen shot.
Or maybe you would rather use the entire image of the woman for your niche website. Can you see how I was able to grab and crop out the other parts of her body to gain those three above images?
You can now see that all of the images of the woman and even the parked cars came from this bigger picture. Isn't that amazing how you can find other free images within a bigger picture? When you use CC0 licensed images, you can modify them in any way you like.
I DID ALL OF THIS USING MS PAINT PHOTO EDITING SOFTWARE
You too can do what I did above, especially if you have a Windows OS PC. Every single one of those above images were cropped from a screen shot I made from the Pexels CC0 image resource website, see image below.
On every computer keyboard for a Windows PC there is a key that says either Print Screen or Prt Scr. All you have to do is press that key and it will copy a total screen shot of your current viewable screen.
Then you open up MS Paint or Paint 3D and paste the screen shot into the photo editor by either clicking the Paste button or use the keyboard shortcut of Ctrl + V. Then you can start cropping, resizing or any other type of editing you desire that Paint will do.
In the near future, at the request of another WA member, I will be doing a training tutorial on how to use the simple and free Paint photo editing software pre-installed on all Windows PCs. So there is no need to find another software, unless you really want to do some elaborate photo editing.
Recent Comments
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I prefer to use what already comes with Windows. It does a fantastic job when editing pictures and saving to BMP, GIF, JPG, PNG and TIFF
For what it's worth, a Mac can do cropping like this in Preview, which still comes on every Mac today. Preview will also let you add text, draw shapes, etc... essentially everything Paint does.
Preview also reads PDFs so you don't need Adobe software. It's a pretty nice tool on the Mac side!
Thanks for that info. I had heard of Preview but was unsure of exactly what could be done with it.
Appreciate the tutorial. This will definitely come in handy, In December a short time after I started my old Windows XP went out on me and could not get this image capture thing down. Fortunately I was able to upgrade to a Win. 7 system that is a major difference. Combined with your last tutorial I have moved past the image thing. I am grateful for your contributions and look forward to your next one. Take it easy.
Xav
You are welcome Xav. I remember having Windows XP for a long while because I didn't want Vista.
Then I enjoyed Windows 7 very much and held out for as long as I could because I didn't want to upgrade to Windows 10.
Now that I have Windows 10, I enjoy many of the new features, especially in learning the new Paint 3D application.
Thank you Wayne. It was because of your comments on my tutorial the other day that has compelled me to do this upcoming training on MS Paint and photo editing.
I use photo scape some times sell jewellery online so need a good one i recomend it
You can have paid or free
I have used free for several years never a issue and very good indeed if you need a help using it just message me no probs
I have always used the free Paint app that comes with Windows, it works great for all kinds of photo editing.
Do you have a Windows PC? And if yes, have you ever tried Paint for your photo editing?
Yes I have windows, I have used adobe very early days selling on e bay.
Now I use photo scape, I have not used paint will be a good one if it is windows.
i am not knocking it just offering a alternative, If any body wishes to try this piece of software.
It is a very good editing tool and free, I would not change it
I use it all the time and am totally happy with it, Building websites at the moment, I know nothing about.
Manipulating images I have experiencing with, the first time I took a image of a item to sell on e bay was with a web-cam so we are talking a lot of years ago,
boomer will try it on a few pics ill let you know what i think give us few days trying to get website sorted
When I sold on eBay I rarely needed to edit the photos I took for my auctions, except for removing any specks of dust or dirt that might have been on the camera lens.
Using Paint for those touch ups were a breeze. But now I use it mainly for all of my WA blogs and tutorials, my social media, and my websites.
Now that Windows 10 includes Paint 3D, I am looking forward to seeing what kind of upgrades to the regular Paint app it has. For a free app, Paint was already robust. I hope Paint 3D will give even more.
You are welcome Andrew. I am using the comments on this post and my previous tutorial to get ideas as to what will be included in that upcoming training
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I just checked my laptop and i already have paint 3D...didn't klnow it...thanks.
You are welcome.
Yes, many people who have Windows 10 already have Paint 3D but do not realize they do.