As you certainly already know, it is useful for website and blog owners to be able to use graphics editors like Adobe Photoshop or Corel Paint Shop Pro. Images are an essential component of web content, and it shouldn’t be a problem for anyone managing a website or a blog to resize or convert an image. Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro are commercial programs, and thus pretty full on, but not that easy to use compared to free tools like Paint.NET, PhotoFiltre and GIMP.

I would recommend these free tools for minor graphics modifications, like resizing a picture or converting an image from BMP to JPEG. Microsoft Paint is rather limited in terms of functionality, and the end result is often not fully satisfactory. For Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro, they may seem a little complicated to use, especially if you’re not too familiar with graphics editors… and they are not free.

The head designer at my work recommends Paint.NET to clients searching for an easy way to edit images. I personally use PhotoFiltre because I believe it is really easy to use, and I’m quite happy with it. At least it doesn’t take ages for the program to open; it usually only takes me a few seconds to resize or convert an image with PhotoFiltre. For more complex editing, I tend to use Paint Shop Pro, but only because it was the first commercial program I got. Photoshop is certainly better for professional designers but also a little more complicated to use. Anyway, try one of these tools, or all of them, and see how much time you can save!

- Click to download Paint.Net
- Click to download PhotoFiltre
- Click to download GIMP

It is time to stop bothering your graphic designer for minor graphics modifications! These tools are all only compatible with Windows, and I’m not familiar with this kind of program on other operating systems… I’m sure there are several other ones that are worth the try though, but that’s my selection, and feel free to comment about the one(s) you use.