If you don't have a ton of disposable income at the moment, you may feel that you can't get the photo editors you need to work in a multimedia career. There will of course come a time when you have to invest in expensive editing software, but that time doesn't have to be now. There are tons of free photo editors out there that you can use to get started in your career. These may not be the most effective options in the world, but they don't cost any money to use. You can't complain about that, right? Enough of my jibber jabber though. Let's take a look at the list, shall we?
Paint
Most people hate on Paint because they think it is too simplistic, but it has come a long way over the years. Paint is a program that is available on most Windows computers, and it can be used to add text, crop pictures, color simple images, and do other things you might need on a very simple level. I have used paint on a lot of my photo projects, just because it is easier to navigate through than other programs. Don't assume that this program is going to be total crap. You might be surprised by what you find if you give it a chance.
Microsoft Word
MS Word may not be a photo editor per se, but it can edit photos in some ways. If you paste an image into a document on Microsoft Word, you can use the formatting options to change the size, border, and overall look of the picture. The reason I have this on the list of free photo editors is because a lot of people already have it. If you have paid for your MS Word to write on, you might as well get as much as you can out of your money. Paste a picture into a document and see what happens for yourself.
Note that you may have to copy the image you create on Microsoft Word into a blank Paint document before you can save it. Otherwise you will get a document version of it that you can't pull up anywhere but Word.
GIMP
GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program, and it is one of the best free photo editors I have found. It is not exactly user friendly, but it gives you tons of editing options to test out. You can make layers, create transparent backgrounds, select colors, and do all kinds of other things in GIMP. It took me a long time to learn how to use it correctly, but I can attest to the fact that it is one of the best free programs out there. If you are looking for Photoshop options without the Photoshop price, this may be your best bet.
IrfanView
IrfanView is another great program to use when you want to edit images on the computer. You can optimize, crop, resize, rotate, convert, recolor, and do just about anything else you would want to an image. IrfanView is a good middle ground between Paint and GIMP because it has the user-friendliness of Paint with the extensive options of GIMP. It may be a little more complicated than Paint and a little less expansive than GIMP, but it is a good compromise as a whole.
Test out some of the programs above and see if any of them work for you. You might be able to do all of your editing for now without having to spend any money.
Most people hate on Paint because they think it is too simplistic, but it has come a long way over the years. Paint is a program that is available on most Windows computers, and it can be used to add text, crop pictures, color simple images, and do other things you might need on a very simple level. I have used paint on a lot of my photo projects, just because it is easier to navigate through than other programs. Don't assume that this program is going to be total crap. You might be surprised by what you find if you give it a chance.
Microsoft Word
MS Word may not be a photo editor per se, but it can edit photos in some ways. If you paste an image into a document on Microsoft Word, you can use the formatting options to change the size, border, and overall look of the picture. The reason I have this on the list of free photo editors is because a lot of people already have it. If you have paid for your MS Word to write on, you might as well get as much as you can out of your money. Paste a picture into a document and see what happens for yourself.
Note that you may have to copy the image you create on Microsoft Word into a blank Paint document before you can save it. Otherwise you will get a document version of it that you can't pull up anywhere but Word.
GIMP
GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program, and it is one of the best free photo editors I have found. It is not exactly user friendly, but it gives you tons of editing options to test out. You can make layers, create transparent backgrounds, select colors, and do all kinds of other things in GIMP. It took me a long time to learn how to use it correctly, but I can attest to the fact that it is one of the best free programs out there. If you are looking for Photoshop options without the Photoshop price, this may be your best bet.
IrfanView
IrfanView is another great program to use when you want to edit images on the computer. You can optimize, crop, resize, rotate, convert, recolor, and do just about anything else you would want to an image. IrfanView is a good middle ground between Paint and GIMP because it has the user-friendliness of Paint with the extensive options of GIMP. It may be a little more complicated than Paint and a little less expansive than GIMP, but it is a good compromise as a whole.
Test out some of the programs above and see if any of them work for you. You might be able to do all of your editing for now without having to spend any money.
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