Before I actually buy software, I like to search around to see if there is anything free that will let me do the things I want to do. Usually there is, but free stuff often comes with other problems.
For example, before I bought Photoshop, Lightroom, Photo-Paint, and PaintShop Pro, I searched for free software that would let me edit my digital photos. I found programs like Picmonkey, Picasa, Gimp, and several others that aren’t even worth mentioning because they were so bad that I don’t even remember them!
My dislike of free programs often has something to do with the free program not having all the functions of the paid program. The free program is just a teaser to, hopefully, get you addicted enough that you will want to buy the paid program. In the early days of computing, we called such programs crippleware.
Another problem is that when you download the free program, you also download all sorts of adware and sometimes malicious software. Been there, done that, and it’s a mess to recover from that.
Open source programs like WordPress have their own issues, often related to the fact that anyone can contribute to open source programs, and sometimes those contributions are not completely functional, crash the program or computer, or are not fully tested for compatibility.
One of the free digital photo editing programs I tried took over my computer for about twelve hours while it searched for all of my graphics in order to catalog them. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t let me multitask while it was searching, so my computer was useless for twelve hours. Even rebooting didn’t interrupt its search. It was like the Energizer Bunny and, once the computer rebooted, simply continued in its quest for all things graphic. As soon as it finished, I summarily removed it from my computer.
Ultimately, I decided that there were significant benefits to tried and true programs that you pay for.
Recently, one of my followers, Wesley Coll (visit his WordPress blog at CollTales) introduced me to Lunapic. I think it’s the best free photo editor I have ever seen. I haven’t had the opportunity to explore everything about it yet, but the things I explored yesterday were very easy and intuitive to use. If you’re looking for a free way to edit your photos, give Lunapic a try. I think you might find it a very useful program.
Here is our favorite little feline, Zoey the Cool Cat, to demonstrate some of the effects easily accomplished with Lunapic.
The only issue I have with Lunapic is that even if I upload a high resolution image, I can’t save my work as anything other than a low-resolution image. There might be some settings that I have not discovered yet, but at this point it looks like Lunapic is optimized for creating something unique to quickly post to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Perhaps even to your WordPress blog!
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