Top 10 Best Free Photo Editing Software

Photography records the gamut of feelings written on the human face, the beauty of the earth and skies that man has inherited, and the wealth and confusion man has created. It is a major force in explaining man to man. ~ Edward Steichen

Photographs are memories captured forever, an attempt to preserve the special moments in your life. Technology has brought in new advances in the world of photography, and although many staunch photography professionals do not believe in using editing software to re-touch, or enhance their photographs, many of us often believe in enhancing our digital pictures and editing them to make them look a bit different or better. It can be re-sizing, or adjusting the color balance or adding a special effect; there are a number of things you can do with different software applications available for free on the Internet. They help you edit and enhance your photographs to a great extent. Buying a photo editing software can turn out to be really expensive. However, there are a lot of free photo editing software that offer you a range of editing functions. Here is a list of the top ten best free photo editing software that you can simply download and use.

*The ranking of software given in this article is based on the popularity and user reviews. They are not the personal opinion of the author.

1. Picnik
Picnik is one of the most user-friendly options as far as free software for photo editing is concerned. All you need is an Internet connection and voila! You can improve the quality of your image by using the basic functions of clarity, sharpness, color adjustment, etc. Plus, it has a lot of constantly updating features that helps you do so many interesting things with your images, and then share them online!

Compatible with: Linux, Mac, Windows

2. Picasa
No surprises here - Google's Picasa makes it to this list of best free editing software. This software, just like all the Google applications, is extremely easy and convenient for users. Picasa allows the users to edit and manage all their photos with effective tools that include cropping, special effects, brightness adjustments and many more interesting features. The best part about using Picasa is that after editing your photographs you can instantly create an online album and share them.

Compatible with: Linux, Mac, Windows

3. GIMP 2.7.3
GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation program. It is a popular open-source image editor that is often dubbed as the 'free Photoshop'. It helps the user with image authoring, retouching, and composition. It works on many operating systems and is available in many languages as well. It is designed to amplify with plug-ins and extensions, and the advanced scripting interface allows the simplest and the most complex procedures to be easily scripted.

Compatible with: Amiga OS, Linux, Mac, Solaris, Windows,

4. Ultimate Paint
Ultimate Paint is a useful image editor that is available in both shareware and freeware formats. It offers convenient image creation, manipulation and display. Ultimate paint is one of those software categories that have been designed to make the photo editing process quick and easy. With detailed tutorials and FAQs, it will eliminate a lot of your doubts about editing photographs.

Compatible with: Windows

5. PhotoPlus X5
This software provides a wide variety of features ranging from an export optimizer, image slicing and image maps, selection tools, smart shapes, repair tool, editable text, third-party plug-in support, red-eye removal tool, and photo enhancement tools. You can quickly edit your photos to your liking with the numerous features and share them straight out!

Compatible with: Windows

6. Photoscape 3.5
Though it may take a bit longer to completely understand the navigation of this software, it is still one of the best free photo editing software. With a unique circular tool menu, you can easily click on options that you want and quickly fix up your images.

Compatible with: Windows

7. Windows Live Photo Gallery 2011
This latest version of Windows Live Photo Gallery comes with face recognition and geo-tagging tools. It also enables you to remove blemishes from images, and is extremely easy to use. With the usual basic, and some more new and improved advanced editing tools, this is a very popular photo editing software, especially because it's free!

Compatible with: Windows

8. Paint.NET v3.5.10
Paint.NET is another free software for photo editing. This software is funded by the donations on their website. Unlimited undo is one very pertinent feature of this software. Although meant for first timers, this software can be utilized to its full capacity by more experienced ones. Also if you plan to print your photographs on matte or waterproof paper, then this is the software for you!

Compatible with: Windows

9. Pixia
Pixia is an English version of a popular Japanese photo editing software, which is also available in many other languages. This painting and retouching software, provides the users with custom brush tips, multiple layers, masking, vector- and bitmap-based drawing tools, color, tone and lighting adjustments, and multiple undo as well as redo. This software however does not provide support while saving files in the GIF format.

Compatible with: Windows

10. FotoFlexer
Another software that is extremely easy to use is FotoFlexer. Online editing of images, using functions like color adjustment, sharpness and resizing, etc. together with other interesting features makes it one of the best free photo editing software today.

Compatible with: BSD, Linux, Mac, Unix, Windows

Well, now that you've got enough information about so many free photo-editing software options available, you will be able the pick one that satisfies your requirements. So, banish those poorly taken snap shots and make way for brighter, sharper and better memories!