Graphic editors on a budget

Recently, I was asked to recommend a good image editor that wasn't Photoshop. Now, I have used a number of image editors over the years, and I prefer Photoshop to just about anything. Yet I can understand people looking for an alternative, as Photoshop has a long learning curve and a high price.

There are two graphic editors that I highly recommend for Web work. The first is called GIMP, which stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program. Funny name aside, it's an impressive tool. I've used GIMP in the past and have always found it easy to work with. The second graphic editor is Paint.NET, a relatively new product that aims to replace Paint, which is found on most Windows computers. Yet calling it a replacement denies it the credit it deserves. I was impressed with both its functionally and small size.

Both tools easily handle image resizing, cropping, color adjustments, making new images, and converting images to different formats. Additionally, both tools have easy-to-use image optimization features with previews, so you can compress images for use in your sites. Finally, the best thing about these tools is their price: free. Yes, these great tools are available at no cost. Both are open source projects and provide great alternatives to other commercial products that I would never recommend. So load up your development environment with one or both of these graphic editors. Adding some color and graphics to your project doesn't have to be expensive.