Need a good picture software program

***Corey*** · 03-30-2008, 07:05 AM

My favorite photo editing software just quit working.
It is an antique, it is called Microsoft Picture It! 99.

Yes, it is from '99, but my fave.
It is a very simple point and click app to use.
It has a slider to reduce the file size of thumbnails and bigger pics when hosting on my website, and it has an excellent cut out of picture app to grab a certain part of a pic you want.

Something I have added to my PC over the last month has rendered the app useless for JPGs.
I can no longer save JPGs with it.

I have reinstalled it with no luck.

Please do not recommend Photoshop, as I already own version 7.
I use it to capture desktops and create clear GIFs out of JPGs.

But it is to much of a complicated program for everyday use.

I just want a simple app to resize pics, compress them, and have a cutout or add feature to it.

I also use Microsoft's Powertoy Image Resizer for pics, but it can not do the other stuff I need.

Free or pay software is fine with me, as long as it works.

Thanks,

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tc · 03-30-2008, 08:30 AM

What about a newer version of PictureIt?

Sony computers come with one called PictureGear Studio that is pretty easy to use.

**Tofer** · 03-30-2008, 08:35 AM

start -> all programs -> Microsoft office --> Microsoft Office Tools --> Microsoft Photo Manager.

great program that does alot of what your lookign for. I'm not sure if it does the grab capture like you want but the auto correct feature is pretty good.

***Corey*** · 03-30-2008, 09:38 AM

TC, MS no longer makes software like that, they gout out of the game from what I read earlier today.

Chris, did not know I even had that app with Office 2003.
Just tried it, however it does not give me the options to compress by % like the old app did.
Plus I could not get the crop thing to work.

I need more power than that app has.

mokai · 03-31-2008, 12:16 PM

I know there is a program called Gimp that is a photo editing program and is free.. GIMP

Also I know you said no photoshop, but they make one called Elements that is a scaled down version that might be just right for you..I think it is around $80.00..

Bighead · 03-31-2008, 01:26 PM

IrfanView.

BT17R · 04-06-2008, 01:56 PM

Corey, another great freeware program besides IrfanView is Google Picasa. It has a terrific organizer, basic photo edit feature set and in very easy to use. It's my go to app for easy edits I don't plan on printing.

http://picasa.google.com/

For pics I plan to print, it's Photoshop Elements 6, the latest edition just out. You can edit RAW and TIFF, and do almost anything the full-blown version does. It's available for $55 AR including free shipping, and you can use a free Picasa screenshot for the rebate.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/reb...DER&s=software

4runnerx3 · 04-06-2008, 02:51 PM

To me, photoshop is very easy to resize and crop.

crolison · 04-06-2008, 02:55 PM

photochop? adobe has one for free thats online, i forgot what its called.

flyfishexpert · 04-06-2008, 04:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BT17R

Corey, another great freeware program besides IrfanView is Google Picasa. It has a terrific organizer, basic photo edit feature set and in very easy to use. It's my go to app for easy edits I don't plan on printing.

http://picasa.google.com/

Picasa has been great for me. It is basic but very easy to use and has some nice features. Eventually I would like to purchase Photo Elements, I have heard great things about it.

linuxrunner · 04-06-2008, 06:21 PM

[quote=mokai;50793382]I know there is a program called Gimp that is a photo editing program and is free.. GIMP
QUOTE]

The Gimp is good, but as they pack more and more features into it to try and compeate with Photoshop, the learning curve becomes more and more steep. The upside is that it's free to try, so check it out and if it is a little to much for you dump it.

I 2nd the online elements thing, i guess you will need to google it.

Toyvana · 04-17-2008, 01:35 PM

If you have the cash Corey, one of the newer versions of Photoshop is the way to go. All you have to do is pick up a book with some tutorials to learn how some of it works.

***Corey*** · 04-17-2008, 02:10 PM

That is the problem, I have not enough free time to delve into the inner workings of PS.
I use version 7 of it now for other stuff.

I like a simple point and click app like Picture It! works.
I reloaded it the other day, and it worked until I turned it off and then on again.
For some reason it will not work with JPGs, my main pic files.
It works fine with all other extensions.

I will try out some of the suggestions in this thread.

To be honest with you, Picture It! is one of the best picture apps I have ever used that was very simple and to the point to use.

***Corey*** · 04-20-2008, 08:26 AM

OK, just tried two of the apps mentioned above.
Picasa and Irfanview.

Picasa is very extent, and wants to catalog all of your pics for you.
I let it run for awhile while it did its thing.

I then opened up this picture in it.

Picasa has very cool special effects to turn a pic black and white, sharpen, and other preset and custom filters.

The crop thing worked pretty good too, as I was able to cut stuff out of the picture that I did not want.
However I did not see anywhere in the program to take the 1200x900 picture and reduce it to avatar size at 160x120.
I will have to play around with it more today.

Installed Irfanview, much simpler app than Picasa.
I was able to resize the 1200x900 picture right away in the menu to 160x120.
However I do not see a tool for cropping to take out unneeded surroundings from the picture.

See why I liked MS's Picture It! 99?
Such an old app from '99, yet it did all of the combined stuff these two apps do.

What happens when I reinstall Picture It! is I can not save any JPG files.
I can open up a JPG and resave it to a BMP, GIF, PNG, ect, but I can not edit it to resize, crop, nada.
Some other app I have installed has fubared it.
I did install the newest Nero software a month back for video editing and other stuff, perhaps it screwed with the stuff needed for Picture It! to run correctly.

And when I uninstall the Picture It! app and reinstall, it says pictureit.exe is already in use, and the app will not install all the way.
However if I fire up the setup file again, it goes through.

And the first time I run the app the JPG save features are not grayed out.
However they are the next time the app is run.

That is a shame when your favorite apps becomes totally useless because they are in conflict with some other app.

I use to have another favorite picture app I used years ago, and the same thing happened when I went from Windows 98 to XP.
It would no longer run under XP, that is when I started using Picture It! then.

Picture It!, you will be greatly missed

***Corey*** · 04-20-2008, 08:52 AM

I played with Picasa a bit more, I do not see an image resizer in it.
If I want to edit pics with it, I will then have to right click the pics in a folder and use Microsoft's free PowerToy app called Image Resizer.

Problem with the PowerToy app is it does not have a compression slider to reduce the file size, and an avatar can often come up to 20 kb or more.
With Picture It! you used a manual slider bar in percentages that could reduce the file size perfectly to 6 kb or less, and still look good.

Anyways, I do like the special effects of Picasa.
The first pic below is untouched, the second one has a slider bar effect called "Fill Light" that lets you brighten up stuff in the background such as the trees.
Look how the foliage behind the rig stands out more in the second picture.

I almost never apply filtration to any of my photos from my digicam.
I just upload them to my server after resizing them.
Some of these effects are pretty cool.

To bad Picasa does not have a built in image resizer though.
If it did, I would give it two thumbs up.

BT17R · 04-20-2008, 10:10 AM

Great pic, Corey.

Here are links to Picasa resizing tutorials.

http://picasa.google.com/support/bin...n&answer=13821

http://www.pinelake-marketing.com/pi...ize-image.html

***Corey*** · 04-20-2008, 10:23 AM

Thanks Bob!

Hey, just read the first link, very good info.
I will have to read up on that.

It worked like a charm too.
I took one of the pics above and choose export, and I got the screen to adjust the percentage of file size plus pixel size.

Now I can give this app two thumbs up

It will take awhile to get use to this new app since I am so use to my old Picture It! 99 app.

I sure do like the easy toys in this Picasa app to bring up stuff in the background of the pictures.

I will have to redo all of the pictures in my online folder for the six year anniversary movie that Elvota will be working on here shortly.

Hey, you need to submit some pics for that too

BT17R · 04-21-2008, 11:07 AM

Glad it worked for you Mod Meister.

Yeah, I need new pics. Most of mine from this year show the FJ way too clean!

Ron Helmuth · 04-21-2008, 12:15 PM

I do not mean to be hi jacking the thread-I finally opened up a Photobucket account as I think quite a few people recommended it for posting up pictures to this forum and others.

But none of this is intuitive to me, and although my Photobucket account now holds some of my photos-I still lack the understanding of how to make a picture appear in one of my postings.

Can you photo guys point me in the right direction? I used search and it led me to this thread, and the bird one.

BT17R · 04-21-2008, 02:23 PM

Hi Ron. Here's a link to the forum FAQ that'll help:

http://www.yotatech.com/~corey/help.htm

Ron Helmuth · 04-21-2008, 02:38 PM

thanks BT17R that is a real help and I had not seen that link before

Most appreciated.

03-30-2008, 08:30 AM	#2 (permalink)
tc Contributing Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Longmont, CO Posts: 8,376	What about a newer version of PictureIt? Sony computers come with one called PictureGear Studio that is pretty easy to use. __________________ Check out www.coTTORA.org to hook up with great Toyota 'wheelin' folks! Current - 93 4Runner: 3VZ 33"x10.50" no lift ARB F/R 96 Impala SS: My own personal cop car Previous - 89 2WD Pickup 22R, Fabtech "Ivan Dan" lift, 31x10.50, IASCA World Finals 4th Place Stop with the mods and get on the trail! Pix at www.4wheelingoh.shutterfly.com/action

03-30-2008, 08:35 AM	#3 (permalink)
Tofer Super Moderator Staff Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Tacoma WA. Posts: 6,908	start -> all programs -> Microsoft office --> Microsoft Office Tools --> Microsoft Photo Manager. great program that does alot of what your lookign for. I'm not sure if it does the grab capture like you want but the auto correct feature is pretty good. __________________ 94 4runenr: all the good stuff....... 89 4runner: 3.0, Auto, 5.29 lockright f/r. 31x10.5 wildcountry ATs. 81 2wd pickup: 22R \| 5-sp \| long bed \|Civic SI seats \| LockRight \| Hella 500s pacific-crawlers.com For all your Trail-gear and HID lighting Solutions Needs check out yotaworks.com Online store coming soon :)

03-30-2008, 09:38 AM	#4 (permalink)
*Corey* Co-Founder/Administrator Staff Join Date: May 2002 Location: Auburn, Washington Posts: 26,076	TC, MS no longer makes software like that, they gout out of the game from what I read earlier today. Chris, did not know I even had that app with Office 2003. Just tried it, however it does not give me the options to compress by % like the old app did. Plus I could not get the crop thing to work. I need more power than that app has. __________________ Corey 2007 FJ Cruiser Built for 4wheelin', expedition, camping, and overlanding use PNW FJ Cruisers ☺ Detailing 101 ☺ Join Topsites ☺ Muffler Comparisons ☺ Maggiolinas In The Wild FJ Cruiser Buildup ☺ New Roof Top Tent ☺ Video Of My Penthouse Part II ☺ Rehinge Your ARB/Engel Fridge Blog About Roof Top Tents ☺ FJC Magazines Online Review Of My Tent ☺ 2009 Specialized Rockhopper Pro

03-31-2008, 12:16 PM	#5 (permalink)
mokai Registered User Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Oregon Posts: 224	I know there is a program called Gimp that is a photo editing program and is free.. GIMP Also I know you said no photoshop, but they make one called Elements that is a scaled down version that might be just right for you..I think it is around $80.00.. __________________ Supercharged 2003 Tacoma SR5 Extra Cab V6 5speed 4X4, with some mods....My Truck apertureview.org

03-31-2008, 01:26 PM	#6 (permalink)
Bighead Contributing Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Colorado Posts: 1,340	IrfanView. __________________ Lance 2001 4Runner Limited 4X4 -- 315/75R16 MT/Rs \| MT Classic IIs \| Dual ARBs/4.88s \| (F) 5125/Tundra Coils (R) 5125/LC Coils \| 4Crawler 1.5" BL \| Aisin Manual Hubs \| Slee Sliders \| Sonoran Steel Rear Bumper \| TJM T-15 w/ Warn M8000 2004 Land Cruiser -- OME Medium Lift \| Nitto Terra Grapplers

04-06-2008, 01:56 PM	#7 (permalink)
BT17R Contributing Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Da Gorge, Oregon Posts: 5,674	Corey, another great freeware program besides IrfanView is Google Picasa. It has a terrific organizer, basic photo edit feature set and in very easy to use. It's my go to app for easy edits I don't plan on printing. http://picasa.google.com/ For pics I plan to print, it's Photoshop Elements 6, the latest edition just out. You can edit RAW and TIFF, and do almost anything the full-blown version does. It's available for $55 AR including free shipping, and you can use a free Picasa screenshot for the rebate. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/reb...DER&s=software __________________ '07 FJ Cruiser TRD SE 6M/T

04-06-2008, 02:51 PM	#8 (permalink)
4runnerx3 Registered User Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: North Carolina Posts: 834	To me, photoshop is very easy to resize and crop.

04-06-2008, 02:55 PM	#9 (permalink)
crolison Registered User Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: knoxville, tn Posts: 2,280	photochop? adobe has one for free thats online, i forgot what its called. __________________ 97 4runner, 2.7 5speed 4wd, 5.29, 33 horns armor locked lifted heavy SOB broken front and rear swaybars My Profile..

04-17-2008, 01:35 PM	#12 (permalink)
Toyvana Registered User Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Godfrey, Illinois Posts: 928	If you have the cash Corey, one of the newer versions of Photoshop is the way to go. All you have to do is pick up a book with some tutorials to learn how some of it works.

04-17-2008, 02:10 PM	#13 (permalink)
*Corey* Co-Founder/Administrator Staff Join Date: May 2002 Location: Auburn, Washington Posts: 26,076	That is the problem, I have not enough free time to delve into the inner workings of PS. I use version 7 of it now for other stuff. I like a simple point and click app like Picture It! works. I reloaded it the other day, and it worked until I turned it off and then on again. For some reason it will not work with JPGs, my main pic files. It works fine with all other extensions. I will try out some of the suggestions in this thread. To be honest with you, Picture It! is one of the best picture apps I have ever used that was very simple and to the point to use. __________________ Corey 2007 FJ Cruiser Built for 4wheelin', expedition, camping, and overlanding use PNW FJ Cruisers ☺ Detailing 101 ☺ Join Topsites ☺ Muffler Comparisons ☺ Maggiolinas In The Wild FJ Cruiser Buildup ☺ New Roof Top Tent ☺ Video Of My Penthouse Part II ☺ Rehinge Your ARB/Engel Fridge Blog About Roof Top Tents ☺ FJC Magazines Online Review Of My Tent ☺ 2009 Specialized Rockhopper Pro

04-20-2008, 08:26 AM	#14 (permalink)
*Corey* Co-Founder/Administrator Staff Join Date: May 2002 Location: Auburn, Washington Posts: 26,076	OK, just tried two of the apps mentioned above. Picasa and Irfanview. Picasa is very extent, and wants to catalog all of your pics for you. I let it run for awhile while it did its thing. I then opened up this picture in it. Picasa has very cool special effects to turn a pic black and white, sharpen, and other preset and custom filters. The crop thing worked pretty good too, as I was able to cut stuff out of the picture that I did not want. However I did not see anywhere in the program to take the 1200x900 picture and reduce it to avatar size at 160x120. I will have to play around with it more today. Installed Irfanview, much simpler app than Picasa. I was able to resize the 1200x900 picture right away in the menu to 160x120. However I do not see a tool for cropping to take out unneeded surroundings from the picture. See why I liked MS's Picture It! 99? Such an old app from '99, yet it did all of the combined stuff these two apps do. What happens when I reinstall Picture It! is I can not save any JPG files. I can open up a JPG and resave it to a BMP, GIF, PNG, ect, but I can not edit it to resize, crop, nada. Some other app I have installed has fubared it. I did install the newest Nero software a month back for video editing and other stuff, perhaps it screwed with the stuff needed for Picture It! to run correctly. And when I uninstall the Picture It! app and reinstall, it says pictureit.exe is already in use, and the app will not install all the way. However if I fire up the setup file again, it goes through. And the first time I run the app the JPG save features are not grayed out. However they are the next time the app is run. That is a shame when your favorite apps becomes totally useless because they are in conflict with some other app. I use to have another favorite picture app I used years ago, and the same thing happened when I went from Windows 98 to XP. It would no longer run under XP, that is when I started using Picture It! then. Picture It!, you will be greatly missed __________________ Corey 2007 FJ Cruiser Built for 4wheelin', expedition, camping, and overlanding use PNW FJ Cruisers ☺ Detailing 101 ☺ Join Topsites ☺ Muffler Comparisons ☺ Maggiolinas In The Wild FJ Cruiser Buildup ☺ New Roof Top Tent ☺ Video Of My Penthouse Part II ☺ Rehinge Your ARB/Engel Fridge Blog About Roof Top Tents ☺ FJC Magazines Online Review Of My Tent ☺ 2009 Specialized Rockhopper Pro

04-20-2008, 08:52 AM	#15 (permalink)
*Corey* Co-Founder/Administrator Staff Join Date: May 2002 Location: Auburn, Washington Posts: 26,076	I played with Picasa a bit more, I do not see an image resizer in it. If I want to edit pics with it, I will then have to right click the pics in a folder and use Microsoft's free PowerToy app called Image Resizer. Problem with the PowerToy app is it does not have a compression slider to reduce the file size, and an avatar can often come up to 20 kb or more. With Picture It! you used a manual slider bar in percentages that could reduce the file size perfectly to 6 kb or less, and still look good. Anyways, I do like the special effects of Picasa. The first pic below is untouched, the second one has a slider bar effect called "Fill Light" that lets you brighten up stuff in the background such as the trees. Look how the foliage behind the rig stands out more in the second picture. I almost never apply filtration to any of my photos from my digicam. I just upload them to my server after resizing them. Some of these effects are pretty cool. To bad Picasa does not have a built in image resizer though. If it did, I would give it two thumbs up. __________________ Corey 2007 FJ Cruiser Built for 4wheelin', expedition, camping, and overlanding use PNW FJ Cruisers ☺ Detailing 101 ☺ Join Topsites ☺ Muffler Comparisons ☺ Maggiolinas In The Wild FJ Cruiser Buildup ☺ New Roof Top Tent ☺ Video Of My Penthouse Part II ☺ Rehinge Your ARB/Engel Fridge Blog About Roof Top Tents ☺ FJC Magazines Online Review Of My Tent ☺ 2009 Specialized Rockhopper Pro

04-20-2008, 10:10 AM	#16 (permalink)
BT17R Contributing Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Da Gorge, Oregon Posts: 5,674	Great pic, Corey. Here are links to Picasa resizing tutorials. http://picasa.google.com/support/bin...n&answer=13821 http://www.pinelake-marketing.com/pi...ize-image.html __________________ '07 FJ Cruiser TRD SE 6M/T

04-20-2008, 10:23 AM	#17 (permalink)
*Corey* Co-Founder/Administrator Staff Join Date: May 2002 Location: Auburn, Washington Posts: 26,076	Thanks Bob! Hey, just read the first link, very good info. I will have to read up on that. It worked like a charm too. I took one of the pics above and choose export, and I got the screen to adjust the percentage of file size plus pixel size. Now I can give this app two thumbs up It will take awhile to get use to this new app since I am so use to my old Picture It! 99 app. I sure do like the easy toys in this Picasa app to bring up stuff in the background of the pictures. I will have to redo all of the pictures in my online folder for the six year anniversary movie that Elvota will be working on here shortly. Hey, you need to submit some pics for that too __________________ Corey 2007 FJ Cruiser Built for 4wheelin', expedition, camping, and overlanding use PNW FJ Cruisers ☺ Detailing 101 ☺ Join Topsites ☺ Muffler Comparisons ☺ Maggiolinas In The Wild FJ Cruiser Buildup ☺ New Roof Top Tent ☺ Video Of My Penthouse Part II ☺ Rehinge Your ARB/Engel Fridge Blog About Roof Top Tents ☺ FJC Magazines Online Review Of My Tent ☺ 2009 Specialized Rockhopper Pro

04-21-2008, 11:07 AM	#18 (permalink)
BT17R Contributing Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Da Gorge, Oregon Posts: 5,674	Glad it worked for you Mod Meister. Yeah, I need new pics. Most of mine from this year show the FJ way too clean! __________________ '07 FJ Cruiser TRD SE 6M/T

04-21-2008, 02:38 PM	#21 (permalink)
Ron Helmuth Registered User Join Date: May 2007 Location: Denver metro area-CO Posts: 1,339	thanks BT17R that is a real help and I had not seen that link before Most appreciated. __________________ 99 4Runner SR5 4wd 3.4/5 spd- Fact. Rr. Locker/Diff Breather Ext. Old Man Emu lift springs- 881 fronts/890 rears O/M/E shocks- N91s fr./N86 rr. All Pro Off Road welded sliders-prevent body damage! ARB"Taco"bumper/Gamiviti clear lenses/Hella 500s Redline Tuning hood struts/Bushwacker Extend a Fenders all my photos are over on Facebook now-I gave up on photo hosting sorry.... http://www.facebook.com/album.php?ai...5&l=5795132731

04-21-2008, 12:15 PM	#19 (permalink)
Ron Helmuth Registered User Join Date: May 2007 Location: Denver metro area-CO Posts: 1,339	I do not mean to be hi jacking the thread-I finally opened up a Photobucket account as I think quite a few people recommended it for posting up pictures to this forum and others. But none of this is intuitive to me, and although my Photobucket account now holds some of my photos-I still lack the understanding of how to make a picture appear in one of my postings. Can you photo guys point me in the right direction? I used search and it led me to this thread, and the bird one. __________________ 99 4Runner SR5 4wd 3.4/5 spd- Fact. Rr. Locker/Diff Breather Ext. Old Man Emu lift springs- 881 fronts/890 rears O/M/E shocks- N91s fr./N86 rr. All Pro Off Road welded sliders-prevent body damage! ARB"Taco"bumper/Gamiviti clear lenses/Hella 500s Redline Tuning hood struts/Bushwacker Extend a Fenders all my photos are over on Facebook now-I gave up on photo hosting sorry.... http://www.facebook.com/album.php?ai...5&l=5795132731

04-21-2008, 02:23 PM	#20 (permalink)
BT17R Contributing Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Da Gorge, Oregon Posts: 5,674	Hi Ron. Here's a link to the forum FAQ that'll help: http://www.yotatech.com/~corey/help.htm __________________ '07 FJ Cruiser TRD SE 6M/T

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