Re: Re: Resizing a large landscape type photo to a smaller size help

["carol irvin" <carolkirvin@xxxxxxxxx>]

The Gimp is actually considered one of the more difficult pieces of
software.  Excellent but with a steep learning curve.  Photoshop is also
difficult but a bit more what people are used to using (actual window
and such).
You are probably going to have to commit to reading some books or watching
some movies in order to accomplish much with any of them.  I've also used
Photoshop Elements which I liked much better in its initial versions but not
its later versions.  At one time I would have recommended you get into that
instead but no longer.  Ages ago i used to use Paint Shop Pro. Actually,
that might have been perfect for you but I have no idea what it has evolved
to in recent years.  it is not expensive and is certainly easier to use than
anything i've mentioned thus far.  picasa is good and free but very limited
as to what it does in image editing.

I'm going to quote Gizmo for the remainder.  He has the best monthly
newsletter which is either free or $10 a year for extra free software.  I
pay him the $10!  Anyway this is what he has to say if you want a free image
editor.
Best Free Digital Image Editor Updated December 21, 2006
I use to recommend The Gimp [1] but after dozens of letters from newbies who
couldn't manage to install it or work out the idiosyncratic user interface,
I've decided to confine that recommendation to more experienced users. If
that's you and you patient enough to learn the product's sometimes quaint
ways then you may not need to consider anything else. If you are used to
Photoshop you might like to look at GIMPShop [2] , which changes the user
interface of GIMP to something more familiar though frankly, I prefer the
original.

For other less experienced users there is Paint.net, an amazingly
sophisticated piece of work from computer science students at Washington
State University. It's not quite as powerful as The Gimp but a lot easier to
use and install. It's also getting better; the new V3 beta continues this
product's impressive development record. However V2.x is only for Windows
2000 while V3 requires XP SP2. You will also need Microsoft's bulky .NET
framework installed on your PC.

Another possibility is PhotoPlus 6.0 from a company called Serif [4] . It's
an impressive piece of work; again it installs easily and it's loaded with
features including layer support. In fact, it looks and feels like a "lite"
and slightly clunky version of Adobe PhotoShop. Note: You need to register
with your email address to get PhotoPlus and you may receive promotional
material as a result.

Recently I've had a lot of positive reader feedback about a French product
called PhotoFiltre [5]. It's available in a number of languages including
English and ( for a digital editor) is a tiny 1.6MB download. Like PhotoPlus
it looks and works like an old version of PhotoShop. It can read and save
files to JPEG, GIF, BMP, TIFF, PNG, RLE, comes with an impressive range of
tools, brushes and filters. However it can't handle layers. That said, it
offers a lot of functionality for a small program."

=>index

[1] http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/stable.html (7.7MB)
[2] http://www.gimpshop.net/ (7.4MB)
[3] http://getpaint.net/index2.html Freeware, Win2K and later, 3.6MB
[4] http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/software/PhotoPlus/default.aspFreeware,
all Windows,
19.4MB
[5] http://www.photofiltre.com/ Free for personal use, Windows 98 and later,
1.6MB

The absolute best suggestion I can make to any of you is to subscribe to
Gizmo's letter ASAP:

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best_46_free_utilities.htm#21

i may be only intermittently on this listl  I just had colon cancer surgeryl
I needed 4 blood trasfusions due to severe anemia due to huge  internal
blood loss.  I am starting up chemo shortly. i am in a huge state of
recovery as I had to have a bowel resection that cost me the loss of 15" of
my colon.  so i will probably not be able to read all of the emails that
come through,  caught in an early stage though and no lymphe node spread, my
prognosus is very good.  I am probably going to have to use the
website for gimpi and read select messags there instead
of getting so much email in my inbox.

carol

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