Sometimes you need to be able to manipulate images but can’t afford to drop a few hundred bucks on Photoshop. It’s important to resize your photos for a couple of reasons.

First, when you HTML resize on a website the quality of the image at the lower size is diminished and it increases load times since the large image has to be downloaded.

Second, in creating PowerPoint presentations using large images and then shrinking them within the presentation will create a huge file and have the same image degradation.

Yesterday I asked the Friendfeed community about their favorite free image manipulation tools and here is what we came up with.

Web Based Tools

Snipshot – Snipshot has both a free and a pro version that costs $9 a month. The free version is suitable for most of your basic image manipulation needs.

PicResize – A very versatile online photo-editing tool.

PikNik – Online photo manipulation software with a lot of features. A pro version is available for $24.95 a year.

Photoshop Express – An online version of some basic Photoshop features. I actually like using this when I am away from my computer.

Desktop Applications

Shrink-o-matic – This is an Adobe AIR application that enables you to batch resize a large number of images.


Paint.net – A powerful open-source desktop application that is based on the .NET framework.


FastStone – A very fast and easy image browser, converter, and editor.


IrfanView – Application with a lot of features and available plugins.


Windows Live Photo Gallery – Free photo management software from the Windows Live software set. It’s also great for working with photos from digital cameras.


Picasa – Google’s free photo management tool.

GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) – The most popular free open-source image manipulation software with features that are as close to Photoshop as a free application can get. There is also GIMPShop, which is a GIMP version that emulates the user interface of Photoshop, making the transition easier for existing PS users.

What free image manipulation tools do you use? Share in the comments.