Graphics editing in a web browser
In a recent posting we mentioned a good web-enabled graphics editor (www.picnik.com). The tool is easy to use, can use graphics from your local computer, a website, or other online sources, and has an excellent set of tools to enhance your photo or other graphics file. Did we mention that it is free?We located another similar graphics editing tool usable from your web browser (www.pikifx.com). This is still a beta product (at least that's what it says) but it works well, too. The description on the website says that you can
- Resize and recrop your photo
- Add creative effects
- Add borders
- Add creative text
The general functionality is similar but each has its advantages.
We enjoyed using PIKIFX because we could easily add text to the image. One of the problems that we've encountered with lower end tools on our laptops is that created text is not particularly crisp. That's not the case here. PIKIFX-created text is crisp and it looks good with the graphic.
PICNIK gave us the ability to easily work with graphic files directly from a website. We typed in the domain name and, just that easily, the graphic files were uniquely available to enhance. You obviously won't be able to embed it directly into that website but you can save the graphic file locally.
The creative or special effects differ between these solutions but both are good.
Don't get these tools confused with Photoshop. Photoshop is a much higher-end tool and costs like that, too. But for editing single photos and graphic images for use on websites, both PIKIFX and PICNIK will do wonderfully.
You will need to try both tools to see which works better for you and which features appeal to you. Likely you'll end up using both.
posted by Shig Nishio @ 7/27/2007 07:52:00 AM
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