Any PC user encounters computer image processing from time to time. Slightly correct a digital photo, cut out a fragment or save it in another format, make the photo better or simply add brightness... Or maybe just take a screenshot from the Internet page you like and save it to a graphic file. And here Windows users often come to the aid of a standard product Paint. I must note that this is a very, very limited editor ( and to be completely frank, you can’t call him anything other than wretched), which can be applied according to the principle - “open”, “select”, “edit”, “cut”, “paste”, “save” ... and other simple dull actions. Sometimes this is enough. But rarely. As a rule, the user requires more advanced and convenient programs.

Now let's look at more powerful graphic editors with a range of interesting and tasty features.

The most famous of them is Adobe Photoshop, which can do almost everything, but this is a paid product and is intended for professionals, and not for home “users”. And if we consider the possibility of using it “to the fullest,” then we will have to pay tens of thousands of rubles for a license or look for a broken version on the World Wide Web, risking catching some kind of infection along with it ( “hackers” love to insert various malicious crap into broken versions of Photoshop and into “medicines” for it).

This is understandable, in order to slightly correct the “red eyes” in the photo from the New Year’s party, our “user” needs Photoshop, and nothing else - he categorically does not agree to exchange for anything less. True, he has no idea that if he is “lucky enough” to get caught using his pirated version, then the fine for this offense will amount to several hundred thousand rubles - this is precisely the appetite of the “right holders” from Adobe today. These are the amounts they now estimate their damage from each pirated copy. There are already plenty of precedents in modern Russia.

In fact, monstrous professional products from Adobe or Corel There is absolutely no need for a home user. Small and lightweight graphic editors can easily cope with its tasks, many of which, moreover, are also absolutely free. Here we will get acquainted with some of them.

The first product on our list is GIMP(Gimp). Gimp is the most powerful and most famous of the free graphic editors, and it is also open source. Enthusiasts from all over the world take part in its development. It can run on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, FreeBSD and many other operating systems. For GIMP There are a lot of different add-ons.

Tools GIMP very similar to the instruments of the well-known Adobe Photoshop, there is support for layers, animation, a large set of filters, gradient fills, etc., installed by default. It is worth noting the set of tools - it has everything you need even for complex graphic processing. When installing GIMP You can immediately select the Russian language - there is no need to install a localization feature. The program allows you to open images directly from the Internet - just provide a link to the picture, and then edit it as you wish.

The disadvantages of the program include the unusual interface ( all panels open in separate windows scattered across the desktop) and slightly unusual work with tools. True, the new version, which is currently being tested, already has a regular single-window interface, and the tools GIMP It's easy enough to get used to if you want.

The advantages, in addition to being free, are its small size and lightness and amazing extensibility using plug-ins.

They say that experienced users who have mastered working in GIMP, and hanging it with the extensions they need, create such miracles in the program that even professional Photoshop cannot do.

The next program that is quickly gaining popularity is Paint.NET. A simple, yet powerful and convenient graphic editor. License - Free.

They say that the program was developed by students from a university, commissioned and under the direct supervision of Microsoft, and was intended to replace the scanty Paint in new versions of Windows. And then it becomes unclear why it has not yet become a standard tool of the operating system, because the program turned out to be really very successful.

In addition to a good built-in set of tools, Paint.NET There are also add-ons that significantly expand the editor's potential.

Paint.NET uses .NET Framework (as is clear from its name), and when installing the program, you should clarify which version of the framework is installed on the system - different versions of Paint.NET use different versions of the .NET Framework.

Next in line is Picasa. Picasa is a free image manager from Google itself. And as always, with a pleasant difference - in web albums Picasa 1 GB of free space is provided for free. You can store your photos online, Picasa it allows (has a built-in convenient image downloader). Russian language is supported.

By and large, Picasa most likely not just a graphic editor, but an organizer and cataloguer of images. The main function of the program is to organize a collection of digital graphics on your hard drive. And here she copes with a bang. And all the editing tools are already like a pleasant thing ( and quite impressive) addition.

Completes our review Photoscape- a program with rich capabilities. Russian language supported. Allows you to fully and easily work with images. Supports working with animation, and you can set the time for each frame separately. There is a good set of tools and a friendly interface. And plus a lot of other “tasty” things.

Well, in this short article we got acquainted with several fairly powerful and serious raster graphics editors. Although their range is not limited to the above - there are a huge number of similar programs. And many of them are free.

And besides them, there is a whole set of interesting narrowly focused and small programs for working with digital graphics that deserve a separate description.

It's no secret that the best graphic editor for editing raster graphics is the Photoshop software product from the well-known company Adobe. Probably, today this is the best program for working with images in the form of photographs, design solutions, Web design, and any other graphics. I personally also think and am confident that this is the best product in its industry. By the way, it is distributed not only for the Windows operating system, but the release is also known for computers based on MAC OS.

If you remember my history of acquaintance with the first graphics editor, it was the Paintbrush program in the Windows 3.11 operating system for personal computers. By the way, it has survived to this day and is even available in the latest version of Windows 8. However, now it is simply called Paint and has greater capabilities for editing graphic images. Although in general its functionality does not reach Adobe Photoshop.

Another no less interesting program for working with raster graphics, I would like to mention the GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) program. During my short acquaintance with the Linux-based operating system, I don’t remember exactly what kind of distribution I used for this, but, nevertheless, during this period of time I paid attention to the GIMP program. This free and open source program is a good alternative to Adobe Photoshop. This program has a lot of interesting functions and tools for working with raster graphics.

Perhaps there are many more different interesting and good applications for working with raster graphics, but still, one way or another, I believe that the highest quality program for working with photography, some design elements and building some graphic templates for websites, etc. P. is the Adobe Photoshop program - whatever one may say. And the only negative that I find in this program is that it is paid and is not cheap.

But why is Adobe Photoshop considered the best?

It's simple - it is the standard of quality in the world of digital images, provides powerful graphics editing capabilities, and plus everything has an intuitive interface. This amazing product pushes the boundaries of digital image editing and helps you make your design dreams come true.

But the most important thing is the variety of working tools for image editing. For example, such as various ways to select an object, brushes with different types and sizes, the ability to create a gradient, that is, a transition from one color to another, darken, blur, create beautiful text, choose a different color palette and much more. It is also worth noting the ability to work with layers, that is, for example, to separately work on the text design and separately work on its background without affecting the overall picture. As a plus, you can note the almost complete history of your actions, which leads to the fact that you are not afraid of ruining something, since you can always return to the original state.

Another advantage is preparing the image for publication on the Internet. Ability to save images in almost any modern file format. Saving the image and template in your own PSD format - which is probably already a standard and saves all layers and current settings in it, which is convenient when returning to editing again, as well as the ability to leave marks directly on the image elements.

The ability to create and work with simple three-dimensional 3D objects. You can twist, twirl, increase, decrease and change color.

Another feature of Adobe Photoshop is the application of various filters to the image, which gives an interesting and striking special effect. There are about 50 of these filters and they all have a unique effect. Such, for example, effects as turning a picture into neon lights or frayed paper and many other equally interesting solutions.

We could go on and on about all the features and advantages of this amazing image editing program, but in general, the whole world and the whole planet uses it, and they know very well that it is the best editor in the computer world.

Most of us associate computer graphics in general and editing in particular with Adobe Photoshop, which itself costs 700 bucks and requires significant hardware resources. And this is natural, because this is the most powerful graphic editor to date, created for the needs of design professionals. “Non-designers” more often use only a small fraction of its resources for basic image changes. Don't believe me? Remember why you opened Photoshop the last 5 times. I guarantee that if you are not a professional designer, then you have changed the size of some image, cropped it, or saved it in another format. As a last resort, we adjusted the brightness/contrast/color gamut. Agree, it is not at all necessary to have Photoshop installed for this.

1 Photoscape

Photoscape is an amazing free photo editor. This program contains so many filters, tools and special effects that it’s hard to believe that it’s free.

Photoscape has almost everything you need to view, optimize, edit, print, and have fun with your photos. It's so full-featured that many consider it a free alternative to Photoshop. Of course, Photoshop is still at a higher level, but the program really is an excellent alternative to Adobe's flagship and turns photo editing into a very fun experience.

2 Pixia

Pixia is a free raster graphics editor developed by Isao Maruoka. Initially, the graphic editor was intended for creating anime/manga, but later began to be used in other areas of art.

Pixia supports Wacom graphics tablets, three-dimensional layers, transparency effects, can work with the most popular image file formats (.bmp, .jpeg, .tiff, .ico, .pict, .png), supports the Adobe Photoshop format - .psd, and also has its own - .pxa.

3 Colourpaint

A simple drawing app for KDE. The most basic functionality such as a brush, eraser, pipette, primitive forms. As for editing, there is autocrop, balance adjustment, size and color changes. Designed for drawing diagrams and diagrams, as well as simple image editing. Another solution for those who are confused by the abundance of buttons and incomprehensible tools of more complex editors.

4Paint.NET

Paint.NET is a free raster graphics editor for drawings and photographs for Windows, developed on the .NET Framework. Paint.NET is an excellent replacement for the graphics editor that comes with standard programs in Windows operating systems.

With many powerful features found only in expensive graphics editors, Paint.NET is completely free.

5 Pinta

Pinta is a lightweight, open-source, cross-platform raster graphics editor inspired by the Paint.NET editor. The latter only works under Windows, and Miguel de Icaza's attempt to directly port this program to the Linux/Mono environment was not very successful.

6 Seashore

Opensource image editor for the Mac OSX Cocoa framework. Knows what gradients, textures, anti-aliasing are. Supports layers and alpha channel. It is based on GIMP technology, and, accordingly, is friendly with its native format.

7 Paint Star

The Paint star program is a graphic editor for high-quality editing, as well as creating drawings, digital photos and other images. This editor for Windows perfectly suits the basic needs of the user, and also allows you to work with layers, transparency, gradients, textures, scripts, templates, paths, etc.

Paint star has a solid line of image editing and processing tools, similar to popular programs for highly professional business design. Basic functionality allows the average user to realize their idea without a special training course or video.

8 My Paint

A simple and fast opensource application for digital artists for Windows and Linux. Essentially, it's just a dimensionless canvas onto which you can display interface elements only when you need them. The rest of the time, draw for your own pleasure, without being distracted by menus and tools. It fully supports graphics tablets, has a simple minimalist design, allows you to create brushes and customize existing ones, and supports layers.

9 5Dfly

Free Windows application for batch photo processing. In addition to the standard functions of a graphic editor, it can create slide shows for PowerPoint.

10 Visual Box

Free for non-commercial use application for creating web galleries. Available as a jQuery plugin or Prototype extension, there are versions for Windows and Mac. Flickr and Photobucket support, built-in ftp client, tons of themes, nice modern design.

11 Digikam

This is an OpenSource photo editor for Linux, Windows and Mac-OSX. Allows you to view, edit, enhance, catalog and tag your photos and do a lot of other nice things. However, you must be prepared to compile the application. For those who are new to this, the official website offers a detailed tutorial.

12 PEdit

A very simple free online photo editor. Contains all standard tools, even a child can use it. It requires installation of the Silverlight 3 plugin.

13 photos

A multifunctional and, at the same time, understandable program, which includes the functions of a photo editor, a graphic editor and an application for creating computer graphics. Provides many options for design, photo processing and enhancement, image editing and more.

14 Irfan View

One of the most popular image viewers on Windows systems. Fast, compact, free. Can open all kinds of graphics, convert them into the desired format, optimize them, and create slideshows. There are plugins, skins and localizations. Often opposes ACDSee. Although, to be honest, at home I replaced it with FastStone Image Viewer, which is also free for personal non-commercial use, but, in my opinion, is much more convenient and can work with NEF.

15 Krita

One of the finalists in the 2011 Packt Open Source Awards, along with Blender and GIMP. This is another KDE editor for creating sketches and drawings, as well as for manipulating graphics. The main direction is illustration, concept art and other creative work.

16 GIMP

The GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP for short) is a powerful and multi-purpose graphics editor. Thanks to a wide range of functions, you can make your photos more juicy, remove unnecessary elements from photographs, create collages and posters, prepare website designs and cut ready-made layouts, and much more. GIMP works on the most popular operating systems: Windows, Mac, Linux.

17 Artweaver

Artweaver is another graphic editor that claims to be a free analogue of Adobe Photoshop. The program can simulate painting with oil, acrylic paint, brush, crayon, pencil, charcoal, pastel, airbrush, etc. There are also various filters, working with transparency and layers, exporting and importing files into various graphic formats and much more.

18 Paint tool sai

Paint tool sai has both a Free and a paid version. First of all, it is necessary to note the editor interface, which is implemented as conveniently as possible for users. All the necessary buttons fit compactly on the panel on the left, allowing you to quickly find the necessary tool.

In addition, the interface allows you to keep several drawings open at once. The canvas itself with the image can be scaled and rotated using hotkeys and special buttons on the panel.

19 Hornil StylePix

Hornil StylePix is ​​a powerful multifunctional free graphic editor in which programmers were able to combine such parameters as: compact size, user-friendly interface and a large number of functions. The program does not require mandatory installation, as it has a portable version that you can easily place on any flash drive and run the program directly from it. StylePix has a large number of functions and capabilities and is a worthy competitor to Paint.NET and Photoshop programs.

The program will serve you as an excellent assistant in photo editing. With this editor you can correct almost all the flaws in your photo. For creative people, StylePix provides a wide selection of brushes, cloning, selection, fill tools, as well as many options for working with text.

There is also a paid version of Hornil StylePix. Has more features such as quick mask, layer mask, brush image and layer styles for more advanced works than StylePix.

20 Photoshop Online and other online editors

There are many services on the Internet for editing photos online and without installing any programs. One of the main differences between online editors and installation programs is that the application requires the most minimal system requirements for your computer and just an installed browser to view web pages. 100% convenience from working in the online version of the graphic file editor.

The most advanced graphics editors, like those from Adobe, cost a lot of money. But there are free and quite worthy alternatives, the capabilities of which will be enough for most. Creative Bloq, a publication for photographers and designers, chose The best free graphic design software the best among similar programs and services.

Free vector editors

Designed for creating and editing logos, interfaces and other scalable graphics.

Gravit Designer - formerly known as Gravit - is a full-featured vector editor. It is suitable for any task: from interface and icon design to working with presentations, illustrations and animation.

Gravit Designer's neat, intuitive interface can be customized. The editor contains a ton of tools for creating beautiful, detailed vector images. Among them are non-destructive (cancellable) functions for working with Boolean operations, the Knife and Path Graph tools, plus a variety of fill and blending modes, as well as a powerful text engine.

When you need to access your work on the go, Gravit Cloud lets you return to your project on any device.

2. Vectr

• Platforms: web, Windows, macOS, Linux.

Vectr offers all the features you could need to create vector graphics, plus plenty of options for using filters, shadows, and . This is enough to handle most everyday design tasks. Particularly useful are the collaborative editing and synchronization capabilities, which allow you to work whenever and wherever you want in tandem with other people.

• Platforms: web.

If you need to quickly create or edit a simple SVG file, there are several that are as good as Adobe Illustrator for the task. Among the best of them is SVG-Edit.

This editor is built entirely on HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript and does not use servers to process data. SVG-Edit code is open source. Therefore, if you wish, you can download it and modify it to create your own version of the editor.

SVG-Edit has all the basic tools of a vector editor. But it only supports SVG format.

This powerful editor offers many tools and features that are often not available in other similar programs. These include alpha blending, object cloning, and markers.

Full support for various color models makes Inkscape a worthy Adobe Illustrator for both web and print design. Despite the simplicity of the interface, this program can create incredibly complex works.

Features that deserve special mention include raster-to-vector conversion, variable-width stroke creation, and support for Illustrator files.

Free raster editors

Designed for creating and editing any non-scalable drawings and photographs.

1. GIMP

• Platforms: Windows, macOS, .

Free, open source graphics editor. GIMP comes with a rich set of features for painting, color correction, cloning, highlighting, enhancements, and more. The interface of GIMP differs from the most popular Photoshop, but you won’t have to search for the necessary tools for a long time.

The GIMP team has taken care of compatibility, so you can work with all popular image formats without any problems. In addition, GIMP has a built-in file manager, similar to Bridge from Adobe programs.

• Platforms: Windows.

If you're on Windows and don't need as many tools as GIMP, Photo Pos Pro may be your ideal editor. The latter is designed with image editing in mind and copes well with typical tasks such as adjusting contrast, lighting and saturation. But Photo Pos Pro is also suitable for more complex manipulations.

This program boasts a very friendly interface and detailed help that helps beginners understand. If you want to make Photo Pos Pro even more functional, there are many extensions and plugins at your service.

3. Krita

• Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux.

Another open source editor. Krita has been around since 1999 and is constantly evolving to meet the needs of concept artists, illustrators, visual effects, detailing and texture specialists.

The program includes a set of a wide variety of brushes and supports many plugins: from advanced filters to auxiliary tools for working with perspective.

Some of the coolest features include brush stabilizers that smooth out lines, a looping mode for creating seamless patterns and textures, and a pop-up palette for quickly choosing colors.

4.Pixlr

• Platforms: web, iOS, Android.

Pixlr offers over 600 effects, overlays, and frames. In this service you can do everything you would expect from: resize images, crop them, remove red eyes, whiten teeth and much more.

If you're familiar with Photoshop, you'll get the hang of the web version of Pixlr very quickly. The interfaces of these editors are very similar.

• Platforms: Windows.

Paint.NET is an alternative to the Paint program built into all versions of Windows. But don't let the similarity of names fool you: Paint.NET is a much more advanced and useful editor.

The development team is focusing on ease of use and improving Paint.NET's photo editing capabilities rather than its graphics design capabilities. However, Paint.NET allows you to control perspective, manipulate pixels on the canvas, clone selections, and so on.

With support for layers, a wide range of selection tools and settings like brightness/contrast and curves, Paint.NET can be considered a worthy replacement for Photoshop.

• Platforms: web.

Sumo Paint works quickly on the web and copes with tasks no worse than desktop editors. But to run it you will need Adobe Flash Player. So Sumo Paint is not for iOS devices.

Sumo Paint's arsenal of settings and features includes pencils, brushes, text, gradients, cloning, shapes and more. All this is always visible on a floating panel like the one you could see in.

Free 3D graphics editors

Designed for working with 3D models, effects and animations.

• Platforms: web.

SketchUp Free can be called the ideal entry point into the world of 3D graphics. This editor friendlyly introduces the newcomer to the process and forgives him all the mistakes he has made. You can start by simply drawing lines and shapes and then transform them into 3D objects.

If you need some inspiration, you can download free models of various objects from the 3D Warehouse library through the search form on the SketchUp website.

• Platforms: Windows, macOS.

Using Daz Studio, you can customize and move various 3D objects such as people, animals, and objects in space.

You can create unique characters, worlds, various design elements and much more. But Daz Studio lacks the modeling and texturing capabilities available in paid alternatives. For a detailed table comparing editors, see the project website.

• Platforms: Windows, macOS.

Hexagon is a free 3D modeling tool. It has everything you need to create detailed models ready for final rendering.

Among the program's tools and functions you will find the ability to quickly import from Daz Studio, presets for various objects, brushes for manual modeling, UV mapping (applying flat textures to a three-dimensional object), advanced drawing tools and instant ambient occlusion.

Daz Studio and Hexagon programs were created by the same developer and complement each other. Together they form a complete free 3D graphics suite.

• Platforms: Windows, macOS, .

Blender is an advanced, free and open source 3D graphics editor available for all major platforms.

Developers are constantly developing Blender. It supports all possible operations with 3D graphics: it allows you to model, texture, animate, render and compose.

• Platforms: Windows, macOS.

If you're interested in the art of digital sculpting, try Sculptris from developer Pixologic. It is equally suitable for any level of training. Beginners get a good starting tool, and experienced digital artists get a platform for quickly and conveniently implementing ideas.

Sculptris is based on the same developer's ZBrush editor, the most popular digital sculpting application. When you're ready to take it to the next level, you can easily switch to ZBrush.

• Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux.

Houdini is a 3D animation and visual effects tool that is often used when working on films, TV shows and other media content.

The cost of the editor starts at $2,000. But the program developers - Side Effects Software - allow you to use the Houdini Apprentice version for free. Thanks to it, you can access all the features of the full version and hone your skills on personal projects. Only Houdini Apprentice is intended for non-commercial and educational purposes only.

A graphics editor is a program or set of programs that are used to create or edit an image in a two-dimensional coordinate axis. The use of a graphic editor is possible on a computer.

All existing types of graphic editors are aimed at creating an image using stamps, lines, curves, dots, etc., as well as regenerating the original image. The graphic editor allows you to expand, move images, delete, copy some elements. The resulting new image can be immediately sent to print and saved.

Classification of graphic editors

There are three main types of graphic editing programs:

• raster;
• vector;
• hybrid.

Briefly about each type of program

Raster graphics editors are designed to create and process images in the form of dots or a grid of pixels (matrix) on display devices. Such programs are widely used in creating images that are sent to printing and publications on the Internet.

Using this type of editor allows you to create a drawing on a computer monitor and save it in JPEG and TIFE formats. When saving such graphics, due to the compression algorithm, the image quality decreases. When using the PNG, GIF format, which support the function of good lossless compression, the image quality does not deteriorate.

A typical example of a raster graphics editor is the program Adobe Photoshop.

Vector graphic editor makes it possible to create or edit an object consisting of geometric elements (points, lines, polygons) directly on the screen and save in vector editors (CDR, AI, EPS).

Vector graphics are the opposite of raster graphics.

Hybrid graphic editors designed for working with scanned documents. This type of graphic editor includes part of raster and vector programs. A striking example of a hybrid program can be considered AutoCAD, RasterDesk.

The possibilities that graphic editors offer are unlimited.