Free alternatives to MS Paint program?

[ArisVer]

Looking for something with much more options than the basic Windows Paint. Your help is welcome.

 

[TheELF]

Going from simplest to most complex
irfanview
paint.net
gimp

 

[quikah]

paint.net is a good upgrade over paint. Depends what features you are looking for.

 

[lxskllr]

Paint.NET without a doubt. It's the finest program on any platform without getting into (semi)pro territory. For more power, gimp.

 

[MajinCry]

Photoshop CS2 was released for free a while back.

 

[MongGrel]

I still just use infranview.

I don't try to get too overly fancy I suppose on those lines.

Have used gimp in the past.

 

[Ban Bot]

Any paint programs with good vector tools similar to FireWorks?

 

[lxskllr]

Any paint programs with good vector tools similar to FireWorks?

Inkscape is a vector drawing program that's sometimes used in professional settings. I haven't fooled with it much, and find it confusing, but I've never really worked with vector graphics.

 

[Z15CAM]

ACD Systems JASC's Paint Shop Pro v9.0 [RETAIL] and ACD Systems ACDSee Pro 2.5 are great App's but don't exist anymore (Search for Old App's). Once Adobe got a hold of them - All went to Shit!

Same as Cool Edit Vs Adobe Audition v3.0 [Bld 7283.0] are good and newer Adobe Snd Editing apps SUCK!

Don't get me into how much were I can rant about how Adobe Sucks in regards to Video Editing.

 

[Billb2]

JASC's Paint Shop Pro Anniversary edition.

 

[BlueWeasel]

Paint.NET without a doubt. It's the finest program on any platform without getting into (semi)pro territory. For more power, gimp.

Paint.net is awesome.

 

[andrev588]

Well honestly speaking Paint.net is great program. If you are looking other than paint you. I also refer you to use Irfanview it good image editor as well as free with how to tutorials.

Other than Irfan view image editing program

http://softlay.net/photo-image/image-editor/photoscape-free-download-full-version.html
http://softlay.net/photo-image/image-editor/gimp-2-8-download-free.html
http://softlay.net/photo-image/image-editor/serif-photoplus-x7-free-download.html

 

[HeXen]

Photoscape should be something to look into.http://www.photoscape.org/ps/main/index.php
Some call it a "free photoshop alternative".

I got a free license for Easy Photo that came with my Windows 10 but I just like that it's super easy to use for people like me that just aren't into learning Photoshop'esque type stuff, usually all I do with photo's is resize and convert.

 

[TheELF]

Photoscape should be something to look into.http://www.photoscape.org/ps/main/index.php
Some call it a "free photoshop alternative".

It's a very nice tool for messing around with animgifs but otherwise it's pretty bloated for what it does.

 

[ArisVer]

Plenty of suggestions, that's good.

Maybe I am missing something though. I am looking for programs that I can use to draw something and I see that some at least include photo editing as well. Are these similar programs combined into one package?

I can't get to http://www.irfanview.com/

 

[Mushkins]

Photoshop CS2 was released for free a while back.

No it wasn't, it was made downloadable DRM free for people who already own a legitimate purchased CS2 license because they took the DRM servers down.

Don't download it if you didn't buy it. Period.

 

[mikeymikec]

Any paint programs with good vector tools similar to FireWorks?

Xara (Photo and Graphic Designer) is great IMO, I've used it for years for designing ads to be printed, though I have never used FireWorks.

- edit - whoops, missed keyword 'Free'

 

[sbpromania]

A good alternative would be PicPick.

 

[Mantrid-Drone]

Another vote for Paint.NET for me - a huge range of useful addons and the GUI is about as simple as this sort of program can get. However its not so good at drawing anything but fairly simple stuff from scratch, at least not in my hands. My avatar icon here was created entirely using Paint.NET.

Where it excels IMHO is for adding text, effects, enhancing, manipulating, editing, combining, correcting, re-sizing etc existing pictures. A key features for me is the ability to use multiple layers.

One of the other posters also mentioned IrfanView. I've had this installed for years and barely touched it once I'd found Paint.NET. But recently I've used it quite a bit (pun intended) as I needed to reduce the file size of some icons for use with a games' console but maintain maximum PQ.

The menu based controls make it feel clunky after using Paint.NET but, whilst certainly not comprehensive, it has an impressive set of features and can do other things that a pure graphics program like Paint.NET can't.

When you install the addons packs it gives it a greater range of save file types and image quality options than even Paint.NET, which itself isn't lacking in this respect either.

In all likelihood with these two programs available, excepting specific platforms and professional needs, they'll make any other programs for converting image file types unnecessary.

 

[John Connor]

I've used Photofiltre for years. The newest supports layers. http://www.photofiltre-studio.com/pf7-en.htm