Learning to draw: programs for working with images. The best free graphics editors

Hello everyone, Max here. Today we will talk about graphic editors, or rather, I will present you with a small list of these programs. Creative people, designers, artists, illustrators and, of course, webmasters cannot do without these programs in their daily practice (work).

What is a graphics editor? It is a program for editing and improving any digital images. Many users use the well-known Adobe Photoshop to edit images, you can familiarize yourself with it, the price of which is approximately 700-800 dollars, here link, and it also requires certain hardware resources.

In principle, this is quite normal, since this product today is a powerful graphic editor created for professional designers. Ordinary users ( let's call them “non-designers”) use only a small functionality of this program. In this article we will not talk about, but a little about other free graphic editors. And so, let's go.

GIMP

GIMP ( GNU Image Manipulation Program) is an image manipulation program. A free program created for drawing, editing pictures, photos, as well as other raster images and other vector graphics. Has a powerful photo retouching tool. It is possible to convert the photo format.

The program supports thirty different languages, including Russian, and is absolutely free. The developers have created many different themes, plugins for the GIMP program, and also written a huge number of lessons. Here are the sites from which you can download this graphic editor: ProGIMP, GIMPInfo.

GIMP Features

• converting images into formats such as: GIF, JPEG, PNG, BMP, TGA, SVG, TIFF and others;
• individual program settings for the user, it is possible to open an element in a separate tab or in a separate window;
• adjust contrast, brightness, transparency, adjust the color of the style of brushes, pencils and much more;
• work separately with layers of one image;
• change and configure RGB channels;
• animation graphics in MNG format;

This graphic editor is suitable not only for professional designers, but also for ordinary users. Here link to the official website of the program.

PAINT. NET

The free Paint.NET program is most likely suitable for qualified photographers, which makes this program a universal assistant and facilitates convenient work with the camera and scanner. Designed for adjusting raster and vector images.

The program supports many different plugins, powerful tools, support for layers, special. effects, the light weight of the program makes it faster in working with images, and is not demanding on the consumption of computer software resources. Here are a couple of sites dedicated to this program Paint.NET, Pen 2000, forum for communication.

Paint.NET Features

• support and editing of formats such as: PNG, GIF, JPEG, BMP, TIFF, TGA, DDS, PDN;
• customizing the layout of interface elements: tools, journal, layers palette;
• image resizing, horizontal and vertical rotation, cropping;
• with large image scaling, it is possible to activate the “grid” and “ruler”;
• built-in effects: blur, red-eye removal, image simulation, patterns;

The program was created under the leadership of Microsoft. Program website Here.

PHOTOSCAPE

This free program is most likely suitable for beginners in the field of processing graphic drawings. A set of tool packages and editors will perform a specific role for a particular photo. The image is viewed by a “viewer” ( from English viewer - viewer).

And if you want to edit or apply some effects, blur, filters, crop a photo, merge an image, you can do this in the program editor. Photoscape also has a tool for creating GIF animation.

Photoscape Features

• “glue” images into one whole, that is, in the form of a tile;
• creating GIF animation from multiple images;
• You can view photos separately using a “viewer”;
• the ability to divide images into one or several parts;
• screen capture;
• the ability to print finished works, as well as other photos;
• converting RAW files;
• simultaneous work with several images;

The program has been translated into Russian and has an intuitive interface with a “tool bar”, tabs and a built-in explorer.

Most likely, this editor is of little interest to designers and professional photographers than to ordinary users who edit images, delete something in them, or create something new. You can download Photoscape from official website programs .

PHOTOINSTRUMENT

A free yet powerful digital image editor. The program has built-in powerful tools and effects that are acceptable for expensive retouching systems. The program has a clear and convenient interface for novice photo designers, which is equipped with large menu icons, when you hover over them, hints open.

Photoinstrument features

• restoration of certain areas of the image, for example, you can remove unnecessary inscriptions on a photo or image;
• remove red eye effect;
• drawing with a pencil, brush, spray and so on...;
• retouch photos, “skin cleaner”, “glamorous skin”, “plastic”;
• change brightness, contrast, lightening, darkening;
• cut objects from images, as well as transform them, copy, move them;
• adjust text on photos;
• installation of additional plugins;
• playback of files such as PNG, JPG, GIF, BMP, TGA and others, as well as their conversion and editing;
• create GIF animation;

The interface language is Russian, and the program also supports more than thirty additional languages. You can download the program from official website. A large selection of tools and various effects will help you change images to the best of your imagination and desires.

PIXBUILDER STUDIO

A free graphic editor for changing the color scheme of photos and other images, or cutting out a specific object, or blurring the desired place in a photo or image. In terms of functionality, the program is more suitable for a professional to perform more complex tasks.

PixBuilder Studio Features

• working with layers;
• changing color channels;
• multi-level channel, that is, you can return the picture to its original form;
• support for popular image formats;
• resizing the image;
• changes in contrast, brightness;
• transformation of certain areas of the image;
• working with color channels;

The interface language is Russian. You can download the program from official website developer, as well as this link. I hope that from these editors everyone will find something for themselves, but of course if you are a professional designer you cannot do without.

WITH uv age,

There are many free graphics programs and image editing tools that can be considered as an alternative to Photoshop. I have compiled a list of the best of them. Some of them are free online services, while others are available for free download and installation on your computer and mobile devices.

Vector graphics

1. SVG-Edit - developing vector graphics in the browser

If you need to programmatically render a drawing or vector graphic, you can do so using the Scalable Vector Graphics format ( also known as SVG). And the program for developing Scalable Vector Graphics is called SVG-Edit.

It is open source software. SVG-Edit is a powerful tool that allows you to create or edit SVG elements. The tool is built on top of CSS3, HTML5 and JavaScript. With its help you can quickly edit and process two-dimensional ( 2D) vector graphics:

2. DrawPlus Starter Edition by Serif - Free Graphic Design Software for Windows

Free graphic design software. This is a 2D vector graphics editor program that allows you to draw, edit and create professional designs.

DrawPlus also contains a number of features that allow you to create 3D objects using extrusion, apply a wide range of 3D styles with a huge collection of brushes:

3. Inkscape - vector graphics editor for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux

If you are looking for a replacement for Adobe Illustrator or CorelDraw, then InkScape is the tool that should suit you. It is an open source vector graphics editor with many powerful features:

4. Skencil - vector graphics program for Unix / Linux

Free graphics software for running Linux/Unix. It is a flexible and powerful tool for creating illustrations, diagrams, etc.:

5. Ultimate Paint - an image processing tool for Windows

Functional 32-bit program for graphic drawing. The latest version supports a set of basic functions that can be used without any restrictions:

6. SmoothDraw NX - free image processing tool for mobile devices

A simple touch-based freehand drawing tool that can be used to produce high-quality images. It supports many types of brushes ( pen, pencil, airbrush, natural brush, etc.), retouching tools, layers, etc.:

7. Fat Paint is the best drawing program

Fat Paint is known as the best software for graphic design, painting and logo creation. This is a free image editing program that allows you to create pages, vector illustrations, logos, photo editing and web design:

8. My Paint is an open source graphic design application for Windows and GNU/Linux

Graphic design software that lets you focus on creativity rather than interface management:

Image editing tools (pixel graphics)

9. Paint.net - Free image editing software for Windows

Paint.NET is a great alternative to the built-in graphics editor Paint. It is an easy-to-use image editing tool with a set of basic and advanced features:

10. GIMP - GNU image processing program for Linux, Windows and Mac OS

Another powerful computer graphics program that is widely used for photo retouching, editing, image composition, etc.

It is a free and open source graphic design software that is widely known as an alternative to Photoshop. Although GIMP was originally created for Unix, it is now available for other operating systems: Windows, Mac OS X, etc.

11. Pixlr - photo editor for iPhone, iPad, Mac OS and Android

Powerful image editing application for IOS and Android. It can be downloaded for free from the App Store or Google Play Store. This is an interesting and powerful photo editor that allows you to quickly crop, rotate and adjust any image.

Pixlr offers over 2 million free effects combinations to make your images unique.

12. Sumo Paint - browser-based graphic design app

If you want to get started working with images in the browser, Sumo Paint can help. You can use it to edit photos online or install the program to access all features offline ( paid subscription):

13. Image Magick - Bitmap image converter for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Android and iOS

A powerful tool for converting images from one format to another. For example, from .jpeg to .png. This is a graphical raster image editor program that allows you to create, edit and convert raster images to other formats.

The program contains useful functions such as cropping, rotating and transforming images, mirroring, etc. Which makes it a convenient tool for graphic designers.

2D/3D and animation

14. Daz Studio - 3D models, 3D animations for Windows and Mac

If you want to start learning 3D design and animation, install DAZ Studio. You will have at your disposal a sufficient number of tutorials that will make you a 3D animation ninja, no matter what your level is at the moment:

Create your own short films and animations, illustrations for books and magazines, etc. This free software will be quite useful when learning 3D.

15. Sculptris - 3D design software for Windows and Mac

If you want to unleash your potential in 3D sculpture, 3D painting, then Pixologic can help you do it.

It is a 3D modeling tool with powerful features that will help you get comfortable in the world of digital reality. If you're new to 3D sculpting and 3D painting, then Sculptris is the best place to start.

16. Blender - Free and open source 3D software for Windows, Mac and Linux

One of the best graphics programs for creating 3D projects. It is open source software that can be downloaded and installed for free on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, etc.:

17. Google SketchUp - 3D for everyone on Windows and Mac

3D SketchUp is still the easiest way to draw in 3D. It is a powerful 3D modeling software that allows you to quickly create 3D objects. The program is very easy to use.

18. 3D Canvas - 3D modeling software for Windows

Provides intuitive software for real-time 3D modeling and 3D animation. It provides tools for easy 3D scene management with drag-and-drop functionality:

19. Art of Illusion - open source 3D modeling software in Java

Open source software for 3D modeling and visualization. It is written in Java, so it is a powerful 3D design program that can be used on many Java virtual machines.

On the project website you can find many manuals and galleries of works. In addition, active forum participants are always ready to help. Therefore, even if you are new to 3D modeling and just taking your first steps, Art of Illusion is perfect for you.

20. Anim8or - 3D modeling software for Windows

One of the oldest programs for 3D modeling, which was introduced back in 1999 and is still actively used all over the world. It is intended mainly for 3D modeling and character animation under Windows:

Data visualization

21. Google Developers - Google Chart Tool Web Apps

A powerful tool for creating and customizing charts with various data. An easy-to-use, free data visualization application that makes it easy to create interactive pie charts, line graphs, segmented charts, and more.

With this graphics program, you can create a visual representation of your data and get code to embed it in web pages, spreadsheets, etc.

22. Visual.ly - web application for creating interactive infographics

Infographics are a new way of visually presenting data that is growing at a rapid pace. Visual.ly is the best program for creating and publishing interactive infographics:

23. Infogr.am - creation of infographics and visual diagrams online

Another powerful interactive tool for creating stunning visuals and infographics. With Infog.am, you can create infographics, charts, and other visual representations in three simple steps: choose a template, visualize the data, and then publish it.

You can also choose free charts from a collection of over 30 interactive chart types.

24. Easel.ly - create and publish visual ideas online

Another powerful tool for creating infographics. Even if you don't know how infographics are created, all you need to do is go to the site, choose a template and get started:

25. Visualize.me - visualize your resume online

A personalized tool that allows you to create and visualize your resume in one click. All this is available for free.
With over 500,000 projects already created, Vizualize.me is the #1 resume creation service. It contains more powerful tools to help you create your resume.

Other graphic design programs

26. Favicon Generator - free Favicon generator

This tool is a free Favicon generator that allows you to create Favicons for your website. Just upload the file and click the "Generate" button.

27. ColorPic - color selection on a desktop computer

ColorPic is a free tool for capturing color from your monitor screen. It allows you to capture color palettes of up to 16 colors at a time. You can also use an advanced mixer to mix four colors.

28. Fast Stone Image Viewer - a tool for viewing, editing and batch converting photos

This graphics program for artists supports advanced features such as red-eye removal, color adjustment, photo viewing, emailing, cropping, etc.

Fast Stone Image Viewer is another powerful functional tool for viewing, editing and batch converting photos.

29. Pixel Toolbox - design development for Windows

Pixel Toolbox is a powerful tool designed to create impressive graphics for Windows. Create, edit and apply 1-bit patterns, wallpapers, icons and cursor icons - all with one tool.

30. Prezi - Free Presentation Software

Powerful, free software that lets you create, edit and use presentations remotely from anywhere. It is available for desktop PCs, smartphones and tablets. There is also integration with a cloud service that expands the functionality of the program.

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 design of the text 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.

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.

We all draw as children. Then many people stop, but, fortunately, not all. Starting with scribbles, circles and sketchy men, people have been drawing since ancient times, creating real masterpieces. Being able to draw really well is definitely useful. The likelihood that it will make you a great and famous artist, to be honest, is not very high. For this you need something more. But it is more or less possible to earn decent money by combining work and what you love.

So, let’s say you are not an engineer, not a manager, not a janitor or a plumber. Are you an artist. Or a designer. Or a future game designer.

If you are studying any technical specialty, the ability to draw will be an absolutely necessary skill for you in more than 90% of cases. But, fortunately, you are not a techie. “I don’t need to deal with all these CAD systems, I don’t even want to hear about them, I’m a humanist,” you say. Well, very good, but there is also software for you. In fact, the creativity in the work of a real engineer is no less than that of a real artist. It's just a little different. This means that the means of its implementation will also be different.

In this article we will talk about programs used to work with graphics. In such cases, when you do not need to create an exact drawing, but, for example, develop a product design concept or draw a drawing, you will also resort to the help of appropriate automation tools.

Let's look at the most common and popular graphic editors used by artists, designers and other “creative,” so to speak, people. What kind of software is this and what does it do?

Graphic editor

Graphic editors are programs necessary for creating and editing images of a wide variety of nature. In nature, there are several methods for creating an image using a computer. There are vector graphics and there are raster graphics. They differ in the way they encode information.

To put it simply, the basis of vector images is a line, while raster images are based on a pixel. Vector images are made up of objects, and those are made up of outlines and fills. Each object is in its own layer.

Images in raster graphics are a collection of pixels. The main difference between vector images and raster images is the higher image quality of the former. Accordingly, graphic editors that work with vector and raster graphics are different. For vector, this is, for example, Corel Draw, known to everyone as Paint, Corel PhotoPaint. For raster - Adobe Illustrator.

The variety of graphic editors is very large. With all the breadth of the offer, it’s up to you to decide which graphics editor is best to draw in. In order for the work process to move easily, you need to clearly understand the end result. Knowing the concept, choosing tools to implement it will be much easier.

We told you about the popular graphic raster and vector editors used in our work. Now let’s imagine that the long-awaited inspiration has finally come to you and you sit down at your tablet to create a masterpiece. But as always, evil does not sleep - because of an unfulfilled test in mathematics, you need to put art on the back burner and sit down to boring numbers. It is at such moments that our team is ready to come to the rescue and prevent the Artist inside you from dying ingloriously. Do what you love and leave the routine work to us.

Always yours,

Zaochnik