For the very first Free (or Cheap) Resource Friday, I had originally picked out one of my favorite free online picture editing programs. Picnik.
Unfortunately, I logged in to my Picnik account recently and was greeted by this:
Insert very sad face here:
(yes, that was made in Picnik!)
I contemplated removing Picnik from this series, but I decided to go ahead and write about it. Until April 19, 2012 it will remain my favorite free photo editing and graphic making resource. It’s even better now because the options that once were only available to paying customers are now available to all of us!
So let’s take advantage of our free premium memberships and make our pictures pretty and our graphics awesome for just a few more months.
Here are some of the highlights of Picnik:
- Fix your photos in just one click
- Crop, resize, and rotate in real-time
- Use advanced controls to fine-tune your results
- Tons of special effects, from artsy to fun
- Super fast, right in your browser – nothing to download or install
- Basketfuls of shapes from hand-picked designers
- Works on Mac, Windows, and Linux
You can link your Facebook, Photobucket, Flickr & Picassa accounts to Flickr and edit pictures that have already been uploaded to those sites on Picnik.
Make Pictures Prettier
(these directions start you off at a photo already uploaded in Flickr. Feel free to use one of the other accounts above OR just upload your pic straight to Picnik…remember to save it elsewhere though because you don’t want to forget it and lose it when Picnik shuts down!)
In Flickr , you’ll just go to actions and choose to edit in Picnik.
Once you get to Picnik, you can quickly edit your photo by just clicking the Auto Fix button, or you can go in and fiddle with all the tools yourself.
You can even add fun effects, like turning your picture into a Polaroid, framing it or adding text (especially helpful for bloggers wanting to watermark their pictures).
You can save your creation to your computer and even order prints or share on your favorite social media sites with the click of a button.
Making Graphics
You can even make fun graphics in Picnik.
First create a new blank image in paint or paint.net. Make it the size you want your finished graphic to be. I want mine to be 300×250.
Next we’ll upload our blank image into Picnik.
Now, I usually add my text or images to the blank image.
Next I head over to effects and grab some background color. In this case, I’ll go to textures:
From here you can upload graphics from your computer to layer onto your graphic, use the stickers they have provided. Put a frame around your graphic. Pretty much do whatever you want!
Picnik might be closing in April, but that still gives us a few months to make the most out of this incredible FREE resource!
Head on over here to sign up for a Picnik account!
Join us next week for the next edition of Free (or Cheap) Resource Friday!
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