A Look at Pixlr, the Free Photo and Image Editing Tool

A Look at Pixlr, the Free Photo and Image Editing Tool A Look at Pixlr, the Free Photo and Image Editing Tool Pixlr is an online photo editing tool thats fast and simple and has enough features to make it a good option for low- to moderate-level photo editing. You can create a new image with Pixlr, upload an image, or grab an image directly from a URL location. Its compatible with a variety of computers. Perhaps best of all, its free. Pixlr's Main Features If youre already familiar with Photoshop, youll find that the Pixlr Editor menu options are similar, both in terms of layout and in how the various options work. Youll need a basic understanding of how image edit tools work to use them, such as fill, crop, blur, and smudge. Pixlr has an Express tool that offers a variety of one-click changes that are fun, fast, and a very good choice for beginning editors. Hewlett Packard dropped a few features from its editing tool when the company redesigned its image software and this made it harder to work with. Pixlr Express came to the rescue. Its much easier to use and offers former HP image editing features plus more. It also has one-click manipulation for size, rotation, and inversion, as well as the ability to add instant photo effects, changing saturation, and different hues. Added Features and Perks Pixlr offers Grabber for Firefox, a free download that enables you to right-click on any image in a web page and load it into Pixlr for editing. This Firefox add-on also lets you capture the whole- or parts- of browser content such as the print screen. Theres also a Grabber version that you can download if youre a Windows user. Perhaps the best part is that the Grabber feature is free. Ease of Use / Pixlr User Interface The Pixlr Express tool is so simple that just about anyone can master it in seconds, although the Pixlr Editor requires some knowledge of photo imaging software. It has some nice features but theres a good chance youll get lost if you dont have some experience with this type of software. Pixlrs user interface is extremely easy to navigate and user-friendly. Unlike Photoshop, which can be intimidating for beginners because of the intense learning curve, Pixlrs tutorials show examples and present information and instructions in easy-to-understand lay terms.   Unfortunately, there arent enough  Pixlr tutorials  out there. Youll want to read their blog before diving in to get a better feel for Pixlr and to learn how you can get the most out of its features. Norwegian publisher KT Forlaget / ICT Publish? has produced video tutorials that should help you quickly master all the important basic features and tools that Pixlr offers. This can come in handy if youre new to image editing and youre not patient enough to just play around with the program. You can access all these videos online for free. Drawbacks The Pixlr Help section is not very helpful. For example, you wont find any answers if you have trouble downloading Pixlrs Grabber and you click on Help. Unfortunately, there are no support or user groups either, if youre the type who needs a lot of help. But you can read over the Pixlr blog. Youll find additional information there about how to get the most out of Pixlr. And theres always a price to pay for any program thats free. Youll be peppered with a fair number of ads while youre working in Pixlr. Some users have complained that Pixlrs features are more limited than theyre used to and that its a bit short on quickie tricks. Some of the features require that you set up an account before you can use them. Its still free. Finally, Pixlr requires that you install Flash. Other Options Of course, you can always stick with Photoshop. It also offers an Express Editor option if you really dont need a full range of tools, and the full-deal version has just about any tool you could imagine or ever need. But if youre looking for a new editor, Pixlr might be it. As for Fotor, the basic editor is free but youll have to upgrade to Fotor Pro for all the bells and whistles. PiZap is also respectable and quite handy. But why look further? TechRadar ranks Pixlr Editor above them all.