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Is There a Photo Editor That Does Layers?

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Started 17 years ago by FreewareFan
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FreewareFan
Member

I've been looking for a while for a really good photo editor, free of course, that can handle layers. If this were a perfect world, I would want a program that is basically like Photoshop, since that is what I have experience on. However, since I no longer have that program installed, I've been looking for a replacement ever since.

The closest I've come is with PhotoFiltre Free, however the Free version doesn't do layers. I'm not opposed to learning a new piece of software, but I really need it to have layering capabilities. Does such an animal exist?

As always, many thanks!!

Posted 17 years ago #
Anonymous
Unregistered

http://www.fauxto.com/

Posted 17 years ago #
clobermier
Member

Photoplus 6 is a free program from Serif. It does do layers, and is actually fairly powerful for freeware. It's actually an older photo editing program, but I like it so well I was willing to pay and I've upgraded several times and now have Photoplus 11.

http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/software/PhotoPlus/key_features.asp

Posted 17 years ago #
BuBBy
Teh adnim

http://www.gimp.org/
http://www.getpaint.net/

Posted 17 years ago #
Jaddis
Member

Hey FreewareFana,

Try Paint.NET. http://www.getpaint.net/ It is free and it can do layers. It really is a lot like Photoshop. You can download plug-ins for it from the Paint.NET site that really give it a lot of power. This is the editor that I tend to use for a lot of my editing even though I do have Photoshop.

Posted 17 years ago #
FreewareFan
Member

I'll give each of those links a try, and post back with my results. Thanks to all!

Posted 17 years ago #
FreewareFan
Member

Update: After examination, I'd say the best of the lot, for me, is Serif's PhotoPlus 6. It seems to have all the basic features, and although I've not done any extreme testing yet, it seems capable of doing the things I wish. Thanks to all of you who rang in on my request. This forum keeps amazing me daily!

Posted 17 years ago #
hamstergirl
Member

Hi FreewareFana! My 1st recommendation would have been PhotoFiltre free, but I liked it so much, I paid for the upgrade and had forgotten that the free version didn't support layers, so I went looking thru my programs and here is what I found:

Freebyte's Guide to Free Graphics Software
http://www.freebyte.com/graphicprograms/

Try this site - its one of the first I discovered and it has links to quite a few apps that are interesting, including Pixia, Photoplus 6, and Painter 25 (this one is a little bit...well, odd, but check it out anyway. It has what it call layers, but, like everything else, it handles them a bit differently - and that's in their own words! I haven't used it recently, but its worth checking out).

PictBear se 2.0
http://www.klitetools.com/comments.php?catid=64&shownews=2888
This may be what you're looking for - here's the quote from klite tools:

PictBear SE 2.0 is a complete image editing and effects package, that will amaze you with his features. PictBear SE offers all the standard editing features (selection, clone brush, paint brush etc.) as well as a large selection of image effects, photo masks, image adjustments and more. The program offers a clean and easy to understand interface that includes all common editing tools and various image effects. PictBear SE comes with several pre-defined special effects and the option to add additional ones. A powerfull image editor, packed with useful features for every day image editing . PictBear SE, free alternative to Photoshop !

I made sure that is DOES have layers! The downside?.....the help section is in Japanese (the program interface however, has been translated into English). This is a pretty slick looking program, and if you have PShop experience, you should be able to figure things out (hey, if I can, anybody can!).

pixia
http://park18.wakwak.com/~pixia/
Here's a direct link to Pixia - I've written about it on your other post, as has another member, Idahl. Its a fun program and has a loyal following, and yes, layers! And everything has been translated ;-)

Deep Paint
http://www.download.com/Deep-Paint/3000-2191_4-10398243.html?tag=lst-0-1
This is one of those programs where once you've played with it, your jaw hits the floor, and the only thing you can do is mumble over and over "I can't believe this is freeware!" It USED to cost $300, but in 2005 (I think), the developers turned their attention to their 3d product and made this one free for all. Its excellent for painting or photo editing, and accepts Photoshop plug-ins like Harry's Filters and Paint Engine.

Paintstar
http://wang.zhenzhou.googlepages.com/home#systemrequirements
This is a gem and I plug it whenever I can. Doesn't look like much out of the box, but once you get under the hood....wow! Its listed in GOTD's library, but the download link wasn't working, so I've given you the homepage. Not only does it have layers, there's morphing, screencapture, cloning, well, you name it, PaintStar's got it!

Nuts, I forgot to mention: Artweaver. Its more of a painting program, think Corel Painter, but it has a lot of nice stuff and you can edit/clone photos with it. And then there's Project Dogwaffle - while the free version doesn't have layers, it does have a swap buffer you can use. Its orientation is mostly painting/animation and definitely worth a look (I eventually upgraded to Pro). Just google these two, my paws are really getting tired from typing!

Hope these help - let me know how it goes!
Cheers
hamstergirl

Posted 17 years ago #
FreewareFan
Member

Thanks hamstergirl!! I've chosen PictBear and Deep Paint to give a trial run with. From the descriptions you provided, they both sound like they just may do the trick! It was really nice of you do do all that typing on my behalf, and I look forward to the time when I can repay the favor!

I'll get back in touch with you in a couple of days as to what my final choice is on those programs. Thanks again! :-)

PS.. Oh yeah, btw, the nick is supposed to be FreewareFanatic, but I guess it's too long to be displayed right here in the posts... FreewareFana, what a riot! :-) I'm trying to get the site admin to shorten it for me to FreewareFan, we'll see how that goes....

Posted 17 years ago #
hamstergirl
Member

FreewareFanatic - my pleasure, and I look forward to hearing from you!
hg

Posted 17 years ago #
FreewareFan
Member

@ hamstergirl - After spending some time with the programs, my vote goes to, (drum roll, please)..................

Deep Paint!

You did not exaggerate one bit when you said that this program is simply outstanding. For this piece of work to be offered free of charge, just floors me! This one has moved to the head of the class in my world.

I've even gone out and obtained Harry's Filters and Paint Engine, but have not had time to give those a try yet. If there are any other free filters that work with Deep Paint, or a link where I could start my own search, just let me know. :-)

Once again, thank you for pointing me in the right direction!

Posted 17 years ago #
FreewareFan
Member

Say, hg, I seem to have a problem with PaintEngine beta version 1.10 . I've installed the Pe.8bf and fmachine.ini into the Tools directory of Deep Paint, but everytime I try to run that filter set, the entire program takes a dive on me.

Harry's Filters work just fine, but not Paint Engine. Any pointers you care to share?

TIA

Posted 17 years ago #
ldahl
Member

@Hamster girl...I am afraid you did create a monster, I was up way too late playing with the editors and plugins that you recommended! Have you tried the Xero filter sets?
If you like paint programs, have you tried ArtRage? The first edition is free.

Posted 17 years ago #
hamstergirl
Member

FreewareFanatic & Idahl,

Hi guys.....*gulp*...;-) Just got up and saw your posts (hey, I'm a nocturnal animal and I take my job as a hamster very seriously!) Let me do some homework and I'll get back to you asap.
hamstergirl

ps: FreewareFanatic, where did you dl Paint Engine from? DeepPaint can be really funny about its plug-ins and from what I've read, its not just me. I do remember though that I was able to get Harry's Filters, Paint Engine, and Impressionist to work, but not the other filters from my PShop Elements4, it gave me the same result - show up in the filter menu, but was a one-click crash from there. Anyway, let me go check on a few things.
hg

Posted 17 years ago #
ldahl
Member

@HG Good morning sleepy head! I tried it too and just about got the same result. I didn't crash but I got a error message. The Harry's filters are working with it, but so far that's all.

Posted 17 years ago #
hamstergirl
Member

Okay, this is what I've found

What I tried was using my Photofiltre Studio plugin folder for my source directory and then I tried again, using my Pshop elements folder. You can do this is Deep Paint by going to file, click preferences, click directories, then click on the second line down under Photoshop Plugins and specify which directory to use (obviously, you have to have these up and running in another program to do this). These are the plug-ins that I got Deep Paint to accept in this fashion (I did not try installing these directly into Deep Paint, I suspect they would work fine that way - famous last words...: Fotomatic, Harry's Filters, Flaming Pear, Tessela, and Mehdi Kalaioscope. Paint Engine worked, after a fashion, but not well enough. I tried running it directly in PhotofiltreS - all I got for my troubles was a black image - nice under some circumstances, just not these! Deep Paint also ran the Impressionist just fine thru PShopE, but that won't help you without PShop - I think thats the only program it will function directly in. I think the problem with Paint Engine may be the way Deep Paint is set up - color, bump, shine. It will always ask you which channel (is that the right word?) you want to run the filter on and if your image is using all three, some of the filters will run three times (if you told them to), once for each channel. With Deep Paint, PEngine would work only on the color channel. If I checked off Bump and/or Shine, it ran once for color, and then 2 messages saying the plugin terminated.

FreewareFanatic, you might try downloading VicMan's Photo Editor - its right here in GOTD Freeware Library. It comes with Paint Engine installed. Maybe you can get it to work thru that? At least you could see if its worth pursuing. The really annoying thing is I could swear I remember it working in all 3 of my apps! I'm really sorry, this is not the news I was hoping to give...... do you still have the free version of PhotoFiltre? Try it there, it may work, and so may the other filters I mentioned above. Anyway, here's some links for those filters:

The Plugin Site - GOLDMINE! Get Flaming Pear here, among others
http://www.thepluginsite.com/resources/freeps.htm

Tessela - very very cool stuff - have not tried Checkout yet
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/zeric/tessela/

Mehdi Kalaidoscope 2.1
http://www.mehdiplugins.com/english/kaleidoscope.htm

And all the rest of the Mehdi freeware filters
http://www.mehdiplugins.com/index.htm

I can't find where I got the @#$@%##$ Fotomatic Filters!!! There's eight of them and they really rock - maybe from one of my magazine cd's? (See what happens when you hit your late 40's......aw crap, and they tell me its all downhill from here *fume*).

Idahl, I have not forgotten you - I've just run out of steam! Let me take a breather and I'll be back....

Cheers,
hamstergirl

Posted 17 years ago #
FreewareFan
Member

hamstergirl, you ARE a diamond in a field of stones! Thank you very much for going the extra mile to check all that out. I thought maybe I had a system problem for a while there. Now that I know what's what, I can certainly deal with it.

You're the best! ;-)

Posted 17 years ago #
ldahl
Member

@HG...fantastic filters! The Mehdi ones look like they could be really useful, not just fun to mess around with. I have a very old version(6)of PSP... never upgraded and now it is part of Corel(which ruined it for a lot of people I think) Anyway, Deep paint plugs right into it and you can take your file from DP send it to PSP and back again without a save. So the two programs work hand in hand.(making one the working extension of the other) Thanks for your comment about my website. It's my toy:)))
@FF, do try ErfanView: http://www.irfanview.com/ It will handle most all of your plugin filters and it works great for so many graphic operations. It doesn't have layers but you can do a lot with it. I see a third party is working for a paint plugin for it too. Look for "Image" on the task bar, then Effects..pull it down and go from there to load your filters for use. Great for doing effects on the fly. I just have a folder I keep on "C" that I named Plugins and direct ErfanView to that folder.

Fotomatic Filters are here: http://www.cybia.co.uk/fotomatic.htm Go to the task bar look for Digital Photography, on the drop down menu there is Fotomatic...pick one that interests you. I've used their Cybia Edgeworks filter set(a good one).

Posted 17 years ago #
FreewareFan
Member

@Idahl Will do, Thanks! I'll be offline for a bit, re-installing Windows and doing a general re-partition of the system, but I should be back online by later tonight. I'll let you know my impressions of Irfanview then.

Posted 17 years ago #
FreewareFan
Member

@ Idahl - Mission accomplished! I've looked at Irfanview, and I like it. I'll dig deeper into it as time permits. Thanks again!

Posted 17 years ago #
hamstergirl
Member

Hey guys! Been busy, haven't we?!! You know, I really don't post all that often, but this is the subject most near and dear to my virtual heart and you guys are both in my cool book so...

@Idahl - I owe you a very big thank you/apology. After playing a while with Irf/Erfanview .....yeah, "viewer" is an understatement *grin*. And once I figured out how, all my filters worked just fine. Even tried a few new ones from the Plug-In Site - ULead had three freebies, ArtTexture, Particle, and Fantasy Warp. All three are great, but you have got to see the Particle one! I am very happy I took your advice and downloaded it. As for ArtRage2 - that was my 2nd find! Liked it so much that I paid for the full version. They've raised the price of a license to $25 (it recently had a major upgrade), but even at twice that amount it would still be a steal! Nothing else that I have seen (yet) outside of maybe DeepPaint comes even close to ArtRage's ability to duplicate the look and behavior of full-bodied oils or acrylic paints being brushed onto a canvas. I would love to try PainterX - have a couple of trial copies from magazine cd's - but this poor little machine of mine would probably throw itself on its back and scream for mercy (and then give me the LawnMower Man treatment as revenge right before it permanently expired!). Now, you have PaintShop Pro, correct? Is it for photos or painting (I'm assuming photos....I'm also assuming that my foot is rapidly heading towards my mouth again - hey, its used to it)?

@FreeWareFan - hey, you did it! Cool! As for your nice thank you - aw shucks, it weren't nothin...heh, heh, he. No really, and for once I'm not being funny or sarcastic when I say this - being able to provide input in a forum like this that actually helps someone out gives me the warm fuzzies. Especially when its someone who has computer skillz way over my own (generally, even a gnat falls into that category). If you had seen me last December, on the floor trying to figure out how to plug this thing in and turn it on, well, you would see why I get such a kick of out this! (I bought my computer from my downstairs neighbor - he knew how to do two things with it...one was looking up the winning lottery numbers. I'll let you figure out what the other thing was (how do I know this? I found the temp files he left....all of them!). It never ceases to amaze me with just how generous people on the net can be with their knowledge and time. Sure, there's plenty of the other sort, but fortunately they are in the minority. This site in particular has been responsible for much of the progress I've made over the last few months - and I don't mean just the apps, its the people who share their experiences and provide links, here and on the front page ....its just nice to be able to return some of the favors.

There is one question I would like to ask either of you, or anyone else - its about the .net framework one needs to download in order to use PaintNet or Gimp (I wanna bag the Big 2!). I know its bulky - can it be installed onto an external hard drive or does it have to be located on the c drive? I don't think my c drive's got the room, so.....

Oh goody, its time to see what's on the GOTD menu for the day (I love being nocturnal). See ya'll later!
cheers,
hg

Posted 17 years ago #
hamstergirl
Member

@Idahl - again, thanks! That's the Fotomatic link I was looking for. I love those filters, especially the sky gradient one. And I spent a little time looking at your website again - if that's your "toy".....yikes, what do you come up with when you're "serious" ;) Everything is so nicely done, its really something for you to be proud of!

Posted 17 years ago #
FreewareFan
Member

Hey hg, how you doing today?? About your question of .Net size, the .Net Version 3 is only 52Megs in size. Not too bad, really. But then again, that depends on the size of your hard drives, yes? I don't remember what size version 2 is, but since you're going to be installing it anyway, may as well go with version 3, and you'll be covered for the next year or two.

And about your computer skills, it sounds to me like you are making FINE progress, if you only just started last Dec! I've known people who have been trying to learn for a couple of years, and can just now barely send email.. :-)

Well, I've been at this desk for just about 24 hours now, getting things in order here, so you'll excuse me if I take leave for a while, yes? Time for some shuteye. Talk with you later, and good luck installing .net . It's really easy, but the install time is a bit long.. Bye for now.

Posted 17 years ago #
BuBBy
Teh adnim

Just a FYI for people are wondering about the different versions of the .NET Framework.

This is a fairly concise summary http://www.leonmeijer.nl/archive/2007/06/11/50.aspx

Posted 17 years ago #
FreewareFan
Member

Good read, thanks for the link!

Posted 17 years ago #
hamstergirl
Member

Thanks a lot guys (BuBBy, that means you too!)...well, guess I'm off for another adventure! If I don't surface soon - send in the Marines (hmmm, a Navy SEAL might be nice too),,,
hg

Posted 17 years ago #
hamstergirl
Member

BuBBy - got a couple ?'s for you:

I feel really silly asking this, but where do I look to see how many bits my WinXp Pro is? I'm not sure if its 64 or not - but I need to know before trying to install the .net framework. I'm starting to get that FEELING again - you know - the one that says "you reaaalllly shouldn't be doing this"....if I got AstonShell up and running successfully (which I did, and even paid for a license to boot!), it would mean that I was now Master Of The Universe...after looking at - again - this whole Gimp/PaintNet/framework thing, my coronation might have been a bit premature.

In order to use "run as" on another account in XP Pro, does that account have to have a password? I am the only person who uses my machine, so passwords aren't necessary. When AstonShell was offered here recently, I took another member's advice (I believe it was BillW50) and installed it to a new admin acct (damage control). Everything worked out fine with Aston, and my new acct has sort of worked its way up the ranks to my primary workspace (starting out new makes everything so nice and tidy!). Its a pain however, to flip back and forth between the two accounts when I want to use some of my older GOTD programs, since "run as" is not running - will assigning a password to the old account take care of this?

Thanks BuBBy,
hamstergirl

Posted 17 years ago #
ldahl
Member

@HG....Sorry about the typo, it is IrfanView... I was a bit tired:) I was having too much fun trying out new filters that you pointed me to. I've wanted to have one like Medhi's kaleidoscope forever. I've looked so many times, thinking someone must have made one, but all I could find was those that would do half of the operations so you would have to go through many processes to get half of what I wanted. Thank you so much for that little treasure!
I do have an antique copy of PSP, I really don't use it for a paint/photo program at all. I use it to work with filters and layers together. I don't ask it to do that much, but it does what I want very well. I use different graphic programs for different jobs. RealDraw Pro is my favorite for text and vectors, Corel8 Draw for layouts, Photo-Paint for putting everything together. I like IrfanView for finding/sorting files,scanning and importing from one format and exporting into another(plus setting wallpapers on the fly,checking plugins, listening to sound files + + + +etc...it is my little workhorse)
My work experience includes both PC and Macs, Corel and Adobe. They all have their up and down sides.
It is so great to find a fellow paint program/filter junkie!!

Posted 17 years ago #
BuBBy
Teh adnim

I feel really silly asking this, but where do I look to see how many bits my WinXp Pro is? I'm not sure if its 64 or not

How to determine whether your computer is running a 32-bit version or a 64-bit version of the Windows operating system:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;827218

In order to use "run as" on another account in XP Pro, does that account have to have a password?

I believe you need to have a password on the account you are using with RunAs.

since "run as" is not running - will assigning a password to the old account take care of this?

If that is the only thing "preventing" RunAs from working - yes. Also the Service "seclogon" (ie. Secondary Logon) has to be started/running for RunAs to work.

Are you saying you would like to combine the two user profiles into one - or is this only because of the extra problems in switching between accounts?

Some other reading on RunAs
Why doesn't the RunAs program accept a password on the command line?

Posted 17 years ago #
hamstergirl
Member

BuBBy - you are a prince! (I bet you wish people would stop saying that and just send you money instead)...well, its a 32-bit version, I was actually looking in the right place too, just didn't know that a 32-bit version would only show the year, and not the bits! As for my other question, merge the two accounts? NO!!!! I like working with a net (no pun intended), if Aston (or anything else) does take a dive, it might help having a second admin acct already in place. I just wanted to use Run as to access my GOTD programs without flipping between the profiles - its really become the only reason I need to visit that acct. Secondary log on has been enabled, just need to set a password and it should be good to go.
Since you have my e-mail, you can send me the bill - just be aware that there's already a very long line......
Cheers,
hamstergirl

Posted 17 years ago #

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