Windows Help & Advice - UK (2019-12)

GIMP(theGNUImage

ManipulationProgram)isthe

bestfreephotoeditoraround.It’s

packedwiththekindofimage-

enhancingtoolsyou’dfindin

1 GIMP

http://www.gimp.org

RATING

premiumsoftware,andmoreare

beingaddedeveryday.

Thephotoeditingtoolkitis

breathtaking,andfeatureslayers,

masks,curves,andlevels.You

caneliminateflawseasilywith

theexcellentclonestampand

healingtools,createcustom

brushes,applyperspective

changes,andapplychanges

toisolatedareaswithsmart

selectiontools.

GIMPis anopensource,free

photoeditor,anditscommunityof

usersanddevelopershavecreated

a hugecollectionofpluginsto

extenditsutilityevenfurther.Many

ofthesecomepre-installed,and

youcandownloadmorefromthe

officialglossary.If that’snot

enough,youcaneveninstall

Photoshopplugins.

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If you’vegota lotofphotosthat

youneedtoeditina hurry,

AshampooPhotoOptimizer 2019

couldbethetoolforyou.Its

interfaceiscleananduncluttered,

andutterlydevoidofads

(althoughyou’llneedtosubmitan

emailaddressbeforeyoucanstart

usingit).

Importingpicturesisa breeze,

andoncethey’vebeenaddedto

thepool,youcanselectseveralat

oncetorotateormirror,saving

youvaluabletime.Youcanalso

chooseindividualphotosto

enhancewiththesoftware’s

one-clickoptimizationtool.Inour

teststhisworkedparticularlywell

onlandscapes,butwasn’talways

greatforothersubjects.

If you want to make manual

color and exposure corrections,

there are half a dozen sliders to let

you do exactly that. It’s a shame

you can’t also apply the same

color changes to a whole set of

pictures at once, but this is

otherwise a brilliant free photo

editor for quick corrections.

Ifyouwantto

learnGIMP,there’s

a wealthof

materialonline.

2 AshampooPhotoOptimizer 2019

http://www.ashampoo.com

For more advanced

editing, check out

Ashampoo Photo

Optimizer 7 – the

premium version.

THE BEST FREE PHOTO EDITING SOFTWARE

Get your pictures looking their best, for free

Winner!

image credits: GIMP, Ashampoo, Canva, Fotor

88 |^ |^ December 2019