There is so much concern and “Buzz” about Google shutting down Picnik.com, I decided to provide you with some alternative tools for editing and customizing your graphics, photos, and images. While Picnik.com will be shutting down in April 2012, here are some other options you have available immediately.
FotoFlexer – Create some dazzling photo and image effects in your browser for FREE. Use Animations, resizing, coloring, contrast and more. Take a look at These 5 Demo’s for a quick tour of what FotoFlexer has to offer, you’ll love some of these cool features. Smart Scissor is a favorite feature.
Pixlr – and for Picnik users, try Pixlr Express. You’ll love the Editor, the Pixlr-o-matic, the Pixlr Grabber for Firefox and Chrome browsers, and the Pixlr Imm.io hosting, all of which are very robust and user friendly cool features.
LunaPic – This site will rock your world! Lunapic offers more choices and options for photo editing and custom effects than some of the paid software applications I’ve purchased and used in the past. Use vignettes, color bars, animated imaging, picture frames, retro color, collages, custom text, reflection animations, slide shows, and a ton more. One of the most feature rich FREE online editors available. You’re gonna love this site.
FreeOnlinePhotoEditor – A really simple and easy to use photo and image editor for those “quick fix and gotta go” graphics. Very basic but simple and fast. Some of the other online photo and image tools include: OnlinePhotoTool.com: Online photo editor, Automatically resize your images when sending it by email, Create an Image from your RSS feed, Create Image from your Tweet and Twitter account, and Create, save and email screenshots.
BeFunky - Be Funky lets you do some pretty amazing things with your photos and graphics. Most of the features and tools are focused on creating cool, fun, and funky effects and artwork. The site’s name says it. Some of the effects available would take hours to create in Photoshop or other high end and costly photo/image editors.
Definitely worthy of a visit and tour.
Photoshop.com – That’s right, you can use Photoshop online and for FREE. You’ll need to register, but I promise it will be worth it. The Photoshop tools are powerful and very easy to use. Be prepared to spend a little time here, you’ll be amazed at what they have to offer and allow you to do online for free. I’m not going to lie, this is one of my favorites and my personal replacement for Picnik.com closing down.
GIMP – GIMP is very similar to Adobe Photoshop except that GIMP is FREE. It does require you to download the software but one huge benefit to that is it will never be bought and shut down on you. It is a very powerful and feature intense program so unless you’re really experienced with editing and graphic design, or you have more time than it takes to close a short sale, you may want to stick with one of the others.
I personally like to use GIMP for graphic design more than image or photo editing.
Combine all these together and you’ll have more FREE editing tools and features than you’ll ever need or use and absolutely FREE. Take a few moments to review each site, bookmark them, then give each one a try to see which one(s) best meet your photo and image editing needs. Enjoy!
"Learn More. Get More. Do More. Be More."
Brad I am so glad you are still giving us all the good poop:) Information:)) I have bookmarked for implementation:)) are you watching Football?
Brad, I've also found that Picasa (a free site from Google) is excellent for the basic editing that I use for ActiveRain.
I also wanted to say how much I enjoyed your webinar the other day on Postlets.
Brad to the rescue - again!
Been experimenting with photo resizers, seems I waste a lot of time doing that individually.
Thank you Brad! I've been wanting to find a program that would let me remove backgrounds without the edges being subject to my "hand-shake."
Thanks for these photo editing site, bookmarked to explore. Really appreciate this. Thanks again and have a great week.
Thanks for putting this together. Looking forward to experimenting with a few. Suggested.
Brad, great alternatives that now I am not worried picnik will be shutting down. I look forward to checking these out. Thank you!
Brad, thanks for the resources! You are like the resource king, dude!
Hi Brad: I haven't tried Photoshop online. I do like GIMP... Thanks for the reminders, I need to head back and revisit the others...
Brad, Thanks for the tips! I'm sure this one is going to get a ton of bookmarks :)
Brad-I started playing with Photoshop on-line a little while ago and it has some easy tools for editing. Love the pop feature. Thanks for sharing more to try out.
Hey Brad, thanks for all the great sites. I am bummed about Picnik but glad there are plenty of alternatives. Gonna start checking them out.
Jeff
Thank You Brad!
I knew you'd come through! Thank you!!!
Awesome sites Brad. I will check these sites out to see which one I will use going forward.
Those are some great sites. I am so going to miss PicNik - here is one I saw posted on a FB thread. http://ipiccy.com/
Brad -- This post is surely a keeper. Thanks so much. I am really interested in the photoshop.com. I just bought a new computer and this might just be the answer since I will still use the old one and I only have one PS license.
Hi Brad - Thanks for the list. I think I will try LunaPic--looks similar to Picnik. I am not a fan of Picasa.
Brad! Thanks for the great suggestions. I was really sad to get my email from Picknik saying goodbye! Guess I missed the buzz about what happened there.
thanks, Brad!!! I bookmarked your post.
Tatyana
Thank you! I didn't know about befunky.com! That should be fun!
Brad, good call on the Online Photoshop. That would be my choice as well.
FREE?!
Gee those guys are swell.
Thanks Brad - Another one of your blog posts that has been bookmarked!
ANOTHER ONE IS IPICCY AND IT'S FREE AND IT'S A LOT SCARY LIKE PICNIK
THANKS FOR THE OTHER OPTIONS
It's kind of sad that Picnik is shutting down. I know many people who have relied on it for years to manage their photos. Nice job compiling this list Brad. It's sure to come in handy for so many.
Brad - all good sites and Jo Soss #16 is a great site as well. thanks for posting this for all of us....
yup, this is why we love you Brad. You never let us down.
Thank you, thank you, Brad! I have been upset ever since I got the email that picnik was shutting down. I'll try these sites and find the one that works best for me.
Brad, very nice listing of sites. Even though I have photoshop I'm curious about these sites so I'll go play around with them.
Brad - you are the man. I can't think about what I would do, if I can't change my header.
Wow, some great options....I'll be back to link and try a few of them out.
Photoshop and GIMP are my favorite. And there are some sites that offer free software for such needs for limited times. Yes, Picnik was the way to go for easy touch up and resize of pictures but I don't think it will be missed.
Thanks Brad- I loved Picnik and will have to look into these options :)
Thanks for the info, bummer about Picnic. I was so easy to use.
I am so bummed about Picnik...hoping somehow this is not really going to happen. However, I put your first three in a file to use should it really happen!
Thanks for the tips, Brad. I'm going to check out Photoshop.com right now! Instagram is also a great free app for editing and sharing pics on your phone.
Awesome, that is very cool and useful when we do not have other photo programs around.
Thanks Brad, there is always some light at the end of a tunnel, one just has to be willing to open ones eyes. In my case, I actually hadn't heard of most of these but believe me, I'll be looking into each one!
Brad you da man! Thanks for always looking out for us. I will check these sites out.
Thanks Brad...you saved the day, ....and.....saved me alot of time and frustration, too. These are all new to me but I plan to check them out.
Hi Brad. Thanks for this great information. I am not only bookmarking it for future use, but I adding it to my list for a re-blog later too.
Brad ... even thpugh you went to The Dark Side ... =) ... I must say I miss seeing you as much around here — and you continue to amaze me with your ability to sniff these techie tools out! Thanks so much!
Thanks for giving us this info on where to go! I was bummed out that Picnik was gonna close.
Thanks Brad! We can all use this information. Picnik will be missed but at least we have several other sites to use! (Let's go niniers...)
Way to go in the middle of the game! I like Photoshop. But my imagination will explore some of the others. Thanks for making an info touchdown here!
Good info. Thank you. I had just upgraded to Picnik Premium. Hope I get my money back like they say!
Thanks Brad - I got myself a free account on photoshop.com :)
Oh my goodness....thank you so much for giving us these suggestions! I'm going to check them out right away!!!
Thanks for posting this. I'm bookmarking so I can figure out which way to go.
Who knew you could do so many things with photographs? Gotta try a few of these.
Brad...
Wow, thanks for putting this list together. i had no idea that there were so many free image editors out there!
Brad: So nice of you to provide this great information. Just last week, I purchased the upgrade to Picnic....saw the e-mail and I guess they are giving out refunds???
Brad, I stopped by because of Joni's reblog and really want to say THANK YOU. I loved picnik because it was so easy to use. Can't wait to try these sites. Thank you for sharing.
Brad, This is an absolutely GREAT Post that will come in very handy for future photo editing needs. Picnik was a very user friendly option, but these sites will fill the void. Thank you and best wishes always.
Thanks SO much for pulling this list together! I used picnik at least 5x a week and it is so upsetting that google is taking it away (anyone know why????)
Its so nice to see that there are other low cost options!
So very grateful for the additional options we have! Thanks for posting this, Brad!
Brad - you are as usual providing wealth of information. Good this time it does not affect me, as we use Photoshop
Brad ... Thanks very much! Wonderful information! ... Well Presented!
Thanks for the alternatives, I'll check them out.
Great resources Brad. Thanks for sharing them with the rest of us Active Rainers!
Thank you! I was just about to get online and do a little research on what to use instead of Piknic. I appreciate the time saver!
HI Brad,
Great time saver for many, although we had not been checking the picnik replacements, I will now, thanks a bunch
Brad -- thanks for the heads up. I think lunapik sounds great. I've bookmarked this post and will have to check these sites out.
Thank you, Brad. Going to share your post with our agents. Thank you!
Hi Brad--I'm bookmarking and going to check out all of these sites. I do use GIMP, but agree with you that photo editing is easier using other software. Thanks for pulling this list together.
These new sites will come in handy in the future, the Picnik thing came as a surprise to me.
Thanks for helping us out Brad.
Brad, thanks so much for taking the time to do the research. When I first heard about Picnik shutting down, I was going through some withdrawals. Your post takes the edge off a little.
Thanks Brad, I use picnik all the time which I think will still be available on Google+ time to check out these options.
Thanks, Brad. I use Picnik every day and really need to find a replacement. Flickr has announced that they will be offering photo editing features to replace Picnik.
Normally, I would include a flower photograph in my comments ActiveRain has advised that photographs are no longer allowed in comments.
Thanks for taking the time to put together optional sites. When I first saw that Picknk was shutting down, I was bummed. But I had a feeling you would come up with alternate sites. Thanks aain. Which is your favorite?
I pick my favorite post of the day to reblog and the train stops right here. The Picnik is over concept leaves you wondering which tools to use next for collages etc. in your Actuve Rain posts. This post poses some good alternatives. I hope there is training coming along, too, for the transition to some new products.
Brad - thanks for these alternatives. I'm bookmarking and going out to check them all. Have a great day.
Brad: In your experience, which of the ones you suggest is best for resizing? Picnik resizes so quickly and easily; it is hard to compete.
GIMP is classic. They even have an overlay that makes it look and work like Photoshop. This is a great list of free tools and they will address the loss of Picnik.
Brad: Thank you for sharing this information as I was just trying to figure out what I was going to try when Picnik goes out.
Brad, you may have some better alternatives to Picnik.com here. Thanks for the links.
Thanks you just reminded me I was planning to learn Gimp as an alternative....
Great info here, Brad. Thanks. I think the photoshop.com site may be a good spot for me next.
Brad:
Thanks for offering alternatives to Picnic. I hope they are as easy as picnik was. That is the reason picnik was my go to photo editing.
Thanks Brad as always for your SO helpful posts! This one is bookmarked because I've used Picnik and Picasa, some of the others you mention are new for me, so I might as well learn about them!
Brad, thanks for the list of other sites that can replace Picnik when it goes away!
Sharon
Hi Brad - I am going to try out some of these sites. They look very promising.
thanks so much for taking the time to put this together.. I will check out all of them for sure.. I will miss picnik but I'm sure there will be a great replacement in all of these.. you are awesome!
Brad, Thanks for all your support. I personally use Photoshop CS for hard core photoshoppers. But knowing what is online is great. Thanks for the post.
I am absolutely WOWED by this post! Thank you for taking the time to show us the way!
Hi Brad,
The outpouring of comments tells you how much we appreciate a helpful post such as this one.
Thanks
Phil
I'm definitely going to try out some of these sites soon. Thanks for all the helpful information on alternatives to Picnik.
Brad, thanks for sharing these sites and options. Good thing to know we have tools available as it seems unclear what Google is going to do with picnik.
Thank you Brad! A great source of information for alternative options. I will defiitely check these out and re-blog this info.
Brad, These online editors are great when you don't want to install software. GIMP on PC and GraphicConverter on a Mac are some inexpensive or free alternatives to Photoshop. Each comes with it's own mindset, metaphors, tools, and learning curve, of course.
Brad, which editor did you use for the kids pic ? I am looking for a good editor to do a nice watercolor any suggestions / any one ?
Karen - each of them has unique options and features, if you're looking for watercolor or pastels type effects, try iPiccy.com, or ribbet.com if it's up and running yet? Ribbet.com is the new Picnik.com twin. :-)