One thing leads to another and I need a down and dirty art program

One thing leads to another and I need a down and dirty art program. I need to quick edit images from time to time to get them on the web and photoshop isn't always available. I tried the photo program that comes with Windows and I couldn't even get the image to fit into the screen to crop it. Low, Low resolution crap. No wonder all the artwork I get from people often sucks if they tried to do it with Paint. I have heard about Picassa and if this works I'll forward my customers to the Google link to quick edit their own artwork. I will post the progress as it occurs.

Except for trying to bump out the other browser when I started it and request for anonymous error tips, it seems like a harmless photo editor, for now. The program seems to recognize the following file types: jpeg, jpg, tif, tiff, bmp, gif, png, tga and raw. They each are different compression algorythms for photographic files that are often viewable by web browsers and other photo editors. The Raw format is straight out of the camera and I am not sure what a TGA file is. The first thing the Picassa did was search my computer and find all of the above mentioned file types. the sorting window looks pretty good and it organized my images by folder. I was able to open a file and crop it, as well as, apply an assortment of filters. The only save as format was jpeg, .jpg. Next I need to check the image resolution and size.

Picassa allows me to see the image size under Properties, but I can't seem to increase the size arbitrarily. I was able to zoom in on sections. I played with the contrast in the various tonal ranges and that wasn't bad, not great, but not bad. I don't see any export or halftone functions, which limits me for screen printing grey tones, but you can get a down and dirty high contrast effect by manipulating the shades. Rough Edit. Wow, I really like the soft focus when added to a high contrast funky mix. Ok, I can add text, but not that easy to find a blank space. Image posted, 15 minutes of hacking.

I don't think it will replace photoshop, but this appears to work for fun edits. Almost printable artwork.

There is an export function that takes the photo image over to another program, picnik. In this program I was able to resize the image and send it back to Picassa 3 where I saved it and uploaded the images to my website. More editing features were available in teh PicNik program and although I did not get printable artwork out of the software, I was able to convert some web images from large files to viewable jpegs. Success.

I went back later to do a design that popped in my head, "Made in America" but with an Indian Head. I found some clip art and went to work. The combination of Picassa and PicNik isn't bad to get something on the web. I can go back and fix it if it sells and needs to be printed, but this gets me in the ballpark. I would still have to charge for artwork if I received this type of file from a customer, but overall it's a good draft, possibly salvagable into a printable file. A point in favor of the program is that I actually created a folder called "New Designs" on this Acer mini computer, thus recognizing that the file may be printable. It's a good thing I don't have high demands for my artwork requirements. I am interested in the tag elements of the program, it seems like it is allowing the insertion of keywords into the image, which makes alot of sense. I wonder if those are somehow read back into Google? My next step is a web design interface that has a chance at being workable without crashing.