Software :: Looking For A Reasonable Basic Photo Editor
Feb 29, 2008
Okay, I'm still within' my first month of mac ownership, and one of my few disappointments has been iPhoto. I used to use my digital camera's included software(ACDSee) for all my photo editing needs, but the software wasn't mac compatible.
I have found iPhoto to be completely useless for anything other than basic photo storage. All I'm looking to do is resize photos(by pixel) for message board avatars or uploading. Also to resize photos(by inch or mm) for printing. iPhoto to my knowledge doesn't let me do either of these in any sort of simple manner.
So what I'm looking for is a basic photo editor for my mac. I've read about iView and Aperture, but both of these seem like extreme overkill in both features and price for what I want to do with my photos.
So what are my options at a reasonable price? Reasonable being anywhere from free-$70 or so.
I have Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 on my iMac. I also have iPhoto as it came with the iMac when I bought it. I don't really want to use iPhoto at all. I want to use PSE. How do I set my computer to open PSE when I insert my memory card or when I plug in my iPhone or for any other thing that uses photos? Can I just completely uninstall iPhoto?Â
I have been looking around the forums but came up empty handed. I was wondering what good free photoshop(like) programs there are. All I literally want to be able to do is get two separate photos and put them side by side and export them as one photo. Basically I want to make a wallpaper. I've heard about GIMP but is that what I want? Is there a more basic photo editor?
Does anybody have any knowledge as to what would be the best free photo editor? I am looking to start such a hobby, but would like to get a feel for it before my purchase of Aperture, as I don't want to regret my purchase.
I'm purchasing a Macbook Pro and I will be using it primarily for video and photo editing. I will need strong hd write performance for video encoding. I would also like a very fast load time for my apps such as photoshop and final cut. I am considering SSD drive for fast load of my apps. I would put the OS and all apps on the SSD. I would get a second drive, the fast Momentus XT from Seagate, and install it where the DVD drive is currently located. I would use the second drive for all data such as photos and video. This would give me fast write speeds for encoding and transferring video and photos from the camera to the MBP.
I am an artist and I photograph my own work for uploading images to my website and/or sending them to galleries and prospective buyers, which means I need to be able to adjust the size and resolution easily and store several versions of the same image. Iphoto just isn't cutting it. I used an old version of photoshop elements on my old PC which did the trick, but now that I've switched to a Mac I'd like to purchase/download some newer and cheaper or free(!) software. I am tech impaired so it has to be very user friendly. It must allow me to adjust the size and res easily. The only forum I've seen so far regarding this dates back to 08, so I figure there's got to be something even better out there now that I can use.
I am looking for a simple photo/picture editor for Mac OS X that allows one to add cartoon effects to a photo/picture. An example of one would be Cartoonize Me for the iPhone and iPod Touch by Portegno Apps; I'd like one for the computer. Being the picky person I am, I'd really like it to be free and for Mac OS X (10.5.5 is my OS). It'd be fine if it's an online or download, as long as it gets the job done. Urgency level: Relatively high.
I may shortly need to spend some time working on a family member's mac several miles from my home. I was considering using ARD as a means of doing light maintenance and application work from afar. I know this may be vast overkill, but is this a reasonable use of the program?
I hope this is ok to post in here, because unfortunately i'm short of the post count required for the marketplace. I was wondering where would be a good place to advertise a late-2007 alu iMac? I'm trying to avoid eBay at the moment because i'll end up losing a fair amount of money in eBay and then Paypal fees. Also, is �650 an ok asking price? It's a 20" 2.0GHz C2D, 250GB HDD, 3G RAM.
I was just looking at the battery info for my PB which is about 1.5 years old. It says that my cycle count is 59. I was wondering how many cycles the average battery will do with a reasonable charge time? My absolute max capacity is 4400. I found the information with the following command: ioreg -l -w 0 | grep IOBatteryInfo
Im dealing with a power mac g5 with 10.4.11 installed that is behaving as if the space bar is held down indefinitely. Even when keyboard is unplugged, any text field just takes off running. Also, none of the drop down menus will stay down, they immediately disappear. When single clicking on an icon, it will instantly go to the .ds store icon and leave the selected icon unselected. Is this a bug that can be fixed?
For many of the applications I have (including Apple applications such as Aperture, iWork, etc), I have PDFs of the User Manuals that I've downloaded from Apple or other support websites. Would there be any harm in me dropping my user manual PDFs into the package at the top level (outside the >Contents folder)? I absolutely know to be cautious about messing with items within the >Contents folder, but wondering whether there is any harm in dropping in user guides or other related reference information into the package, outside the Contents or other key program folders within the folder.
Ultimately, I'm just looking for a way to keep my documentation organized and with whatever program it corresponds to. I've found that too many times, I download program manuals and tip sheets, and then I can't find where I put them on my hard drive. Also trying to avoid having duplicates of folders (i.e., a "Photoshop" folder in my /Applications and a "Photoshop" folder in my /Documents).
Is it possible to upgrade the SSD from 64gb to 128gb on the MacBook Air (mid-2011) on the basic configuration? I've ran out far too quickly on the 64gb and would really love for the extra storage space. Could I also get this upgrade via Apple if doing it myself would void the warranty?
I need to share my monitor with another (linux PC) computer; I bought a TrendNet KVM box which allows me to share one monitor between two computers. however, the KVM switching box only allows for VGA connections, so the first step was connecting my Mac via the VGA (rather than the DVI) video port. However, even before I can test the KVM box - I noticed that instantly, the resolution on the G5 Mac quadrupled, everything is enormous!
does anyone know what the factory resolution is? I will probably try just changing things - but I remember once in the OS 7-8 days, I changed the resolution willy-nilly on my PowerPC and the screen went blank - I couldn't fix it because I had screwed up the resolution and it couldn't show anything - it was a disaster because I couldn't even see anything to fix it... so I would appreciate knowing what the original default resolution is on the G5 so I can change it back, hopefully without fear...
Information: powerMac G5 (single processor, darn it!); 4 GB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.9) Worlds Largest iTunes library: Over a TB & Growing Daily!
Some semi-Flash-based links do not work in Safari(I'm using 5.0.3) causing me to switch to...pretty much any other browser like Chrome when needed. For example, when playing Whirled by Three Rings, when trying to navigate the non-Flash menus, equipping/"Wearing" avatars or pets and furniture and stuff do not work.
I have a macbook running leopard 10.5.1 i installed CrossOver to install a couple .exe programs i needed for school. I was wondering if installing MS Visual Basic 2005 would work using this method? my teacher is giving everyone MS VB 2005 Pro edition. Will that install just fine using CrossOver? or should i try the VB 2005 express edition you can d/l? i want some thoughts before i try anything, i don't want to mess up my new macbook.
I have a Maxtor USB 500GB External Hard Drive thats been running fine as a Time Machine Backup Drive. However it now fails to mount. I do not receive an error message about this failure it just doesn't appear, the drive does not display in the Disk Utility application either. It all seemed to start happening around the time of the 10.5.8 update, then about a week ago it just doesn't mount any more. The drive seems to be making the usual drive sounds. I have tried the following.
-Restarting the computer with cable plugged in & out -Resetting the PR RAM -Attaching the drive to another computer, problem remains -Downloaded File Salvage, disk doesn't appear -Looked on the Maxtor website for new drivers, no updates I can see -Googled the problem loads, no results -Asked a friend, no result
I need a basic app (not some amazingly expensive app with a million functions) that lets me edit an .MP3 file and cut out part of the middle, the ends, and export it. Quicktime X would be perfect, but you can't edit out the middle.
I find myself occasionally wanting to edit images, splice 2 or more images together, or just do some real basic photo editing and cant justify the cost of photoshop since I will NEVER use it to even 15% of its potential. What is a good (preferably free but under $25 is okay) app for osx that I can download?
I'd like to go wireless. Please instruct on what I need to purchase for a basic wireless setup. Comcast cable is my ISP, please list what to buy to get started.
My 2008 2.4ghz Intel MacBook is getting slower and slower at running basic operations. I have tried to free up my hard drive as it was very full. I free up 40 GB+ of space, but something is still filling it back up? Here is what my profile looks like:
How do I figure out what all this "other" material is? I thought it was due to a lack of memory after upgrading to Lion, but it has been getting dramatically worse, which doesn't seem like a memory issue to me.
I was wondering if anyone uses their Mac mini to do some basic video editing and mess with photos? My friend is notorious for shooting video and making DVDs of her video. I'm looking for her since she will be new to a Mac. She will basically be doing cutting and pasting of video, adding photos and music in the video, and such things like that. She will not be doing real intense graphics, maybe just having some effects that the video software provides. Question I have asked whether the Mac mini would be powerful enough for her needs. Would final cut be able to run on it in case she decides to get more into it?
I've noticed this on my MacBook Air and also on a friends MacBook so it is in no way unique to this model. In Photo Booth both models seem unable to render the effects at a moderately respectable FPS and fluidity is severely impinged. This is especially noticed when keying the background out and recording video from that. It seems to bring the MBA to it's knees! How can such a novelty application have such a drain on system resources? You would think Apple would have designed the application in mind of the constraints of these models. The MBA isn't especially cheap and if potential customers are seeing it failing to render a novelty webcam application properly I don't think they are going to be particularly impressed.
I'm not particularly impressed and I've bought one. Performance in Photoshop and Illustrator is exquisite, I haven't had any problems and filters etc can be applied quickly. Photo Booth is the one application that I have noticed the MBA struggle to perform in the past week I have been using it. The iSight camera seems to be of a lower quality than for instance the MacBook due to apparent high levels of noise. iSight camera live footage appears to lag behind by about 1 second in Photo Booth and by about 3 seconds in iMovie. The Intel GMA X3100 has proved to be great in rendering streaming Quicktime H.264 720p media from the Quicktime HD Gallery but unable to work Photo Booth properly?
Installing 10.6 on my iMac has killed some basic system keyboard functions, including the arrow keys and all Command+ combos. It's the same on both the wired and BT keyboards.
I'm a writer with an iMac Leopard, OS 10.5.8 at home, and a classic iMac, OS 9.6 at my office. They speak to each other via a zip disk. Although I print at home with an Epson Stylus 740, I would like to install a basic printer for the classic Imac OS 9.6 at the office, mostly for printing pages of type. It would be used exclusively for the old, classic iMac only.
