Have you ever wanted to create some stunningly beautiful images and wish you have the pockets deep enough to afford Adobe’s Photoshop? Well you can now with an amazing piece of online software called Pixlr. The Pixlr photo editor is a web based piece of software that gives you everything you need to create pictures that would make picasso envious and now I’ll break down how you can use it.
You have 3 different bits of software you can use… All for free. Pixlr Editor, Pixlr Express and Pixlr-o-matic.
Pixlr Editor – A Free Version of Photoshop, Pretty Much…
Whether you want to just crop some pictures or make some great images for your website or even to cut out that weird guy that managed to photobomb your picture, then the Pixlr editor is the tool for the job.
You can insert text, red eye reductions, blur, smudge, crop, rotate, distort and loads of other different effects that usual come with a picture editor.
I use this tool a lot because it’s completely web based so you don’t have to download anything to your computer. It’s great if you’re using a friends computer or an internet cafe and you want to tweak some pictures for your website or even to upload to Facebook then you can always get access to it.
Head over to www.pixlr.com/editor and have a play around with it yourself.
Pixlr Express – All The Effects Under The Sun
More than 600 effects, overlays, and borders to personalize any image. Pixlr Express is a fun and free editor that you can add a little SHIZAM! to your pictures.
There are a lot of cool effects that you can use to make your pictures look vintage or to give them a cool background you can fade over the top, or add text to and even add borders.
My favourite section is the overlays. You have so many options!
You can complete change the look of an image in a few seconds with these. This is especially good if you edited up buying some royalty free images from places like PhotoDune and you want to edit them so you can use them over and over again without having to spend more money!
You can even create some epic collages so you can get several images in one picture. With several different layout options you can throw in many of your photos and show them all of to your friends in one image.
You can even download this software for your phone! If you have an iPhone or an Android phone then you can get all these cool effects on a single app. You can get separate apps for all of these different effects but now you can get them all in one app… for free!
Use this for your business to create some images your visitors will love or for your personal use to show off pictures you’ve taken on your travels. I used this a lot to create some awesome pictures from my time in Thailand.
Check this out at www.pixlr.com/express.
Pixlr o Matic – Retro Up Your Pictures
You can add fun retro effects to your photos in a snap and transform your photos into cool looking vintage works of art.
This is favourite tool that Pixlr offer.
When you head into the yellow section you get some really cool effects you can use on your images. You can create some sweet distressed look images with Pixlr o Matic. I love these effects when I want to create some wicked looking flyers or create a banner for a website and want to make it stand out from other banners you see everywhere else.
It’s always good to be different.
This little gem also allows you to crop your images and add some cool effects like sepia, black and white, vintage and blah blah blah… You’ve seen all these before. But the borders you can create with this really makes it stand out, especially seeing as you can get this on your computer AND on your phone too.
Just like Pixlr Express, you can download this for your smartphone. iPhone and Android users can download this as an app for your phones completely free. Download this from the app store and android market and have a play with this on your phone. You’ll end up using this app a lot.
Find this at www.pixlr.com/o-matic and start creating some funky retro pictures yourself.
The Final Verdict Is…
Before using Pixlr o Matic
After using Pixlr o Matic
Dude’s Final Opinion: Probably the best web based image editor you’ll find. USE IT!
You get to use 3 great bits of software, none of which you need to download, all for free that you can use to edit, crop and resize images to make them look however you want.
Plus, the fact they are all web based you don’t have to download anything to your computer and you can use them anywhere about the world if you have access to the internet. You can also download Pixlr Express and Pixlr o Matic for your smartphone. You can become an awesome iPhone photographer and have a darkroom installed on your phone too!
If you’re wanting some free software you can download though, GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a good alternative. It’s complete free and is also similar to Pixlr and Photoshop, just without all the bells and whistles. You can download GIMP over at www.gimp.org and give that a spin.
Do you have any comments about Pixlr? Do you use it? I’d love to hear form you about what you think of this nifty piece of software. Leave your comments and thoughts below. Also, share this with your friends with the Facebook and Twitter buttons below… Go on… Click ’em.
