For those of you who don't own Photoshop or haven't downloaded (and tried to learn) the open-source version called Gimp, I have a surprise for you: Pixlr's Editor. Pixlr's Editor is a free online photo editing software that works very similarly to Photoshop but without the monthly fee.
Of note: I am NOT being paid to write about this software. I genuinely think it's useful for those who aren't in the market to purchase a more expensive photo editor.
My search for a free online photo editor.
I was looking for something other than Gimp and Photoshop to suggest to my social media managers for image manipulation–often times, we need to resize images from our clients to fit social media. While Canva is totally awesome, it doesn't allow you to necessarily resize an image. So I went on an internet hunt and stumbled across Pixlr's Editor.
Use without an account.
You read that right–you don't have to create an account in order to use it. As you can see from the above screenshot, Pixlr's Editor uses paid advertising along the right side. It's not intrusive, so I'm totally ok with that–and the ads are pretty good. 🙂
Users are able to create a new image, open an image from their computer, open an image from a URL (nice touch!), and open an image from their Pixlr library (requires an account, which is FREE), Facebook, or other library.
Pixlr's Editor accounts are free.
FREE. What could be better? In the world of free online photo editing, Pixlr's Editor offers the most comprehensive and fast photo editing I've seen to date. Signup is easy–simply choose a include your name, email, and password.
Enjoy many of the same editing and creating capabilities as Photoshop!
With useful tools like the Marquee Tools, Wand Tool, Lasso Tool, Polygonal Lasso Tool, and many more–cutting out backgrounds or inversing a selection is quick and easy. My favorite part is the fact that it has layers, which many photo editing programs don't have.
Working with text on Pixlr's free online photo editor is a snap–but it only allows font sizes to be so big. I tried rasterizing the text layer and then making it larger, but it pixelated. Check out what I was able to do the very first time I used Pixlr's Editor–pretty intuitive and fairly easy to use…you just need to get used to where everything is laid out if you're a native Photoshop user.
Final thoughts.
If you're looking to do a little free online photo editing with software that's relatively easy to use and has many of the same tools and features as Photoshop, then check out Pixlr.
Have you used Pixlr before? What do you use? Share them in the comments below!
