Picnik

Picnik is an online photo editing and image manipulation service.

Picnik is an American based company that allows you to edit and manipulate your photos online, for free. You can upload photos from your hard drive and edit them using a multitude of powerful photo editing tools. It is also possible to draw photos directly from your account at other online photo sites, such as Google Picasa or Flickr. This allows you to edit your photos without the need for expensive computer-based graphic manipulation software.

Picnik differentiates itself from other online photo sites by concentrating on online editing of images. The Flash based editing system is not only easy to use and very responsive, but also surprisingly powerful. You can adjust the contrast and brightness in your photos, fix red eye problems and even whiten teeth! It's also possible to crop photos, throwing away the parts of the photo you don't want. You can add a number of built-in icons and text (in any font you want) to your photos and even set their transparency and layer-ordering. Rotating and moving objects is as simple and intuitive as it would be in a computer based program. Once you've finished editing your photo, you can save it to your hard drive in any number of formats, such as GIF, JPEG, BMP , PNG or PDF. You can even set how much you want your images to be compressed before they are saved. All these functions really set Picnik apart from other online photo sites.

The snazzily designed Flash application is designed to fill the average screen, with large buttons placed in logical locations. It's so well designed that you have to constantly remind yourself that you are indeed using an web-based application, and not a real, computer-based program.

Registering requires you to specify a username, e-mail and password. You will be required to specify your year of birth. Verification of your e-mail address is not required before you are allowed to begin using the site's features.

Picnik has an advertising supported free service that includes most features that most people would want to use when editing their photos, such as basic color correction, cropping and text editing. A more advanced version of the service, with advanced color correction and unlimited photo editing history, is available through a subscription service.

Picnik is an excellent, powerful application if you need to edit your photos quickly and you don't own any expensive photo editing software. It is highly recommended.

http://www.picnik.com/