• Best Image Editors 2019
• Best Image Editor 2015 Download
• Best Image Editor 2015 Full
• Best Free Photo Editor 2015
• Best Image Editor 2015 Free
• Best Image Editor 2015 Online

1. How to Choose the Right Monitor for Photo Editing If you're a photographer or a photo editor, finding the right LCD for image manipulation is important. Here's what to look for in a display.
2. The 20 Best New Apps of 2015. 12/14/15 1:40PM. Aside from being a great photo-editing app in general, it also lets you create filters after every tone or color tweak, so you.
3. With the Luminar AI photo editor, you put the images where you want them, then point the program toward them for editing. From there, you can start editing your photos. You have access to a selection of editing tools, but the interface places a strong emphasis on the idea of one-click edits.

The best paid-for photo editors. Adobe Photoshop is the best photo editor! You may want a free tool to do a quick edit, but if you're planning on editing a lot of photos, you should consider signing up for Photoshop. Your monthly subscription gives you the world's best photo editing tools for the absolute best results.

When you select an image file (such as .ico, .bmp, .png) in Solution Explorer, the image opens in the Image Editor in the same way that code files open in the Code Editor. When an Image Editor tab is active, you see toolbars with many tools for creating and editing images. Along with bitmaps, icons, and cursors, you can edit images in GIF or JPEG format using commands on the Image menu and tools on the Image Editor toolbar.

Best Image Editors 2019

Graphical resources are the images you define for your application. You can draw freehand or draw using shapes. You can select parts of an image for editing, flipping or resizing, or you can create a custom brush from a selected part of an image and draw with that brush. You can define image properties, save images in different formats, and convert images from one format to another.

Note

Using the Image Editor, you can view 32-bit images, but you can't edit them.

You can also use the Image Editor and the Binary Editor to work with resource files in managed projects. Any managed resources you want to edit must be linked resources. The Visual Studio resource editors don't support editing embedded resources.

In addition to creating new graphical resources, you can import existing images for editing and then add them to your project. You can also open and edit images that are not part of a project for stand-alone image editing.

For information on the Image Editor, see how to Create an Icon or Other Image, Edit an Image, Use a Drawing Tool, Work with Color, and Accelerator Keys.

Note

Download at no cost the Visual Studio Image Library that contains many animations, bitmaps, and icons that you can use in your applications. For more information about how to download the library, see the Visual Studio Image Library.

Image Menu

The Image menu, which appears only when the Image Editor is active, has commands for editing images, managing color palettes, and setting Image Editor window options. Also, commands for using device images are available when working with icons and cursors.

The Grid Settings dialog box allows you to specify the grid settings for your image and displays grid lines over the edited image. The lines are useful for editing the image, but aren't saved as part of the image itself.

Toolbar

The Image Editor toolbar contains tools for drawing, painting, entering text, erasing, and manipulating views. It also contains an option selector, with which you can select options for using each tool. For example, you can choose from various brush widths, magnification factors, and line styles.

All tools available on the Image Editor toolbar are also available from the menu Image > Tools. To use the Image Editor toolbar and Option selector, select the tool or option that you want.

Image Editor toolbar

Tip

Tool tips appear when you hover your cursor over a toolbar button. These tips can help you identify the function of each button.

Since many of the drawing tools are available from the keyboard, it's sometimes useful to hide the Image Editor toolbar.

• To display or hide the Image Editor toolbar, go to menu View > Toolbars and choose Image Editor.

Note

Elements from this toolbar will appear unavailable when an image file from the current project or solution isn't open in the Image Editor.

Option selector

With the Option selector you can specify the width of a line, brush stroke, and more. The icon on the Option selector button changes depending on which tool you've selected.

Option selector on the Image Editor toolbar

Text tool

Use the Text Tool dialog box to add text to a cursor, bitmap, or icon resource.

To access this dialog box, open the Image Editor and go to menu Image > Tools, then select the Text Tool command.

Tip

You can right-click on the Text Tool dialog box to access a default shortcut menu that contains a list of standard Windows commands.

Open the Text Tool Font dialog box to change the font, style, or size of the cursor font. Changes are applied to the text displayed in the Text area.

To access this dialog box, select the Font button in the Text Tool dialog box. The properties available are:

To change the font of text on an image

Here is an example of how to add text to an icon in a Windows application and manipulate the font of your text.

1. Create a C++ Windows Forms Application. For details, see How to: Create Windows Forms Applications. An app.ico file is added to your project by default.

2. In Solution Explorer, double-click the file app.ico. The Image Editor will open.

3. Go to menu Image > Tools and select Text Tool.

4. In the Text Tool dialog box, type C++ in the empty text area. This text will appear in a resizable box located in the upper left corner of app.ico in the Image Editor.

5. In the Image Editor, drag the resizable box to the center of app.ico to improve the readability of your text.

6. In the Text Tool dialog box, select the Font button.

7. In the Text Tool Font dialog box:

   • Select Times New Roman from the list of available fonts that are listed in the Font list box.

   • Select Bold from the list of available font styles listed in the Font style list box.

   • Select 10 from the list of available point sizes listed in the Size list box.

   • Choose OK. The Text Tool Font dialog box will close and the new font settings will apply to your text.

8. Choose Close on the Text Tool dialog box. The resizable box around your text will disappear from the Image Editor.

The text area displays the text that appears as part of the resource. Initially this area is empty.

Note

If Transparent Background is set, only the text will be placed into the image. If Opaque Background is set, a bounding rectangle, filled with the background color, will be placed behind the text.

Window Panes

The Image Editor window shows two views of an image, with a split bar separating the two panes. You can drag the split bar from side to side to change the relative sizes of the panes. The active pane displays a selection border.

One view is actual size and the other is enlarged by a default enlargement factor of 6. The views in these two panes are updated automatically, any changes you make in one pane are immediately shown in the other. The two panes make it easy for you to work on an enlarged view of your image, in which you can distinguish individual pixels and, at the same time, observe the effect of your work on the actual-size view of the image.

The left pane uses as much space as is needed (up to half of the Image window) to display the default 1:1 magnification view of your image. The right pane displays a default 6:1 magnification zoomed image. You can change the magnification in each pane using the Magnify tool on the Image Editor toolbar or by using the accelerator keys.

You can enlarge the smaller pane of the Image Editor window and use the two panes to show different regions of a large image. Select inside the pane to choose it.

You can change the relative sizes of the panes by positioning the pointer on the split bar and moving the split bar to the right or left. The split bar can move all the way to either side if you want to work on only one pane.

If the Image Editor pane is enlarged by a factor of 4 or greater, you can display a pixel grid that delimits the individual pixels in the image.

To change the magnification factor

By default, the Image Editor displays the view in the left pane at actual size and the view in the right pane at 6 times actual size. The magnification factor (seen in the status bar at the bottom of the workspace) is the ratio between the actual size of the image and the displayed size. The default factor is 6 and the range is from 1 to 10.

1. Select the Image Editor pane whose magnification factor you want to change.

2. On the Image Editor toolbar, select the arrow to the right of the Magnify tool and select the magnification-factor from the submenu: 1X, 2X, 6X, or 8X.

   Note

   To select a magnification factor other than those listed in the Magnify tool, use the accelerator keys.

To display or hide the pixel grid

For all Image Editor panes with a magnification factor of 4 or greater, you can display a grid that delimits the individual pixels in the image.

1. Go to menu Image > Grid Settings.

2. Select the Pixel Grid check box to display the grid, or clear the box to hide the grid.

Requirements

None

See also

Resource Editors
Icons

• February 10, 2021
• 32 min to read

Modern digital photography goes hand in hand with post-processing software. Although today the photo editing software market offers an unlimited number of options for photographers of all levels, most of the community sticks to tried-and-true Adobe Photoshop. It indeed is a universal app equipped with tools that a professional photographer would wish for, but it’s time to make way for the new.

For the past decades, a lot of new and worthy photo editors entered the market bringing revolutionary technologies into the mundane editing process making even the most complex editing tasks doable for novices and streamlined for pros. Here we listed some of the best photo editing apps on the market including both old and new for photographers of different needs and skill levels.

1. Luminar AI

Completely revamped Luminar AI is finally here to shake up the world of photo-editing software. Improved to be even more intuitive, Luminar AI also brings a ton of brand-new AI editing tools designed to speed up the photo editing workflow.

- AI Sky Replacement automatically changes the sky and relights and recolors the entire photo to match the new sky.

- AI Skin Enhancer & Portrait Enhancer do all the retouching for you with just one click.

- AI Enhance automatically enhances your photo by making numerous adjustments of different complexity.

- AI Structure brings details up or down depending on your needs.

- Sunrays adds realistic sun rays to your photo that you’re free to tweak as you please.

- Smart Contrast was improved to produce a more detailed and textured image.

Luminar AI can not only be used as a stand-alone app but also as a plug-in for Adobe’s Photoshop and Lightroom to make the best of your tools.

✅ Pros:

• Non-destructive editing
• Intuitive interface
• Improved performance
• In-depth customization
• Available as a plug-in as well

✖️ Cons:

• Mediocre library functions
• Limited exporting options

2. Adobe Lightroom

Adobe Lightroom has been the app of choice for professional and amateur photographers alike for many years now. It offers a well-thought-out set of features for managing, organizing, processing, and exporting your photos. With the advanced library features, like labels, keywords, collections, and search filters, the app makes it easy for you to keep track of large numbers of photos. Lightroom comes with a good selection of RAW profiles to define colors in your photos for more precise editing. Tweak your photos to perfection with adjustment sliders, perspective and lens correction tools, retouching tools, filters, profiles, and presets to speed up your workflow.

✅ Pros:

• Built-in file management system
• Face detection and tagging
• Color and luminosity masking
• Plug-in support

✖️ Cons:

• Not the best choice for beginners
• A bit too taxing for Windows
• No auto-tagging
• Comparatively slow importing

Best Image Editor 2015 Download

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What photo editing software do you use and why? Let us know in the comments, we’d be very interested to know!

3. ACDSee PHOTO STUDIO ULTIMATE 2021

Photo Studio Ultimate 2021 is a one-stop photo management and post-processing tool for Windows. It comes with everything you need to handle your files, like categories, keywords, face detection, ratings, color labels, metadata, geolocation, and more. It’s quite powerful when it comes to photo editing, too, offering a broad set of tools for a variety of different purposes. It allows you to process your RAW, JPEG and other types of files in a non-destructive way in Develop Mode and perfect them in Edit Mode by adjusting color and lighting, bringing out details, removing flaws, and adding final touches. The user interface is completely customizable to suit your preferences.

✅ Pros:

• Excellent built-in file management system
• Powerful post-processing features
• Fully customizable interface

✖️ Cons:

• Available only for Windows
• Too overwhelming for beginners
• Subscription-based online storage gallery

4. GIMP

GIMP is a free and open-source photo-editing tool that has been around for more than 20 years. It boasts a limitless number of state-of-the-art features that you wouldn’t expect to see in a free photo-editing app. The interface has been recently updated to be easier to use, however it still can be quite confusing for novices. GIMP offers a broad set of tools suitable not only for basic but for advanced editing, too. Here you can enhance colors, adjust hue and saturation, fix composition, adjust sharpness, reduce graininess, remove unwanted objects, work with masks, layers, and more.

✅ Pros:

• 100% free
• Open access to the source code
• Has a broad selection of tools for different purposes
• Plug-in support
• Available for the main operating systems

✖️ Cons:

• Non-intuitive workflow
• Difficult to get the hang of
• Lack of HDR support

Best Image Editor 2015 Full

5. Aurora HDR

Aurora HDR is a powerful HDR tool that brings innovation and simplicity together. The most recent update introduced a new Quantum HDR engine with AI-powered tone mapping technology which allows for more intelligent photo merging to produce vivid yet natural-looking photos. Whether you’re creating an HDR photo from bracketed shots or a single image, the app’s neural network enhances the photo and makes sure that no halos or ghosting spoils the final result. The brand-new Smart HDR Structure feature boosts details and sharpness without creating undesired artifacts that can make a photo look unrealistic. With over 80 distinctive Looks, you can make your photo look stunning in just one click.

✅ Pros:

• One of the best HDR photo editors
• Swift performance
• Corrects badly taken single shots
• Doesn’t create artifacts, halos, or noise
• Available as a stand-alone app and plug-in
• Plug-in support

✖️ Cons:

• None worth mentioning

6. Adobe Photoshop Elements

Developed for beginner and hobbyist photographers, Photoshop Elements’ functions are naturally more limited than Photoshop’s but it has all the essentials for achieving astonishing results. It offers three editing modes:

The Quick mode includes the simplest tools for straightening and cropping photos, removing unwanted objects, enhancing portraits, and applying filters.

The Guided mode uses step-by-step wizards to take you through more complex edits like removing objects, replacing the background, merging multiple photos, creating double exposures, and more.

The Expert mode gives you access to more complex Photoshop-like features including layers, masks, and filters.

✅ Pros:

• Excellent for entry-level photographers
• Simple and straightforward interface
• One-time purchase
• A bunch of Photoshop-like features simplified for nonprofessionals
• Dozens of clear guides

✖️ Cons:

• Too limited functionality

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Exposure X6 looks like a refined version of Lightroom that inherited only the features that photographers liked and used the most. Some of the most hated features were eliminated or improved. Thus, there’s no time-consuming import process in Exposure X6 - you can get straight to editing by adding a folder with your photos in a few clicks. The interface is very well-organized and can be customized to suit your editing purposes. Besides non-destructive layer-based editing and cutting-edge tools that are crucial for the professional photo-manipulating process, Exposure X6 offers a mind-blowing collection of over 500 presets that you can customize to your liking.

✅ Pros:

• Beginner-friendly
• Well-organized and customizable interface
• No power-draining import process
• Non-destructive layer-based editing
• A broad selection of free presets
• No subscription

✖️ Cons:

• The interface design looks a bit outdated
• Lack of panorama and HDR tools

8. Capture One Pro

Capture One Pro is a full-fledged pro photo editor created for experienced photographers and serious hobbyists. Originally designed for tethered shooting, Capture One Pro is the fastest and most flexible tethering tool for photographers of all genres. It also offers top-notch RAW photo-editing functionality, smart photo organization tools, layer support, powerful adjustment tools, and plenty of other features you’re looking for in professional-grade photo software.

✅ Pros:

• Exceptional rendering of RAW files
• Numerous adjustment tools for different needs;
• Layer-based editing
• Industry-leading tethering features
• Fast and smooth spot removal
• Annotations feature

✖️ Cons:

• Lack of third-party plug-in support;
• Lack of panorama and HDR tools
• Limited organization features;
• Absence of history panel

9. Affinity Photo

Even though Affinity Photo can’t boast any organization or management tools, it’s well-packed with all kinds of editing features for photographers of all levels. The workflow includes several Personas, or modes, focused on different editing stages. Develop Persona focuses on RAW file processing, Photo Persona is used for boosting your photos using layers, lighting and color adjustments, curves, LUTs, etc. Tone Mapping Persona is for HDR editing, Liquify Persona for bending photos, and Export Persona for exporting finished photos.

✅ Pros:

• Layer-based editing
• RAW editing tools
• Panorama, HDR, and focus stack merging tools
• No subscription

✖️ Cons:

• No lens-based corrections
• Lack of organization tools
• No ability to save custom workspaces
• Poor noise reduction

10. Pixlr

One of the most powerful online photo tools, Pixlr has become a popular choice when it comes to making quick photo corrections. Since it’s a web app, it doesn’t take up any room on your computer and is compatible with all operational systems. Pixlr features a clean and intuitive interface with many tools for cropping, selecting, transforming, removing objects, retouching and adjusting your photos using numerous sliders for brightness, contrast, vibrance, saturation, shadows, and more. It also offers a vast collection of filters and effects that will enhance your photos in a snap!

✅ Pros:

• Beginner-friendly
• Great for quick editing
• Online
• 100% free
• Has a clean interface
• Offers a nice collection of filters and effects
• Mobile version available

✖️ Cons:

• Limited functionality
• Advertising can be annoying
• Can be laggy sometimes

11. Paint.NET

Developed to replace the iconic Microsoft Paint, Paint.NET has grown into a full-featured yet simple photo-editing tool for WIndows. The app offers a user-friendly interface that’s very easy to navigate. Paint.NET is packed with a nice set of tools for making your photos look beautiful in the most effortless way. Here you can play around with various adjustments, such as levels, curves, contrast, brightness, saturation, and more, selecting and removing objects, resize and crop your photos, and so much more!

✅ Pros:

• 100% free
• Unlimited history
• Layer-based editing
• Tons of creative filters and effects
• Suitable for beginner and intermediate users
• User-friendly interface
• Plug-in support

✖️ Cons:

• Only for Windows
• Interface design looks a bit outdated
• Limited functionality

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Do you agree with our opinion in this article? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Best Free Photo Editor 2015

FAQ:

Q: Which one is the best photo editing software?

A: Luminar AI is the best photo editing software because it offers the most powerful collection of features and tools for different editing needs.

Best Image Editor 2015 Free

Q: What is the easiest free photo editing software?

A: Paint.NET is the easiest free photo editing software, however, it has a very limited number of features suitable only for basic editing.

Q: Which photo editing software is the best for HDR photo editing?

A: Aurora HDR is the best HDR photo editing software with a broad set of tools for creating and correcting HDR images.

Q: How can I edit pictures on my computer for free?

A: GIMP free photo editor is the best way to edit pictures on your computer for free. It’s well-packed with features and is suitable for beginners and pros alike.

Q: Which photo editing software can be used as a plug-in for Photoshop/ Lightroom?

A: Luminar AI is the best Photoshop/ Lightroom plug-in that allows you to use its unique features in your go-to photo editor.

Whether you take photos for fun or business, it’s not an easy task to find a photo editing software that can best fit your photo editing needs with so many different options on the market. We believe that it’s easier to find something when you know what you’re looking for, so we came up with three criteria that you should take into account when looking for your one and only photo app. So, we recommend you to make your choice based on the features you want your app to have, the platform you’re going to use it on, and the price that you’re ready (or not) to pay for it. This will help you to filter out the irrelevant options and narrow your choices down to a few most suitable ones.

Features

Best Image Editor 2015 Online

We believe that all photo editing apps can be divided into several categories based on what they have to offer to users of different levels and needs. These categories are:

1. Photo editing software for beginners. If you’re just starting out in photography or need to apply quick corrections to your photos once in a while, you should opt for a beginner-friendly photo editor like Paint.NET or Pixlr. Such editors usually have a clean and straightforward interface without too many tabs and icons, and a decent set of tools for applying basic corrections.
2. Professional photo editing apps are designed for professional photographers and advanced hobbyists and give more control over photo processing and editing. Their use requires more specialized knowledge of photography and high photo-editing skill. Pro-grade photo editors like Adobe Lightroom or Capture One Pro often come with an in-build photo management system, provide support for RAW files, tethered shooting, and presets.
3. Software for creating and editing vector graphics. As you probably know, there are two types of graphics: raster and vector. Raster graphics represent images as a pixel grid, while vector graphics use lines and curves. Vector software can’t change pixels and thus is ineffective for photo correction. However, you can use vector software to add graphics to your photo such as text, shapes, lines. Many raster photo editors include a handful of vector tools, like GIMP or Photoshop.
4. AI photo software uses AI-based technology that allows reducing manual photo editing to a minimum - even the most complex editing tasks such as retouching or removing objects can be done with just a few clicks. Such apps are a popular choice among beginners and pros alike as they substantially speed up the editing process without affecting the quality. Luminar AI is one of a few decent AI photo editing tools on the market.
5. Open source photo editing apps are apps for which the source code can be viewed and changed by any user, like GIMP. It means that any user can interact with the program code to correct bugs, improve the exciting features and add new ones. Open-source software is usually completely free and for this reason much beloved by users of different levels of expertise.

Platform

There is another thing you should take into account when looking for your perfect photo-editing app - the platform you’re going to use it on. If you’re a Mac or Windows user, you’ve got a wider choice of options unlike, for example, Chrome OS users, who have a much more limited choice. Let’s take a closer look at what we have here.

• Windows is the most compatible with most of the photo software you're going to want to use. If you’re a Windows user, you have a great number of options to choose from including most widely-used apps like GIMP, Luminar AI, Lightroom, Paint.NET, and more.
• As Mac is the second most popular operating system, you won’t have any troubles finding a photo app compatible with it. Here you still have a vast number of options including Lightroom, Aurora HDR, Luminar AI, etc. The popular GIMP, however, isn’t compatible with Mac.
• If you’re a Chromebook user, your choice is limited to Google Play apps. Those, however, include a pretty good number of options, such as GIMP, Photoshop, Lightroom, and others. If you have strong programming skills, you could try installing external apps as well.

It doesn’t matter what platform you’re using if you choose to work in an online photo editor. It runs in a browser and doesn’t need installing.

If you’re looking for an app for your Android or iOS device, you should check what your app store has to offer. Some web and desktop apps, like Pixlr or Lightroom, however, have mobile versions.

Price

No matter how good the software is, its price can be a real dealbreaker. Luckily, not all photo editing software is paid for. There are such apps as GIMP and Paint.NET that are completely free. Paid options include subscription-based (Photo Studio Ultimate 2021, Lightroom) and one-time-fee (Luminar AI, Photoshop Elements, Affinity Photo) software. Some paid apps though have free trial versions, so you can test an app for free for several days to see if it’s worth the money.