Top 5 Imaging Programs

Imaging programs are very useful tools for graphic designers. Even the non-professional designers make use of imaging programs to create the simplest designs for their projects.

Anyone who is into computer design for fun or for a living can appreciate how imaging programs can help make their tasks easier.  With imaging programs, one can easily edit photos, create graphics, computer-aided designs and similar projects.

Image editors are among the most popular and commonly used imaging programs which help designers create images virtually from scratch.  It offers various painting tools which are very much like the basic painting tools, albeit computer-based.  This allows you to enhance photos and retouch them as well.  Using this application will classify your saved photo or scanned image as a bitmap.  Bitmap images are very convenient for retouching because you can get a lot of detail.  However, you may have a problem with the image’s pixel resolution.

Here are some of the imaging programs you can tinker with if you are into graphic design and computer-aided graphic projects.

1. Adobe Photoshop

This imaging program was developed by Adobe Systems and is considered a market favorite in terms of graphics editing, image manipulation and bitmap images.  The newest version of Adobe is Photoshop CS3 Extended which was released only this year.  This is the third version since Adobe renamed the Photoshop products.  It boasts of new tools, non-destructive filters, 3D and scientific imaging.

2. Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo

This is an imaging program for bitmap graphics editing and vector graphics editing.  Rights to the program were originally owned by Jasc Software of Minneapolis. The rights to distribute the program now belong to Corel Corporation after it purchased Jasc Software in 2004.  The program, which is more popularly known as Paint Shop and as Adobe Photoshop’s competitor, can be downloaded as shareware.  Adobe Photoshop is more popular than this imaging program because the former has versions for Microsoft and Apple Macintosh.

3. Corel Painter

This imaging program is now available both in Windows and Macintosh.  Designers can make use of the program to create images that are natural-looking with its freehand feature.  The user can also choose from several effects like oil paints and watercolor and print the output in canvas or paper.

4. Corel Photo-Paint

This imaging program is bundled with the Corel Draw Graphics Suite.  It can create graphics and manipulate images.  It also allows users to remove redeye in photos.  The program can be downloaded from the website of Corel as a freeware.

5. Microsoft Paint

This imaging program used to be known as Paintbrush for Windows and can be found bundled with Microsoft Windows. Users can experiment with color mixtures as the program allows simultaneous picking up of three colors.  There are a lot of functions which the user can practice to improve his craft.

Imaging programs are not that expensive (some are even available for free) especially if you think of the benefits one can get from the special effects that these programs offer.  However, the choice of which imaging program is best for you depends on your requirements and projects.