Free Photo & Graphic Editing Sites

There is so much concern and “Buzz” about Google shutting down the Picnik.com site, so I decided to provide you with some alternative tools for editing and customizing your graphics, photos, and images.   While Picnik.com will be shutting down in April 2012, here are some other options you have available immediately and for FREE.

Ribbet.com is the twin brother/sister of Picnik.com.  For those mourning the loss of picnik.com, Ribbet will be your perfect replacement. You won’t be able to tell the difference other than the URL and web address you’ll be editing your photos and images on.

iPiccy.com comes in second place for replicating Picnik. iPiccy is a preferred choice by many for the simple reason that the editing and adding special effects is simple and only a click away. What might take hours in a photo editing software takes only seconds to create and save using iPiccy.com.

PicMonkey.com is a no monkey business site and is a personal favorite by many readers here.  PicMonkey offers a variety of features and tools you wouldn’t expect to see from an online photo/image editing site.  Scissor frames, curve, dodge, and burn… and a Facebook app?  PicMonkey is NOT one to miss.

FotoFlexer – Create some dazzling photo and image effects in your browser for FREE.  Use Animations, resizing, coloring, contrast and more.  Take a look at These 5 Demo’s for a quick tour of what FotoFlexer has to offer, you’ll love some of these cool features.  Smart Scissor is a favorite feature.

Pixlrand for Picnik users, try Pixlr Express.  You’ll love the Editor, the Pixlr-o-matic, the Pixlr Grabber for Firefox and Chrome browsers, and the Pixlr Imm.io hosting, all of which are very robust and user friendly cool features.

LunaPic – This site will rock your world!  Lunapic offers more choices and options for photo editing and custom effects than some of the paid software applications I’ve purchased and used in the past.  Use vignettes, color bars, animated imaging, picture frames, retro color, collages, custom text, reflection animations, slide shows, and a ton more.  One of the most feature rich FREE online editors available.  You’re gonna love this site.

FreeOnlinePhotoEditor – A really simple and easy to use photo and image editor for those “quick fix and gotta go” graphics.  Very basic but simple and fast.  Some of the other online photo and image tools include:  OnlinePhotoTool.com: Online photo editorAutomatically resize your images when sending it by emailCreate an Image from your RSS feedCreate Image from your Tweet and Twitter account, and Create, save and email screenshots.

BeFunky –  Be Funky lets you do some pretty amazing things with your photos and graphics.  Most of the features and tools are focused on creating cool, fun, and funky effects and artwork.  The site’s name says it.  Some of the effects available would take hours to create in Photoshop or other high end and costly photo/image editors.

Definitely worthy of a visit and tour.

Photoshop.com – That’s right, you can use Photoshop online and for FREE.  You’ll need to register, but I promise it will be worth it.  The Photoshop tools are powerful and very easy to use.  Be prepared to spend a little time here, you’ll be amazed at what they have to offer and allow you to do online for free.  I’m not going to lie, this is one of my favorites and my personal replacement for Picnik.com closing down.

GIMP – GIMP is very similar to Adobe Photoshop except that GIMP is FREE.  It does require you to download the software but one huge benefit to that is it will never be bought and shut down on you.  It is a very powerful and feature intense program so unless you’re really experienced with editing and graphic design, or you have more time than it takes to close a short sale, you may want to stick with one of the others.

I personally like to use GIMP for graphic design more than image or photo editing.

Combine all these together and you’ll have more FREE editing tools and features than you’ll ever need or use and absolutely FREE.  Take a few moments to review each site, bookmark them, then give each one a try to see which one(s) best meet your photo and image editing needs.  Enjoy! 🙂

Comments (21)

  1. Pingback: Google is Closing Down Picnik | Brads Domain

  2. Brad, I was so bummed out yesterday when I logged into my account on Picnik & found out it was going away…i wrote a blog post on it too! You have picked my spirits up because my pictures meld so readily into my real estate profession and my stomping ground of RI…thanks for this great share & ALL that you share with all of us!

    Ginny Lacey Gorman

    North Kingstown Real Estate Agent

    • Brad Andersohn

      Hi Ginny – as a Premium paying member, I too pouted for a bit then decided to be part of the solution or to at least try and help those I know who were feeling the same way. I think you’ll really like these sites and you may even find (as I did) that there are some even BETTER or at least comparable sites and options available out there. Thanks. 🙂

  3. Hi Brad! Thanks so much for the information! I think I’ll give LunaPic and Photoshop.com a try to see. I’ve LOVED Picnik and my sellers love the collages that we create with it for our marketing. I will definitely miss being able to do it with my eyes closed! LOL

    Onward and upward, I suppose! Thanks again! Hope you’re doing great…time to chat??!! 😉

  4. Thank you so much for this article. I, too, am mourning the loss of the easy to use Picnik.com for my photos from my digital camera. I’m very techy most of the time, but graphics has always been more of a challenge. I’ll have to give these a try! For basic resizing, cropping, and adding text, plus minor tweaks – which would you say is the absolute easiest? Thanks again so much.

    • Brad Andersohn

      Hi Kaye – I think they all are fairly easy but you should take each one for a spin and then see which one(s) works best for you, if you get stuck or need help, just let me know.

  5. Pingback: iPiccy Is Picnik’s Closest Replacement | Brads Domain

  6. Brad, It definately is already working on Google+, thanks for these other suggestions. You can never have too many of these programs for different objectives.

  7. Pingback: How To Create FREE InfoGraphics | Brads Domain

  8. Pingback: 50 Facebook Brands & Cover Photos | Brads Domain

  9. Kazuto

    Brad, blingee.com is shutting down now, too. I love adding frames that sparkle, backgrounds that glitter, and so on to pics that I take or find to add a little more to. But sadly the only one I found close to Blingee is picmix.com. I like it and all, but it’s a bit confusing. I was wondering if there were any other sites that are similar to Blingee. If you can find any will you let me know? I would like to make that site my new home. Hopefully it sticks around lol.

  10. Hello guys, I hope you’re doing well!

    If you’re looking for an online photo editor, you may consider checking out PixTeller (https://pixteller.com). You can create any kind of posters, flyers, business cards, social media graphics, anniversary cards and so on. All you have to do is to SIGN UP and to let your imagination work for you. It’s easy, fun and really affordable. Actually you can design for free with no watermark and upgrade your account for more awesome features. Convince yourself and you will be surprised!

    See you around!
    Georgie – PixTeller

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