Graphics - Editors (41)

Blender is a powerful, integrated 3D creation software suite with character/solids modeling, animation, rendering, rigging, shading, motion tracking and post-processing tools. It lets users create high quality 3D graphics, movies and replay real-time, interactive 3D content. Its features can be extended with a variety of plug-ins, scripts, templates and more.

Cross platform (Mac, Linux). The program has been used for a wide variety of functions, including VFX, video edition, modeling etc.

Alternatively:

• Blender Portable from PortableApps (~25% smaller and segregates user scripts)
  
• Outdated X-Blender from WinPenPack

Snipaste is an easy screen capture and image edition program, with the ability to detect windows and menus and supporting pixel-level control. Both captured images and various clipboard content can be pasted as a floating window to the desktop. Images can be moved, organized into groups, saved to file, as well as basic editions like addendums, rotation, zoom, translucence etc.

The program can also grab colors, supports themes and includes multi-screen support. The default keys (which can be customized) are F1 for Snip and F3 for Paste.

ShareX is a feature-rich screenshot utility that can grab a selected area with a single key and then edit, save to clipboard, drive and/or instantly upload them to 25+ different hosting services (posts to Imgur by default). ShareX can capture screenshots with variety of shapes including rectangle, rounded rectangle, ellipse, triangle, diamond, polygon and freehand. Supports screenshots with transparency and shadow, as well as those that require scrolling. In addition to images, the program can upload other file types, supporting uploads from the clipboard, a watched folder, as well as drag-and-drop.

Additional tools include a powerful screen audio+video recorder (MP4/WEBM or animated GIF format), color picker, ruler, FTP client, monitor test, file hash checker, QR code generator+reader, image effects and much more.

GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a powerful photo and image editor for composition and authoring. It can be used as a simple paint program, a high quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter and much more.

The program is cross-platform with versions available for Mac and Linux. GIMP Portable is the PortableApps version of the program.

Notes:

1. If you're willing to risk trying a 2012 add-on, mimic Photoshop adjusts GIMP's layout to a switched on Photoshop-like single-window mode.
2. Alternatively, another portable package (though outdated from 2021) is X-Gimp.

Photoscape is an all-in-one photo software that lets you fix, arrange, and enhance your photos. It includes a wide range of tools, including a viewer/editor, batch renamer, RAW format converter, animated GIF maker, collage generator, paper print, splitter, contact sheet, and more. Includes a meta-data viewer for camera model, software version, DPI, etc. and file renamer that lets you for example change file names to the date the camera gave them. A "Paper Print" feature even lets you print out customizable lined, graph, or various different calendar/planning documents.

Note:

• v3.4 is the last portable version. Later versions are adware and write settings to the AppData folder, but a method is available to make it portable.
• The program has an update check nag screen. If you know how to disable this, please post in forums.

PhotoFiltre is a complete image editing/retouching program. It allows you to perform both simple and advanced adjustments to an image, as well as apply a vast range of effects and filters. Several extra plugins, selections, masks and patterns are available to download from the application website, to extend software features.

Languages: 26 including Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, and French. Website also available in French.

Alternatively, PhotoFiltre Portable is also available.

Krita is a painting program made by artists to make concept art, texture and matte painters, illustrations, and comics. It uses a wide variety of customizable brushes as well as drawing aids for shapes, straight lines, as well as layers, masks, and more. The interface is also customizable and can be modified to both light and dark themes.

The program also supports animations, textures and more.

Krita Portable is a portable wrapper for the program.

iPhotoDraw is a image editor and screencapture program. The program enables image filters, transformations, addendums, layers and arrangement. Photo filters include brightness/contrast, hues/saturation, inversion, sepia and grascale. Addendums include description text, call-out boxes (ballons), dimensions, stamps (1, 2, 3 ...) and more.

The program also includes image slicer, watermarks, a color picker, stamps and batch operations. Images can be sent to Microsoft Office, FTP, or other external programs.

PhoXo is an easy-to-use, small, and powerful image editing software intended as a mini-PhotoShop. Its features include layers, undo, over 50 special effects, batch processing, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools for selecting, croping, painting, retouching, measuring and navigation. You can easily add text effects to image, such as shadow text, ripple text, gradient color text etc.

RealWorld Paint is an image, photo, and animation editor that includes support for layers and layer styles, photo retouching, and vector layers. Also supports Photoshop plugins, animated GIF and PNG formats, and a variety of downloadable extras including plugins, layer styles, brushes, etc.

The program includes a basic screen capture program, and can import/export to Photoshop, GIMP, and Paint.NET editors. A command-line interface is available for exact coordinates when drawing shapes and an in-place calculator for use with simple expressions (like "256/3") when setting filter parameters.

Tux Paint is a drawing program designed for young children (kids ages 3 and up). It has a simple, easy-to-use interface, fun sound effects, and an encouraging cartoon mascot who helps guide children as they use the program. It provides a blank canvas and a variety of drawing tools to promote creativity.

Alternatively, X-TuxPaint is also available.

PixBuilder Studio is a free image editing software program for digital photo editing, images processing, and resizing. For digital photo editing, you can use its many professional quality functions. For example, it supports layers and Photoshop's .8bf filter format.

Note that the development of this software seems to have ceased.

FotoSketcher helps you take existing photos and modify them for a vintage or vibrant look, as well as a long list of available pencil sketch, pen-and-ink, or hand-drawn painting looks. All modifications include with a variety of settings and tweaks to control the look from dramatic to slight.

Also includes basic photo editing tools such as text, crop, rotate, even automatic contrast and sharpening.

Alternatively, FotoSketcher Portable is also available.

MyPaint is a fast and easy graphics application for digital painters, utilizing a brush system that's versatile and configurable. You work on your canvas with minimum distractions, bringing up the interface only when you need it. Supports graphics tablets made by Wacom and similar devices.

Cross-platform with clients available for Mac/Linux.

MyPaint Portable is a wrapper program for MyPaint. Alternatively, X-MyPaint is also available and can be updated to the latest version via this process (thanks shnbwmn).

Dynamic Draw is a vector graphics editor useful for making flowcharts, line drawings, org charts, buttons, etc. It is an object-oriented drawing and design program with an intelligent linking system. It can export to other vector graphics formats such as SVG as well as non-vector graphics formats like JPG, TIFF, PNG, EMF, WMF, PSD, BMP, and PSD.

The program supports OLE allowing one to copy objects and paste to other OLE applications and vice versa, but the portable mode may experience issues with this.

LazPaint is a full-featured image and photo editor with support for layers, drawing tools, filter effects, rendering textures and more. The program can do standard operations like resize, flip/rotate, and crop, as well as advanced operations like zoom without pixelation ("smart zoom") and complex color controls. Supports variety of image formats, including SVG, RAW images, PDN (paint.net) and WebP.

Cross-platform with clients available for Mac and Linux.

Alternatively, LazPaint Portable adjusts paths and includes both 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

Fotografix is a small image editor that can be used for graphic design, and basic drawing. Includes a variety of color tools, filters like "Sharpen", "Find Edges" as layers, channels, and masks. Paint and brush tools are included and the program supports a wide number of graphics formats including those of Photoshop and GIMP.

A help file and 20 additional world languages including Chinese, Spanish, French, etc. are available from the website.

Hot Spot Studio is an image generator that creates interesting, colorful, or abstract images. Placing one or more spotlights on the work canvas, changing the size and intensity, and letting the program render "lights" produces some unique, beautiful results. The program can also start with existing images as a backdrop. Great for experimenting with color palates, creating desktop backgrounds, making eye-catching document templates, or modifying existing images with an aged or unusual look.

Drag the screen to a larger size to increase the image canvas (this will increase render time). Outputs to JPG files.

Inkscape is a vector graphics editor and open alternative to commercial apps like Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw, or Xara X. Useful for branding, icons, web design, publishing and even illustrated maps, it supports features like shapes, paths, text, markers, clones, alpha blending, transforms, gradients, patterns and grouping. Uses the open W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format, as well as exporting to other vector-based and standard image types like PNG. Imports formats such as JPEG, PNG and TIFF.

Inkscape Portable is a portable wrapper distributed by the publisher using the PortableApps.com format. Alternatively, X-Inkscape is another wrapper that writes settings to the application folder.

Those on Windows XP and Vista should use 0.92.3 as that is the last supported version for those operating systems.

Artweaver is an image editor that tries to simulate natural brush tools eg. chalk, charcoal, pencils. It supports common image formats such as BMP, GIF, JPEG, PCX, TGA, TIFF, PNG and PSD, in addition to its own format (AWD). Image editing functions includes selection, gradient, crop, fill, transparency, layers, effects (sharpen, blur, emboss, mosaic etc.).

A pro version is also available with additional features.

ArtRage is a painting package that features numerous realistic painting tools in a simple, intuitive environment. ArtRage lets you paint your own picture from a blank canvas, or load an image to 'trace' using any of its painting tools, letting you recreate your own images as painting.

Note: ArtRage no longer appears to be portable. The settings are written to the user profile folder instead of the application folder. Therefore I am freezing the portable version at V1.1 until further development.

ImBatch is a powerful image processing tool with a long list of available tools for modifying one or more files. Available options include resize, rotate, modify colors, metdata, blur, shadow, crop and many more. Tasks can be chained (e.g. adjust contrast + sharpen) and reordered to just preview not just one change but multiple edits. Any process can be saved for quickly assembling future edits.

The program can also optimize images, create or add to an existing PDF, create animations (GIF), and upload the results to a remote server. The program can also passively watch a given folder for images to process and longer operations can put the computer in standby to save power once they conclude.

Smart functions include autocrop, auto-enhance, auto-stitch (for panorama-type images). The program supports a wide range of formats, command-line operations and batch task settings for easy load/unload of operations.

PhotoWipe is an basic image processing tool that can remove unwanted objects from photos. Paint over the area you want to remove (or unnecessary subjects) in black and press the preview button. Experiment with larger and smaller blocks of coverage for a different effect.

Jcropper is an image converter for lossless JPEG cropping with options for fixed aspect ratio, grayscale/progressive conversion, copy markers, etc.

Pixopedia XE (Extended Edition) is a portable image editor with a powerful and configurable brush engine. Its auto-brushing tool allows for the emulation of various photographic painting styles. Advanced image filters and processing is also supported through IPP, OpenCV and even neural network style transfer via its integrated Lua scripting engine.

Pixopedia XE is not for the faint-of-heart and has a steep learning curve. However, it is very powerful and should be very rewarding for those who take the time to master it.

PicPick is a versatile all-in-one tool for images on the desktop. Includes a powerful screen capture tool, editor, color picker and palette, pixel ruler, protractor, crosshair, whiteboard and more. Can upload images automatically to FTP, Facebook, Twitter, default e-mail program, or send to installed Microsoft Office programs (Word, Excel, or PowerPoint).

Alternatively, PicPick Portable is stealth and automatically adjusts paths.

paint.net is an image and photo editing software with support for layers, unlimited undo, image effects and a tabbed thumbnail interface. The program includes a variety of paint bushes and selection tools as well as image filters such as sharpening, red-eye removal, distortion, noise etc.

The program supports plugins and will automatically start in 64-bit within an operating system that supports it.

Use 4.3.12 for: Windows 7 (32/64-bit) [with Platform Update], 8.1 (32/64-bit), or 10 (32-bit). It can be downloaded from here or here.

Speedy Painter is an OpenGL-based paint software that features layers, a rich brush engine with size and opacity of strokes determined by pen pressure, and selection mask. The program includes a reference view to assist in creating a painting based on a reference image and an available replay of paint process that can be exported to video.

NOTE: requires a graphics card that supports OpenGL 3.0, which is widely supported in hardware newer than 2015.

Panchromatic is a very lightweight application which produces a simple monochrome line drawing of any image file. By reducing an image to only a handful of colours Panchromatic can draw lines where any two colours meet.

Line color is customizable as well as the amount of detail captured in the outlines.

Functional on 64-bit systems.

AnmanieSMP is a graphics morphing/deforming software similar to Photoshop's "Liquify" function or Kai's Power Goo. Can also export morphed pictures as animations.

The program is no longer being developed. Although the website is in German, the program is in English by default.

nomacs is an easy to use image viewer with basic edit features and folder preview. The program includes image manipulation including rotate, adjusting brightness, contrast, saturation etc. and includes a pseudo color feature for creating false color images. It will even synchronization multiple instances to allow image comparison of the same position on different images.

The program can view images inside archives or MS Office files.

Clients also available for Linux, FreeBSD, Mac, and OS/2.

Version for 32-bit Win2K/XP/Vista

PaintStar is a lightweight, versatile digital image processing software suitable for such tasks as retouching of photographs, composing and authoring images, image morphing, screen capture, and filters. It supports alpha, layer, path, and the most common editing techniques.

GiF Resizer reduces the physical size of animated GIF files. This is not a compression program but instead changes the dimensions of the picture (e.g. 300x300 file reduced to 150x150) without changing other animation settings such as frame rate or colors.

This is useful for creating thumbnails of animated GIF files or for reducing the download size of the file.

Active Pixels is photo editor with a variety of intelligent auto-enhance options including shadow/hilight recovery, many filters like sharpen, colorize, correction and denoise settings. Various brushes and the ability to add text are also available.

Includes batch capabilities for many images including flip, rotate, resize, etc.

Note: Main site offline (thanks NickR). Linking to archive.org website and Softpedia download.

Whitenoir converts any image to a strictly two colour monochrome image. Using a really simple user interface it's possible to convert any image in just three mouse clicks. The transformation is totally configurable. You can pick which two colours the resulting image should use and tweak the brightness threshold for the dark and light pixels to make your image more or less dark. You can use Whitenior for creating sharp bitmaps from pencil drawings

Functional on 64-bit systems.

WildBit Viewer is a compact and fast image viewer with component slide show and editor tools. The program includes a thumbnail viewer with various sorting and sizes, as well as a metadata viewer and favorites. Other viewer options include a side-by-side image compare and custom show creator with transition effects.

Supports 70+ graphic formats including JPEG, JPEG 2000, GIF, PNG, PCX, TIFF, WMF and TGA, as well as a search function with detailed image search criteria.

SunlitGreen Photo Editor is a lightweight photo enhancer and color editor. Features drag and drop, viewer with easy-to-use zoom tools, edit/save image selections, automatic color correction as well as advanced, channel-oriented color corrections, previewable image adjustments, as well as image filters for creating special effects.

PaintBox is an lightweight image editor intended as an improvement on Windows' own Paint program, but with an emphasis on drawing, painting, selection and zoom functions. You can also flip/mirror, resize, rotate, crop, and even apply effects (brightness, contrast, RGB, grayscale, etc).

The program supports GIF, BMP, and JPEG image files, and comes with a built-in image browser for locating and open images for editing.

Note: main site offline, linking to softpedia (thanks Grinder).

TwistedBrush is a complete utility for artists with a simple to use and intuitive interface. Comes with artistic brushes, layers, realistic media, photo cloning, tracing, masks, particles, filters, script recording, and scripts to AVI. The program supports drawing tablets, patterns, textures, Adobe compatible plug-in support, integrated scanner support, drawing guides, reference image views, dirty brushes, scratch layer, dynamic palettes and a whole lot more.

The free edition of TwistedBrush with most of the great features of the commercial version apart from brush editing and fewer included brushes. The program comes with a tutorial that appears at startup, which is recommended.

NOTE: the website no longer mentions this free version -- linking to Softpedia (thanks billon).

Pixia is a powerful raster graphics editor with a unique user interface. It includes various photo filters, brushes, layers, text and broad file format support. Note that the program has a fairly unique interface so, when learning Pixia, it's easier to discard everything you know about other editors like Photoshop or Paintshop and start from scratch with the tutorials and help files.