Find the Perfect Freeware, Feature-Rich Image Editing App for You Adobe Lightroom Beta and PXN8 Jamie Bsales
Adobe Lightroom: Free ... for Now
Anyone looking for a bit more sophisticated product will want to check out the Adobe Lightroom Beta. Adobe is offering the program as a free public beta through January 31, 2007 at least, at which point it will likely become a for-pay product. While still a work in progress, Lightroom is nonetheless a full-fledged image-editing program aimed at pro photographers and serious hobbyists.
To get the program, you'll need to register with Adobe and answer a few survey questions about your primary profession and so on. You can then download either the Windows or Mac versions of the program alone (less than 10MB), or the program already populated with (copyrighted) sample images and projects (about 115MB). We chose to download and install just the program itself, a painless process that took just a couple of minutes.
The subdued interface of Adobe Lightroom makes it easy to concentrate on your art.
Launching the program pops up a "Five Rules" dialog box that explains the workflow and interface of the program. The user interface, done in black, white, and shades of gray, is understated (yet attractive), and lets your eye train on the central image you are working on. Along the top right of the main interface you'll find the words Library, Develop, Slideshow and Print, which guide you through the typical workflow for an image. Clicking on any of those changes the tool palette boxes to the right and left of your image, while a running Filmstrip along the bottom displays your image library at a glance.
Lightroom borrows a few organizational concepts from Adobe's popular consumer-level Photoshop Elements editing/organizing package. The Library lets you see photos by shoot, by collection or by keywords or ratings you've assigned as you import them to the program from your My Pictures folder (or a camera or other location).
Picking an image from the Filmstrip and then clicking on the Develop tab brings up a range of color-centric editing choices (as well as cropping and straightening tools). Mouse over the list on the left, and the image preview above the list shows you the change before you commit to it. If you like what you see, click to apply it to the main image. We were happy with the default results, though advanced users will appreciate the complete control afforded by the sliders to the right of the image.
The Slideshow tab lets you create a slideshow from your selected images. You can chose to keep the photo's original aspect ratio or switch to a widescreen format, set a backdrop color, set the duration for each image and more. With this beta, you can only export to PDF format (without sound), but we trust that will change in the final release. The Print tab gives you complete control over printing your images, including printing contact sheets and fine-art matte prints.
Adobe warns that Lightroom is not yet complete, but we still found more than enough functionality to correct and enhance photos. If you are more serious about your photos, we recommend downloading the Lightroom Beta before the free trial period runs out.
PXN8: Web-based and Basic
By far the simplest of the free utilities we surveyed is Sxoop Technologies' PXN8 (pronounced "pix-en-ate"). It really isn't a utility at all, but rather a Web-based service — log on to the site, and you're ready to go. We like that there's nothing to download and install, though the editing tools the service offers don't match those available from the full-blown apps we tried.
The tool icons to the left have clear explanations and enable basic but effective image editing, all without installing a program on your PC.
PXN8's simple 1-2-3 instructions — choose an image to edit, edit the image using the tool icons displayed, and then save the image to your hard drive (or a Web site) — help even newbies get started right away. Clicking on "Choose image to edit" opens a dialog box that lets you browse for images on your hard drive or connected camera. You then click on the "Upload this image" button, and in a few seconds (for a 500K 3.2-megapixel image over broadband) your photo appears in the large central preview area.
Mousing over the tool icons on the left side of the screen pops up a box with tool name along with a plain-English description of what it does, with no jargon. (For example: "Fill Light: This tool offers a quick fix for underexposed photographs. Just click to add light to dark dreary photos. Repeat until happy.")
There are 14 tools (including fill light, red-eye reduction, sepia tone, zoom, resize and rotate), plus six effects (including blur and snow) that you can add. The undo button lets you cancel changes sequentially with a click. The tools were exceedingly easy to work with and performed as promised.
Granted, PXN8's tools are no more extensive than you get with an online photo-sharing or photo-finishing service. But with PXN8, you don't have to register or join anything: simply go to the homepage and start editing. That makes it a good choice for people who occasionally need basic image editing and don't want the hassle of installing a program.
Jamie Bsales is an award-winning technology writer and editor with nearly 14 years of experience covering the latest hardware, software and Internet products and services.
