PhotoFiltre – Free image and photo retouching software

Posted on December 10, 2008 at 5:23 am

I’m a big fan of free software and I’ve written extensively about many programs in my Free Software Downloads category. One program that I recently ran across is another great example of why you should never really have to buy software unless you are doing something for professional purposes.

Earlier I wrote about how to retouch photos using Photoshop, but this requires spending lots of money for a program which is overkill for 99% percent of PC users. I also wrote about ArtWeaver, a free alternative to Photoshop that I said was the best alternative. However, I believe PhotoFiltre is better for the reasons below.

If you want to do simple things with your photos like flip horizontally & vertically, crop photos, adjust the size, adjust brightness/contrast, adjust color levels, or add effects to your photos like sharpening, blurring, etc, then you don’t need Photoshop.

PhotoFiltre is a completely free and powerful image retouching program. Not only can you perform simple enhancements like those mentioned above, but you can also do many advanced adjustments like using masks, add transparency effects, use advanced text effects (rotation, shading, etc) and even blend images together.

There are a ton of features on this program, so I’ll try to list the main ones here:

Completely portable photo retouching program. No install needed! When you run the EXE file, it extracts all the files into a folder. You can then run the program from the folder itself. You can copy this folder to a USB drive and run it from there.
Filters – Contains a wide array of filters for beginners to advanced users. There are over 100 filters including saturation, gamma correction, watercolor, pastel, pointillism, and lots more.

Ability to scan images using a TWAIN compatible device (web cam, scanner, etc)
Batch automation – Convert, resize, adjust color settings, apply filters to a group or batch of images
PhotoMasque Mode – Using preset masks you can create advanced effects like contour and transparency on your images.

Toolbar – The toolbar comes with all of the drawing tools you would find in Photoshop, plus standard brushes, etc.

PhotoFiltre also has other functions including an image browser, plug-in manager, ability to export GIF images to ICON format, advanced text effects and more.

Overall, it’s a great free photo editing program that is perfect for casual photo retouching and editing. Enjoy!

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