If you can't afford to purchase software, you can still find free software to create and edit images. Some of this software is developed by individuals, and some is feature limited or an earlier version of a more advanced program. In some rare instances, there are no strings attached, but most often you will need to provide information to the company by registering, or endure ads or "nag" screens.
1) GIMP for Windows
http://www.gimp.org/docs/
ONLINE Help - http://docs.gimp.org/en/
Tips for using The GIMP - http://members.home.nl/m.weisbeek/gimp/
GIMP is a popular open-source image editor originally developed for Unix/Linux.
Often lauded as the "free Photoshop," it does have an interface and features
similar to Photoshop. Because it's volunteer-developed beta software, stability
and frequency of updates could be an issue; however, many happy users report
using GIMP for Windows without significant problems.
If this is the first time you're installing The GIMP,
you will also need GTK+ 2 Runtime Environment.
2) Serif PhotoPlus
http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/
For a long time, Serif has given away previous versions of their software to entice users to purchase the current version. Currently you can download a completely free, fully-functional version of PhotoPlus 6. PhotoPlus 6 features an export optimizer, editable text, image slicing and image maps, selection tools, smart shapes, third-party plug-in support, red-eye removal tool, and photo enhancement tools. PhotoPlus 6 works on Windows 95, 98, 98 SE, 2000, NT4, and XP. Note: You need to register with your email address to get PhotoPlus and you may receive promotional material as a result.
This fabulous software is free and yours to use for life. All we ask is that you complete the registration process in full. When you register, please make sure your details are accurate as we will send your registration key to the email address you provide. You will need to enter this registration key in order to continue using your free software.
The information that you supply during registration will be used to provide you with Serif 's monthly Newsletter and other carefully targeted email offers from Serif's group of companies including Gizoo and Harvard Graphics. Each email will also provide you with the ability to unsubscribe or optimize your email subscription at any time.
3) Paint.NET
http://www.getpaint.net/index2.html
Forum: http://paintdotnet.12.forumer.com/index.php?sid=ec3146ae0dbd1fbada40055ff43b2497
Paint.NET is a free image and photo manipulation software for Windows 2000, XP, Vista, or
Server 2003. Paint.NET started development at Washington State University with additional
help from Microsoft, and continues to be updated and maintained by some of the alumni that
originally worked on it. Paint.NET features layers, painting and drawing tools, special
effects, unlimited undo history, and levels adjustments. Paint.NET is completely free,
and the source code is also available for free.
4) Pixia
http://park18.wakwak.com/~pixia/
The help file should be installed AFTER Pixia is installed.
Pixia is the English version of a popular free painting and retouching software that originated in Japan. It features custom brush tips, multiple layers, masking, vector- and bitmap-based drawing tools, color, tone, and lighting adjustments, and multiple undo/redo. Like many freeware editors, there is no support for saving GIF format. Pixia is also available for many other languages. Pixia works with Windows 95, 98, Me, NT4, 2000, and XP.
5) VCW VicMan's Photo EditorThis award-winning graphic editor offers a variety of painting and editing tools and features including a text tool, gradients, selections by color or region, color replacement, editing in any scale, special effects and so on. The free version used to be an enticement to upgrade to the Pro version, but as of December 2006, the Pro version is free.
6) IrfanView Picture Viewer
http://www.irfanview.com/
IrfanView is a very fast, small, compact and innovative FREEWARE (for non-commercial use)
graphic viewer for Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista.
IrfanView is trying to create new and/or interesting features in its own way, unlike some other graphic viewers, whose whole "creativity" is based on feature cloning, stealing of ideas and whole dialogs from ACDSee and/or IrfanView! (for example: XnView has been stealing/cloning features and whole dialogs from IrfanView, for 7+ years).
IrfanView was the first Windows graphic viewer WORLDWIDE with Multiple (animated) GIF support. One of the first graphic viewers WORLDWIDE with Multipage TIF support. The first graphic viewer WORLDWIDE with Multiple ICO support.
Some IrfanView features:
Many supported file formats (click here the list of formats)
Multi language support , Thumbnail/preview option
Slideshow (save slideshow as EXE/SCR or burn it to CD)
Show EXIF/IPTC/Comment text in Slideshow/Fullscreen etc.
Support for Adobe Photoshop Filters
Fast directory view (moving through directory)
Batch conversion (with image processing) , Multipage TIF editing
File search , Email option , Multimedia player , Print option
Change color depth , Scan (batch scan) support , Cut/crop , IPTC editing
Effects (Sharpen, Blur, Adobe 8BF, Filter Factory, Filters Unlimited, etc.)
Capturing , Extract icons from EXE/DLL/ICLs
Lossless JPG rotation , Many hotkeys , Many command line options , Many PlugIns
Only one EXE-File, no DLLs, no Shareware messages like "I Agree" or "Evaluation expired"
No registry changes without user action/permission!
It's available in a number of languages including English and ( for a digital editor) is a tiny 1.6MB download. Like PhotoPlus it looks and works like an old version of PhotoShop. It can read and save files to JPEG, GIF, BMP, TIFF, PNG, RLE, comes with an impressive range of tools, brushes and filters. However it can't handle layers. That said, it offers a lot of functionality for a small program.
8) FastStone Image Viewer
http://www.faststone.org/
This is a speed demon with a zippiness in displaying images that's reminiscent
of the old ACDSee before it suffered feature bloat. It supports all major graphic
formats and popular digital camera RAW formats as well. It's also got good basic
image editing facilities, a great slide show and a very cute interface.
Much to like here. Free for personal use, Windows 98 and later.
9) FastStone Screen Capture
http://www.faststone.org/FSCaptureDetail.htm
A powerful, flexible and intuitive screen-capture utility.
It allows you to capture anything on the screen including windows, objects, full screen,
rectangle / freehand-selected regions and scrolling windows/web pages.