Online Photo Editing with PicMonkey

A long, long time ago, PC's (that Personal Computer, for the young and uninitiated) were essentially stand-alone islands. Software and data were stored either on the PC itself, or on removable media (the most famous at that time being the "floppy disk"). Thus began the hard disk race to bring the largest available amount of storage space to the end user, without costing the equivalent of a car.

With the advent of the networking and its logical evolution the World Wide Web (Internet), PC's were no longer individual terminals, but all part of a Cloud (sort of like the Borg from the Star Trek series, minus the cyborg implants and urge for assimilation). At first, only data (files, images, songs) were stored online, but as of late, we're looking at the emergence of browser-based software.

As the name implies, browser-based software runs on your web browser, either using Java / Flash / Ajax or some other platform (at the rate of software development these days, names I just mentioned would probably be obsolete very, very soon, so don't shoot me for being "old fashion" if you're reading this sometime in the near future).

Compared to traditional software where you had to install on your PC before you can use it, these run straight off from within the browser (which is really convenient especially on enterprise PC's or public PC's where you don't have administrator privileges). As no installation is required, you can make do with minimal hard disk space, or even in tablets and smartphones that don't follow the traditional "install on hard disk and run" model. Portable software, which you can find on really neat sites such as www.portableapps.com, share this advantage, but do require some footprint on your hard disk or USB drive for installation.

There are a few downsides, first obviously being the fact that you'll need a connection to the Internet. This is fine when you're at home or where they have free WIFI, but not so nice or cheap if you're using your telco carrier's data plan (if at all any). Also, some of these require you to sign up and register so you can log-in, which may be a hassle. Lastly, there's the bit about online privacy and security, but in general, even using trusted services, it's pretty much the same as with Facebook or Gmail.

Phew, that's a really long introduction to this post, which I'd like to introduce the online photo editor - PicMonkey. (!)

Funny name and funny splash page aside, PicMonkey is a user-friendly alternative to traditional photo editors. For power users, it doesn't support layers or transparency, but it's more than adequate for the typical flow of crop, filter / enhance, resize, sharpen.

PicMonkey's no Photoshop (the Mercedes Benz of photo editors), nor GIMP (free open source equivalent), nor does it attempt to come anywhere close. Rather, it's a handy tool that will allow bloggers on the road to quickly touch up photos taken on their mobile gadgets (most famous being the i- or Galaxy-).

Briefly, once you've selected your image to edit, there's quite a few options on the menu bar on the left hand side. There's the one-click "Auto Adjust" button for those who feel lazy (or feel lucky). Beneath are the main menu selections for Basic Edits, Effects, Touch Up, Text, Overlays, Frames, and Textures. I won't go into the details, but do note that each of these menus open up into several sub-options, some of which can be quite extensive. For example (see above), under Basic Edits alone, you have the option for Crop, Rotate, Exposure, Colors, Sharpen and Resize.

Those who are crazy about filters will be pleased to hear that under Effects are a huge number of filters available, and practically all of them can be further fine-tuned. Well, I'll leave it at that, as I don't intend to get tangled up in a discussion of "creative and artistic" vs "purists" when it comes to photo editing preference.

Briefly, I've found PicMonkey to be simple and straightforward to use, plus the web address (www.picmonkey.com) is easy to remember.... :)

Some additions / improvements that I hope to see:-

• Ability to load image from URL or screen capture. Currently I have to either save to desktop or Print-Screen and save with Irfanview first).
• Resize algorithm could be improved. Currently looks bad after shrinking.
• Ability to select folders when saving images.
• Ability to publish photos to Twitter / Facebook, etc.. Personally, I don't use this, but I'm sure the are many people out there who would love to have this feature.

Well, that's all I have for now. PicMonkey is a nice complement that allows me to update my blog while on the road without having to return home for photo-editing. Of course, it's not the only online photo editing software out there, but for me, my advice is to pick one and stick with it once you're happy. Anyone out there care to share their experience with PicMonkey or any other online photo editor?