If you've ever needed to resize an image quickly, then you need a tool that makes it as easy and as straight forward as possible.

VSO Image resizer organizes your photos by shrinking their resolution or reducing them on your hard drive. It's a one stop easy to use solution for all those that need to resize, compress, convert, create copies, import or organize photos. The main benefit of this is that the photos take up less storage space and are much easier to e-mail. You can also use them in third party applications much easier too such as design applications and other image editors. In addition, it's a good idea for webmasters to use this because reducing the resolution alone can mean that your webpages load much more quickly. You can change their format and also edit large numbers of image files at once as it supports batch editing. While the program doesn't have a particularly great interface, it is integrated very well into Windows shell so it's easy to access simply by right clicking.

If you're looking for a super quick and easy images resizing solution, then VSO will more than cater for your needs.

Download VSO Image Resizer 2.0.1.11b in Softonic

FastStone Photo Resizer is a free image converter/resizer intended to enable users to convert, rename, resize, crop, rotate, change color depth, add text and watermarks to images in a quick and easy batch mode. Drag-and-drop mouse operation is also well supported in the program.

Main features:

• Convert and rename images in batch mode
• Resize, crop, change color depth, apply color effects, add text and watermark.
• Rename images with sequential number
• Support folder/non-folder structure
• Load and save settings
• Mouse wheel support

Download FastStone Photo Resizer 2.6 in Softonic

FastStone Photo Resizer is designed to make resizing of large numbers of photos on the move as easy as possible.

If you're a design professional or produce presentations on a regular basis, you'll find this program useful especially if you travel around a lot. You can perform several basic functions in addition to resizing such as rotating, cutting and pasting, colour alterations and of course adjust the brightness and contrast of your images. In addition, once resized, you can add text and watermarks to images although the text styles and formats are limited. Of course, this is nothing special for an image resizer but the big bonus is that it can be run directly from a USB stick in which case it doesn't need installing - perfect if you are in a hurry.

The interface is very easy to use and supports the dragging and dropping of images into the program which speeds up conversions of huge batches significantly compared to browsing to each file. It supports a decent amount of formats including the relatively rare JPEG2000 format which is unusual for any type of imaging utility. The batch renaming and resizing utility also saves you work and time (and the risk of duplicated images) by automatically renumbering adjusted images in sequential order.

This is an excellent portable image resizer and if you're looking for something in this area which is free, fast and simple, you need look no further.

Download FastStone Photo Resizer Portable 2.6 in Softonic

Imagine spending the whole weekend taking lovely pictures of landscapes... only to arrive home and see that the skyline in some of them is completely tilted.

Don't worry, there's an easy way to fix it. Simply use Rotation Pilot and restore the horizon to its original position while keeping the same image quality as the original photo.

This is how it works: load the picture and draw a line with your mouse along the horizon (the tilted one, not the one you'd like to have). The program will automatically rotate the picture to the desired position. If there's any cropping or smoothing needed, you can also enable those options and let Rotation Pilot do the job, though the cropping will obviously affect the borders of the original photo. The program also includes rotating, resizing and mirroring options for further photo edition.

With Rotation Pilot you can easily fix visual slopes and tilted horizons in your digital photos.

Download Rotation Pilot 1.0.4 in Softonic

Photo Gadget Pro is a shell extension that adds image editing options to Windows Explorer. It can rotate, resize and rename images, add a caption and/or frame and carry out format conversions. To use the program just select images to work with in Explorer's window, right click the selection and choose an action from the context menu.

When adding a caption you can choose between typing in text or using a graphics file. Framing is simple single or double outline where you set the width and colors. Multiple file rename mask is provided with several options including an automatic counter. If you have that kind of camera Photo Gadget Pro can also rotate images based on EXIF information.

Download Photo Gadget Pro 2.4 in Softonic

Despite having possibly the strangest name in the history of software, Qtpfsgui is actually a very powerful digital photography tool that allows you get the lighting of your images just right. The application is used to adjust the lighting of images taken at different exposures in order to make them consistent with each other, using HDR technology. Given three images - one over-exposed (say, -2), one normally exposed (0) and one under-exposed (+2), the application will automatically fuse the images in order to ensure the correct exposure in each picture.

This is a technique that would require you to be an expert in photography in the real world, and all the lighting and exposure adjustments you'd have to make would drive you crazy. Qtpfsgui offers a range of clay/tone mapping filters to help you further enrich the quality of your pictures. These include: Fattal, Ashikmin, Durand, Drago, Pattanaik, Reinhard'02 y Reinhard'04. Overall, Qtpfsgui is a near-faultless app, available for free, for uniting three images and further enhancing them with filters. What's more, this can all be done with the minimum amount of effort on your part.

Download Qtpfsgui 1.9.0 in Softonic

DeformerPro is probably one of the easiest ways to have some fun with your photos and your PC on one of those boring Sunday afternoons.

First of all, bear in mind that this program is mainly intended for people who have little or no knowledge of photo editing at all. Power users may find it then a bit too simple but in any case it works really well for a quick morphing effect.

Simply run it (no installation required) and load a photo. Then start deforming the image with the mouse's right button and see how it's coming out in real time. At the beginning it'll all look weird but soon you'll get the knack of it. The overlaid grid also helps to achieve better results. Just one thing: you really need to be careful because DeformerPro only supports a one-level undo.

Once you like the final image (you can get a better look by temporarily disabling the grid) you'll be able to save it as JPG, BMP or PNG, ready to be published online or shared by email. Just be careful not to hurt other people's feelings!

Though probably too simple for expert image editors, DeformerPro is a great tool to apply warping effects to your photos in no time.

Download DeformerPro 1.0 in Softonic

I've always felt a special fascination for mosaics. From Roman tile compositions to current digital collages, I think they're an awesome artistic expression. That's why I was so happy when I found Andreamosaic.

This tool enables you to create amazing mosaics from your digital pictures in a very easy way. It requires having a large collection of photos to use as tiles, that's true. Fortunately the installation file already includes a pack of 500 sample photos that produce excellent results.

The program's interface is quite dull; in fact it's simply a gray window with too much text on it. But the mechanics are easy to understand so you'll be creating your own mosaics in no time! Plus, the program includes a 20-page manual that explains everything thoroughly. Just remember that the more tiles you use, the longer it will take to generate the mosaic and the larger the final file will be.

Andreamosaic lets you create beautiful mosaics from your own digital photos in a very easy way.

Download Andreamosaic 3.21 in Softonic

Sometimes a slight color change is enough to turn a standard photo into a great picture. This is precisely what you can do with B/Works, a simple photo editing tool that enables you apply color and light effects to your photos very easily.

The program features a basic interface – so basic it doesn't have any help or configuration settings at all. But the truth is that you don't need any of those either. Simply load the photo you want to work with and begin experimenting with all the filters included in B/Works.

There are plenty of them available, from a plain black and white effect to a high contrast duotone filter that will add a dramatic touch to your image. You can see how each filter actually looks like on your photo, but only in two ways: either 1:1 view or fit window size.

One last tip: once you find the right effect for your photo, remember to save it with a different name. Otherwise the original file will be overwritten.

B/Works is the easiest way to apply special filters to your pictures and obtain amazing results in no time.

Download B/Works 1.0 in Softonic

I often get intimidated by image editing programs because they're usually so rich in features that it just becomes overwhelming.

PhotoFiltre Studio was a pleasant surprise however making basic retouching and editing of images easy and accessible. It allows you to perform simple or advanced editing of an image and apply a vast range of filters. Everything is managed through the toolbar with which you access the standard filters. It also has a "layer manager" which controls all the advanced brushes, nozzles, red eye remover plus other useful tools.

The filters are easy to use and for anyone not very familiar with using them, PhotoFiltre Studio provides an excellent introduction into what they can do for you. Many provide simple functions such as changing the brightness, contrast, dye, saturation and gamma levels etc. However, there are also some much more impressive filters such as those that create watercolour, pastel, indian ink or mosaic effects.

It also features tools for more adventurous users such as vector filters that allow you to manipulate images into rectangular, ellipse, triangle, rhombus and rounded rectangle designs. If you're new to image manipulation or editing, or are just lost when it comes to using filters, PhotoFiltre Studio will make you feel much more at ease.

Download Photofiltre Portable 2.6.7 in Softonic

PIXresizer is a free image resizer PIXresizer to easily create web and e-mail friendly versions of your images with reduced file sizes. The reduced files are saved in a different folder, so your original images are not altered at all.

PIXresizer offers several different resizing methods to choose from and can automatically recognize image sizes to calculate the best fit. In addition, it can convert between image formats (JPEG, GIF, BMP, PNG and TIFF), rotate images, convert to grayscale and resize multiple images in batch mode.

A great companion for webmasters and digital photographers.

Download PIXresizer 2.0.3 in Softonic

Panorama images may seem difficult to create but, believe it or not, it's more a question of choosing the right stitching software rather than being artistically gifted.

Microsoft has entered the already huge market of panorama tools with Image Composite Editor, a photo editor that lets you create panoramas in a snap. All you have to do is open the files that make up the panoramic view and let the program take care of the rest.

For those who prefer tweaking with settings, there are a couple of configuration options to fiddle with, namely Stitching Method and Cropping Area. When it comes to exporting the final result, Image Composite Editor lets you choose among several different formats.

In general terms I'd say Image Composite Ed¡tor is a fantastic tool to take your first steps in the creation of panoramas. Power users will probably find too limited and restrictive, and will surely miss having some more manual options, not to mention the possibility to view images separately.

Microsoft Image Composite Editor lets you create panorama images in a couple of clicks, with generally excellent results.

Download Microsoft Image Composite Editor 1.0 in Softonic

Converting and resizing are surely the most common tasks you need to do with photos, so it's important to have a reliable app for the job.

John's Image Converter is a good choice, as it enables you to convert and resize single pictures or a whole directory of images. You can resize them either in pixels or percentage, and always making sure the original files are nor overwritten. But that's not all: with this program you can also create original photo collages in no time.

John's Image Converter features a tabbed interface where each tab is dedicated to the program's different functions: converting and resizing for one picture, for complete folders and collages. The first two ones are pretty straightforward. As for the latter, I must say I was a bit disappointed. The collage feature does include some interesting options, but the result wasn't as good as I expected: you can't preview the final result, there's no possibility to rearrange pictures once it's done and if your thumbnails are too big, they won't fit in it.

With John's Image Converter you can quickly resize and convert your photos, with the possibility to create a simple collage with them.

Download John's Image Converter 2.0 in Softonic

Photo! Editor, previously known as Photo Toolkit, is a basic retouching tool with which you can fix and optimize your digital images in a couple of clicks.

The most outstanding feature of this photo editing tool is its seamless integration with Windows Explorer, which means it adds a whole new command group to the image file context menus. These commands enable you to launch the program's main tools straight away, without having to open the program itself before.

As for the tools included in Photo! Editor, like I said it's a pretty basic program, that is, this is no free Photoshop. That said, the truth is that Photo! Editor works perfectly fine for small retouching tasks such as optimizing colors, removing red eye effect or even cleaning someone's skin from spots, smooth wrinkles and other slight imperfections. Other tools included are a resampling/cropping utility, some really cool light effects and a caricature tool to apply a hilarious morphing effect to your photos.

The only drawback I found in Photo! Editor is that there's no way to browse the folder's contents using thumbnails. This means that if your photo file names are not descriptive enough, you'll have to click on them one by one just to find out which picture they correspond to.

Photo! Editor is the perfect choice for those who are looking for a simple, lightweight and easy-to-use photo editing tool to fix their digital images.

Download Photo! Editor 1.1 in Softonic

Wire Pilot is photo retouching software especially designed for the removal of annoying wires in photos. The software allows you to remove wires, posts, antennas and other unwanted linear objects from a photo. It enables you to do so with far more ease and accuracy than using Photoshop or other image manipulation software.

Wire Pilot is very simple to use. You simply place the cursor on the line you want to remove and using the mouse wheel or cursor keys, set the cursor size and position on the line you are about to remove. You so this until the background color within the cursor circle matches the one of the object as much as possible. Simply use the mouse button to remove the line and then repeat this procedure along the corrected object.

Note that if you prefer to use this software within your favourite graphics program such as Photoshop or Elements, you can do so as a plug-in. This is a handy piece of software that makes life a lot easier than using traditional photo apps although it can still end up removing things that you don't want it to.

Download Wire Pilot 3.0.4 in Softonic

Fotosizer is a freeware batch image resizer tool. It resizes your photos in just 3 easy steps - 1. Photo selection, 2. select resize settings, then 3. Start the resize!

Increasingly, sharing photos on the internet is becoming more and more popular. Photos, represented as JPEG files from digital cameras, taken at high resolutions are far too large to send over the Internet, with some photos ending up at 5 mega bytes. Uploading one photo to a photo sharing website is fine, but 10, 20, or even more, this can take forever, especially on a dial-up connection.

With Fotosizer, you can shrink JPEG image files, along with other supported formats, and dramatically reduce internet transfer times, enabling you to quickly and easily prepare your image collections to be published on the web

Download Fotosizer 1.170.269 in Softonic

High resolution photos from modern digital cameras are often too large to send by e-mail, or at least, take a long time to upload.

Sometimes, if you're in a hurry, you just want to get your photos sent off without worrying about whether it's going to attach or not. Imgares is a batch photo editor that allows you to reduce both size and e-mail or upload transfer times. All you have to is drag and drop your photos into the application window (as many as you want), change the size and click "Start" - there's not much too it beyond that. This makes it very limited on the one hand but also extremely quick on the other. After resizing however, the program does allow you to rotate photos, add text to them and even make a slideshow in movie format. The useful bit is that this can all be performed in "batch" processing mode so you can process, resize and label as many images as you want at once. If you do choose the slideshow function, there are several transitions you can apply such as Zoom In and Zoom Out, light effects and some rotation options.

This is one of the most basic photo editing applications you may ever use but for those who need large numbers of photos resized instantly, look no further.

Download Imgares 1.43 in Softonic

Adding water effects or ripple effects to videos is one of the coolest ways to give your videos an extra touch of class.

Sqirlz Water Reflections allows you to add rippling pools of water, rain or snow effects, to images or AVI videos. The pools can be any shape and you can define several factors such as the wave size, perspective and water transperency. You can also change the ripple shapes and wave details plus even add snowflake effects and add depth to other ripple effects. Unfortunately, there are not a large amount of output format options to choose from. Animations can be saved as Adobe Flash files, animated GIFS, AVI video clips and for images, bitmap, JPEG, PNG and TIFF files. The latest release has added some extra effects which are quite interesting which include general rainfall and glossy reflecting areas of water in cincentric circles. Some of the effects you can create are truly stunning - check out the developer homepage for a few examples - although it can take some time to render photos correctly, it's certainly wrth the effort.

If you want to impress friends with your photos or just have a very unique photos collection, Squirlz Water Reflections produces stunning results.

Download Sqirlz Water Reflections 2.4 in Softonic

We've gotten used to the perfection of digital photography, but there was a time when photos had dust, scratches, stains and other imperfections that could easily ruin them.

Luckily you can now fix those imperfections with Retouch Pilot Lite, a really simple photo retouching tool that doesn't require any designing or editing skills and can therefore be used by anybody. This Lite version doesn't include the Smart Patch tool available in the trial, but other than that it's a perfectly working tool with which you can easily restore old photos.

That said, bear in mind that Retouch Pilot Lite works best with small flaws such as light scratches, spots and the likes. The more serious the defect is, the harder it'll be to fix it without leaving any trace. Also, I missed having a color picker when using the concealer; it was hard to choose the exact color to paint over certain artifacts in the photo to make them disappear.

Generally speaking, I found Retouch Pilot Lite to be a great retouching tool for newbies, and especially useful to remove small flaws from pictures without having to learn how to use Photoshop or any other mammoth-sized editor.

Retouch Pilot Lite is the perfect tool for a quick photo retouch to fix small spots. More serious imperfections definitely need more editing skills and a more professional tool as well.

Download Retouch Pilot Lite 3.0.4 in Softonic

FotoSketcher is probably the fastest and easiest way to add a sketch effect to your pictures. Therefore it's perfect for those of you who don't dare use Photoshop yet and simply want to add some spice to your photos without much fuss.

FotoSketcher doesn't even require installation. Simply run the program and select the picture you want to sketch. The process will begin immediately, without having to press any button, and the result will be displayed side to side to the original picture, which is great for comparison. Also, the sketch effect can be done either in color or in black and white.

On the downside. FotoSketcher doesn't include any configuration features. It only allows you to tweak edge threshold and intensity by means of a couple of sliders, but I missed the possibility to adjust light, contrast and above all color, as the sketched pictures tended to be too lightly colored.

Apply a sketch effect to your photos in no time. No artistic skills required!

Download FotoSketcher 1.5 in Softonic