Professional image editors like Photoshop can cost a substantial amount of money. If you're a novice graphic designer, you might not be willing or able to pay full price for something that amounts to a hobby.

Good thing there's Sumo Paint Air. It's got lots of great editing tools to satisfy budding designers. Best of all, it's free.

Image editing

With Sumo Paint Air you can create your own images or modify an existing picture and tweak it to perfection. Sumo Paint Air offers adjustments like color, saturation and hue edits and the ability to change brightness and contrast. In addition, there are a lot of fun filters to alter the appearance of your images, from different pixelate effects to textures and different varieties of blur. There aren't as many filters as other paid programs offer, but it's still a good selection for a free program.

If you're a bit more advanced, Sumo Paint Air also offers support for layers. You'll be able to blend multiple images together just as easily as you could on a professional graphics editor.

Image creation

Sumo Paint Air can accommodate your own image creation as well, and provides more than a dozen different tools to do so like a clone brush, a magic wand, a selector tool, the ability to add text and flood fill, to name a few.

Sumo Paint Air is a really useful program for graphic designers on a budget.

Download Sumo Paint Air 3.6.5 in Softonic

If you want to display your drawings online, you have two options: either scan hard copies of your drawings or draw them directly on your computer. TwistedBrush Pro Studio lets you do the latter in impressive fashion once you learn how to use it.

If you're envisioning designing sharp looking graphics for a new website, turn back now. TwistedBrush Pro Studio and its free version TwistedBrush Open Studio has not been developed to create clean crisp graphics. It will frustrate you unless you use it for what it was designed for, which is drawing and art. As a result, one of the best and most effective ways to use TwistedBrush Pro Studio is with a pen and a drawing tablet.

When TwistedBrush Pro Studio starts, a quick-start guide designed to gently introduce you to the features will pop up. While this has the potential to be useful, some users might be frustrated that the guide is largely made up of screenshots with information bubbles. If you have difficulty understanding a concept, there're no links to click on to obtain further information.

Thankfully, TwistedBrush Pro Studio is relatively easy to navigate through. A lot of effort was put into making it a realistic substitute for actual painting, and when you start working with the various brushes you'll immediately see that they interact well with the colors to create a convincing portrait. Undoubtedly TwistedBrush Pro Studio's greatest strength is the vast selection of brush types and styles that are available to use. From simple fine pens, to wet oil brushes and progressive 3D designs, users have a lot to choose from in TwistedBrush Pro Studio. The beauty of each brush is that it can be used quickly and easily, with stunning results.

Users will also find support for all the major image file formats in TwistedBrush Pro Studio, including TIFF, PSD, JPG, GIF, and PNG. Unfortunately, it seems TwistedBrush Pro Studio doesn't have a select tool. After using Adobe Photoshop for so long, many users will view this as key tool in any imaging software. Alternatively it could be the very omission of the select tool that sets TwistedBrush Pro Studio apart, with the production process being more of an evolution than a construction.

TwistedBrush Pro Studio is a quality painting and drawing tool that works best for users who have a drawing tablet handy.

Download TwistedBrush Pro Studio 18.14 in Softonic

If you're big on photography, you know that no one takes the perfect picture every time. That's why we have image editing programs - to ensure our pictures come out looking absolutely wonderful so we can show them off to friends and family with confidence.

Photo-Brush is one of those programs that helps touch up your photos. With an attractive interface and a fairly intuitive set-up, Photo-Brush lets you make basic changes to your photos. These can include color adjustments, changes to exposure levels, hue, saturation and illumination, as well as sharpening or blurring where needed. In addition, you can crop your photos to perfection in a few simple clicks.

In addition to more professional tools, Photo-Brush also has a color lab and tools to alter the appearance of your photos in more humorous ways. Some of these effects are Liquid Warp, Fractal Droste and Little Planet, which is a stereographic projection. Photo-Brush also includes RAW support and has plug-in support for Adobe Photoshop programs, which will be a must for die-hard image and graphics users.

Do your images need color adjustments, crop, sharpening or some effects? Photo-Brush is an image editor that loads instantly and it is packed with easy-to-use features.

For a comprehensive photo editor that's also affordable if you opt to buy the full version, give Photo-Brush a try.

Download Photo-Brush 5.3 in Softonic

There are a lot of desktop painting programs out there available to download. Some even come as standard when you buy a new Windows PC.

PowerPaint's developers post that PowerPaint is "the best tool to replace Windows Paint." By all accounts, it certainly boasts more features than its stripped down counterpart. Even in the "Image" drop-down menu alone, you can turn your drawing or photograph gray, halftone, invert the blacks and whites within the picture, adjust the brightness and contrast and much more. PowerPaint also comes with a bunch of pre-made basic shapes, lines, arrows, stars and banners. These are just simple examples of clipart, but it's certainly convenient to have them already installed.

In addition, PowerPaint has different types of texture brushes to add special effects to your images. You can fill in the background with a specific color and even insert an additional photograph into the image you're already working with.

It's no substitute for the more powerful programs like Paint Shop Pro or Adobe Photoshop, but PowerPaint is a pretty handy and free image editing alternative.

Download PowerPaint 2.50 in Softonic

The goal with this application seems to be a replacement for various other programs you might use for one specific media type. Why use programs like iTunes, Picasa, and Windows Media Player when you only have to use ArcSoft MediaImpression which does all three? It certainly makes sense from the outset.

Once ArcSoft MediaImpression is installed, you are faced with buttons for music, pictures, video and all media. Clicking any of these opens a traditional pane with a folder tree on the left. In the picture segment you can perform basic edits, such as cutting, removing red eye and face-tagging. In the music and video segments you can listen to and watch any of your files, and reorganize them. You can also hit the easy archive button, which will save any selected files or folders to a CD.

If you want to print your pictures, you can order a variety of different products from ArcSoft MediaImpression, including mugs and books.

While it's potentially a good idea to have a single media application, the execution of ArcSoft MediaImpression is a bit weak. The photo editing options are not sufficient or comparable to competing programs like Adobe Photoshop Elements. ArcSoft MediaImpression's video player is similarly basic.

ArcSoft MediaImpression is a nice idea and a step in the right direction for an all-in-one media hub. Unfortunately, it still lacks some of the features and flexibility of most media players or photo editors.

Download ArcSoft MediaImpression 3.5.255.985 in Softonic

If you want to display your drawings online, you have two options: either scan hard copies of your drawings or draw them directly on your computer. TwistedBrush Open Studio lets you do the latter in impressive fashion once you learn how to use it.

If you have already tried the full version of TwistedBrush, you may find TwistedBrush Open Studio quite limited. While it has many of the same features, TwistedBrush Open Studio has conspicuously fewer paint brushes available. Several of the more detailed brushes are available for add-on with a purchase however. Some of these include Fractal Brushes, Pro Clips, Pro Trees and Plants, Blender Brushes and Art Tool Brushes.

TwistedBrush Open Studio can also be a little tricky to learn how to use. While it comes with a quick-start guide that opens upon start-up, this guide is primarily made up of screenshots. If you need more information than what's provided within each shot, there are no links to click. There's also no select tool, which many users have become accustomed to with Adobe Photoshop. This could take some getting used to.

That said, the brush selection is still pretty impressive, and you can create some fantastic pieces of digital art with TwistedBrush Open Studio. It just takes some practice!

Despite including only basic tools, TwistedBrush Open Studio offers a great means by which to create digital artwork from scratch on your PC.

Download TwistedBrush Open Studio 17.24 in Softonic

Brush Foundation : 1000 useful textures for everyday use. CG Selection : 500 patterns for quick fills or freehand painting. Tipsters : 500 brushes for traditionalmedia hatching style effects.

Paint Blox : 500 tips made from original photos of natural patterns. Bio-Brush : 500 texture brushes with a quot;bio-mechanicalquot; style. This brush pack comes in *.

abr format which should be compatible with ALL versions of Photoshop from version 3 upwards, including CS and Elements. Paint Shop Pro userscan also import and use these brush files.

It is advisable to use a pressure-sensitive graphics tablet for maximum control when painting. Feature Overview 3000 individual brush tips Lots of different tip stylesCompatible with Photoshop Compatible with ElementsCompatible with Paint Shop Pro Use with Windows or MacSystemRequirementsPC: Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP, plus any host graphics application thatcan open/import the *.

abr format brushes, including Adobe Photoshop,Elements and Paint Shop Pro. Mac: Although these brushes were created on the PC it should still be possible to importand use them with the Mac version of Photoshop.

Download Brush Pot - 3000 Photoshop Brushes 1.0 in Softonic

First of all, you get an overview of who and how many has aninstallation of i. e. Adobe Photoshop, Access or Kazaa. AssetFocus? recognizesmore than 11.

000 applications and versions. Secondly, you get hardwareinformation on for instance CPU type and speed, monitor, size of hard disk, netcard, RAM memory from all computers on the network.

Furthermore, you getan overview of i. e. music- and film-files on the network, where they are andtheir size. Software license controlWith AssetFocus?

you can control your licenses intelligently. Via the build-inlicense module, you can register all vital license information, i. e. number oflicenses, license keys, serial numbers, purchase dates etc.

AssetFocus? documents how many installations you have per application. Thus, the systemcan compare the number of licenses with the number of software installationsand you can generate reports.

We recommend that AssetFocus? scans thenetwork every month. The scan runs automatically via the login-script andwithout installations on the client?

s network. The actual scan runs withoutinterfering with the normal routine of the computer ? it is invisible ? and uses only 5-20 % of the CPU. Approved procedureAssetFocus?

comes with the largest signature database recognizing more than11. 000 applications. The database is updated via the Internet. The recognitionof application is done by analyzing exe-files.

This is the method that BSA(Business Software Alliance) recommends. Other products typically only scanthe registry database ? and this is only rarely sufficient.

Hardware and file statisticsAssetFocus? gives you the possibility to compare software and hardwareinformation. For example, you can get a list of computers running Win98 andwith less than 128 Mb RAM.

AssetFocus? can generate file statistics fromevery PC. Among other things, you can see; how many JPG-, AVI-, MP3-, ZIP-files etc a user has; what size the files have; where they areThe administrator decides which files to scan for and how often.

Why use software license control? ; You save money when you eliminate redundant licenses. You avoid infringement on intellectual property rights You avoid unwanted software and files; You get better security; You get quantity discounts when you know your exact license need; You get an overview of all hardware and software thereby makinginformed decisions easier.

Download AssetFocus Network Inventory, 100 PCs 2.0 in Softonic

If you want a simple, quick tool to delete all junk files and temporary items that eat up disk space, Indo Cleaner is what you're looking for.

This easy software app cleans all recent document lists, temporary files and junk data left after browsing the web, using certain programs and downloading data from the Internet. This means that the program not only recovers some valuable disk space, but also protects your privacy by erasing all traces of your computer usage. The whole process is done via a wizard-style interface in a few simple steps that hardly take a couple of minutes.

Indo Cleaner works fast and efficiently, although I missed having some more advanced functionality like the possibility of choosing the categories that the program cleans, learning how much space I'm gaining after deleting all those files or even making a backup copy before erasing them… just in case.

Indo Cleaner erases all traces of Internet browsing and computer usage in a fast, easy way.

Download Indo Cleaner 1.0.1 in Softonic

Image viewer, editor, and convertor. PMView supports saving and loading of more than 40 different file formats, including JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, and PhotoCD. Automatic thumbnailing, thumbnail image browsing, screen capture utility, TWAIN interface for scanners, image filtering, and more. User customizable QuickScripts allow PMView Pro to remember settings and make everyday conversion tasks simpler.

PMView allows for printing an image using multiple sheets of paper, enabling the user to print out a huge poster using standard letter sized paper and gluing the parts together. In addition PMView is faster, smaller, and lighter on system resources than other leading image viewers.

File formats that can be read:

• OS/2 Bitmap (BMP)
• Windows Bitmap (BMP)
• Windows Cursor (CUR)
• DCA/Intel DCX (DCX)
• Flexible Image Transport System (FITS)
• CCITT Group 3 Facsimile (G3)
• Graphics Interchange Format (GIF)
• OS/2 Icon (ICO)
• Windows Icon (ICO)
• Electronic Arts IFF (IFF)
• Digital Research GEM (IMG)
• JPEG File Interchange Format (JPG)
• OS/2 Boot Logo (LGO)
• MacPaint (MAC)
• Microsoft Paint (MSP)
• Kodak Photo-CD (PCD)
• ZSoft Paintbrush Format (PCX)
• PC Paint/Pictor Format (PIC)
• Bio-Rad PIC Image Format (PIC)
• Softimage Picture Format (PIC)
• PBMPlus Portable Bitmap (PBM)
• PBMPlus Portable Graymap (PGM)
• PBMPlus Portable Pixmap (PPM)
• PBMPlus Portable Anymap (PNM)
• Portable Network Graphics (PNG)
• Adobe Photoshop Document (PSD)
• OS/2 Pointer (PTR)
• Sun Raster (RAS)
• Compuserve RLE (RLE)
• Utah RLE (RLE)
• Structured Fax File (SFF)
• Seattle Filmworks (SFW)
• SGI Image File Format (SGI)
• PMView Slideshow File Format (SHW)
• Truevision Targa Format (TGA)
• Tagged Interchange File Format (TIF)
• WAP Bitmap Format (WBMP)
• WordPerfect Graphics (WPG)
• X Bitmap (XBM)
• X Pixmap (XPM)
• X Window Dump (XWD)

File formats that can be written:

• OS/2 Bitmap (BMP)
• Windows Bitmap (BMP)
• Windows Cursor (CUR)
• DCA/Intel DCX (DCX)
• Encapsulated Postscript (EPS)
• Flexible Image Transport System (FITS)
• CCITT Group 3 Facsimile (G3)
• Graphics Interchange Format (GIF)
• OS/2 Icon (ICO)
• Windows Icon (ICO)
• Electronic Arts IFF (IFF)
• Digital Research GEM (IMG)
• JPEG File Interchange Format (JPG)
• OS/2 Boot Logo (LGO)
• MacPaint (MAC)
• Microsoft Paint (MSP)
• ZSoft Paintbrush Format (PCX)
• PC Paint/Pictor Format (PIC)
• Softimage Picture Format (PIC)
• PBMPlus Portable Bitmap (PBM)
• PBMPlus Portable Graymap (PGM)
• PBMPlus Portable Pixmap (PPM)
• PBMPlus Portable Anymap (PNM)
• Portable Network Graphics (PNG)
• Adobe Photoshop Document (PSD)
• OS/2 Pointer (PTR)
• Sun Raster (RAS)
• Compuserve RLE (RLE)
• Utah RLE (RLE)
• SGI Image File Format (SGI)
• Structured Fax File (SFF)
• PMView Slideshow File Format (SHW)
• Truevision Targa Format (TGA)
• Tagged Interchange File Format (TIF)
• WAP Bitmap Format (WBMP)
• WordPerfect Graphics (WPG)
• X Bitmap (XBM)
• X Pixmap (XPM)
• X Window Dump (XWD)

Download PMView Pro 3.51 in Softonic