The Gimp is the open source reference in image manipulation. This free application will allow you to retouch, author and edit your photos thanks to a wide set of tools.

Let’s quickly go through what you can do with the Gimp. The painting function has the essential clone, airbrush or pencil tools and a powerful gradient and blend tool. You can also create and save your own brushes and patterns for later use. The program lets you manipulate your photos, adding layers, doing Bezier and polygonal selections or setting text. Load and save animations in a frame-as-layer format and batch process all your photos for quick editing. The multi-windowed interface can be moved around to fit your needs and resized according to your desktop space.

What’s more, the Gimp can be expanded with over 100 different plug-ins and extensions available on the Gimp’s website. These apply in majority for layer effects such as render, distort or blur and make a great addition to the ones already present in the program.

While the Gimp is user friendly, the installation process can result a bit hairy. Because the application works under the GTK Runtime Environment, you will have to install this kit to successfully launch the program. The process is fairly lengthy and some error messages tend to pop up, however if you persist, you will be able to install the Gimp properly on your PC

Despite this fairly hazardous installation process, the Gimp is a program we recommend. Whether you’re out of dough or are looking for a free alternative to Photoshop, the Gimp is excellent image manipulation software with all the tools you’d expect. The friendly interface and expandability make this a program of choice.

Download The GIMP 2.6.1 in Softonic

It's really unbelievable to find free software applications as amazing as Photoscape. But as they say, truth is stranger than fiction. Here you have a really excellent photo editing tool that includes just about everything you need to view, optimize, edit, print and have fun with your photos, all for free.

Photoscape strikes us from the very beginning with an uncommon interface design from which you can choose what you want to do: view pictures, optimize those that didn't come out so well, print several photos on a single page collage-style or perhaps add any of the dozens of filters and special effects included in the program. Other extra tools featured in Photoscape are a file renamer, a color picker, a screen capture tool and even a RAW converter.

We really have nothing negative to say about Photoscape. Just download it, test it, love it and keep it forever. It's free!

Download Photoscape 3.2 in Softonic

There are literally dozens of options out there for FLV playback and FLVPLayer4Free tries to weigh in as one of the more customisable FLV players. Normally, FLV players are rather rudimentary affairs since Flash is not a particularly easy format to work with. However FLVPlayer4Free has tried to add some glitz to the Flash reproduction genre. Amongst many things, you can drag & drop FLV files straight into FLV player and save frames of your favourite films as images although only in three formats - JPG, PNG and BMP. You can instruct it to play in full screen mode and to stop anything else getting in the way of your viewing experience, keep the screen always in the foreground. There are a few limited volume settings including a mute option and you can also put FLV films or videos on a loop if you want. One very simple thing that I find many FLV players ignore is an elapsed time feature which is one thing that is included in FLVPlayer4Free. You can also play as many FLV files as you want at the same time although why anyone would want to do this, I'm not sure since you only have one soundcard to put it all through.

Overall, FLVPlayer4Free is one of the more comprehensive FLV Players on the market although I'm still awaiting the day when FLV players get really serious.

Download FLVPlayer4Free 3.2 in Softonic

Fraps is a universal Windows application that can be used with all games using DirectX or OpenGL technology. In its current form Fraps performs many tasks and can best be described as:

Benchmarking Software

See how many Frames Per Second (FPS) you are getting in a corner of your screen. Perform custom benchmarks and measure the frame rate between any two points. Save the statistics out to disk and use them for your own reviews and applications.

Screen Capture Software

Take a screenshot with the press of a key! There's no need to paste into a paint program every time you want to capture the screen. Your screen captures are also automatically named and timestamped.

Realtime Video Capture Software

Have you ever wanted to record video while playing your favourite game? Come join the Machinima revolution! Throw away the VCR, forget about using a DV cam, game recording has never been this easy! Fraps can capture audio and video up to 1152x864 and 100 frames per second!

Download Fraps 2.9.6 in Softonic

ID-sized photos tend to be something that you never have enough of and, given that it can be a pain to go to the closest mall and get some new ones taken, you could just take a recent photo and make multiple copies of it from the comfort of your PC. IDPhotoStudio is a program that will create and print passport sized photos for you in a snap.

Featuring only the bare necessities, IDPhotoStudio, will handle the job in seconds, allowing you to drag and drop your picture onto the interface. You can then select between three ID Photo sizes: US, Canada or France. Because you often need a certain number of photos printed out, IDPhotoStudio has a little drag meter to let you select how many photos you’ll need, from 1 to 15. Click on the print button to get the paper copies of your photo.

IDPhotoStudio is an original idea, and it’s good to see someone come up with a program to quickly print out ID photos. However, the application left us disappointed for a number of reasons. First of all, it doesn’t respect the aspect ratio of photos, so if you drag a large image there’s a risk it’ll appear distorted. Also, when it comes to editing functions, IDPhotoStudio only includes the option to apply sepia or monochrome color filters. We would have preferred if it included tools like a red-eye remover, cropping or contrasting, which are much more useful for improving the quality of pictures. The program doesn't even include an undo feature, meaning that if you accidentally set your image to greyscale when you'd prefer it in color, you'll need to start over.

If you have a good mug shot of yourself and want to quickly print out a set of passport sized photos, IDPhotoStudio will probably suit you. However, the lack of advanced editing features means you’ll never really be guaranteed with a high quality image of yourself. In all, if you want to be on the safe side, use a proper photo editing application like Photoshop or Photofiltre to edit and print good ID sized photos.

Download IDPhotoStudio 2.5.0.17 in Softonic

Do you have a favorite DVD movie that you would like to watch on the move on your mobile phone? Are you having trouble in finding the right app you convert it?

Plato DVD to 3GP Converter is what you're looking for. This simple video converter has been especially developed to convert DVD movies right into the standard video used for most mobile devices, 3GP.

The program is very easy to use. Simply load the DVD movie you want to convert from the DVD drive on your computer and tweak the conversion options according to your needs or the characteristics of the target mobile device: video size, bitrate, frame rate, aspect ratio and a lot more. The program can also be set to automatically shut down the computer when the conversion is finished. Apart from that, there are no other configuration settings.

I especially liked the simplicity of use of Plato DVD to 3GP Converter. On the downside, the interface is a bit too dull. Also, it would be great to have predefined profiles for certain devices, such as the iPod, the iPhone or the PSP.

If you want to convert your favorite DVD movies to 3GP and carry them on your mobile device wherever you go, this is the tool you need.

Download Plato DVD to 3GP Converter 8.87 in Softonic

If you have different devices with video capabilities, you need a complete video tool like ALO AVI MPEG WMV 3GP MP4 iPod PSP Converter.

With ALO AVI MPEG WMV 3GP MP4 iPod PSP Converter you can convert from the most popular video formats to those formats used in devices such as the iPod, the Zune, the PSP, the PS3 or the Apple TV. All you have to do is load the source video, select the target format and let the program take care of the rest. Plus, you can convert several videos simultaneously.

Formats are conveniently organized in profiles according to the target device.
ALO AVI MPEG WMV 3GP MP4 iPod PSP Converter lets you tweak those target profiles by customizing bitrate, frame rate, video codec, audio bitrate and other elements, but unfortunately you can't save this customization as a new personal profile.

ALO AVI MPEG WMV 3GP MP4 iPod PSP Converter features a straightforward interface and is really easy to use. It includes a video window preview, but it's meant to only show video as it's being converted, not work as a built-in player.

With ALO AVI MPEG WMV 3GP MP4 iPod PSP Converter you'll always find the right combination to convert videos from one format to another and watch them on any device.

Download ALO AVI MPEG WMV 3GP MP4 iPod PSP Converter 6.6 in Softonic

Do you have a favorite DVD movie that you would like to watch on the move on your iPod or iPhone? Then Plato DVD to iPod Converter is what you need.

Plato DVD to iPod Converter has been especially developed to convert DVD movies straight into the correct audio and video format for Apple mobile devices, so that you can easily enjoy your favorite DVDs on your iPod or iPhone.

Plato DVD to iPod Converter is very easy to use. Simply load the DVD movie you want to convert from the DVD drive on your computer and select the target conversion profile in the program's Output menu. You can tweak all settings: video size, bitrate, frame rate, aspect ratio and more. Plato DVD to iPod Converter can also be set to automatically shut down the computer when the conversion is finished. Apart from that, there are no other configuration settings.

I especially liked the simplicity of use of Plato DVD to iPod Converter. On the downside, it seems there's no easy way to select what chapters you want to convert – I'd prefer a full list on the interface rather than menus and submenus which are uncomfortable to browse.

With Plato DVD to iPod Converter you'll be able to convert your favorite DVD movies to an iPod or iPhone compatible format and enjoy those videos on the move.

Download Plato DVD to iPod Converter 8.87 in Softonic

With such an ever growing range of multimedia devices, no wonder format converters are becoming so popular these days!

Any Audio/Video Converter is one of those converters: a simple, easy-to-use application that support pretty much any format you can find nowadays and lets you convert both audio and video files in just a few steps.

The program works with a list where you add the files you want to convert, no matter what format they are. Then you configure the conversion options for each one of them separately and finally click on the "Convert" button to let the program do the rest. I think this method is quite handy and saves you loads of work and time; pity the trial version only accepts one file on this list!

Any Audio/Video Converter includes a built-in player in its interface, but it's only good to watch the video while it's being converted and not preview it before actually starting the process.

With Any Audio/Video Converter you can convert basically any audio and video file you can think of, in a quite easy process that involves very little effort.

Download Any Audio/Video Converter 5.6 in Softonic

Open Video Converter is probably one of the easiest tools you can find to convert videos, though the truth is that it's also a fairly simple one.

This tool accepts quite a few source targets (MPG, EMV, ASF, VCD, SVCD…) but only converts to AVI, which in my opinion limits the program's usefulness a lot. At least you can tweak the AVI file's settings by setting the resolution, frame rate, video and audio compressors and other details.

Once you load the video on Open Video Converter, a preview window will open up. But instead of having the playback control buttons on this same window, they're on the main interface, something I personally found very awkward and difficult to use.

The best thing about Open Video Converter though is that before the conversion process begins, you can mark both the starting and ending points of the video. In this way you can convert just your favorite scene – and not the complete video.

On the whole, Open Video Converter is a simple tool that works fine if what you want is simply converting to AVI. If you need any other extra features, you'd better look somewhere else.

With Open Video Converter you can easily convert quite a few videos, though only to AVI format.

Download Open Video Converter 3.21 in Softonic

Anyone who works with images on a regular basis will be familiar with the default image viewer of Windows, and also with its very limited scope for doing anything meaningful. There is a healthy selection of alternatives but FastStone Image Viewer has come to our attention as one that deserves to be singled out not only because it is free but also because it brings to the table a strong combination of speed, usability and versatility.

While the viewing functionality is a no-brainer, FastStone comes with a range of methods with which to browse pics. First off, there is the standard file browser that displays thumbnails of your images with a preview window for the file that is currently selected. There is also an option to check out individual pictures at their original size in the “Windowed View”, which is along the same lines as the default image viewer in Windows. Finally you can see images in full-screen, switching between files using the keyboard, the middle mouse button or the slide-in toolbar at the bottom of the screen.

However, FastStone Image Viewer goes beyond simply displaying images. You can perform some quick edits to really bring out the best in your pics such as adding a stylish frame mark that acts as a mask to reduce the sharp edges or if you happen to be working with 3D there is also a very effective bump map option that will serve you well for texturing. There are of course the standard tools of brightness/darkness adjustment, sharpness/blur, grayscale, red-eye removal and more. For results better than those you get with FastStone, you would need to use a professional package like Photoshop.

Further great features come in the form of batch rename and batch convert options. These could prove invaluable to many web developers looking for a quick way to prepare their PSD files for the web. With the inclusion of these batch functions, it would have been good to push the boat out even further and have an option to apply batch effects, for example to brighten up a group of photos that were taken in a dark space but alas, it’s not there!

Looking for faults with FastStone Image Viewer is like looking for the corner of a circle although if you insist on nitpicking, you can say that in the thumbnail browser view dragging and dropping should be possible for moving files. However when you realize that it is possible to drag and drop with the left nav bar that argument looses its legs. As I mentioned, there is healthy competition in the image viewer arena, but thanks to the innovative features of FastStone Image Viewer the bar has been raised to new heights.

Download FastStone Image Viewer 3.6 in Softonic

Creating subtitles for your DivX files or home movies can be fun but not if the editor makes it hard work.

Gaupol attempts to simplify the process ensuring that your subtitles are in sync with your film. Gaupol supports multiple subtitle file formats and allows you to write your own subtitles or edit those that have been created but with errors. The important thing is that it allows you to sync subtitles with the correct moment in the movie.

Gaupol is designed for batch processing of multiple documents and to allow ease of translating. into various languages. This includes a multi-language spell checker and the ability to preview subtitles on screen once you've created them. You can then edit the time frame of each phrase until you've got it just right.

Gaupol is certainly one of the most user friendly and intelligent subtitle editors you'll ever use and designed for both beginners and advanced needs.

Download Gaupol 0.13.1 in Softonic

This is the convenient portable version of the legendary FastStone Image Viewer that you can take anywhere with you on a USB stick.

FastStone Image Viewer is an image browser, viewer, converter and editor with an easy-to-use interface and a nice array of features that include resizing, renaming, cropping, color adjustments and more. It also includes an intuitive full-screen mode that provides quick access to EXIF information and thumbnail browser via hidden toolbars that emerge when you touch the edge of your screen with the mouse.

Other features include a high quality magnifier and built-in slideshow with 150+ transitional effects, as well as lossless JPEG transitions, drop shadow effects, image frames, scanner support, histogram and much more. It supports all major graphic formats including BMP, JPEG, JPEG 2000, GIF, PNG, PCX, TIFF, WMF, ICO and TGA.

Download FastStone Image Viewer Portable 3.6 in Softonic

There's nothing more annoying than a DivX file that won't play or has been corrupted because of a virus or hard drive failure.

The good news is that you can repair some of these files with DivXRepair, solving issues such as image freezing, loss of sound and discolored pixels. Simply browse to the file you want to inspect, and DivX Repair will automatically detect and eliminates bad frames.

This searching process can take a while though and it doesn't always find frames that are damaged. If it does find the corrupted frames, it cuts out the bad parts and re-splices it together so that the frame may be missing but at least it plays properly. You may notice some slight interference in the image when this happens but it's a small price to pay for having a functioning file.

If your DivX files are corrupted or refuse to play, DivXRepair can help put them back together with minimal image loss.

Download DivXRepair 1.01 in Softonic

Smaller Animals ThumbNailer is a Windows utility that allows you to create thumbnail images and image galleries. You can use it to convert between one graphics format and another, change image color depth, resize images, make image galleries for the web or CD and more.

Features of the app:

• Wizards to help you get up and running quickly
• JPG, GIF, MPEG, JPEG-2000, PNG, TIFF, PCX, BMP, WBMP, PhotoCD, Photoshop, TGA, ASCII, WMF and EMF
• AVI, TTF (TrueType Fonts), animated GIF and multi-page TIFF frame extraction
• Support for reading RAW, NEF, FlashPix, video files and more via plug-ins
• Batch or single file operation
• HTML page generator, with links, tables, HTML templates, and more
• Output images in a wide choice of formats and color depths
• Apply contrast, sharpening, brightness corrections
• Copy EXIF and IPTC data from JPG files

Download ThumbNailer 9.1.0.1 in Softonic

Want to hang the photos of your holiday on your blog or web page in a well-organised and unique way? If so, AAA Photo Album can help, as it is specially designed for the creation of online photo albums in HTML. The best thing about the software is that you don't need to be an expert in HTML programming in order to use it. You simply select the photos that you wish to include in the gallery, choose a frame and a colour scheme, and the program magically generates the necessary code for you in seconds.

The images can be organised in a highly efficient manner, with the use of thumbnails making it easy for your visitors to browse through what you've got. Personally, I'd have liked to see at least some basic image editing features in AAA Photo Album, but as a tool for quickly publishing pictures to the web, it does its job with aplomb.

Download AAA Photo Album 2.10 in Softonic

Replay Converter is the easiest way to convert video and audio files. You simply pick the files to convert, choose an output format, and click a button to start the process. Everything happens automatically.

You don't need to be a geek to use Replay Converter - just pick the desired format from the list, and the conversions happen for you. There's no need to know about complicated encoding parameters. If you want more control, you can trigger an Option to change things like bit rate, frames per second, or any other encoding parameters before a conversion runs.

Download Replay Converter 3.1 in Softonic

VideoMach is a powerful audio/video builder and converter. Use it to construct video clips from still images, enhance your recorded material or convert video, audio and image files between popular media formats.

VideoMach features:

• Suports popular video and image formats (mpeg, avi, divx, flc, jpeg, png, tif, gif, bmp and more)
• Reads and writes standard Linux and UN*X image formats (xpm, pnm, sgi, ras and more)
• Supports most popular audio formats (mp3, mp2, ogg, wav, ac3)
• Imports the output of high-speed imagers and time-lapse cameras (bayer, cine)
• World's fastest image sequence detection, more than 50,000 images per second
• Professional-quality MPEG, AVI and Bayer readers, video is decoded at highest quality unlike in most media players
• Fastest software MPEG encoder, more then 120 frames per second
• Can read or write very large MPEG files, up to million terabytes
• Creates industry standard VideoCD MPEGs by NTSC and PAL / SECAM video specs
• Connects to both Video For Windows (VFW) and DirectShow (DS) interfaces ensuring support for vaste number of AVI codecs / subformats
• Easy to navigate but powerful AVI output video / audio codecs selection dialog
• Integrated media player
• Fast, compact and reliable installer with built-in anti-virus check

Download VideoMach 5.0.5 in Softonic

By a bizarre twist of fate 3DS Max is now owned by the same firm that publishes its age rival, Maya, yet the pair of heavyweight 3D applications remain the two main choices for animators working in the three-dimensional realm. Although Maya’s popularity has increased of late (perhaps largely due to its superior accessibility for newcomers), 3DS still remains a key player within the industry, and this latest incarnation significantly improves upon the wire-frame mapping approach of the past.

Perhaps the biggest innovation within version 8 of the app is the inclusion of a ‘pelt mapping’ feature. For the benefit of those who don’t work for Pixar or Rockstar Games, this is basically a device for ‘unwrapping’ a wireframe model in order to paint its exterior. This can save you a lot of time and unnecessary Photoshop tomfoolery when working with organic objects, such as human faces or characters. However, it isn’t so adept at handling non-organic objects like cars, streets or houses, as the results are typically very liquidy.

As always, 3DS Max allows you to be very precise in terms of the mapping of your creations, perhaps even more so than Maya. Besides the standard mapping tools, the application now contains all manner of alignment features to ensure that you get pinpoint accuracy when modelling. What’s more, 3DS now contains more flexible options for relax, the tool that averages UVs and allows for the automatic relief of texture distortion. If used in conjunction with another function, show edge distortion, then the mapping of your characters becomes all the easier.

There are dozens of other features within the software that will help you produce stunning 3D models without tearing your hair out. We were particularly taken with the render UVW template function, allowing very quick template rendering of your prepared UVs, either in wireframe, filled, mapped or shaded versions. With a raft of skinning and modelling tools, 3DS Max gives you very precise control over your models, without having to code or program every co-ordinate, making it a very user-friendly option.

Naturally, the cost of the full version of the program will put off many 3D hobbyists, but for serious animation professionals it’s an application that is to be ignored at your peril. Although it remains to be seen whether there will be an amalgamation with Maya, 3DX Max remains a world leader in its market and, given enough patience, can be used to transform the outer limits of your imagination into a fantastic reality.

Download Autodesk 3ds Max 2009 in Softonic

These days there are so many more things you can do with your photographs than just putting them in albums, which are then stored in the loft. Software such as Microsoft AutoCollage allows you to get more creative with your images.

It may look very simple when you first launch the application, but actually, a lot of research and development has gone into Microsoft AutoCollage. The project is an advanced computer vision and imaging program that gathers a selection of your photos and knits them together seamlessly to produce eye-catching collages.

The level of automation in Microsoft AutoCollage means that you don't really have to lift a finger. You just select the folder you want the program to collect the photos from, choose how many images you want incorporated into the collage using the slider, then click 'Create'. You can then save, email or even set the picture as your background wallpaper, directly from within AutoCollage.

The technology in Microsoft AutoCollage is certainly very impressive, particularly the face detection element, which automatically picks out peoples heads, allowing you to draw attention to these. If anything though, I felt AutoCollage was a little too hands-off as there are no real image editing tools for you to refine your collages yourself, or add text, frames, etc. What's more, there were a few bugs that cropped up in testing, such as when setting the image as a desktop in XP.

Microsoft AutoCollage is a powerful collage-rendering tool, it's just a shame it doesn't give you more control over the finished output.

Download Microsoft AutoCollage 2008 1.0.2008.0716 in Softonic