XYplorer Beta Club

Just wanted to post another alternative if you're interested. Hornil StylePix:
http://hornil.com/en/products/stylepix/

Also check out the free RealWorld Paint. It's an excellent program with relatively low publicity.
It's main strength (for me at least) is a ~javascript command pane at the bottom, where you can adjust any executing action sub-pixel-perfect-precisely.
Moreover, (and this should be intersting) like XYplorer, RWPaint also supports custom buttons which can execute custom javascript commands!
It's UI is customizable to the max. You can practically edit every part of it, from the main menu, to the panels, to the context menu, everything.
The program hides most of its advanced features at first though. You need to tweak a few settings, toggle a few options to put the app inside out.

When it comes to image editing, it also has a few rare features, like a history of recent colors, a layer effects system like Photoshop, editable selections, a superb magic wand, vector editing and more. (I've not sampled a lot many image editors and don't know exactly how rare these are)

I think pixel artists will like it because of it's presicion control and also because it shows a global antialiasing toggle very visibly (how many image editors do that?) in addition with blend mode (I think of it as psuedo-manual antialising )

There's also a very helpful community, and the developer himself regularly trolls the forums. (Now, where could I have seen that before? )

On a side note, the same developer also created RW Icon editor (shareware) and RW Cursor Editor, which I consider hands down the best in their respective categories.

RWIconEditor has a new beta version: http://www.rw-designer.com/entry/1268

Hey, I just need to collage screenshots into tutorials, so it should be:
- Portable
- near instant startup
- just need basic editing: annotation (text, preset arrows, brush), collage, crop
I tried the GIMP and Photo Scape but the startup time is fairly slow (slower than my Photoshop Portable)

Anyone know a software like this?

For really quick image editing stuff, I normally just use PicPick. PicPick primarily is for screenshots but it's excellent when it comes to annotating stuff so using it to make picture tutorials is very easy. And like you needed, it comes with text, preset arrows, highlighter (pretty awesome stuff), and more.

It is a bit confusing at times how to get to the image editor though. You simply just drag the image you want to edit to the primary window and it will automatically open up the image in the editor. Also don't worry. It's free for personal use. http://www.picpick.org/en/

Thanks, but PicPick doesn't collage pictures.
I'm currently using Snagit (it has a nice editor packed inside)

Try PixBuilder Studio: http://www.wnsoft.com/pixbuilder/
Opportunities both in Photoshop. Portable, absolutely free and instant start. Layers concept, multi-step undo, gradients and masks support, and text layers support.
No ready-made shapes and arrows, but you can use the clipart.

Found a very interesting program. PhotoDemon.
http://photodemon.org/

It's pretty powerful, portable, and written in VB6 . Plus it's opensource too:
https://github.com/tannerhelland/PhotoDemon

Wow, I'm not the only one.

admin wrote:Wow, I'm not the only one.

"not yet"


sorry!

I need a high quality photo editing tool, and I want to avoid Adobe Lightroom.

I need:
- seamless handling RAW formats (especially Fuji), and, well, PSD
- the best color, contrast, sharpness editing in the world

I don't need:
- file management
- non-destructiveness (nice to have, but not essential)
- any smart features (like removing unwanted objects, or face recognition, skin smoothing ...)
- any cloud stuff

Any suggestions? Thanks!

Hi Don,

can't match every single requirement of yours, but I still think PhotoLine is the best bang for the buck, especially with PSD-compatibility in mind.


Cheers,
Filehero

Ugly, man!

OK, -- -- I should not have asked in the first time because I now see that I just wanted to hear something like: Forget it, AL is so much better than everything else, go ahead and cash in your special amazon coupon for it.

admin wrote:Ugly, man!

You didn't ask for elegance!

Yes, it is ugly (it's a bit better when using the dark mode) - but it is the most powerful graphic software beyond Photoshop I know.