Editing Incubator escapee wiki:Basic bitmap image editing (section)

==Getting started==

The first thing to do is open up an image-editing program. There are several possibilities.

* '''[[Adobe Photoshop]]''': The best in the business, it has lots of [[Plugin|plug-in]]s, is used by professionals, but is relatively expensive, though sometimes older versions can be found for less.
* '''[[GIMP]]''': The GNU Image Manipulation Program is a popular open source software available for [[Linux]], [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]], and [[macOS]]. While it has fewer features, GIMP can be compared to Photoshop.  
** '''[[GIMPshop]]''' is a version reworked to act more like Photoshop.
** '''[[Seashore (software)|Seashore]]''' is a GIMP-derived editor for [[MacOS]].
* '''[[Corel Photo-Paint]]''': In price is intermediate between Paint Shop Pro and Photoshop, but much closer to Photoshop in abilities. Very configurable.
* '''[[Paint Shop Pro]]''': Used to be shareware but now is sold reasonably cheaply (compared to Photoshop). Runs on Windows machines.
* '''[[IrfanView]]''': A free, lightweight, and fast image viewer and converter. Faster than Photoshop and the Gimp for quick image optimizations, but lacks advanced editing functionality.
* '''[[CodedColor]]''': Provides less image editing functionality than Photoshop but included many useful tools like image viewing, creation of web albums, organization of pictures with keywords and annotations. 
* '''[[Adobe Photoshop Elements]]''': Comes as part of some scanner and digital camera software. Described as for the serious hobbyist, it is a scaled down version of Photoshop.
* '''[[Apple Photos]]''' [[macOS]] replacement for the discontinued [[iPhoto]].
* '''[[Microsoft Paint]]''': Comes with the Windows [[operating system]]. If you have a Windows machine you don't even have to bother installing it. However, it is severely limited in what it can do. (It makes a good combination together with IrfanView. Before saving, re-export by C&P.)
* '''[[Microsoft Photos]]''': Standard with Windows 8 and newer.
* '''[[GraphicConverter]]''': [[MacOS]].

For the rest of this tutorial, we will be describing how to use Paint Shop Pro to perform some simple image manipulations.