Online image editors have evolved so much in the last few years & became very mature + functional for designers at every level.
They generally offer a similar interface with the popular image editing softwares which lowers the learning curve so much.
Almost all of them are Flash-based (no extra installations -like plugins- are required) & load/work very fast.
Why To Use Them?
You may be asking yourself why to use a web-based one when there is a powerful image editing software installed on your computer like Photoshop, Fireworks, GIMP, etc.?
Portability
There is no need to have a software other than a browser to run such applications. Also designs created with them can be saved instantly online.
This function is specially handy for anyone working at different locations/computers.
The Price Factor
Most popular image editing softwares, except GIMP, are generally not cheap & every new version requires a new license.
Online image editing platforms are free or come with cheap subscription plans.
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Mastering frequently used applications increases the productivity significantly.
Controlling these applications via keyboard is a part of this "mastering process" which helps you use an application with 2 hands = much faster.
Also, knowing the tricks of tools inside these products definitely opens new doors for creating.
Specifically for designers, here is a list of cheat sheets for the most popular applications like Photoshop, Illustrator, Gimp, Fireworks & more..
Keyboard shortcuts are very well organized, both by menu & alphabetically.
Also, shortcut presets that add lots of extra shortcuts are provided too.
Keyboard shortcuts for previous Photoshop versions:
There are many different way & settings for converting images to black and white with Photoshop.
This is a Photoshop file presenting different filters/presets. Just update 1 file & see the various outputs.
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BlendFu is a website featuring free Photoshop & GIMP brushes in a well-tagged presentation.
Users can upload their brush sets & even the designs they created using those sets.
Currently there are 900+ brush sets featured.
Brush sets have 3 different download package options:
- PS Creative Suite
- Photoshop 7.0
- GIMP
And, a great thing about BlendFu is, when you click on a brush set, you can view every single brush in the set in detail.
