It is not always possible to work from the comfort of our desktop machines to perform tasks that may be important to get done ASAP. Moreover, as online tools pullulate and become more powerful, they are handier, cheaper, and simpler to use compared to system-installed applications and the processes involved. In this post, we will look at three of the most advanced online tools that offer free editions with which you can perform a lot of daily jobs/tasks to do with graphics, charting, and photo editing.
Photoshop Express is the youngest brother of the world’s most popular photo manipulation software application. It is flash-based and works in any flash-enabled browser and device (mobiles included). With the only prerequisite that the uploaded photos are of the .jpeg or .jpg format, this online photo editor boast so many tools and features that you will hardly ever need anything else if you’re not a professional graphics artist or designer.
With Photoshop Express you can perform basic editing tasks such as crop an image, resize it, and fix red-eye and saturation. Then you can adjust the lighting, blur, sharpness and white balance, all with dynamic preview that works on mouse hover. The set of effects is not exactly endless, but it includes all popular effects nonetheless. These are pixelate, crystalize, sketch, color pop and geometric distortion. Photoshop Express is free, and there is also the app version of it for mobile devices (Android/iTunes) with in-app purchases for more powerful functions.
2.) Moqups
Living in a world where interaction with various graphical user interfaces is a common thing, designing new ones on the fly has become more imperative than ever. More individuals and companies nowadays ask designers to create interfaces for their applications, so an online tool that will help them show and determine what they want would be very useful. With Moqups, the job is done by simple drag n drop actions and without the need for any coding knowledge at all. The application is using html5 for the elements and can even export the results in a set of formats.
Using the element categories on the left, users can drag n drop in the main window. These elements can later be edited as needed (size, text, color). The auto-snap to grid, center, and edge is truly fantastic, while the ability to load your own images allow users to create and share mockups easily and fast. Moqups has a free plan version as well, but this comes with certain limitations (please check their FAQ page).
3.) Gliffy
Gliffy is one of the most used online graph creating tools. From the depiction of business processes, flow and organization charts, network diagrams and site maps, to the creation of venn diagrams, mind maps, UI wireframes and even floorplans, there is nothing that this amazing on-line tool won’t do for you. In addition to your own abilities, there are also plenty of templates to help you get started.
Like Moqups, Gliffy works by simply drag n dropping elements to the main window. These elements may later be edited, inter-connected, moved and deleted. Depending on what you choose to draw, the tool-set on the right adjusts and a different set of elements is loaded. The vast majority of elements are available to non-paying users and the limitation to five saved projects is not really an issue for amateur work. The main difference between the free and paid versions is that your charts are publicly viewable in the free version.
