Free Image Editing Software to use with your website builder

Working with different site builders it is essential to use some type of image editing software. Photoshop is the ideal, with its full range of abilites, it can open up endless possibilites for creating banners, logos, buttons, images effects, cropping & resizing and special effects fonts/text. My idea of a fun afternoon is going to the bookstore and getting one of Scott Kelbys "Down and Dirty - Tips and tricks" Photoshop books, and sitting down in front of the computer for hours trying to nail some of the lessons they provide. Ive created some amazing headers/banners and the best part, one of the reasons I love Spider...you can upload your new website header right into your control panel as a .png image file. Once its uploaded you can resize it, move it around..do anything you wish with it, giving you the ultimate control of your website design.

Now with all that being said about working with Photoshop and Spidersitebuilder, Photoshop does come with quite a hefty price tag. So the question is.. are they other more affordable image editors out there, or perhaps even free ones? The answer is yes!

Below are some Free Photoshop Alternatives for you to try out, plus some related tutorials to boot:

Photofiltre

Photofiltre Tutorial
Photofiltre Tutorial 2
Photofiltre Tutorial 3

Paint

Paint Tutorial 1
Paint Tutorial 2
Paint Tutorial 3
Paint Tutorial 4

Gimp

Gimp Tutorial 1
Gimp Tutorial 2
Gimp Tutorial 3
Gimp Tutorial 4

Irfanview

Irfanview Tutorial 1
Irfanview Tutorial 2

Now for those of you who prefer visual live tutorials, then dont forget about Youtube.com.  Type in "photofiltre tutorials" (or any of the above programs) in youtube, and you will find there are thousands of different topics out there with live demonstrations.

Online Website Builder

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Website Builder Stock Photos | Images for your website

When building your website most likely you will need to incorpoate images.  Its great if you can take your own pictures and upload them, however in some instances you will need to get professional ones to reflect the image you want to your audience.  There are several resources I use to search for and get the images I want for my sites:

Free images
These have limited selection, but dont rule them out ...you may just find what your looking for.

http://www.sxc.hu/
http://freestockphotos.com/
http://www.freeimages.co.uk/

Paid Images
These are high quality mass selection images searchable by keyword.  Pay close attention to sizing.  Sometimes its better to go with a medium or large for clearer resolution purposes.

istockphoto.com
photolibrary.com
dreamstime.com

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