Review of Picknik.com

What is Picnik?

Picnik.com is a free, online image editing tool. The free features are primitive and lacking overall, but it is easy use and has a couple of useful tools (i.e., image enlarge and straightening.)

If you are a tax-exempt, nonprofit business that is also part of the NetHope Network, you can apply to get Picnik's premium services for free (normally about $24.95 per year.)

I recommend this as a nice, fun tool for kids, but the free version is not powerful enough to meet the needs of the average business professional.

• Autofix
• Rotating Images
• Cropping
• Resizing (larger or smaller)
• Adjust Exposure
• Adjust Colors
• Sharpen Image
• Remove "Red-Eye"

To access additional features you need to pay for an annual subscription (currently $24.95 per year.)

• One feature I really like is that you can enter a URL and all the images on that URL (web page) will automatically load into your Picnik library - just click on an image to grab it, then edit and save it.
• You can grab images from your computer, Flikr, MySpace, Picasa Web Albums, Facebook, Webs, Webshots, and Photobucket with just one click.
• I also like the "straighten feature." If you take crooked photos, this tool can help you straighten the image without skewing edges or borders in the process.
• Picnik's "fix red-eye" feature allows you to tell Picnik if the image contains an animal or human eye.
• You can enlarge or reduce photos. Some other free editors (and purchased editors like Hewlett Packard's Photsmart Premier) only allow you to reduce image size - the ability to enlarge images is a big plus.
• WYSIWYG - Instantly see changes to your images using one-click options and slider bars.

There are several great "Picnik" tools that you can download to make using the site easier. For example, you can download a widget for Yahoo (Picnik Yahoo Widget) that allows you to upload photos into Picnik from your desktop. The widget enables you to drag and drop your photo onto the widget and a new instance of Picnik will load with a copy of your photo. There are also bookmarklets and add-ons for Internet Explorer users.

Picnik's FAQ section contains some general, but good ideas for troubleshooting if you have troubles with tools and images. The Picnik blog, however, is not very useful unless you are looking for "cutesie" ideas, fads and trends, and PR blurbs about Picnik.

• The initial load time can be a little long.
• The free features are so basic they are only good for small, fast edits - nothing substantial can be done with the free tools.
• The free version lacks power, but there is no free trial option to demo or even a feature list to see what is in the subscription version.

There is really nothing truly negative to say about Picnik, but there is also nothing to really rave about in their free version.