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Editing Pictures Online for Free with PicMonkey

I think bloggers around the world collectively died a little inside the day Picnik announced they were closing up shop. I’ll admit it, I was pretty upset as well; I even tried all the other programs out there to edit pictures for free, but it just wasn’t the same.

What we need are websites like Picnik. Stat.

A quick and easy tutorial to help you use PicMonkey to edit photos for free. Great resource for bloggers.

Picture Editing Online For Free with PicMonkey

Luckily, I found PicMonkey via my beloved Twitter (@PicMonkeyApp). I was hesitant to give it a whirl, but their snarky Twitter bio convinced me:

Twitter Bio for PicMonkey

A new, free online photo editing program made by the same people who developed the cool photo effects for Picnik? I am ecstatic that I tried it out and you will be too!

Getting Started With Free Picture Editing Online

PicMonkey is extremely easy to navigate. Get started by simply clicking edit photo and selecting the photo you want to edit from the files on your computer.

choosing photo to edit in PicMonkey

Your photo will immediately open to the right with all of your editing tools on the left of your screen. There are six basic editing options each symbolized by its own emblem. Basic Edits is where you will find the go-to tools that you may need including crop, rotate, sharpen and re size. Effects is where the fun happens. If you have ever used Instagram you will love the different filters that can be added to each photo. There are over 25 different choices including the Warhol effect in honor of infamous Andy Warhol and his paintings.

instagram-like filter on PicMonkey

PicMonkey makes it even easier by allowing you to preview all edits and either save or discard them. There is even an undo option. Each effect is applied by scrolling Touch Up, cleverly symbolized by a tube of lipstick, is the mecca of photo corrections expanding way beyond the typical red-eye reduction. The Text option will allow every blogger to ability to quickly watermark their photos. I suggest using the fade option to make your water mark blend into the photograph for a more professional look.

PicMonkey Watermarking

Borders and Overlays are also options available on PicMonkey.

The Pros

The program does not slow down your computer and every time I have used it I have never had to wait for it to load. The edits are easy to apply, the choices are broad enough to give you options but narrow enough not to overwhelm budding photographers and there are several different ways you can save your photo when you are done.

The Cons

PicMonkey just launched so we will have to wait a little longer for the collage feature; however, they promise much more to come.

Overall, PicMonkey easily fills the Picnik void for bloggers.

Disclosure: This post includes affiliate links.

About Ashley Abele

Ashley is a mom of 3 young children, social media consultant and blogger. She focuses on strategizing for bloggers and small businesses to help them reach their online potential and subsequent sales potential as cofounder of Other Half Media. When she’s not busy creating blogger outreach programs, email or social media campaigns, she blogs her life, parenting, and frequent moves at My Front Porch Swing. Connect on @AshleyNAbele on Twitter and on Facebook.
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Comments

  1. Wow, I feel a bit intimidated between all the ladies here 🙂 But thank you for sharing this information on How to do the Image Editing. I never used Picnic but had a look at PicMonkey and will be giving it a try. So by the way Ashley, your website is a PR5 and PicMonkey is a PR4, well done very high Page Rank, I am impressed.

  2. Long time reader, first time poster. 😉 But I really appreciate you leading me to this, it’s going to help me and my business so much. I sell vintage sewing patterns so visuals are very important. Now I can show off my patterns like they should be. Thanks!

  3. Oh wow! Thank you SO much for this. I have not been looking forward to April since I know Picnik will be gone. So sad. Definitely looking into PicMonkey. Thank you!

  4. I added a quick watermark to one of my pics but…on some posts I have a lot of pictures. This seems very time consuming. Is there a quicker way? or do I need to upload each pic one by one, add the water mark then save them one by one. Before I just pulled the pic from iPhoto into the post. It is very quick and easy but the watermark thing adds a whole new level of work for me.

    • I’ve been using picmarkr.com for that… you can watermark several images all at once. You can’t do any other kind of editing though.

  6. This doesn’t work for me when I’m working on a public computer or my husband’s android phone, neither of which have flash available. I found this site though, that edits pictures without the need for any plugins: pixenate.com

  10. Thanks for the post! I have been sadly counting down the days until Picnik closes and contemplating joining Google+ solely for the reason that Picnik features are apparently moving over there. It’s so good to know that the same people have created another tool – I’m looking forward to trying it out!

  11. I just got into taking my own pictures with my husband’s camera phone (yeah, i know, but I don’t have one of my own yet) and this is totally going to be helpful… thanks!

  15. I am currently using Picnik because the premium version is now free until April 19th, but I will definitely check out PicMonkey when that ends. Nice to know that I have another decent free option to edit my photos.

  16. Thank you thank you thank you! I’ve never edited photos online b/c I’ve always been too intimidated. I always just use the basic photo editing that comes w/ my iPhoto. I’m going to take the plunge into PicMonkey!

  18. This is good news because I have been heart-broken at the thought of picnik being gone starting in April. Can’t wait to check this out and be back in business again with editing gorgeous photos easily- thanks for sharing!

    • Haha Don’t feel bad Susan the joke is kind of hidden. Their profile reads “a little frog told us their was a void to fill…” picnik was advertised by a frog. I like corny jokes apparently.

  21. Perfect timing for this post! My blog is new and I’ve been using Picnik for photo editing. I was dreading having to settle on something that wasn’t as easy to use and having to learn something else. My head is swimming already learning WordPress.

    I’m headed to PicMonkey now to check it out. Thanks!

  27. I am so excited about this. I used it to edit the photo that is on my blog today. So far I love it just as much as Picnik and I can’t wait until they have a collage feature.

    • Stesha – Thank you, thank you. I tend to keep a profile urctpie for a very long time, and it was time for a change. Now my children on the other hand, change their profile urctpies all the time!

  33. Yeah! I’ve been wondering what would fill Picnik’s void. I’ve been using Fotoflexer also, but it’s not nearly as exciting. Thanks so much — can’t wait to check it out.

  35. Thanks for this – there are so many posts about all the different choices and I have yet to try any other (still enjoying picnik while i can). Do you know if you can upload fonts to any free photo editing sites?

    • PicMonkey does not have that feature; HOWEVER, they have amazing customer service via Twitter and I’ve even seen them Tweet that they would be happy to add any suggest fonts!

  36. I found out about PicMonkey a couple of days ago… instantly fell in love with the program because I seriously was dreading the shutdown of Picnik. Here’s to the collage feature being released super soon! 😉

  37. Yay! I’ll admit to being sad myself. Even though some of the Picnik features are being integrated into Google I don’t think they all will. Till it closes it’s doors I’m enjoying using all the premium features. Will check out PicMonkey thanks for heads up!