That didn't take long. Looks like Adobe just launched its free Photoshop Express. Consider this a cordial invitation to all laypeople to become as overwhelmed and totally lost as PS owners have always felt. If you're copyright-sensitive, read the slashdot newslink!

https://www.photoshop.com/express/landing.html
http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshopexpress/

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/30/1628225
http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/World/2008/03/31/5150091-sun.html
http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/hughes/25401

Thanks for the warm welcomes! I'm enjoying perusing the site and finding the freebies.

I'd like to note that 1) that isn't my site.. mine is much less useful and is much more disorganized ;-D and 2) some of the directions pertain to webtv users such as how to input an image URL.. cut-n-paste is a bit different than with a pc. I should also note that some of the effects discussed might not exist anymore: IM is constantly being updated and sometimes new things replace the old stuff.

Another good site to find tutes (tutorials) for IM is http://d21c.com/temp/pages2/imagery.html .. it also has stuff for gifworks and a few other online imaging tools.

Back when all I had was webtv I would spend hours making bars, backgrounds and images at IM.. it's a bit more complicated than MS Paint or http://www.irfanview.com/ but way easier than http://www.gimp.org/. At least for me, it is :-)

~mistymage

A Johnny Appleseed hybrid seed packet for spring sowing -

Back in Feb '07, as on-line photo editing competition* began to proliferate like rabbits in the Australian outback, Adobe pranced onto stage to reveal a teasing glimpse of ankle.

She slipped out from behind the curtains again in September for an encore pirouette in front of a limited audience, but apparently failed to show up for her end of year opening night beta performance.

Embarrassed? Costume glitches? Suffering from Adobe bloat mean she can't even squeeze into her bandwidth? I dunno, but keep your eyes open.

*Reviews of some of the competition, including -
Fauxto/Slashup,
Picnik,
Pixoh/Snipshot,
Pixenate, and
XMG Image.

Note, the review was dated, and I noticed that some of the website names had changed. Perhaps the initial "free" model has changed, too. Read carefully.

mistymage - Hi and welcome to the Ha Ha Hotel,took a quick look at your site,very nice
specially like all the tutes,they will come in handy around here,so don't be shy.

thanks for the links, misty. and a very warm welcome to the forums. we are very friendly and helpful, so it looks like you will fit in perfectly.

i've only taken a brief look at your website, but i will explore further later. it looks fun, but i must get to bed.

:D

Although ImageMagick does gifs it also does so much more:
http://studio.imagemagick.net/MagickStudio/scripts/MagickStudio.cgi is one of the IMs you can find online.

My favorite thing IM can do is tile a .gif or .jpg across another (non-moving or static) .gif or .jpg. Doing this combined with an effect like swirl, Gaussian blur or just plain resizing can turn a blah image into a unique .gif/.jpg used for backgrounds etc.

If you need help figuring out the buttons google "webtv Imagemagick tutes" or start here http://www.wtv-zone.com/LassChance/IMAGING_THE_BIG_TUTE/How_to_use.html and you'll be on your way making your own images for your own websites/email etc.

~mistymage

cool.
thanks, rune.
:D

Another free online GIFinator: http://picasion.com/

what! no dsl!
okay...........at least i get to ride a dragon and see stars.

It's on your own risk, no seat belts, no life jacket and no dsl-cable.

count me in!

Oh, let me see,funky, I think on our next trip we'll have some place for you.

rune- in my case, i think it was just the magic. i thought that my "real" parents had left me in this home because these people would take good care of me. i don't think i had heard of superman yet, i was only about 6 years old.

graylox- your's sounds wonderful. i would love a dragon to take me off to the stars.

It's good having at least some dreams left after all those years (based on me)

Funky, I've been surprised how many adults admit to having held a similiar belief/hope that our "real" parents were going to come retrieve us one day. I don't have any experience with kids or child psychology so I can't read too much into it, i.e., is it a sign of rotten parenting (my own experience) or just a typical immature reaction/wishful thinking due to "mean old" totally normal parenting. I suspect the whole superman phenom back then (baby sent from a distant world) had a lot to do with firing up the old (er... young) imagination.

Graylox, I catch myself still daydreaming about it, too, each time I stare up at the stars.

I didn't know Jeannie as a child,
but I knew, that I would get magical power and
a red dragon would come and fly with me to the stars - still waiting...

i just loved that show. that and i dream of jeannie, i thought i was a genie when i was a kid- left to be raised by human parents until my "real" parents came back for me. i didn't have powers yet, but i knew that they would suddenly appear, so i practiced every night. i would fold my arms and blink to try and make a glass of water come across the room to me.

i was a slightly weird kid. ;D

Nah, it's actually been awhile since an opportunity's presented itself to participate in that Hallmarkian ritual.

Funky, you've better recall than me. I remember the twitching nose and a crabby nosey woman across the street.

rune- when i hear the term martooni, i always think of the bar scenes in bewitched. there was always the same drunk sitting there taking about martooni's and pink elephants. poor guy really had his head messed with.

Hi Rune it sounds, if you had a rather wet Valentine's day (I don't mean the weather)

FWIW, I just made granny aware of some incorrect coding in her NavBar and Header. For that random act of kindness, maybe she'll introduce me to the drunken faerie in the martooni glass or the cutie on the swing. :-) I've had my fill of frogs.

No single .gif but complete alphabets :

http://grannyshares.com/animals/frog/

Some more online wiggle-waggle-wobble-jiggle-glitter:

http://www.chami.com/html-kit/services/imge/
http://gifmashup.eyebeamresearch.org/
http://www.ribbonomatic.com/matic/iconomatic.html
http://www.wilsoninfo.com/gifs.html
http://cooltext.com/
http://www.blaiz.net/ANIMATOR.HTM
and more on :
http://www.blaiz.net/index.html

--------------------

To be honest, I don't know how secure all those online tools are.
They are nice, but...?

Animated .gifs are fun to add to emphasize something in an email like I have a big dog jumping up & down and the words LOL LOL all over the place! Whenever I get an email with cute animations like that I created an email file in my photos and add them to it by right clicking and 'save as'.

nice addition to the thread, ender. :D

funny find, funkymom!
i have found a similar one, just a week ago, so i am just adding it to your post:
http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/gifup/

GIFup is a dead-simple online service that allows users to create GIF animations and avatars. Not sure what GIF animations are? You can check out sample GIF animation under the features list below.

Things are quite straightforward. You simply select the images that you want, choose animation settings (speed, size, … ) and let GIFup do all the magic. Once it’s ready, you can save it to your PC or store and share it online. No registration required

i found this link in my bookmarks and i've found it useful and fun in the past.
i'm sure some of you who are more tech-savvy than me will find some uses:

http://www.gifworks.com/image_editor.html
----------------------------------------------------
What Is GIFWorks???

It's an online GIF image editor. This unique tool is completely on-line -- nothing to download or install. Better yet, it's ABSOLUTELY FREE -- no prepaid tokens or subscriptions.

What can I do with GIFWorks?

Create your own special effects with any GIF -- even animated ones! Resize it, colorize it, optimize it, and jazzercise it -- then save it and take it with you. You name it and you can do it!