I need good picture editing software?

[anonymous bob]

I am trying to create pictures. I see people on my facebook groups posting pictures that have been altered and it looks so cool. I need to learn how to do this. The one guy uses Micrografx picture publisher but he says it is way old. What should I get that is real good?? I have windows 7 64 bit

[john]

paint.net is a great free editor.

http://www.getpaint.net/

[Miro]

GIMP - free software
Photoscape - free software
Irfanview - free software

Check http://download.cnet.com to find the software.

[Jim]

GIMP is the best free editing software I know of. Irfanview is good for minor tweaks of images (such as color correction, image resizing and rotation), but it can't do complex things like layering.

[Chris]

There's also GIMPShop, which is GIMP but tweaked to resemble Photoshop (since many people dislike GIMP's multiple window user interface).

http://www.gimpshop.com/

Before you dive into the available effects, note that adjusting the levels and color balance can go a long way.