Commons:Software

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This is a selection of programs designed to aid in media (graphics and audio) manipulation, as recommended by the Wikigraphists and Graphics Labs. These programs are considered very useful tools for the tasks of retouching, editing and in creation of images, illustrations, maps, photographs and animations. They also aid in the recording, editing and conversion of audio files.

Each program usually has its own dedicated forums and tutorials that can be found online. The search strings constructed from the name of the program, followed by the term 'forum' or 'tutorial' will usually present desirable results from your favourite search engine.

Recommended software[edit]

These free software products have been labeled by the Wikigraphists of the Graphic Lab the "five stars" of editing and creation of images, illustrations, maps, photograph and animations:

Logo Name Features Operating System Download Example
Inkscape Creator of SVG vector images. It can also be used to export PNG. Linux; Windows; Mac OS X inkscape.org
(see more...)
GIMP Similar to Photoshop, suite for image manipulation and creation of raster graphics, PNG, JPG, GIF, XCF). Can also be used to create animations when the GIMP Animation Package (GAP) is installed. Linux; BSD; Solaris; Windows; Mac OS X gimp.org
hugin Stitch panorama images and correct perspective Windows; Linux; BSD; Mac OS X; Other Unix Systems hugin.sourceforge.net
Blender Creation and editing of 3D images. Windows; Linux x86/PPC; Solaris; Irix ; BSD; Mac OS X blender.org
Dia Create and edit diagrams and graphics that only require basic shapes. Supports exporting to vector (SVG) and various raster file formats. Windows; Linux; Mac OS X dia-installer.de

See also Commons:Created with ... templates for more.

Useful software[edit]

General software[edit]

These software packages have been recommended by the Commons community for use in image manipulation:

Shareware free for personal use[edit]

  • IrfanView, home page at www.irfanview.com (for Microsoft Windows. A multi-featured tool, supports many image formats. Good at viewing/converting images.)
  • XnView, home page at www.xnview.com (various platforms. A multi-featured tool, supports many image formats. Good at viewing/converting images, adding IPTC metadata and GPS coordinates).

Online[edit]

Panorama stitching / keystone correction[edit]

JPEG[edit]

JPEG is a lossy image format; most image editing software can encode and decode it but it is also possible to perform certain transformations on a JPEG losslessly.

  • Jpegcrop and jpegtran: jpegtran is a command line app that can perform a variety of lossless transformations on JPEG files; it can be used with MaPiVi for a GUI (although the selection preview size seems to be limited?). Jpegcrop is a command line tool with similar functionality, there is also a windows version available with GUI.
  • There is an EXIF tag, “Orientation”, which tells viewer software that the image must be rotated before being displayed. Unfortunately, not all software supports the tag, so some images may have the wrong value in it unnoticed. The tag can be edited using exiftool (e.g. it can be neutralized with “exiftool -Orientation=Normal”). See Commons:Village_pump/Archive/2011/10#Autorotation_using_EXIF_tag_with_MW_1.18 and Commons:Exif for more details. Physical rotation of the image instead of editing the tag can be lossy, see Commons:Media for cleanup: Sideways pictures or pictures with noticeable camera tilt.
  • CropTool and Cropbot allow one to crop uploaded JPEGs losslessly, using jpegtran, so one does not need the software oneself.
  • JPEGsnoop. Free and open source tool to repair and analyse corrupted JPEGs. Windows-only, but works well under WINE.

GIF[edit]

GIF should only be used for animations here, the tool list keeps that in mind.

  • gifsicle: A command line tool for making, manipulating, and optimizing animated GIFs.
  • UnFREEz OSS GUI-tool for making animated GIFs.

PNG[edit]

PNG is a lossless format to be used for any kind of diagram or screenshot for which SVG is not convenient.

SVG[edit]

Main article: Help:SVG

SVG, or Scalable Vector Graphics, is an XML-based vector graphics format. It can be created and edited by hand as a text file, or edited through a specialized program. Bitmaps (raster graphics) can be converted to SVG (especially diagrams, maps and so on should be)

See Help:SVG for a software list.

Ogg Vorbis (audio)[edit]

Vorbis is a lossy audio codec. Video tools can also handle pure audio.

  • Audacity is an advanced audio editor with support for mixing and various effects. Can export projects in Ogg Vorbis format. The manual at its site contains advice on copying audio from tapes, LPs, minidiscs etc.
  • Mp3splt and oggz-chop (oggz-tools) each allow one to split Ogg Vorbis files without re-encoding.
  • Shtooka Recorder is a program for windows which allows automated recording of the pronunciations of many words, expressions from a text list. (you can record 500 words in 20 minutes). It can save files in Wav/Ogg/FLAC format (including Vorbis Comment tag).
  • Yazik Recorder is a cross-platform (Python) equivalent of Shtooka Recorder
  • OGG Converter allows you to convert OGG files to 11 other audio formats.

Ogg Theora and WebM (video)[edit]

See also: Help:Converting video

Theora is a lossy video codec. On Windows you can install the Xiph DirectShow filter for playing Ogg Vorbis and Theora in Windows Media Player and Winamp. You can use the native video editing software of your operating system for editing tasks on your local machine:

  • Openshot is an easy-to-use open source video editor for Windows, macOS, Linux and ChromeOS.
  • Kdenlive is a powerful open-source video editor for Linux and Windows
  • Pitivi is an open-source video editor for Linux
  • iMovie for Mac (proprietary)
  • Windows Movie Maker for Windows (proprietary, discontinued)

See also[edit]

Lists on other projects[edit]

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