Photopea - free Photoshop without installation
A free alternative to Photoshop without the need for installation. Simply run it in the browser.
Photographs and images adds life to an article. It also reduces the need to describe with lengthy words or paragraphs. Along this journey of having a personal website, I found a wonderful alternative to photoshop that can be used without installing as it runs within the browser. Best of all, it is FREE!!
Most of the photographs and images used on this website are made using Photopea. When I saw Photopea on the browser for the first time, I thought it looked like photoshop or other photo editors. Functions like layers, select and ink dropper found in paid applications are available on a sidebar. The function icons on this sidebar are easily recognisable which reduced my learning curve. Truth be told, I have not explored every feature of this application. On the practical front, I am using only those functions needed to get the job done for this website.
As an illustration, I wanted to create a logo with the chinese character for Dragon 龙. Obviously, I prefered the traditional character of this word which looks so much nicer. In addition, I wanted it to have transparent background. This was easily achieve using prior experience with photoshop from years ago.
As can be seen in the image, the layer feature was used. Together with magic wand from the side bar, I was able to quickly select the character out from an image. I also made layers with different colour for the character as well as created an outline of the character. When it was done, the png image was exported.
Incidentally, if you go to Photopea site now, you will also find that the title image for this posting is a composit of their start image. I chose it because it showed several formats Photopea could work with. As this website journey progresses, I am pretty sure I will find and use more features of this application.
Photopea does the job, it is free and there is no need to install.