15 Free PHOTOSHOP Substitutes

One of the secrets of creating a Search Engine Optimized or SEO site is by putting great visuals on your site.

It's a visual web. That's where we are headed. Netizens like looking at pictures instead of texts. That is why it is important for you to have access to utilities and platforms that will allow you to create websites that are easy on the eyes.

Look for web hosting companies that have the capacity to provide you with advice on how to design your site so that it is visually appealing and also friendly to users and search engines.

1. PicMonkey

It's a web-based application that does not require registration to be used. You may, however, pay $5 monthly for more effects and other functionalities to create and alter images.

It is, however, more geared towards images with text. If you want to quickly do memes or simple to medium-designed posters, this will more than do. All you have to do is upload your photos the system and put text over it.

2.GIMP

Like Photoshop, GIMP has layers and you can alter and edit and put effects on the image per layer. It has different brush styles and you can put masks and other effects. This is more sophisticated than PicMonkey and more versatile. You may be able to repair images. You may also get the professional version for an more functionalities that almost duplicates Photoshop.

3. Paint.NET (Windows-only)

This is a level down from GIMP but also provides more functions than paint. The downside is that it is only available for Windows users.

4. Pinwords

Pinwords is still in its Beta phase and, so far, completely free. It is a bit more like PicMonkey, in that it is designed to put text over your images but that is about it. There's not a lot you can do.

Pinwords has one over PicMonkey in that it also offers free images too. Tse images are free to use.

5. Inkscape

It is a bit like GIMP, it has layers and has a lot of effects but it's natural file format is Vector rather than bitmaps. This means the images has higher resolution.

6. Seashore (Mac-only)

If you are using mac and can't afford the $4,000 you need to get a Photshoshop, you can make do with Seashore first to train your way up to Photoshop. It doesn't make use of layers though, that's a big limitation if you want to do some intermediate to complicated editing.

7. LivLuvCreate

This is actually a social networking site where people share their images. They also have a built in image editing system. The system is like Paint but with a whole lot of other options that enables you to create images with texts.

The special bonus is the chance to meet other photographers, graphic artists and hobbyists who are into making memes. Just don't be turned off with the cluttered homepage.

8. Keep Calm-O-Matic

If you are just after creating memes, you might as well try the Keep Calm images. Yes, all those "Keep Calm, Love Paris Hilton" or "Keep Calm and Marry a Millionaire" images came from this apps.

Essentially, you can think of anything you want to put after "Keep Calm." Yeah, pretty single minded.

9. Pixlr (web-based)

This is another web-based tool that may be considered an amateur version of Photoshop. I know the word amateur will turn you off but an amateur Photoshop is better than the pumped up Pain. So, this is still not a bad deal.

The good thing is that there is a beginner level, intermediate level and expert level. You can do basic cropping and coloring to masking and layering images.

10. Splashup (web-based)

If you are just doing some simple image design like cropping different images and putting them in one and putting text over the images, this will do. It's totally free and it's web-based. Yes, you need have internet connection to use it.

11. Pixia (Windows-only)

It would feel like doing designing something for a Manga artwork because it was designed by the Japanese. In fact, this is the exact English version of a Japanese image editing platform. It's very elementary, feels like using Paint.

12. Quozio

Quozio is a web-based program that can create memes or put text on images that may be shared immediately on different social networking site. It cannot be saved on the system but you can only save a copy for yourself.

13. Photo Pos Pro (Windows only)

It is like the first version of Photoshop but they cross sell so many different things that it's getting really annoying. There are pop ups all the time and at some point, it becomes irritating that you forget to appreciate the free tool you are using.

14. Picasa (cross-platform)

Yes, Google's image sharing platform has editing tools too. In all honesty, it's far better than most of the tools listed here. It can do image wide enhancement or curing and also do all those instagram-like effects. Like Photoshop, you can also apply your effects and edits to a batch of photos too.

15. Photoplus (Windows only)

It's an advanced Paint. It has brushes, fonts you can use and basic coloring effects but that is about it. You can't trace imags.

Final Words

If you are after creating memes or images that is aesthetically decent enough to pump up your website, these free web tools will do just fine. If you want to be a professional graphic designer, you will need something far more advanced like Photoshop.

The Importance of Valid HTML Code

Valid HTML code is very important because it helps accessibility in the ever growing platform and user agent market such as smart phones, tablet computers, the Android browser and more. It also helps show professionalism and good practice, aids debugging and future proofing.

Languages and Rules

Web pages are written in the language of HTML and the current version is HMTL 5. Every language has its own syntax and therefore every document written in the language of HTML is supposed to follow its official rules.

The rules set out define how the syntax can be used, what order the language can be written in and how it all fits together. For example, you will always start a web page with the opening HTML tag and finish with the closing HTML tag. Between these tags is the head tag and body tag. The body tag comes after the head tag.

The rules also specify how certain syntaxes work and shouldn't work. In a HTML list you use a block level item, such as a "<div>" tag, as a list item.

What is valid HTML code?

Valid code is HTML code that follows these rules set out by the W3C is dubbed "valid code". This is because the code is properly formatted, based on standards created by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Any code that is not properly formatted is dubbed invalid code. Invalid code can be a result of typing mistakes or HTML code that was once valid but now obsolete. For example the "<b>" tag for bold is invalid and superseded by the "<strong>" tag.

Why should you as a designer validate your code?

The main reason designers should be strongly encouraged to check their code and use validation services like the W3C's very own HTML validation tool for accessibility reasons.

With the arrival of Web browsers on tablet computers, smart mobile phones, games consoles and televisions it has become nearly impossible to predict just how your website will viewed. Any incorrect HTML can create an error in the browser or prevent your document from working in a particular browser. This will then turn any your audience.

For example, if you're going to be running a social media campaign and planning on running a story on Digg and the majority of Digg users use Safari or Firefox. If your website fails to load correctly because of bad code or poor CSS formatting, your story is going to get no attention and you'll be missing out on the potential of hundreds of organic editorial links.

Validated code is simply more predictable and makes life for Internet browsers and assistive technologies easier in order to present websites and their content in an accessible way.

Other reasons to validate your HTML code

Validation is a sign of professionalism

Today there is little certification for Web professionals beyond NVQ levels and computer and Information Technology related degrees. Many web designers so far have to learn by themselves. Seasoned designers can take pride in creating Web content using well-formed markup. Validation can then be used as a quick check to determine whether the code is the clean work of a seasoned HTML author, or quickly hacked-together tag soup. Validation therefore can set you as a designer apart from others and show you as the professional to hire.

Validation helps teach good practices.

Many professionals have been authoring the Web with HTML and CSS since the beginning and will know these technologies by heart. Beginners and students will find automated checking tools invaluable in spotting mistakes and make a good introduction to broader, more complex quality concepts such as accessibility.

Validation as a debugging tool

While many contemporary Web browsers do an increasingly good job of parsing even the worst HTML "tag soup", some errors are not always found. Very often, different software on different platforms will not handle such errors so easily.

Using standard markup and style sheets offers a much greater chance of having your webpage and website handled consistently across all platforms and user-agents. Indeed, most developers creating Web applications know that reliable scripting needs the document to be parsed by User-Agents without any unexpected error, and will make sure that their markup and CSS is validated before creating a rich interactive layer.

Validation as a future-proof quality check

Checking that a page displays properly in several contemporary Web browsers may be a reasonable insurance that the page will work today, but it does not guarantee that it will work tomorrow. Internet browsers change and new versions appear all the time. Everyone who accessed the Web will use a different browser that is older or newer that your version.

Validation is one of the simplest ways to check whether a page is built in accordance with Web standards, and provides one of the most reliable guarantees that future Web platforms will handle it as designed.

Author - Adam