Simple image editor?

Question

I want something similar to "preview" in macs. For example: I want an image editor that ONLY does simple adjustments like increase/decrease contrast, saturation, exposure, color tinting.... rotate, flip vertically, flip horizontally, make black and white, change size or format, crop.

THATS IT. I know gimp can do all those things but its a bit overkill. I just want to right click an image, open it with this magical program i just described, do a few quick adjustments, and then save and exit. Nothing really fancy.

Anyone know of anything like this? Btw I am using ubuntu 12.04 :) It rocks and I am glad I switched from mac, i just need to replace this one piece of software.

Answer 1

Shotwell has a single photo view that allows you to do most if not all of what you're asking. Shotwell, of course, has the advantage that it's included by default in modern Ubuntu so there's nothing to install.

To access the Shotwell viewer without separately launching the main Shotwell app, right click the photo and from the Open With menu select Shotwell Photo Viewer:

(You can make the Shotwell viewer the default program to open photos by selecting Properties from the right click menu and messing around in the Open With tab there.)

From the Shotwell viewer, you can rotate, crop, manipulate color levels, etc., and simply save the file when you're done. You can see the tools at the bottom of the window here:

Whereas usually Shotwell is nondestructive (in the sense that any manipulations you perform on photos are only saved to a photo file if you export it), hitting save from the viewer does indeed write the changes to the file.

Full disclosure: I work at Yorba, though not on Shotwell.

Answer 2

Pinta

A very simple image editor.
Pinta is a drawing/editing program modeled on Paint.NET. Its goal is to provide a simplified alternative to the GIMP for casual users.

Features

These are the features according to their website -

Some of their features include - Adjustments (Auto level, Black and White, Sepia, …) - Effects (Motion blur, Glow, Warp, …) - Multiple layers - Unlimited undo/redo - Drawing tools (Paintbrush, Pencil, Shapes, …)

Another feature of Pinta is that say you want to continiue a work later on keeping all the layers intact (so that you can add remove them later on) so you can save the file in .ora format. It preserves every edit you have made so that you can reverse the changes.

Installation

You need to add a PPA to install this and keep it updated.

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Adding the PPA
For Ubuntu Maverick, Natty & Oneiric
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pinta-maintainers/pinta-stable/ubuntu

Once you've installed the above PPA, then you must update you system with their package lists. Run the following command:
sudo apt-get update

Once you have a PPA setup with Pinta on it and have updated your package list, you are now ready to install Pinta.

For Ubuntu Precise
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pinta-maintainers/pinta-stable

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Once you've installed the above PPA, then you must update you system with their package lists. Run the following command:
sudo apt-get update

Once you have a PPA setup with Pinta on it and have updated your package list, you are now ready to install Pinta.

Installing Pinta via the Terminal
After the PPA has been setup (see above), you can install Pinta.

You can easily install Pinta from the terminal with this command:
sudo apt-get install pinta

Installing Pinta via the Ubuntu Software Center
Once you have the PPA's setup and your system updated with their package list, now we can install Pinta via the Ubuntu Software Center:

• Launch the Ubuntu Software Center
• Search for "pinta"
• Click the 'Install' button to install Pinta.

Once it is installed you can now use Pinta. Navigate to: Menu > Graphics > Pinta

Screenshots

Hope you like it.

Answer 3

I would try Pinta (it's in the repos), as it is simple and has all the necessary basic adjustments to do with contrast, brightness, etc, and even has layers functionality. It is ideal for a quick crop, resize or red eye correction. The version in the repos is 1.1, but you can use a ppa from the developers if you want to have a more recent version-see the notes on the site about whether to use the ppa or not. However, the default version is fine and is very useful for those quick corrections. As you can see in the screenshot below the interface is easy to navigate and simple and intuitive to use.

Answer 4

This is a good recap of all this kind of software that are available under Ubuntu

http://www.upubuntu.com/2011/03/eight-image-editors-you-can-install-and.html

Answer 5

You might like gThumb. It can do all that you mentioned and little else.

Answer 6

I was just looking for something similar. I've found some candidates on Wikipedia, and I'm about to check some out.

A few I've found so far are: Shotwell, fotoxx, and the already-mentioned gthumb. I don't know yet which ones are in the Ubuntu repository.