I do the majority of my image editing on my MBP using Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Firework. As I have mentioned in several articles I also use several free or very cheap open sources products as well depending on the nature of the function I need to perform.

There are some very excellent Free tools and applications out there. It just takes a little looking. Fortunately we have LifeHacker and all the diligent efforts they go to chasing down new applications.

From time to time I am forced to create/edit images on my company Windows computer. Especially when I am on the road and my MBP is not with me. Finding a good alternative to Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Firework has been difficult up to now.

Meet Artweaver, the FREE open source alternative to Adobe Photoshop. There are two versions available. One you install on your computer and the other is runs from a portable thumb drive.

I have not fully tested all the features but the ones I use the most seam to work especially well. Like image sizing and general image manipulation. I know enough from my playing around with the product that I will use this on all my Windows machines from now on. It is much simpler then GIMP but that is where the similarities end. This is not a GIMP replacement. All the menu’s are copied after Adobe Photoshop basic menu structure so using it off and on as an alternative is very easy.

Hit the jump to down load your FREE copy and I would make a donation for the effort. Artweaver certainly is worth $25 or more in what it will do. As opposed the retail price of Adobe Photoshop!

Note: The connection to the Artweaver site seams a bit slow and it did time out on me several times. Guess people are jumping on the LifeHacker post!

If you have any other good alternatives to image editing on the cheap. Drop us a note or leave a comment to share with our readers.

Link to Artweaver official site!