Online Research Toolkit

Picnik is an online photo/image editing program with some very nice features. There has been a void in online tools for image related services, so Picnik fills a greatly needed niche.

You can upload from your computer or get a photo from Flickr, Picasa, direct from a webpage, Yahoo! Search, or even from a webcam plugged into your computer. You can crop, apply a bunch of filters, sharpen and soften, fix red-eye, rotate, and resize. Once you’re done, you can save, email (including “send to website” services, as some blogs have), send to Flickr or Picasa, or print. All features are currently free while the service is in beta testing; some features, like the Doodle function, will be premium services when they move out of beta (assuming someone like Google doesn’t buy them and change the business model.)

Now, how does this fit into the “presentation” category? I can see someone taking a photo with an online camera, uploading it, editing it, then adding to to a paper or presentation. Or taking a screenshot, converting it to JPG, GIF, BMP, TGA, TIF, or PNG with the basic software that usually comes with computers, such as Windows Imaging or Paint, then uploading it for more sophisticated editing then those “come with the computer” programs allow. Most scanners allow saving in JPG, GIF, BMP, and/or TIF, so scanning an image in would is definitely an option, too.

Here is the inevitable copyright statement: Remember that almost every online image you run into is going to be copyrighted, as are many images from books and magazines that you might scan. Even if the original object, painting, etc. is not, the photograph probably is. Given all the copyright free, Creative Commons, and otherwise permissioned images that are available, please use discretion when choosing images for editing and use in your papers and presentations. And always give credit where credit is due. Copyright and plagiarism are not identical, but both are frowned on.

Thanks to Wayne McPhail and his Online Tools for the 21st Century for tipping me off to this great tool.