Pixlr-o-matic 2.1

Overview

If you would like to create retro snaps of your photos, then although with Photoshop you have more options, it’s quite expensive and suitable for more advanced uses. Pixlr-o-matic on the other hand, is free and can create vintage looking photos in a just a few steps without much hassle.

Installation

You can either download the setup package from here at Download3K, or you could head to the product’s website and grab it from there. If you visit its website then you’ll be prompted to install Adobe AIR if you don’t have it already and the installation will be performed automatically afterwards (you’ll only have to make the basic configurations like shortcuts and pick installation directory).

The setup package is 100% clean from all types of malware (viruses, Trojans, spyware, etc.), and doesn't install any other additional 3^rd-party software. See the scan report.

The program is available to Windows, Mac OS X, iOS and Android users. Moreover, there is a Chrome web app and a Facebook app for it, or you can just use it online from its website.

Interface

The interface of the desktop app is the same as the online version of the program; it has a retro theme with a black-wooden background image, an old camera and the logo of the software at the top and two buttons in the middle of the screen, Camera and Computer. At the bottom left corner there are a few thumbnails of photos that are included in the package and can be used as samples to play with. After selecting an image from your computer (or taking one from your camera) then the main interface changes and a preview of the selected image is shown with a list of effects and some options displayed below it. You can go to the previous or next step using the left and right arrow buttons located at the bottom left and right corners of the window respectively.

Recent images show up in the bottom right corner of the main interface for easier access in the future.

Pros

It’s amazing how easy you can edit the photos with Pixlr-o-matic. All you have to do is select the photo, or take one using the built-in feature that uses your webcam, and then choose an effect from the list of available ones to edit it. There are plenty of available effects, and they are all named after people: Aladin, Amber, Anne, Antonio, Bob, Dean, Fred, Greg, Hagrid, Harry Ivan, Jean, Josh, Julia, Karen and a lot more. Apart from color effects you can also add overlays and borders; to change between Effects, Overlays and Borders you can either click on the “More” button in the end of the effects/overlays/borders strip, or use the counter at the bottom of the window (red is for effects, blue is for overlays and yellow is for borders). The changes you make are applied immediately to the preview screen. When you finish editing then you can save the output file to your computer or to imm.io.

Cons

You cannot jump directly from one effect to another using the strip, you have to go through all of them to reach the one you want.

Alternatives

Instagram (free, iOS, Android) is a popular service that gives you the ability to fix and enhance photos almost automatically. What makes it so popular is its ease of use. Another alternative, the better Pixlr-o-matic, is Pixlr Express (free, online, iOS, Android), which has more than 600 effects, overlays and borders for you to choose from as well as functions that allow you to resize, crop, trim and perform other editing operations images.

And finally, quite popular on smartphones is Google's Snapseed (free) available for iOS and Android.

Conclusion

Pixlr-o-matic has an extremely stylish interface that is very easy to use, and also has a list of effects that can really enhance your photos.