Online image editors have become a quick and easy way to edit and enhance images, all without leaving your browser. Best of all, many of them have free versions, which contain most of the common image editing features you'll need.

If you're dealing solely with web content, chances are you'll only need to perform one of these functions:

• Crop
• Resize
• Touch-up
• Draw

For handling embedded article images on Pain in the Tech, I've found these are the only things I ever need to do on a regular basis.

Rather than fork over hundreds of dollars on the latest version of Photoshop, which contains a multitude of features you may never use, online image editors may meet most of your needs.

Picnik

Picnik aims to handle image editing by requiring as much effort as... well, a picnic!

The interface is gorgeous and a pure joy to use. Picnik excels at quickly touching-up or editing a photo. You won't find many useful layering or drawing functionality like Photoshop has. Picnik integrates with various social networks to allow quick editing and saving without ever having to download or upload images.

I use Picnik for quick resizing, cropping, or color correcting. The site loads relatively fast - much faster than launching Photoshop CS-xx.

Picnik offers free and paid versions. The free version will suffice for most casual image editing needs. However, if you'd like to use some of the more advanced image editing techniques, as well as absence of advertisements, and the ability to store/save unlimited images in the Picnik system, the paid version is there for you.

SumoPaint

SumoPaint is a Photoshop-clone, and looks and acts more like a desktop application. The interface will appeal to Photoshop users who are accostomed to floating palettes and toolbars, and an overall "Photoshop experience."

However, if you're looking for SumoPaint to also replicate Photoshop's intricate user-interface, you'll get frustrated very easily. Absent is the ability to drag-and-drop layers, and perform precise adjustments to photos. SumoPaint's greatest strength (that it looks more like a desktop application) is also it's greatest weakness. You'll be teased into thinking it also acts like a desktop application.

"Getting around" SumoPaint is a tiring process - exactly why Photoshop has become so "smart" with extensive keyboard shortcuts and snappy responsiveness. If you're looking to get down to pixel-level, and really enhance an image with extreme precision, SumoPaint may not be the answer.

But... harsh criticism aside, SumoPaint is a mighty fine product at such a low cost -- free.

I use SumoPaint for it's drawing capabilities, which Picnik lacks. For example, I'm always using screenshots in articles, and quite often I'll need to highlight or circle a specific area of a screenshot. All I need is the ability to draw a circle around the area, or adjust the transparency so that portion stands out. SumoPaint's shape tools meet my needs. Also, layers are extremely useful for editing an image without modifying the original.

You can save your SumoPaint files to your computer, or keep them archived on the site for access later. One thing I noticed is you can only save as JPG, which is an important limitation - especially for those looking to work with GIF or PNG files.

Other online image editors

Do you use something other than Picnik or SumoPaint? Let us know which online image editor you prefer.