I like sending people greeting cards with every special occasion.But most of all I like sending e-cards, that is I take a digital photo of me and my family and edit it to match to my idea of a greeting card , then add the message and finally send it on the email. This way I can keep contact with all the people that are important to me and send them recent pictures of all the members of my family in case they missed some important events like my little son's first tooth and so on. But you can only imagine how hard it is to try to keep two small children still, smiling at the camera.

<-300x250 Medium Rectangle - center->

Of course we spend about two hours trying to get a good picture with everybody in it, with all the eyes staring at the camera and all the members of the family more or less clean and looking happy. Usually I have to browse through at least twenty photos in order to find one that fits my standards. Well, not any more. That is because I have discovered recently how easy and convenient it is to work with some digital photo software and get the best possible effect from a photo that looked compromised in the beginning and, after I have edited it, looked simply marvelous.

Here is a top with the best digital photo software available, according to the number of sales:
1. Adobe Photoshop Elements 2. Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo 3. Serif PhotoPlus 4. Ulead PhotoImpact 5. ACDSee Photo Editor 6. Roxio PhotoShow 7. FotoFinish Suite 8. Photo Explosion 9. Photo Impression 10. PhotoStudio

Like I mentioned before Adobe Photoshop seems to be the best rated digital photo software so far , so let's take a look at some of its most important features that you need in editing digital photos. Usually photo editing software applications are pretty complex and require a lot of knowledge and training to master all the features perfectly and the wide variety of features is exactly what makes it so complex and difficult to use. But not this time.

Adobe Photoshop has a very user friendly interface with very handy and easy to find tools, keeping the beginner informed with what they can do thanks to a very useful and visible tutorial that explains every step of the way what you have to do and what tools to use. You will be showed and explained the steps you have to make in order to apply edits, share finished projects or the way in which you can use your photos to create personalized post cards , calendars and photo books.

The most important purpose of this software application is to edit digital photos. You can find a very complex set of tools for both basic and more refined photo editing. As basic instruments I would like to mention red- eye removing, cropping, resizing, minor cleanup and cloning. All these are included in Quick fix tool area. Then you can also adjust colour and lighting and have the possibility to have a final preview before printing or sending the photo away from the editing desk.

Then you can apply a high fine filter for a more refined editing. A new tool here is Photomerge exposure, that allows you to borrow more prominent features from other photos and clip them and then glue them to the original photo, so that you can get a more defined aspect of certain features of your face. Another remarkable tool here is the Auto analyzer that is able to identify people on their appearance particularities. These are other more features are available in this amazing software application.

There has been a lot of debate regarding the concept of free software and open source software and there has been no end to it yet.Some people think that both terms refer to one and the same thing, while others seem to make a good distinction between the two of them.
<-300x250 Medium Rectangle - center->
Apparently the term "free software" refers to the freedom of using the software, not the free of charge meaning. Some person put it in a very explicit plastic way :" free software is like in free speech, not free beer". So you may use the software even for a small price. It's like getting a license to using the software, while the producing company has all the copy rights.  The open source software, on the other hand, is the software that totally leaves the user to change it and edit it, improve it or do whatever they want to without restrictions. From this point of view you would say they give the users a license to use the software the way they like it provided they specify the source code. They may even sell the software they changed without any requests from the original source. There is not such a big difference between open source software and free software and some people believe that when you choose one term over the other you just make clear what your purposes are. However, they are all different from the term "freeware" that means software totally free of charge.



The free software movement began in 1983 and has gained a lot of adepts in time. Now, especially after the huge development of the internet and its spreading all over the world, you can find a lot of free software for download. Some people say that "free software" is better, while others that "open source software", but I think they both come for the users ' advantage. And I guess it's just a matter of words after all. But more about "open sourcesoftware " definition and meaning directly on their web site - www.opensource.org.

There are a lot of web sites that offer free open source software for download and you can choose there exactly the type of software that you need or find interesting. www.econsultant.com is such an example. www.sourceforge.net hosts a wide variety of open source software and even offers you the possibility to look for a certain open source software thanks to a search engine. If you want to download and use the software here you must open an account and only after that you can use it to search and download different kinds of software you might need and that are classified here in many sections.



www.weblogs.us presents a list with the free and open source software they use by the Cass District Library: Edubuntu, xubuntu, dansguardian, Public IP, Open Office, hMail Server, Squirrel Mail, Internet station manager and WMWare server.

www.opensourcewindows.org is a special web page listing the some of the many open source software applications that are compatible with Windows operating system. Here are a few examples: Mozilla Firefox for web browsing, Miro -video player, Pidgin - instant messaging, Skin screen - download helpers, Mozilla thunderbird - email, RSSOwl -RSS, Cabos and Gnucleus - -eer-to-peer file sharing, VLC, MPlayer, Media Player Classic - video playbackAbiWord - word processing, Juice -podcasting, etc.

Let me ask you a question from the very beginning: how many small films with you and your family and friends do you have stored on your computer? I can bet there are lots of them. Now another question: how often do you watch these films or videos? I can bet again that very rarely. There are a lot of video files gathered in time and we just don't have time to watch them very often.

<-300x250 Medium Rectangle - center->

That is why maybe it would be a good idea to edit them , paste some of them and get some nice home-made movies that are funny or nostalgic and that we can prepare for certain special occasions like Valentine's Day, Mother's day or other celebrations in the family. And this personalized gift is more valuable than more expensive ones because they are made from the heart and show personal things. And because we are no professionals we can be happy to use some free video editing software to help us with the editing part. Of course this free software does not have all the features available in a professional video editing software, but they are enough for the home made videos.

Here are some examples of such free video editing software that you may find useful in preparing surprise gifts for your loved ones: Microsoft movie maker, Apple iMovie, Avid free DVD, Wax, Zwei Stein, Jumpcut.com ( a web based video editing software)Video spirit pro and many others. You can use this kind of software to edit hte family videos or any other kind of video files you have and after that you may even upload them on such web sites like You tube.

The original cameras made by well-known brands may also deliver you the camera together with some video editor, so make sure you check this before downloading any free video editing software. No matter what your choice is there have to be some necessary features and tools available, such as transitions and video effects, movie titles, adding text that appears with some visual effect like zooming, rolling.

Some of these software applications may allow you to add some musical background and bubbles with comments for the funny movies. You can also use your collection of photos to mix them, paste them and combine them like short humurous movies that are usually the heart of a good party. Those applications that are web based allow you to import your own video files and edit them online and after that send them directly to such web sites as You tube.

You can even organize your own online albums containing photos and videos and send the link to the people you know. No need to travel for long hours to see the latest photos with your friends or family, as you can also admire them from the distance, even from the other side of the world. Just make sure you choose the right software for you, and it's better to choose one with a simple and user-friendly interface that also has online and phone support. Now, have fun editing all those piles of photos that have been in the dark for too long!