There are many premium and basic image editing software suites out there, so looking at i.Mage 1.10 and deciding to download it may seem like a relatively superfluous action, particularly if you are already adept with Photoshop. However, there are millions of people out there who have never used anything other than MS Paint to play around with pictures and for this type of user i.Mage might be a very apt addition to their software library.
One of i.Mage's biggest advantages over its rivals and the more feature-packed, paid-for image editors out there is its sheer speed. It is not weighed down by a myriad of plugins or extraneous processes which makes loading the software and getting on with editing an image a speedy, simple process. Of course with speed you have to make certain sacrifices, so the advanced capabilities of premium alternatives are obviously stripped down, but if you are willing to accept this deliberate deficiency you should be happy with what is on offer here.
By default i.Mage will launch in a compact mode, but you can easily make it fullscreen to get a better view of the tools and the image on which you are going to be working. The software will automatically show you two panels arranged side by side with one showing an overview of the whole image and the other giving you a zoomed view that lets you see individual pixels. Accessing the tools menu will let you swap out the zoomed panel for a selection of manipulation tools, including text entry, eraser, brush, lasso tool and much more. Along with these tweaking capabilities you can flip, crop and rotate the image without too much trouble, while there is also the option to alter the various properties of the image and implement effects. You can undo any of your alterations at any time and there is also the option to clear out the queue of previously performed actions, if you are happy with your current work.
It is hardly an exaggeration to say that you will be able to start i.Mage 1.10, make alterations to an image to fix flaws or add new elements and then save your project, before most other premium packages with fancy tools would be able to boot up and let you alter a single element. As mentioned above, this is because the image editing tools have been stripped down somewhat, but since this is not trying to replace Photoshop but rather act as a lithe, nimble and above all free alternative, it is difficult to make criticisms on these grounds.
If you are looking for image editing software that will give you access to the same tools as professionals then this is not the package for you. But if you are an average user who just wants to touch up some photos, make a fun image to share online or create an imaginative photographic mash-up in a flash, then it is arguably one of the better choices on the market.