By now, everybody’s heard of the GIMP and Paint.net, but there are a lot of other great graphics programs out there for special situations which are lightweight and easy to use. And like the saying goes, the right tool for the right job…

Xara Xtreme

A while back, Xara released their vector graphics program Xara Xtreme into the wilds of the WWW as open source software. While the Windows version is still payware, the Linux version is completely free (as in speech!) and makes a great addition to any Linux graphics suite. While Xara Xtreme is comparable to InkScape, they don’t share all of the same functions, and they are a good complement to one another. GNU/Linux only.
Link

Artweaver

Artweaver is a freeware program for use with tablet PCs and pen tablets. It can simulate paint brushes of various types, includes layering, standard image formats and plug-in support, and has standard editing features like croping, area selecting and some built-in image effects. Not bad for around 8 Mb. Windows only.
Link

ArtRage 2

Along the same lines as Artweaver, but more focused on the painting aspects of pen input, ArtRage 2 is a free, limited feature download with a payware, full feature version available. The main advantage of ArtRage 2 is that it really does feel like an honest to goodness drawing pad right there on your PC. The free version, includes pencil, paint brush and a few other tools that allow you to really have a lot of fun with your tablet. Windows only.
Link

FastStone MaxView

FastStone offers several freeware and shareware programs for manipulating and viewing images. FastStone MaxView is a great freeware replacement for Windows XP’s Photo and Fax Viewer. MaxView is faster and has more options and features than Photo and Fax Viewer, and has a borderless window as well as auto-hiding controls and hotkey support. Windows only.
Link

Photoscape

Photoscape is a freeware photo editing program which includes features that allow you to do general photo editing and enhancements. You can also use it as a batch editing tool and it also allows you to make animated GIFs. Windows only.
Link

BONUS!! Imageditor

I’ve recently come across a handy tool for editing the Windows registry to change which programs open image files by default. Windows automatically associates certain right-click actions (chiefly open and edit) with built-in programs. I’ve been using Paint.net as a replacement for MS Paint for a while, but I wanted to associate it with all the same image formats that Paint was. This way, Paint.net would use the built-in “Edit” context menu item.

Imageditor allows you to do just that, with no manual editing of the registry or going through the hassle of changing multiple items in the Folder Settings dialog. There are instructions on the Imageditor page on how to use it. Windows only.
Link

UPDATE AGAIN! 080611
I’ve made a new post on this subject cause it’s easier to update by adding new posts instead of updating this one. Enjoy!

Update!!
Had to add a comment to the replacement code below in order for this to work.

080404 Update!!
Yet again, code changes for new versions and what not.

Looks like Mozilla has added WebRunner to it’s Mozilla Labs line up and changed the name to Prism. From what they say, it’s going to be a cross between an open version of Adobe Air and Microsoft Silverlight and a localized lancher for web applications. Which, by my definition, is what utility computing is supposed to be like. Prism is currently for Windows only (they’d better hurry up with a Linux version), but it runs the same webapp files and also has added style sheet support - among other things - so you can style your webapps your way.

Anyway, I’ve been kind of discouraged by the lack of extension availability for WebRunner (and XulRunner for that matter). You’ll find in another of my posts a webapp for accessing the WebRunner extensions panel. Using this webapp, you can add new extensions (by installing or dropping them onto the panel), but at this point, adding extensions will fail because the version checking mechanism for WebRunner/XulRunner. To get around that, you need to change the extension’s compatibility information. These instructions will not work for every extension and your results will vary…

I recommend you find a smaller extension, download it and make the following changes:

1. Open the extension package (you can open it with 7-zip, ALzip, Winzip or any other archive program that works with zip files.
2. Extract and open the install.rdf with a text editor, I’d recommend Wordpad if your using windows.
3. Locate and change the following or something that looks like the following (this will vary by extension, but look for the Firefox description section - and you may find that you have to remove all references to all other Mozilla programs that the extension is compatible with for this to work):

<!--Firefox--> <RDF:Description RDF:about="rdf:#$djS7s" em:id="{ec8030f7-c20a-464f-9b0e-13a3a9e97384}" em:minVersion="0.8" em:maxVersion="2.0.0.*" />

To:

<!--Webrunner-->
<RDF:Description RDF:about="webrunner" em:id="webrunner@webapps.org" em:minVersion="0.1" em:maxVersion="10.0" />

or (again it will depend on which way the developer implemented the Firefox description):

<em:targetApplication> <!--Webrunner--> <Description> <em:id>webrunner@webapps.org</em:id> <em:minVersion>0.1</em:minVersion> <em:maxVersion>10.0</em:maxVersion> </Description> </em:targetApplication>

If you’re using Prism, change to the following:

<RDF:Description RDF:about="prism" em:id="prism@developer.mozilla.org" em:minVersion="0.1" em:maxVersion="10.0" />

or

&lt;em:targetApplication&gt; &lt;Description&gt; <code>&lt;!--Prism--&gt;
<em:id>prism@developer.mozilla.org</em:id>
<em:minVersion>0.1</em:minVersion>
<em:maxVersion>10.0</em:maxVersion>
</Description>
</em:targetApplication>

4. Then save the rdf file and add it back into the xpi archive.
5. You should be ready to install the extension using the Extensions.webapp

I found this parts of this bit of magic on Alex Sirota’s website along with the tip to check in the applicaiton.ini file for any XulRunner application’s ID. If you run into errors, then something is probably malformed in the rdf file so check that first. I won’t be much help in trouble shooting, and I’m not about to offer support for other peoples extensions on an unsupported application, but if you have problems, post a comment and I’ll give editing the rdf a go myself.