What's an EASY but FUN photo editor? NOT Photoshop!

I'm looking for something that lets me edit my pictures and have FUN with them as well. I'd like to find something that lets me add more things to the picture as well as do goofy things with the finished picture and has crazy fonts. But I'm NOT looking for something that is complicated like Photoshop or those other expensive photo editors. I'm looking for something that is preferably FREE but I am willing to spend a small amount of money on something worth it.

Also, I am VERY UNEDUCATED in the realm of photo editing so I need something that can do all these things that are fun and goofy but also not in this huge complicated way with too many bells and whistles that just end up being distracting. I need something EASY TO UNDERSTAND and EASY TO USE but yet FUN to play with. Know what I mean? :confused

I've tried looking around myself but everything sounds good and it's so overwhelming and I don't know WHICH ONE to trust. So I thought I'd ask some people with EXPERIENCE that KNOW what they are talking about. I trust your knowledge way more.

Any suggestions?

thanks so much!!

Have a GREAT weekend! :wave

 

Check out http://www.getpaint.net/index.html free...

 

Right, will do... I usually do this, forgot this time...

 

WoW! That is a LARGE list to pick from. They all sound the same to me. I don't know where to even begin! LoL! I'm not sure which ones would do what I want tho. But I'm gonnal start with the programs suggested here .. that paint program and the gimp. Hopefully that will narrow it down some for me.

Thanks for the suggestions!! You guys are AWESOME as usual! You never disappoint!

have a great weekend!!!

 

My choice is Paint.NET.

(I do have Photoshop on my system, but whenever I need to do something quickly, I use Paint.NET)

 

Ok I tried Gimp and it's WAY too confusing ... It made me feel really stupid. But thanks for the suggestion anyway! It was worth the try. And paint.net seems TOO simple with not much to do in it except touch ups and re-sizing and that sort of thing. But maybe I downloaded the wrong one. I'll double check. I'm kinda looking for something fun that can do stuff like add caption bubbles to a picture so you can add funny sayings and stuff like that. Maybe some funny clipart type thingies you can add too. That sort of thing. But not in this super huge confusing way. I'm not going to be messing with saturation or contrast and hues or anything like that. I'm not fine tuning anything. I don't even know what that stuff MEANS. LoL! I'm just looking for something simple but fun and totally easy to use. Thank you for ALL the suggestions! It's helping me find what I am looking for! I appreciate it SOOOO much!!

I'll try this PhotoFiltre next and see how that goes. Thanks!

Have a great weekend!!

 

Actually, you can do that with Microsoft's Paint program found on all Windows systems.

I use PhotoFiltre and like it for the things I use it for (resizing, cropping, contrast adjustment, etc.). I believe it will work fine for adding caption bubbles. See Photofiltre Basics: Creating Comic Style Speech Bubbles. For more tutorials, see http://photofiltre.free.fr/tutorials_en.htm

 

Thank you so much for the links to explaining how to use this program. It's awesome info!!

But it's still way too complicated for me and I severely lack the kind of patience for that sort of thing. Are there any programs that already have the caption bubbles created? And then I can just paste them onto the picture and then type in the funny text I want to use? Or do you always have to make them from scratch like that?

Thanks for helping me out so much on this one!!

 

Another vote for Photofiltre. While I'm way past it I found it fun to play around with. If you use it long enough you'll outgrow it, but it's definitely worth looking at. Picasa is another popular free one http://www.majorgeeks.com/Picasa_Photo_Organizer_d4476.html

Photoshop Elements also has a Guided section as well as a Fun Edit section, but if you don't already own it I wouldn't tell you to buy it just for that.

 

Thank you SO much for all your suggestions! You guys ROCK!
I totally found what I was looking for.