Phixr Online Photo Editing

Introduction to Phixr Online Photo Editing

Getting Started with Phixr Review

U
pon opening Phixr, you are invited to begin with a big, green button that says: "Get Started". Click the button, accept the terms and conditions in the pop-up, and you are in. (Note: This doesn't happen every time.) You are then prompted to register. You can skip this step by clicking the "No, thanks. Skip this" link. If you would like to register, it only takes a moment and it's free.

To begin work, simply open a file. To use a file from your computer, click the Choose Files button. After selecting files, just cick the Upload photo to Phixr button.

Alternatively, you may:

• Select images from a social networking site (such as Facebook) or a photo storage site (such as Photobucket) - These choices are above the Choose Files button.
• Choose to work with their sample images - This link is to the right of the Choose Files button.
• Enter a URL to retrieve an image from another website - Text box beneath the Choose Files button.
• OR Create your own image from scratch - Link beneath the Upload button.

If your file is too big to upload to their website, a pop-up window lets you choose how you want to handle the image. The default is "shrink", and it works very well. Just click the Execute button to open your file.

When you upload an image to Phixr Online Photo Editing, it appears with a toolbar to the left. Each icon on the toolbar has a pop-up explanation of what it does. All the standard features of online image editors (crop, resize, etc.) have their own icons. The other icons represent other photo editing tools, such as Color Effects.

Each option will open a dialog box that allows you to select from a nice range of presets for each, but also has extended options for those with more knowledge of photo manipulation.



Original image © guardianstar77, 2012 - All Rights Reserved

Phixr's User Experience

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hixr does not have a sharp, modern look to it. However, it is serviceable, and the average user should be able to use the available tools very quickly.

• Ease of Use / Intuitive Interface - Fairly intuitive; pop-up icon descriptions
• Size of Workspaces - Middle third of screen only
• Attractiveness / Clean Lines - Not impressive, but okay
• Excessive Use of Ads - Few at bottom but not invasive
• Zoom - Uses a scale at the bottom of the photo - easy to miss
• Undo - Maximum 3 levels
• Redo - Maximum 3 levels
• Immediate (Live) Preview of Changes - Small preview window - does not update live image until after execution
• Full Screen Mode for Editing - No
• Right Click for Additional Options - No
• Keyboard Shortcuts - No

Note: This application has a lot of functionality that is easy to miss unless you are really observant. For example, the upper left corner has icons for manipulating the uploaded files, such as deleting some of them (when you have more than one open) or adding more if you need them. Below the picture, you have options such as the zoom scale and the Lock Aspect option for resizing and cropping.





Modified screenshot - Phixr Workspace - guardianstar77, 2012

File Management with Phixr

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hixr is a leader in the arena of file management. As mentioned, Phixr offers a wide variety of sources for obtaining existing images. It also has a lot of formats for saving files and distributing through social networks and e-mail.

General Information

• Sample Photo for Practice - Yes
• Max File Size - about 1.6mb
• Max Resolution - 1440x1080 (or any combination less than 1.6m)
• Time to load file - a tiny bit slow even on broad band; but acceptable

Open / Download

• File Formats -JPEG, JPG, PNG, GIF
• PC or Laptop - Yes
• Removable Media (flash drive, external hard drive, etc.) - Yes
• Mobile Phone - via E-mail
• Social Networks / Photo Storage Sites - Multiple
• URL (any website) - Yes

Save / Upload / Export

• Files Formats - JPEG, PNG, PDF, GIF, PNG8
• Save to PC or Laptop - Yes
• Save to Removable Media - Yes
• Save to Mobile Phone - E-mail; must furnish e-mail address
• Upload to Social Networks - Yes
• Upload to Photo Storage Sites - Yes
• E-mail - Yes
• Save on Application Host Server - 12 hours for registered users; 6 hours for temporary accounts
• Print - Yes, before or after saving the file
• Create a Product (similar to Zazzle or Cafe Press) - Yes

Workspaces

• Save for Later Editing - Yes, but only for a few hours
• Multiple Workspaces / Images - Yes

Note: Multiple workspaces means you may open more images and work on them one by one. Phixr does not automatically add a newly-opened image to the existing one.




Modified screenshot - Phixr Workspace - guardianstar77, 2012

Basic Features of Phixr Online Photo Editing

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ll of the standard basic features of an online photo editor are available with Phixr. For most tools, clicking the icon will open a pop-up dialog box with presets or the option to set your own parameters for that function.

Note: For the red-eye reduction tool, you must select the eye area before using the tool.

• Crop - tons of presets (including avatars) or easy manual crop
• Copy - Yes (icon - upper left corner)
• Resize / Scale - Yes
• Flip - Horizontally and vertically
• Rotate - By presets or arbitrary angles
• Marquee Selections - Only for crop tool
• Advanced Selection Tools (lasso, oval, etc.) - No
• Increase Canvas Size Yes

Text Capabilities Using Phixr

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hixr Online Photo Editing has much more advanced text creation options than most online photo editing applications. The one big disappointment with the tool is that you cannot select the text object after creating it. So, if you did not get it exactly where you wanted it and need to reposition it or made a typo that you need to correct, you will be unable to do so without undoing the previous text object and creating a new one. For such an advanced set of text tools, I was surprised at this "missing piece".

• Range of Fonts - Lots and lots and lots to choose from
• Font Preview - Yes
• Color - Yes; with color picker
• Size - Yes; from tiny to super huge
• Bold / Italics / Underline - Yes
• Placement on Image - Yes
• Rotation - Yes
• Transparency - Yes; suitable for watermarking
• Special Effects - Yes; outline and shadow
• Move / Reposition after De-select - No
• Edit after De-select - No

Original image © guardianstar77, 2012 - All Rights Reserved

Image Enhancement Tools

A
lthough they are not presented in the format most common for image editing programs, Phixr Online Photo Editing does offer an amazing range of preset options for improving the overall appearance of photos or creating fun images if that is your goal. As is common to this particular photo editor, every tool selected opens a dialog box with tons of options for further changes to the basic presets. You can play around with the dialog box options to achieve some truly amazing images with this program.

• Hue / Saturation - Yes
• Contrast / Brightness - Yes
• Color Balance / Correction / Enhancement - Yes
• Levels - Color only
• Curves - No
• Exposure - Yes
• Desaturate - Yes
• Blur - Yes
• Noise - Yes
• Sharpen - Yes

Common Add-On Features

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hixr Online Photo Editing has all the most common photo editing tools, including a good red-eye reduction tool. I have downgraded my opinion of this functionality as it seems Phixr has "messed with" the tool. Previously, a single click using the default settings would remove red-eye effectively. In testing for this update, I found that I had to adjust the threshold level (bar underneath picture) to about 45 in order to remove the red from the eyes without affecting the other reds within the image. It does do a good job, but no longer as well as FotoFlexer.

• Red Eye Reduction - Works well - must adjust threshold level
• Frames / Borders - Yes - somewhat limited, but very nice ones
• Shapes - Yes; cannot move or edit after de-selecting
• Stickers / Stamps - Yes; some nice 3D ones included; cannot move or edit after de-selecting
• Talk Bubbles - Yes; cannot move or edit after de-selecting
• Polaroid - Yes; excellent tool; allows you to set rotation angle, amount of "bend", and background and border colors
• Collage -Yes, but difficult to understand how it works
• Face-in-a-Hole - Yes; several presets; select face area; works well

Original image © guardianstar77, 2012 - All Rights Reserved

Common Filters / Effects

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s a whole, online photo editing applications have a great many filters with which to manipulate your photos and images, and they can differ widely between programs. Sometimes, finding them can be very confusing. In some applications you will find them under Filters. In others, you will find the same or similar functions under Effects or Adjustments. Sometimes, they are also in strange places where you would not normally expect to find them.

Phixr Online Photo Editing has three tools that allow you to choose presets that encompass a lot of the more common photo editing filters. These are the Color Effects, Camera & Lens Effects, and Fun Effects. By using these in conjunction, you can achieve most of the same effects found in other online photo editors. Phixr also has some very cool effects that are not common to other applications, such as Infrared and Night Vision.

Especially if used with the other options in the dialog boxes, you can achieve some astonishing photo effects using these three tools.

• Kaleidoscope - Yes, but not very good
• Liquid Waves / Waves - Yes
• Ripple - Yes; Spray in Fun Effects
• Water Ripple - No
• Twirl / Swirl - Yes; not what you normally expect, but okay
• Edge Detection - Sort of; Carve Edges in Fun Effects
• Lighting Effects - Yes; okay, but not what you normally expect
• Lens Flare - Yes; okay, but not what you normally expect
• Sphere - Yes
• Emboss - Yes
• Pixelate - No
• Textures - Not as we normally think of that function
• Terrain / Bump Map - No

Advanced Photo Editing Features

No Support for Illustrators and Graphic Artists

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hixr Online Photo Editing offers none of the advanced editing tools of true photo manipulation applications. Thus, it would not be a viable choice for graphic artists and illustrators or those who want to do extensive editing based on layers.

• Pixel-Based / Bitmap Editing - No
• 16-Bit Support - No
• CMYK Color Space - No
• Range of Brushes - None; no freehand drawing options
• Range of Shapes - Limited
• Pen Tool - None
• Layers - No layer support
• Tablet Support - No

Animation Capabilities (or Not)

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hixr Online Photo Editing offers no animation support, even in presets. Even the stickers are all static, although some of them are extremely nice. For example, under the Misc tab in Fun Effects, you can select from various overlays, such as hearts and snow, but these are all static images, not animations as you see in many online photo editors.

3D Transformations within Phixr

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here are no 3D transformation presets or options within Phixr Online Photo Editing. In the Decorate (stickers, etc.) section, there are some presets that are 3D images, including some of the items on the Borders tab. However, there is little adjustment available using these tools.




Original image © guardianstar77, 2012 - All Rights Reserved

Environment

I
n reviewing the operating environment for Phixr, please pay particular attention to the Terms of Service, which clearly prohibits the use of their website for such things as making images to be used for POD (print-on-demand) products, such as Zazzle and Cafe Press. This is most likely because they offer a competitive product of their own.

• Registration Required - No, but doing so gives you additional time before being "kicked off"
• Premium / Pro Upgrade Available - No
• Plug-Ins (manageable within program) - No; application is HTML, not based on Adobe Flash Player®
• Frequency of Updates - Appear to be fairly frequent
• Terms of Use - Copied from Phixr's website (emphasis mine):
  • "The Site is intended exclusively for personal, non-commercial use...whereas commercial use includes all activities targeted at revenue. Commercial use of the Site requires a written express permission."

Link to Phixr Online Photo Editing

Training / Support for Phixr

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raining and Support for Phixr is very limited. What you find is usually very helpful, but there just isn't a lot of it yet. In fact, Google searches for Phixr (other than review sites) return very few useful links. Hopefully, reviews such as this will help increase the use of Phixr Online Photo Editing and, thereby, grow the training and support for it.

I did not have occasion to access their support people; but I was delighted by the name for their e-mail contact, which is: knockknock@phixr.com.

• Help Menu Available within Application - There is a Help link in the upper left corner of both the initial "Get Started" page and the file upload page. This opens a page offering limited, but useful, information.


• FAQ / Knowledge Base / Tutorials within Application - These are available from their blog. Although limited in scope, they, too, are helpful.


• Forums / Blogs / Community Groups - In addition to the blog, there is a Facebook support group for Phixr Online Photo Editing. It appears to be basically junk, but the company does post new blog updates to the Facebook page.


• External Training / Tutorials - These are extremely limited. There are a few YouTube videos, but most of them are in foreign languages.

UPDATE! Recently, I did have occasion to contact Phixr's knockknock support. I sent an inquiry at 11 p.m. my time and received a response within 2 hours. I was extremely pleased!

Does Phixr Use Adobe Flash Player?

R
ecently, I have seen comments questioning whether or not Phixr uses the Adobe® Flash Player. Some answers have stated that it does. They are incorrect.

I have contacted Phixr's support department directly and been assured that, indeed, Phixr is still Flash-free for those who need an online image editor that does not use Adobe® Flash Player.

Summary - Phixr Online Photo Editing

You get WAY more than you pay for :D

Phixr is a free online photo editing application. It is simple to use and offers a ton of preset options for improving, altering, and "dressing up" your photos. Because it is HTML-based, not Adobe Flash-enabled, it does not have the glossy look of some online photo editors and won't support many of the features offered by those applications that do utilize Flash®, such as layers and animation. For the average person looking for ways to improve existing photos, however, it is a very nice choice. And, did I mention that it's free?

Base Photo Courtesy of morgueFile

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The Author of Phixr Online Photo Editing

guardianstar77 is a writer, graphics design artist, nature enthusiast and lover of everything that resembles a horse. She lives in Central Arkansas and shares her life with a husband of over 40 years, 2 sons, and 5 fabulous grandchildren. guardianstar77 is not domesticated, finding that spending time doing almost anything else beats doing housework. Her passions include recycling, frugal living, feeding the hungry, old-fashioned vintage everything, nature, reading, writing, flea markets and yard sales, Christmas, mystical creatures, carousels, and artwork filled with glorious earthy colors.

guardianstar77 is a devout Christian, a staunch conservative, a passionate American, and a defender of capitalism. Although she is, by her own definition, somewhat of a "professional hermit crab", guardianstar77 is deeply loyal to her family and those she chooses to have as friends. When not pursuing writing and artistic goals, she spends her time deepening those relationships.

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