Windows Freeware

The Best Free Software for Windows

No shareware, no nagware, no adware. Reviewed constantly. Categorized conveniently.

This page is updated regularly. Last update: September 27, 2005.

Free Web Graphic Software Tools

Free Photo Editor / Graphic Editor

The Gimp The Gimp

Paint.net Paint.NET

Even if you have no intention of creating graphics, you need some ability to manipulate images if you intend to have any photos or graphics on your site.

These are the best of their class.

More information on these here.

http://www.gimp.org/

http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/paint.net/

Free Picture Viewer / Web Optimizer / Image Converter

Irfanview Irfanview

XnView XnView

For simple tasks like resizing or converting to black and white, IrfanView and XnView are more than sufficient. Their primary purpose is to view and browse images, but they can convert them to web-friendly gif's, jpg's or png's as well. You can adjust the palettes on your gif's and png's or adjust compression on your jpg's for optimal web performance.

More information on these here.

http://www.irfanview.com/

http://www.xnview.com/

Free Color Picker / Palette Creator

ColorPicker ColorPicker

ColorPicker is a one-trick pony, but it's one trick that all web developers need. Clicking anywhere on your screen will return its color value in hex or decimal. It can snap to WebSafe colors and will let you zoom in for accurate selection. There are more features than you will ever need for this kind of tool such as 3x3 or 5x5 pixel color sampling. ColorPicker also allows you to create color palettes from your picked colors.

http://www.iconico.com/index.aspx

Free Favicon Creator

Adsen Favicon Adsen Favicon

Favicons are the graphic files you put in your site's root directory. They are displayed on Firefox and Opera's tabs and bookmarks and in Internet Explorer's favorites. Adsen Favicon is a simple tool for converting graphics to favicons.

http://www.adsensoftware.com/favicon/

Free GIF / Icon Library

GIF Vault

A collection of over 7,500 32x32 16 color gif images with transparent backgrounds, for all your iconic needs, all conveniently categorized.

http://www.davidpye.com/freeware/index.shtml

Free Button Creator

ZPaint ZPaint

Let's face it. If all you're doing is creating simple buttons for your site, the Gimp is massive overkill. ZPaint is a small utility that does one thing very well. It makes beveled buttons. You can adjust the roundness, depth, color, etc. Easy to use and fast.

http://www.steffengerlach.de/freeware/index.html