Blimp

Most images that get uploaded on the Internet go through editing process, which can even mean simple color enhancement or adding a frame. With the tool Windows provides, there’s only so much flexibility, but other alternatives like Blimp let you work with multiple layers, support more file types, and come with various effects.

The application’s visual design can make you reconsider your choice in an editor, but it’s a shame not to take at least a brief look over what you’re up against. A first step is to load a picture, which can either be done through drag and drop, or using the browse dialog. Supported formats let you work with images like JPG, TIFF, GIF, BMP, RAW, DNG, CRW, and CR2.

You only get to work with one picture at a time, and view options are rather poor, to be fair. The application’s specialty is the possibility to work with multiple layers. However, it’s not exactly what you’d expect, because every editing option represents a new layer. On the other hand, this helps you easier exclude or preview different combinations.

As such, you might be a little confused when you want to apply some effects, but the edit menu only holds undo and redo buttons. This is because effects are under the layer menu, with three different groups for image, color, and enhance. Regardless of the one you pick, a set of sliders shows up so you can adjust intensity and other parameters, with preview offered in real time.

To be fair, the amount of diversity of effects and editing options leaves more to be desired. Image related options refer to orientation, crop, rotate, resize, and applying borders. Color options, on the other hand, are only dedicated to basic management, with no extra presets like blur, pixelate, or other special enhancements.

Taking everything into consideration, we can say that Blimp comes with good intentions, providing a decent set of editing tools that can take some time to get right. However, the overall approach is a bit confusing, and even if each effect is added to a different layer, manipulation leaves more to be desired.