Picnik



**What is Picnik?** Picnik is a free online photo editing tool. It allows you to upload your own photos and then edit them in a few simple clicks. These changes can include cropping, resizing, rotating, coloring, or adding text. It can add special effects to the pictures, from random to artistic. Effects can be customized or done automatically by Picnik. Since it's right in your browser, you don't need to buy and install software such as Adobe Photoshop. The site does, however, require the free Flash plugin. Unfortunately, several advanced options require a paid upgrade to Premium membership.

**How to Use Picnik**
 * 1) The first thing to do is head to picnik.com.
 * 2) You don't need to register immediately; you can find the Upload a Photo button on the left, and pick a file from your computer.
 * 3) You can also go to the Library tab and either upload from your computer or paste a URL to get a picture from the internet. **Under the Edit tab**, you can have Picnik fix your photo automatically. Here is where you can rotate, crop, resize, or sharpen the photo.
 * 4) You can also reduce red-eye and adjust colors or brightness (Exposure). **Under the Create tab**, you can add Effects to the picture, anything from a softening blur to the look of a puzzle coming together.
 * 5) You can also add photo frames as well as text in a wide variety of fonts.
 * 6) Also **under the Library tab** are options to make collages, slideshows, and tangible keepsakes.



**Picnik in the Classroom** Picnik can be a particularly useful tool for the classroom. Since Picnik is an online photo editing tool, it could be useful for students in cropping or resizing photos to be used in a class blog, wiki, or social media site. By teaching students the basic editing functions of Picnik, teachers can have students, for example, contribute edited photos to a class slide show or presentation. Picnik can also be used by teachers to edit or add special effects to photos that are to be used in a particular lesson. With a printed keepsake, your photos can become tangible rewards or tools for in-class games, like making a trading card game or board game. Home 21 Classes I Animoto I Class Blogmeister I Engrade I ePals I Gaggle I Glogster I Google Forms I Picnik I Skrbl | Smilebox | Storybird I Tagxedo I Timetoast I Twitter Voicethread | Voki | Wordle I Yodio