I've had several people lately ask me what photo editing software I use and what would I recommend for them to use. For the past 30 years, I have been the web guy and senior programmer for several marketing companies and Photoshop is absolutely required. I realize that most people don't have the time, inclination, and sometimes the financial resources to learn and use Photoshop, so here's some alternatives that are available.

Canva Photo Editor (FREE) - https://www.canva.com/photo-editor/
The Canva Photo Editor is hands-down the easiest online photo editor to use. If you can drag and drop an image into your web browser, you can use this editor. There are only six operations that you can make: filter, adjust, crop, resize, rotate and flip. Canva Photo Editor is great when you just need to resize and save an image.

Pixlr X - (FREE) - https://pixlr.com/
Pixlr X is another online photo editor that supports basic image editing, as well as the ability to add text and other elements to your image. They have made it simple to add overlays, borders, shapes, stickers, and stock images to your creation. Image layers are also supported. More advanced editing options are available for a fee.

Photopea - (FREE/PAID) - https://www.photopea.com/
I already mentioned that I was a photoshop guy, so it won't surprise you to find out that Photopea is my favorite online editor. It looks like Photoshop, acts like Photoshop, and most importantly will open and save a Photoshop PSD file. Sidebar ad can be annoying, and you can subscribe and get an ad-free version. I use this alot when I am on someone else's computer who doesn't have Photoshop.

GIMP - (FREE) - https://www.gimp.org
GIMP is a cross-platform open-source image editor available for GNU/Linux, OS X, Windows and more operating systems. GIMP is an serious alternative to Photoshop in terms of both power and feature sets. Like Photoshop, there is a learning curve. I haven't used it a whole bunch, so if you have questions about it, post on the forum and a GIMP user will be able to help you.

Adobe Photoshop - ($$$) - https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud.html
Adobe Photoshop is so widely used that the program's name has become synonymous with image editing. Photoshop's feature set is massive and growing. Photoshop does it all: image editing, video editing, 3d modeling, and more. Two major drawbacks to Adobe are the learning curve and the cost. Like all software, it takes time to learn and YouTube videos will be your friend during the process. There are several different pricing plans from US $9.99/month to $52.99/month(All Adobe Apps) ($82.98/mth All apps + Adboe Stock). As a side note, if your a photographer, the $9.99/mth photography package is worth it just for Lightroom.

If I missed any that you would recommend to please, please leave it in the comments below.

Did you know that 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women have some form of color-blindness? Worldwide, that works out to 300 million people who can’t see the full range of the color-spectrum. As I write this article there are 520 people on the forum. Using the ratio above, that means that possibly 43 of them are color blind.

I, personally, suffer from red-green color-blindness. I have trouble discriminating red and green hues due to the absence or mutation of the red or green photoreceptors in my eyes. It makes it hard for me to see certain things easily like, is the traffic light red or green? Does this shirt match these pants? Identifying most reds and greens is more guesswork than seeing the color.

If you can see the full color spectrum, you might have a hard time understanding how color blind people see the world. Here are some sample images showing the three basic types of color blindness.

Normal Vision

Photo credit: Q-lieb-in [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]

Deuteranopia (Red-Green Color Blindness)

Photo credit: Tohaomg [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]

Tritanopia (Blue-Yellow Color Blindness)

Photo credit: Tohaomg [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]

Monochromacy (Total Color Blindness)

Photo credit: Tohaomg [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]

This has affected my enjoyment of role-playing games somewhat. Certain color schemes on maps make it hard to identify special areas like hidden doors, traps and etc. The more elaborate the map and it’s color-scheme, the harder it is to easily and quickly identify special areas.

With Fantasy Grounds, the one thing that particularly used to frustrate me was the green shortcut pins on the map. The particular shade of green just didn’t provide enough color contrast for me to locate the pin without making a conscious effort to find it. Sharing the pin only made matters worse, because I had a hard time telling the red from the green pin. Thankfully, Fantasy Grounds is customizable and I was able to start working on my own custom theme with new and improved pin markers. They are now big and blue/bright red.

During the creation of my color-blind safe theme, my players have suffered through some awful color schemes. I threw color coordination out the window while I identified those icons and aspects of Fantasy Grounds that I had a hard time seeing. When new players would comment that they liked the color scheme I knew that they were color-blind too. lol.

I wanted to share some tips and links for all the theme designers, and content creators to keep in mind. These are simple to implement and won’t adversely affect your creation.

1. Find out if your color-blind. Take the test at http://www.color-blindness.com/ishihara_cvd_test/ishihara_cvd_test.html?iframe=true&width=500&heigh t=428
2. Keep it simple. Limiting the number of colors you use will help cut down on confusion between objects.
3. Use patterns and textures to show contrast between items. Adding a pattern to your walls makes it easier to see doors and etc.
4. Avoid these color combinations: green-red, green-brown, blue-purple, green-blue, light green-yellow, blue-grey, green-grey, and green-black.
5. Use high contrast when designing. Color blind people can see differences in hue, saturation, and brightness even when they can not make out the color.
6. Consider using a color blind palette. A quick google search will turn up a wide variety of color-blind safe palettes to use.

Using any or all of these tips help those of us who are color-blind enjoy your creation to the fullest. Here are some helpful links to learn about color blindness, and for designing with color blind people:

About Color Blindness

http://www.colourblindawareness.org/...our-blindness/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_blindness

Designing for the color blind

https://usabilla.com/blog/how-to-design-for-color-blindness/

http://mkweb.bcgsc.ca/colorblind/ (Color Blind Palettes)

https://venngage.com/blog/color-blind-friendly-palette/

Note: All images used are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)