Free software programs to create background textures, text effects, to apply effects to images, reduce file sizes, convert file formats, batch process, create a gallery, frame an image, and more fun and practical stuff. Mostly PC based, but equivalent programs are available for Mac.

We have found single task programs that do a variety of tasks, some are fun or frivolous, some are very practical. If you use inexpensive image editing software, you may prefer to extend the function with small freebie or low cost programs, rather than have to purchase one huge program to include all the features you need. The list below is just a small sampling of some of the programs we have found.

Create text images (Text Effects does a few things, Serif 3-D can do others, and Serif Draw can do some fun stuff),

Buttons and tiles (Buttonz&Tilez is good) - This type program is specifically designed to create buttons for web use. Some programs help you easily design two or three stage buttons (for Javascript rollovers or clickables), some just make one stage buttons.

Seamless backgrounds (our favorite texture generator is GenTex) - This feature is built into some of the larger image editing programs, but generally is not in the less expensive ones. There are a range of freeware programs that do just this, with many different ways of doing it. Some are simple, some are fairly complex.

Frames for images - Several programs allow you to put frames around images. Some have frames that are so boring that they aren't worth it, others have more interesting options!

Apply affects - One program you'll laugh over is DistortIt. It has a warp bubble that you can move around and distort parts of an image. A very simple program that produces hilarious results if you use it on a face!

Plugin Program - NiGulp is a simple program that allows you to run PhotoShop plugins without having Photoshop installed. Handy little thing.

Batch conversion of images from one format to another. If you have a bunch of BMP images, for example, and you want to get them ready for the web, then you can use a batch converter to change them all to jpg. As long as all of the images need the same conversion, you can use a batch converter. Our favorite is Easy Graphic Converter.

Gallery - Gallery programs help you create pages of thumbnails to link to the original larger image. Simple ones just create thumbnails, more full featured ones write the HTML code for the entire page.

Screen Capture - Screen capture programs work more or less reliably. The purpose is to take a snapshot of your computer screen. I use this for writing instructional pages, so the reader knows exactly what I am talking about. Our favorite is Gadwin Printscreen. We have tested a LOT of these, and this one works the most intuitively. The simplest and smallest of them is Capturov. It has no options, but you can place it on the taskbar and click it to take a picture very quickly.

Clean JPEG files - JPEG Cleaner strips out unnecessary file coding to produce a smaller image file for the web.

Merge Images - Several programs offer ways to merge two photos for interesting effects. Options in them vary widely.

Create Animations - You can create simple GIF animations with several single task programs. How they work and how well they do their job varies with the program.

Create Photo Albums - There are tons of free programs that do this. Most will also do a few other small tasks, but by and large they won't do any real image editing or conversion. Some people find them a useful way to organize large quantities of images.

There are many more simple programs that can provide you with additional features outside your image editing software.

To find programs for any of these tasks, look on Download.com. or Nonags. Free software is available for any of them (some is available on our software site).