When I found out Picnik was closing up shop, I felt like I was losing a best friend. Seriously, we have spent a lot of time together. I have been in a bit of denial just marching on until this weekend when I decided I better find an alternative. I opened up my photshop, played around for an hour and felt hopeless. Then I did a quick search for an online photo editor and found iPiccy. Friends, it’s pretty dang close. Even better, the folks behind iPiccy are trying to bring all the best features from Picnik to iPiccy. I gave it a go and here is what I’ve found so far:
Editing With iPiccy vs. Picnik
Here is a photo of my cute niece straight out of the camera.
Here it is after I edited it in Picnik, mind you when I upload here to TMH it adds a lot of warmth (drives me crazy!).
And here it is after I edited it with iPiccy for the first time.
I used Ortonish, blemish fix, exposure, eye bright, airbrush, contrast, sharpening, and curves in both.
The one thing I noticed with iPiccy is a grainy-ness. I think this may be because of something I am doing, but not sure. I have edited some other photos with similar results – just not as noticeable as here.
Here are a few pros I observed with iPiccy:
- iPiccy is much faster – yay!
- it has many, many editing features (too many?)
- there is a painting tool (that picnik didn’t offer) that I think will be pretty cool once I figure it out
- I really like their text options
- It is very intuitive and user friendly – much like picnik
I was going to do a list of cons, but really I don’t think that is fair as iPiccy is still in beta – meaning they are adding features and fixing bugs everyday. And from what I can tell, they have been very responsive to the community and what features they would like to see. So I will do a list of things I hope they add:
- Collage feature
- Photo basket equivalent for layering photos
- Stickers
- Better cloning (I couldn’t get this to work very well)
In short, if you were a big picnik fan, you’ll find iPiccy to be a welcoming replacement. Actually, I think there are some things I even like better, and I think after a few months I will be completely smitten.
iPiccy is free to use, and I think as they add more features they will have a premium membership much like Picnik. Which, if it helps them to stay open…I’m all for.
I haven’t had a chance to play with it too much yet, but wanted to give everyone a heads up as I have had a lot of people asking. I will update all the posts with Picnik tutorials showing the alternative steps in iPiccy as soon as I can.
So what about you? Have you had a chance to try iPiccy? Have you found a great alternative to Picnik?
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{ 42 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank you, thank you, thank you for posting this! I was finally getting the hang of editing in picnik and was so disappointed that they are doing away with it.
You’re welcome! Luckily, you won’t have to do much to get the hang of ipiccy, they’re are pretty similar.
Thanks for putting this up…I am going to miss the collage possibilities that Picnik had. It’s going to be fun to explore a new site!
Keep an eye out for it on ipiccy, they have a blog post that lists features they are trying to add and collages are one of them – here’s hoping!
I have never heard of that before. Very cool! I am going to share this on my blog. By that I mean I an just going to plain out link to this post and let you explain it. I never used Picnik, but many of my readers did.
I was so close to emailing you on Saturday to get a crash course for photoshop. I still need one, I just feel like I have to set aside a week to dedicate to it
Thanks for sharing Kim!
Thanks! I am going to try ipiccy. I am using http://pixlr.com/ . Though depending on the day or what I want to do, it can run slow. No matter what, I am going to miss Picnik:(
I had heard of that platform too, haven’t had a chance to play with it just yet. But yes, always going to miss picnik.
I found your blog on SITS today and to my surprise your first post is so helpful to me! I was also mourning the loss of Picnik. I am going to go try out ipiccy now! Thank you.
Great! Love it when that happens
I’m going to check out ipiccy. I usually edit my photos in photoshop, but it would be great to find something new – especially if it’s easier and faster! Thanks!
I was wondering if you new a way to make just the background really unfocused and keep the object focused. I don’t always have a great backdrop and want to drowned it out. Just was wondering if there was a way.
Hi Tania, sorry for the delayed reply! Yes there is a way to do that. It’s called focal soften and you can find it on picmonkey.com too. It’s under the potin icon in the sidebar options!
Ahhhh thank you so much for posting this! (Stumbled upon your blog via Pinterest.) I almost cried when I got the announcement that Picnik was closing down… I thought it was a bad joke…I was desperate for it to not be true. I was angry at Google, feeling certain that they only decided to close Picnik down in an attempt to drive traffic to Google+, except they didn’t roll all of the features out to it, so it just sucked. ANYWAY, I am tickled pink that this new site exists!
You’re welcome! I have heard that the picnik team will be working on making the features of picnik available in Picassa, but it’s all hear say at this time. I would think they have to do something with it, right?
Some of the features are actually available on Google+! Just not all of my favorites, and the editing interface is reallllly clunky.
Was quite upset that Piknik was closing down and then I stumbled on your post and am thankful I did. Will definitely check out iPiccy. Thanks for the review of sorts
Thanks for the info on this. I tried out the site and it is so cool. Your editing job on your niece is wonderful!
Thanks Kim, she’s a beauty. I will have to do a step by step of the workflow for that one.
Oh my! Thanks so much for this post. I also have been mourning the loss of Picnik. I am thrilled that you have found this ipiccy site and have passed it along. Thank You so much for sharing.
I am not able to check out ipiccy until I get off of work tonight but I was wondering if the site had FONT lettering available? Ya know – like to add words to a photo??
P.S. – I wanted to tell you that I stumbled upon your lovely website via Pinterest also. The backcomb tut was my link. Just and FYI – I ran right out and bought the rat tail comb and the teasing brush. I can kick my self in the keester for getting rid of my grand mothers PLASTIC 3 ROW TEASING BRUSH. I am on the look out for one. *wiggles eye brows*
Soo I got a bit off of the ipiccy post. OOppps!
Yes, they do have a font option! They don’t have as many yet, but I really like the ones they do have. There is a fun little shadow effect they add, but you can take that off, and you can change the color with a hex# which is soooo handy. The text on the ippicy edit is font from ipiccy
Yay for backcombing, and yes, I know just the comb your talking about, they were classics!
Thank you for this. I love it and it has more to offer than picnik. Another to tool to work with.
This is very cool Destri! I had bookmarked your other feature on Picnik and never gotten around to trying it out — now it seems my procrastinating was a good thing, ha!
for what it’s worth, I like the ipiccy photo better! I gotta try this out. For real this time.
Ok, I edit in Windows Live Editor and it DECREASES warmth and color to the point where it is driving me WILD — I have to oversaturate my photos to get them to look decent on my blog! Weird.
Thanks so much! I am relatively new to PSE and still use Picnik when I get frustrated. I am so glad to know there is an alternative. Going to check it out!
You’re welcome! You will want to check out picmonkey.com too. It just went live yesterday and it is from the creators of Picnik!
Got here from Mom tried it…..I’m addicted (too much so) to picnik as well, so this is really welcome news. Will have to give it a try . .. . thanks!! Kim
You are a Godsend! Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for sharing this! I too was depressed over the closing of Picnik and didn’t know what alternatives were out there…I’m going to try this one right now!
Greetings!! Oh my how your blog sent me straight to heaven. I was de.vi.stated when Picnik announced its closing. Seriously upset for a few days. Like you, I went searching and came up with a big zero. Nothing out there came close to picnik’s user – one click – photo editing abilities. Then.. then, I find Ipicci. And horray. A Godsend indeed!! It has ALL the features that are a necessity for me, and that I used on picnik so regularly – mainly the “touch up” features – eye bright, blush, eye color, wrinkle remover, etc. I agree that it’s too early to critique ipicci since they’re still processing, updating and such. I am just beyond thrilled for them right now. A small list of wishes: the seasonal features – like fireworks, space scapes and such as I used those frequently as well. But that’s just icing. Ipicci: you’ve given me back my cake! Thank you!!!!!
Thanks so much! I am going to go play now!! As the date looms closer and closer to Picnik closing I have been getting more and more sad. Good to see there is a possible replacement. Thanks to your tutorial I do so much with Picnik now.
Found this post while googling ipiccy as a replacement for picnik! My gosh..I seeeriously cried when I found out about Picnik. I was playing around on ipiccy today… and feel such relief! I am so so thankful for them!
Thanks so much for your review…I know this will ease sooo many other blogging minds!
Hooray for ipiccy!! Cannot wait to see them grow!
Love from NJ,
Jenny Holiday
Hey Jenny, I didn’t know if you knew – but the people who had originally started picnik just released a new photo editing platform. They just launched yesterday, and they will be adding more to it over time. Here’s the link:
http://www.picmonkey.com
It’s fabulous!
Thanks for sharing this – I’ve always used my iPhoto tools, but love all the added features here. Definitely going to check it out.
Hi Destri,
Thanks for sharing! My name is Jenn, I’m part of a team of former-Picnikers. We see that you’ve been an avid user of Picnik and love to hear about your passion for great photos! Sounds like you’re having some great luck with iPiccy, that’s awesome. I wanted to also let you know about http://www.PicMonkey.com — a new photo editing site built by a couple of the folks who brought you Picnik! It’ll be familiar though we’ve got some new tricks up our sleeves and it’s going to be totally user-friendly.
Sign up on our site and we’ll keep you updated on a launch date. Also, feel free to send me your feedback, feature requests, and, of course, any questions you have!
Cheers,
Jenn
You just made my day. Even your teaser page looks great…is that font going to be available
? I found you on Facebook and signed up, look forward to the launch. good luck and happy coding!
Good luck, happy coding, and thanks so much for letting us know!
First of all – thanks for sharing all this with us! What great information!
And then I would have a question – is it possible with ipiccy to make collages as well?
Love,
Ursula
Not yet, but I think it is in the works…but did you see the comment above you? It looks like we have some former team picnikers that are working some magic. This has me very excited
Even the teaser page looks awesome. They are taking feature requests to 
THANK YOU!
Did I say “thank you”? Picnik closing day is fast approaching so I better take a look at iPiccy, I appreciate your post and love your edited photo!
Thank you, this is great! I too have been looking for an alternative to Picnik and so far had not find anything good and easy enough. iPiccy looks great and I can’t wait to try it.
Thank you!!!!! I’ve tried quite a few alternatives and hadn’t found one that was “just right” (not too complicated – not too basic). This one seems to be exactly what I’ve been looking for!!!!
U ROCK!!!
just THANK YOU !!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so addicted to Picnik and so sad… You saved my blog
You’re welcome! I wanted to let you know that the original team that started picnik had started a new platform that is just as Picnik. They are still working on the collage features and stuff, but they have a lot of the features available already. It’s http://www.picmonkey.com
Thank you! I too felt like I lost a best friend when they closed. I think I came across the site you recommended but didn’t realize it offered everything it did. I love your blog btw