![Aviary Aviary](https://i0.wp.com/www.alexschreyer.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/screenshot-2_10_2009-21_26_35.png?resize=439%2C307)
This is a bit off topic but I just discovered aviary.com. If you haven’t checked out their image editing tools, give them a try. They are (for the most part) free, online and surprisingly powerful (for an online-only application). There is even an online community for sharing and discussing the final creations.
So what will you find in this bird nest? Apparently a whole lot of feathered friends that play nicely together:
- “Phoenix” is an image editor that not only allows for resizing and application of filters, it also has a layer-based manipulation capacity similar to Photoshop or Gimp.
- Similar layer-based editing is available in the “Raven“, a vector-based image editor like Adobe’s Illustrator.
- Extremely useful (especially for web designers) is “Toucan“, a color swatch editing tool. It has similarities with Adobe’s Kuler and allows for creating swatches based on a variety of color harmony principles. Furthermore, images can be loaded and used as a basis for new color pallettes.
- The final tool in the list is “Peacock“, which is a visual image manipulation tool that works with parametric modifiers. See the image below for an idea of how it works.
![Peacock screenshot Peacock screenshot](https://i0.wp.com/www.alexschreyer.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/screenshot-2_10_2009-21_33_23-440x365.png?resize=440%2C365)
Apparently there are more online applications in the works and there is also a “premium” subscription. Nevertheless, what’s there at this point loads fast and runs extremely stable on my machine and will undoubtedly serve as Photoshop replacement when I am not at my machine.
To give you a full prespective here, it should be mentioned that there are other online image editors, too. These are for example Adobe’s Photoshop.com, Picnik and several quick-and-easy ones like DrPic.com.