Vicman's Photo Editor provides a free method of editing images, and with support for more than 30 image formats it should cater for a home user's needs.

Image formats supported include BMP, JPG, GIF, PCX, PNG, PSD, WMF, TIF and SGI. This support only extends to reading, however; the program is only able to save images in the following formats: JPG, PNG, BMP, TGA, TIF and PCX.

The interface may not be the best we've seen, but something has to give in freeware applications. It can perform all the basic editing functions (crop, resize etc.), along with some extras.

Several effects are available to spruce up your images, split into groups: Trilinear, Stylise and transformations. Trilinear effects include blur and sharpen, while Stylise effects consist of clouds, emboss etc. Transformation is by far the biggest group and includes waves, twirl and fish-eye, among others.

Upgrade to the Pro version for $29.95 and you will be able to save images in the GIF format, edit as many images as you like simultaneously, and open images larger than 3000 x 3000 pixels.