{Watch for a new video Mandarin lesson for kids from Hold the MSG later today. Video is loading up to YouTube even now.}

I was kind of late to the party with Picnik, the free online photo editing tool, but once I discovered it, I was hooked. While I used my husband’s Photoshop Elements for some edits, in many ways, Picnik was easier, simpler, more intuitive and quicker to use.

So, like many bloggers, I was sad when Google announced it was folding up the Picnik blanket for the last time today, April 19, and moving Picnik to Google Plus.

There are no shortage of tools rushing in to fill the void. They’re all very different, though.

Here’s a sampling of different programs, all online like Picnik, and what they offer:

1. Splashup – Offers an interface very much like that of Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. To my mind, not as intuitive as Picnik.

   

2. Dr.Pic – This site is full of ads, which for me was an immediate turn-off. Features are good, but limited. A few features feel clumsy, like resizing, which is done by percent by default (but can be switched to pixel size).

   

3. FotoFlexer – Offers to load your photo from your computer or several different sites such as Photobucket, Flickr or Facebook. I wish I could say more about this program, but I wasn’t able to get it to successfully load any photos from my computer.

   

4. iPiccy – This tool has promise. There are plenty of features, and the menu bar (though compressed into one long one in the sidebar), will feel very familiar to Picnik users.

   

5. Pixlr This tool too, has promise, with a free tool specifically aimed at previous Picnik users. Don’t expect a familiar interface, although there are many different types of edits to choose from.

   

6. PicMonkey – This program is the one that to me feels most like Picnik, the most intuitive, and the most fun. They have added a number of new features since I began experimenting with the program a month or so ago that are similar to those of Picnik. It even has a collage feature. There are, it seems to me however, quite a number of features (more than Picnik?) that remind the user that they’re free “for now.” I’m afraid to get hooked and have something taken away from me again.

   
   This is probably the program I’ll be using however.

   What about you? Do you use photo editing software? Do you use an online version or something on your computer? And will you miss Picnik?