Taking photos or making beautiful digital artwork is activities most people enjoy doing. Most people have heard of, and might be familiar with, Adobe Photoshop. It’s arguably the most popular image manipulation app around, especially for professionals. However, most people’s image editing needs would be met by apps available right in their browser.

While you won’t have the extensive capabilities Photoshop has, this list of the top eight image editing web apps will likely offer more features than necessary for most people in most instances.

1. Photoshop.com

Photoshop.com

Photoshop.com is the lightweight version of the behemoth desktop app, Photoshop. It’s more of a small collection of photo touchup tools with image storage and sharing integration than a real image editor. None the less, it’s a great option for those of you who might be looking for quick photo touchup capablities and and the Adobe reliability factor.

• Requirements: Flash 10+
• Developer: Adobe

2. Splashup

Splashup

Splashup is quite similar to Photoshop in respect to its interface, while offering a strong selection of tools and a few more than basic image editing capabilities. It’s capable of multiple image editing, layers, filters, etc. You can also pull images from Flicker, Picasa and Facebook.

• Requirements: Flash
• Developer: Faux Labs

3. Aviary

Aviary

Aviary offers everything from image editing to vector and audio editing. It’s a suite of web apps with some really great capabilities that let its users produce the quality of work you might expect from a desktop app. The app uses a simplified interface in comparison to Photoshop and similar web apps. It’s capable of layers, grouping, filters and quite a few more advanced features should you need them.

• Requirements: Flash
• Developer: Aviary

4. picnik

Picnik

Picnik is another editing app focused mostly on the photography aspect of editing but, is capable of a little more. It’s a great app for photo touchups, basic edits and applying some pretty neat filters but isn’t capable of features like layers. You can connect to Flickr, Facebook, PIcasa, Myspace and other photo sharing and online communities.

• Requirements: Flash
• Developer: Picnik

5. flauntR

flauntR

If you’re looking for a massive collection of pre-defined photo effects that take only a second to apply, this is the place. It’s not great for more advanced editing but definitely has enough tools to take care of most peoples needs and has integration with just about every major online community or image sharing site.

• Requirements: Flash
• Developer: FotoDesk

6. FotoFlexer

FotoFlexer

FotoFlexer is another editor focused on photos, without the capabilities necessary for editing anything else. It’s purpose, is fast and easy photo touchups and basic editing. As with most of the other apps here, it has integration with the major photo sharing and online community sites. It does have a great selection of photo effects, decorations, etc.

• Requirements: Flash
• Developer: Arbor Labs

7. Pixlr

Pixlr

Pixlr is quite similar to Splashup, but doesn’t quite offer the capabilities or performance. The interface is another Photoshop imitation, so it’ll be easy to jump right into for those of you familiar with the desktop app. Pixlr does have slightly more refined features when it comes to individual tool control though so there are some advantages. Pixlr also includes the magic wand tool, which isn’t a feature in Splashup.

• Requirements: Flash
• Developer: Pixlr

8. Sumo Paint 2.0

Sumo Paint 2.0

Sumo Paint is another Photoshop-like editing app, although with an impressive collection of tools (including the magic wand). It supports layers, grouping and many more advanced features. It’s interface appears to be well refined but I haven’t had an opportunity to use it as much as Splashup or Pixlr. They also offer a downloadable version, which adds to the capabilities you can get from their software — desktop or web app.

• Requirements: Flash
• Developer: Sumo

Conclusion

There are many more free online image editing web apps available, but they just don’t stack up to the ones listed here. Some include advanced capabilities that will allow you to do much more than photo editing, while others have a more limited set of tools for those who might only be interested in some quick photo touchups.

The great thing about these editors is that you only need a browser and Flash; so you’ll be able to access quite capable image editing software anywhere in the world for free. Some are more system resource intensive than others, but that’s to be expected; after all, they are image editing apps!

If you use or know about a free online image editor that belongs in this list, share it with us in the comments below or shoot us a quick tweet @webappstorm. Thanks!