Basic photo editor on Android (circles, arrows, captions)

[Larry Wolff]

Any suggestions for a basic free photo editor on Android that can draw
circles around things, draw arrows to point to the things in the circles
and you can type captions inside or below the images to describe things?

[Andy Burns]

Post by Larry Wolff
Any suggestions for a basic free photo editor on Android that can draw
circles around things, draw arrows to point to the things in the circles
and you can type captions inside or below the images to describe things?

"Gemini, draw a red circle around the black cat, and add an arrow
pointing to the small bird, then think of a funny caption"

No, sorry no suggestions ...

[Larry Wolff]

Post by Andy Burns

Post by Larry Wolff
Any suggestions for a basic free photo editor on Android that can draw
circles around things, draw arrows to point to the things in the circles
and you can type captions inside or below the images to describe things?

"Gemini, draw a red circle around the black cat, and add an arrow
pointing to the small bird, then think of a funny caption"
No, sorry no suggestions ...

I haven't tried an AI approach to locating good apps, not for lack of
wanting to test AI, but for lack of any free all verbal (both ways) AI app.

AI not being all-verbal yet (for free anyways) I did run 'normal' searches
for free Android image overlay sketching apps without any advertisements.

I stopped at a dozen because there are just too many to test by one person
(which is why I asked for advice from those who already annotate images).
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.drawing.pad.desk.app.coloring.book.paint.sketch
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.imageryedit
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=appinventor.ai_lehaonisko.Zhekaphoto
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.adsk.sketchbook
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ng_labs.kidspaint
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kanishka_developer.SketchPad
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mihir.drawingapp
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microsoft.whiteboard.publicpreview
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.missingames.kids.painting.lite
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fsoft.FP_sDraw
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.parkelsoft.beeartistfree
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ng_labs.magic.slate

It will take a while to test them to ensure that they can do the three main
tasks which are needed when sending an MMS image with annotations, such as
(1) Circle the deer in the photo
(2) Point to that circled deer in the photo
(3) Describe something about that deer in the photo

Here is an example photo that shows the Android capability that I seek.
Loading Image...

Here's an example of the kind of edits I'm envisioning for Android.
Loading Image...

Normally I need to circle something or point to it with an arrow & then I
just need to add some descriptive text onto the image before texting it.

If anyone already has a free app that does those simple edits, let me know
(meanwhile I'll be testing the dozen apps above to find one that does).

[Carlos E.R.]

Post by Larry Wolff
Any suggestions for a basic free photo editor on Android that can draw
circles around things, draw arrows to point to the things in the circles
and you can type captions inside or below the images to describe things?

I used Pixlr once. It wants access to your private data.

Then I use Gallery from simplemobiletools.com. Actually the Pro version,
which I probably purchased. I don't know/remember how to find this out.

<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.simplemobiletools.gallery.pro>

Yes, the link confirms the price as 0.79€. There is a non-pro version
which you can try for free, but might not have an editor or not all
features.

Ha! I have the free version on another phone, and it asks permission to
use my data.


There is yet another version on F-Droid.

[Eli the Bearded]

Post by Carlos E.R.
Then I use Gallery from simplemobiletools.com. Actually the Pro version,
which I probably purchased. I don't know/remember how to find this out.

It used to be the F-Droid versions gave your the "pro" features for
free. But Simple Mobile Tools has been sold to Zipo Apps which is
probably not a good thing.

Post by Carlos E.R.
Ha! I have the free version on another phone, and it asks permission to
use my data.

How recent?

Post by Carlos E.R.
There is yet another version on F-Droid.

There's a fork of the Simple Mobile Tools appsfrom Fossify now. I have
not used them, still holding on to my old F-Droid versions. (And I'm not
using the Gallery tool.)

https://github.com/FossifyOrg

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.fossify.gallery/

Elijah
------
uses a paid gallery app

[Larry Wolff]

Post by Eli the Bearded

Post by Carlos E.R.
Then I use Gallery from simplemobiletools.com. Actually the Pro version,
which I probably purchased. I don't know/remember how to find this out.

It used to be the F-Droid versions gave your the "pro" features for
free. But Simple Mobile Tools has been sold to Zipo Apps which is
probably not a good thing.

Maybe you're talking about this tool for drawing on photos?
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.simplemobiletools.draw.pro/

You gave me a good idea to search specifically the F-Droid repository.
With F-Droid, none of the apps will cost money or have advertisements.

https://f-droid.org/de/packages/com.burhanrashid52.photoediting/
https://f-droid.org/de/packages/io.github.pastthepixels.freepaint/
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.catrobat.paintroid/
https://f-droid.org/de/packages/ru.tech.imageresizershrinker/
https://f-droid.org/ru/packages/org.secuso.privacyfriendlysketching/
https://f-droid.org/de/packages/org.tuxpaint/
https://f-droid.org/de/packages/com.tomer.draw/
https://f-droid.org/de/packages/com.benny.pxerstudio/
https://f-droid.org/de/packages/net.gsantner.markor/

With the original dozen plus the added half dozen, with these 9 F-Droid
photo editing apps, one of the 27 apps should be able to do three things
on any photo, such as this sample photo I pulled off the net for testing.
https://www.saferbrand.com/media/Articles/Safer-Brand/hh_us_deer_deerlounge_GJ6BcvY_.png

The three things I want to be able to do with Android on that photo are
(1) Circle the deer in the photo
(2) Point to that circled deer in the photo
(3) Annotate something about that circled deer in the photo

Using that photo as an example, these are the type of edits that I seek.
https://i.postimg.cc/FKMMT7Y7/deer.jpg

[Eric Pozharski]

*SKIP* [ 4 lines 2 levels deep]

Post by Eli the Bearded
It used to be the F-Droid versions gave your the "pro" features for
free. But Simple Mobile Tools has been sold to Zipo Apps which is
probably not a good thing.

It *was* bad thing. Specifically gallery facet of simplemobiletools was
immediately so fscked up by new management that gallery is 404 on fdroid
now X( Such is life.

*SKIP* [ 4 lines 2 levels deep]

Post by Eli the Bearded
There's a fork of the Simple Mobile Tools appsfrom Fossify now. I have
not used them, still holding on to my old F-Droid versions. (And I'm
not using the Gallery tool.)
https://github.com/FossifyOrg
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.fossify.gallery/

Thank you, kind sir! I'm not hopeful that other tools (besides gallery)
will gain any traction, but who knows.

[Carlos E.R.]

Post by Eli the Bearded

Post by Carlos E.R.
Then I use Gallery from simplemobiletools.com. Actually the Pro version,
which I probably purchased. I don't know/remember how to find this out.

It used to be the F-Droid versions gave your the "pro" features for
free. But Simple Mobile Tools has been sold to Zipo Apps which is
probably not a good thing.

Post by Carlos E.R.
Ha! I have the free version on another phone, and it asks permission to
use my data.

How recent?

Whatever is the current not paid version. I don't know anymore, because
I updated yesterday to the paid version. Pay once, install in several
phones/tablets under the same account

Post by Eli the Bearded

Post by Carlos E.R.
There is yet another version on F-Droid.

There's a fork of the Simple Mobile Tools appsfrom Fossify now. I have
not used them, still holding on to my old F-Droid versions. (And I'm not
using the Gallery tool.)
https://github.com/FossifyOrg
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.fossify.gallery/
Elijah
------
uses a paid gallery app

[micky]

In comp.mobile.android, on Sun, 1 Sep 2024 20:48:10 +0200, "Carlos E.R."

Post by Carlos E.R.

Post by Larry Wolff
Any suggestions for a basic free photo editor on Android that can draw
circles around things, draw arrows to point to the things in the circles
and you can type captions inside or below the images to describe things?

I used Pixlr once. It wants access to your private data.
Then I use Gallery from simplemobiletools.com. Actually the Pro version,
which I probably purchased. I don't know/remember how to find this out.
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.simplemobiletools.gallery.pro>
Yes, the link confirms the price as 0.79€. There is a non-pro version
which you can try for free, but might not have an editor or not all
features.
Ha! I have the free version on another phone, and it asks permission to
use my data.

I'd like to use your data too. I'm sure you have much better data than I
do.

Post by Carlos E.R.
There is yet another version on F-Droid.

[Siard]

Post by Larry Wolff
Any suggestions for a basic free photo editor on Android that can draw
circles around things, draw arrows to point to the things in the circles
and you can type captions inside or below the images to describe things?

If I search for 'draw shapes and lines on photos' in the Play Store, I see
several apps that seem to do exactly what you're looking for, such as
iMarkup and 'Annotium - Photo Annotation'.

However, personally I consider a smartphone too small for such edits, so
I prefer to use Gimp on my PC for this.

[Larry Wolff]

Post by Siard
If I search for 'draw shapes and lines on photos' in the Play Store, I see
several apps that seem to do exactly what you're looking for, such as
iMarkup and 'Annotium - Photo Annotation'.
However, personally I consider a smartphone too small for such edits, so
I prefer to use Gimp on my PC for this.

Thank you for the suggestion of iMarkup & Annotium, which are located here:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.winterso.markup.annotable
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.ngockhanh.annotium

Unlike the dozen potential editors I listed earlier, both contains ads,
so I will try them both only if none of the dozen listed earlier work out.

Fruitfully, when I looked up "iMarkup" a few other possibilities arose:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=maksim.kolosov.highlightonthephoto
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.kewinlawsonsmith.markup
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.com.befunky.BeFunkyPhotoEditor
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hde7.fotogenic
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.on1.onmobile
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.iaan.pencilcamera

All of which showed up, I think, because of the "markup" keyword used.
All are free. None should have any advertisements.

Unfortunately, that makes for 18 free apps without advertisements to test
given that these dozen were already found using "sketching" keywords.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.drawing.pad.desk.app.coloring.book.paint.sketch
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.imageryedit
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=appinventor.ai_lehaonisko.Zhekaphoto
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.adsk.sketchbook
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ng_labs.kidspaint
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kanishka_developer.SketchPad
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mihir.drawingapp
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microsoft.whiteboard.publicpreview
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.missingames.kids.painting.lite
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fsoft.FP_sDraw
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.parkelsoft.beeartistfree
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ng_labs.magic.slate

That there are so many free photo editing apps without advertisements is
good, but it will be a while before I can tell if they do the three things
(1) Circle the deer in the photo
(2) Point to that circled deer in the photo
(3) Describe something about that deer in the photo

Here is an example photo I borrowed to show the type of notations I seek.
https://www.saferbrand.com/media/Articles/Safer-Brand/hh_us_deer_deerlounge_GJ6BcvY_.png

Using that photo as an example, these are the type of edits that I seek.
https://i.postimg.cc/FKMMT7Y7/deer.jpg

[Henry The Mole]

Post by Larry Wolff
Any suggestions for a basic free photo editor on Android that can draw
circles around things, draw arrows to point to the things in the circles
and you can type captions inside or below the images to describe things?

https://github.com/T8RIN/ImageToolbox

Kindly regards.

[Larry Wolff]

Post by Henry The Mole

Post by Larry Wolff
Any suggestions for a basic free photo editor on Android that can draw
circles around things, draw arrows to point to the things in the circles
and you can type captions inside or below the images to describe things?

https://github.com/T8RIN/ImageToolbox

Thanks for suggesting Malik Mukhametzyanov's open source ImageToolbox.
https://github.com/T8RIN/ImageToolbox/releases/tag/2.9.1-rc02
https://f-droid.org/packages/ru.tech.imageresizershrinker/
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ru.tech.imageresizershrinker

Malik's ImageToolbox was updated 3 days ago to version 2.9.1-rc02, which I
found out because I had installed the prior version which phones home each
time you run it and lets you know the version that is currently available.

It has the option to "Load Images From Net" so I gave it the deer image.
https://www.saferbrand.com/media/Articles/Safer-Brand/hh_us_deer_deerlounge_GJ6BcvY_.png

Then I hit the edit icon, and the options available were
Single edit (change specs of single given image)
Resize & Convert (change size or convert formats or edit EXIF data)
Format Conversion (convert batch of images to various formats)
Resize by weight (resize to a given size in KB)
Crop (crop to any bounds)
Full Filter (apply a series of filter chains)
Draw (draw on image as in a sketchbook)
OCR (recognize text)
Background remover (remove the background)
Mask Filter (apply filter chains on given masked areas)
Image Stitching (combine multiple images)
Image Stacking (stack images and blend)
Image Splitting (split into rows and columns)
Watermarking (add custom watermarks including text)
Gradient Maker (create gradient of given output size)
Images to PDF (convert multiple images to PDF)
Images to GIF (convert multiple images to GIF)
Cipher (AES crypto encrypt & decrypt)
Image preview (preview any type of image)
Pick color (pick color from image)
Generate Palette (generate color palette swatch)
Images to APNG (convert batch of images to APNG file)
Images to JXL (convert batch of images to JXL file)
Images to SVG (convert batch of images to SVG file)
ZIP (create zip file from given images)
Delete EXIF (delete exif data from images)
Limits resize (resize given images with given aspect ratio)
JPEG to JXL (lossless transcoding from JPEG to JXL)
Compare (compare two given images)
Documents Scanner (scan documents and create PDF)
QR Code (scan QR code or create a QR code from text)

Of those 30 choices, the three I need to do are
(1) Circle the deer in the photo
(2) Point to that circled deer in the photo
(3) Describe something about that deer in the photo

In "Single Edit", after selecting the "Pencil" icon, there is a "Draw mode"
set of options and a "Draw path mode" set which seem to do what I need.
Draw Modes = Pen,Text,Neon glow,Highlighter,Privacy Blur,Pixelation, etc.
Draw Path Modes = Free drawing, line, arrow, double arrow, line arrow,
double-line arrow, lasso, rectangle, oval, triangle, polygon, star
and outlined {rectangle, oval, triangle, polygon & star}.

To circle the deer in the photo, I selected the "Draw" option, & then the
"Paint color" of yellow, & then the "Line width" of 20 Pt, & then the "Draw
Path Mode" of a circle, and then I drew a yellow circle around the deer.

There is no changing of options mid sequence so it took a few tries to get
the circle to be the right width (20 points was too fat, for example).

For whatever reasons, the setup wasn't saved so I had to do it again for
the next task, but I'm sure there's a way to save those colors & sizes.

To point to the deer in the photo, I selected the "Draw" option, & then
again the "Paint color" of yellow, & then again the "Line width" of 5 Pt, &
then the "Draw Path Mode" of a squiggly single-ended arrow, and then I drew
a yellow 5-point single-ended arrow toward that circled deer.

To add text on top of the photo, I selected the "Draw" option, & then again
the "Paint color" of yellow, & then the "Draw Mode" of text, and then I
typed in the desired text into the text box & left the "Font" at system and
left the "Font Size" at 10 Pt. But it took quite a few attempts before I
figured out that the text shows up when you swipe to the right on the
photo!

About the only thing I couldn't figure out was how to SAVE the presets.