Need to edit a picture but don't have the right software to do so? Want to search or download videos from major sharing sites easily? In this weekly selection of visual communication and video publishing tools, Robin and I have collected some nice apps that can really help you to edit your images, search and download videos from sharing sites, annotate pictures with captions and shapes, and much more.

Photo credit: Fotoflash

Here our selected visual communication tools for this week:

1. Picjuice: Web-based image editor lets you modify your images online
2. Sumopaint: Edit all of your images online right from within your browser
3. FineTuna: Add text and notes to your pictures, and let others add their own
4. Pikistrips: Create photostrips with your images and add your own speech bubbles and visual effects
5. Bomomo: Draw abstract artworks for free and save them locally on your machine
6. VideoThang: Free Windows-only editor lets you create videos easily with any content
7. Videocrawler: Video search engine lets you look for video from multiple sources
8. CatchVideo: Free service for downloading and converting YouTube videos to multiple formats

Visual Communication Tools

1. Picjuice
   
   Picjuice is an easy-to-use web-based image editor that allows you to modify any image online. Just upload the picture you want to edit, and it'll let you resize, crop, flip, rotate and adjust all of your images without installing any software. After all of the changes have been made, you can save the new picture in JPG or PNG format. Free to use, no registration needed.
   http://www.picjuice.com/







2. Sumopaint
   
   Sumopaint is an online Flash-based image editor, that lets you modify all of your images online with lots of features. Reminding Photoshop with its interface, Sumopaint supports layers, lets you apply filters, effects, create shapes, and edit your images just as if you were using a professional software-based editor. Free to use, no registration needed.
   http://sumopaint.com/







3. FineTuna
   
   FineTuna is a web application that you can use to add text and notes to any image. You can select any picture from URL or upload it directly from your PC and start adding text, noted, highlight parts, add lines and shapes and, when you are done, you can simply share the link or insert anyone's email address to share what you did. Free to use.
   http://www.finetuna.com/







4. Pikistrips
   
   Pikistrips is a website which allows people to create comics. You can pull up photos from their computer or from a URL and then you can start adding captions, word bubbles, and icons. Photos can be stretched, framed, cropped and, after your work is done, you can let other people rate it, download it locally on your machine, or even embed it on your website. Free.
   http://www.pikistrips.com/






5. Bomomo
   
   Bomomo is a web-based drawing software that you can use to express your creativity and create abstract art creations. You are given a bunch of visual tools, that you can freely use to draw anything that you have in mind a create your work of art, which you can later save locally in PNG or JPG format. Free to use, no registration needed.
   http://bomomo.com/

Video Publishing Tools

1. VideoThang
   
   VideoThang is a free Windows video editor that you can use to create videos easily. You can import any type of media like music, video and images, and start making videos with it within an intuitive interface: you can trim videos, add effects to images, add a background music, and more. When done, you can save the video locally, email it to anyone, or upload it directly to YouTube. Free to download and use.
   http://www.videothang.com/







2. Videocrawler
   
   Videocrawler is an online video search engine that lets you search for audio and video files in one single place. You can search for any term, and results will begin gathering from places like YouTube, Hi5, Brightcove, MySpace, Dailymotion, and more. You can then save your collection, and share it with others via a URL. Free beta.
   http://www.videocrawler.com/






3. CatchVideo
   
   CatchVideo is a free service that anyone can use to download and convert YouTube videos. Just paste the URL of the video into the box, select the output format between mpg, mov, mp4, 3gp, flv, audio-only-Mp3 and wav, and click convert. The video will then be processed, and ready for you to download. Free to use, no registration needed.
   http://catchvideo.net/

Originally written by Nico Canali De Rossi and Robin Good for Master New Media and first published on July 13th 2008 as "Visual Communication And Video Publishing - Selected Tools And Web Services - Sharewood Picnic Jul13 08"