15 Best Free Portable Image Editor Software for Windows

Here is a list of Best Free Portable Image Editor Software for Windows. These are basically the image editing software that come in a portable package. You can use these software without actually installing them on your PC, in order to edit your images. These portable image editors can be carried in portable storage devices and directly use on the go.

All these software let you edit images in common formats including JPG, PNG, GIF, ICO, TIFF, BMP, WMF, etc. Besides that, you can even create new graphics from scratch. These software provide all standard editing features that you need to manipulate or enhance your images. The most common tools that you can find in these software include transformation tools (rotate, flip, resize, crop, etc.), color profile manipulators (invert colors, grayscale, hue/ saturation, brightness/ contrast, color balance, etc.), watermarking options, and image effects and filters (blur, sharpen, shadow, glow, pixelate, posterize, etc.). Additionally, you can also draw over images by using paint tools like pen, pencil, fill tool, smudge, clone, eraser, color palette, etc.

In these portable image editor software, you find additional utilities including batch image converter, batch image resizer, inbuilt image browser, animation creator, screen capture tool, panorama image generator, etc. All in all, these are portable yet feature-rich image editors which you can use without much hassle.

My Favorite Portable Image Editor Software for Windows:

RealWorld Paint and GIMP both are my favorite portable image editor software as these two provide a versatile set of features to edit images. Plus, you can also create animations in these software.

Pixelitor is another good software with essential editing tools and a clean GUI.

You may also like some best free Portable Image Viewer Software, Portable PDF Creator Software, and Portable PDF Editor Software for Windows.

RealWorld Paint

RealWorld Paint is a free portable image editor software for Windows. It is a nice software to modify existing images and manually paint or draw over them with various drawing tools. Not just that, you can even create a new raster or vector graphic design using it.

In spite of being simple in terms of working, it doesn’t compromise with the set of editing features. You can find almost all standard plus some advanced tools in it to edit your images. Let’s checkout the editing tools that you get in here.

Main Editing Features of this Portable Image Editor: RealWorld Paint

• You can simply transform your images with the help of options like rotate, resize, change canvas size, flip, mirror, change aspect ratio, etc.
• Some more handy tools like remove border, add a circular or rectangular border, add image or text watermark, etc., are provided in it.
• It lets you adjust color levels, change image opacity, apply grayscale, colorize image, apply vignetting corrections, enable automatic contrast/ level, adjust RGB/ HLS, apply gamma correction, etc., to modify color profile of an image.
• You get some effects to apply over images and enhance their look and feel, such as drop shadow, bevel, glow, pixelate, various blur effects (box blur, radial blur, zoom blur, emboss, etc.), reduce noise, and more.

Using these editing tools, you can easily edit PNG, JPG, GIF, BMP, WebP, and other supported images.

Additional Features:

• It provides a very useful feature of creating animations in formats of Animated GIF, Animated PNG, and Animated WebP.
• This software can be used to create static or animated cursors, icons, and more.
• You can find a handy tool for creating filmstrip using various frames of an animation.

Conclusion:

I really like this portable image editor as you can find a lot of useful graphics designing tools in it which are easy to use.

GIMP

GIMP is a popular free open source image editing software for Windows, Mac, and Linux. A portable version of this software is also available for Windows platforms. You can download the portable GIMP from PortableApps.com; the download link is given below. After downloading the portable package, just extract the file and run the GIMP application file to edit images on the go.

It is a featured image editing software which offers all essential tools which you require to edit and enhance images. Plus, multiple drawing tools are provided which let you manually draw over an image. It lets you edit and save images in multiple formats such as PNG, JPG, GIF, BMP, TIFF, SVG, ICO, WMF, etc. Let’s checkout the features that you get in here:

Main Features of Portable GIMP:

• You can transform an image with tools including rotate, flip, scale, move, align, handle transform, cage transform, warp transform, etc.
• It provides various options to make adjustments to the color profile of an image, such as color balance, color temperature, saturation, exposure, color levels, color curves, posterize, colorize, etc.
• A variety of drawing tools to manually draw over images are also available in it. For example, Path Tools, Measure Tool, Paintbrush Tool, Pencil Tool, Blend Tool, Ink Tool, Eraser Tool, Text Tool, Bucket Fill, Airbrush Tool, Smudge, Healing, Dodge/ Burn, Clone, Blend, etc.
• To further enhance an image, it provides a lot of filters in a dedicated menu, e.g., blur, distort, light and shadow, artistic, noise, edge detection, etc.
• It provides several layer management options using which you can design a multi-layer art.

Additional Features:

• Using it, you can create an animation too. Check this article to know more.
• It also lets you generate an image map.

Conclusion:

It is one of the most featured portable image editor which provides a great set of tools to enhance an image or create graphics from scratch.

Pixelitor

Pixelitor is a free, open source, portable image editor for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It is a nicely designed software packed with image editing and drawing features. You can simply transform your images, modify their color profile, apply various filters to them, manually draw over them, and do more. It supports BMP, GIF, JPG, PNG, and OpenRaster image files to edit.

Main Features:

• Image: In its Image menu, you can find editing options like resize, rotate, flip, enlarge canvas, etc.
• Color: As you can guess by its name, this menu is used to make changes to the color profile of an image with the help of options like color balance, colorize, hue/ saturation, curves, solarize, sepia, invert, reduce colors, etc.
• Filters: You can apply various kinds of filters to an image from this menu, such as blur, distort, light, noise, render, artistic, etc.
• Layers: It is a graphic designing feature which allows you to create a multi-layer image.
• Drawing Tools: It provides some useful drawing tools to manually draw over images or create layers, such as crop, move, selection, brush, clone stamp, smudge, paint bucket, pen, shapes, etc.

Additional Features:

• It lets you export layer animation to a GIF file.
• You get a screen capture utility in it.
• Batch Resize, Batch Filter, etc., are some more additional features that you get in it.

Conclusion:

It is one of the most featured image editors which comes in both installer and portable versions. In case you want to edit images without going through an eventful installation process, you can use this one.

Note: To be able to download its portable version, go to its Files section and then download jar file for any of the available versions.

FastStone Image Viewer

FastStone Image Viewer is another free portable image editor for Windows. As its name suggests, it is primarily an image viewing software that also provides some essential image editing tools to let you modify images.

Main Editing Features of FastStone Image Viewer:

• Edit: In its Edit menu, you can find photo editing tools like rotate, resize, crop board, draw board, set DPI, clone and heal, red-eye removal, etc.
• Colors: As the name suggests, this menu contains editing options related to color profile adjustment. Options like auto-adjust colors, adjust lighting, adjust colors, sharpen/ blur, swap color, reduce color, grayscale, sepia, negative, etc., are available here.
• Effects: Border Effects, Frame Mask, Watermark, Bump Map, Sketch, Oil Painting, Lens, and Obscure are the filters that you can apply over an image.

Additional Features:

• A Create feature is provided in this software which you can use to build slideshow, contact sheet, multi-page file, and image strip. You can also split a multi-page file in it.
• Some additional tools like batch convert, batch rename, change timestamp, remove JPEG metadata, etc., are also provided in this software.

Limitation:

It is free for non-commercial use only.

Conclusion:

FastStone Image Viewer is a good portable image editor that can be used by anyone without much hassle.

PhotoFiltre

PhotoFiltre is one more nice free portable image editor for Windows. Using it, you can edit existing images or create new graphics without actually installing it on your system. It provides some great features to let you edit images which include standard tools as well as some advanced ones. Keep on reading to know the exact list of features provided in it.

Main Editing Tools:

• You get standard editing features including transform (flip, rotate, skew, twirl, etc.), crop, automatic crop, resize image and canvas, add frame, add text, etc.
• It lets you manipulate various color profiles of an image including color balance, auto level, gamma correct, replace color, duotone, negative, etc.
• A variety of filters are present in it which you can apply over images such as soften, sharpen, noise, artistic, flatten, edges, texture, visual effects, etc.
• It provides layers support, so you can easily create a complex graphic with multiple layers.
• Another nice property of this software that I would like to mention is that it lets you convert background of an image to transparent. Check this article to know more.

This software lets you edit images in various standard formats including JPG, GIF, BMP, PNG, PSD, TGA, ICO, etc.

Additional Features:

• It provides an inbuilt Image Explorer to browse images on your PC.
• You get a Batch Image Converter feature in it which lets you change image format, resize images, make color adjustments, apply filters, and transform images in bulk.
• You can export an image as icons in different sizes.
• It has an Image Manager too which lets you rename, move, copy, or delete images.
• You can work on multiple images at a time as it has a multi-tab interface.

Limitation:

It is free for non-commercial use only.

Conclusion:

PhotoFiltre is another great image editor which you can carry in a portable storage device and edit images on the go.

Inkscape

Inkscape is an open source drawing and image editing software for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Besides installer, it is also available in a portable package which you can get by downloading its ZIP folder. It provides a good number of editing tools to manipulate existing images. Additionally, you can draw and create new graphics too. The supported image formats to input and save images include PNG, JPG, EMF, WMF, SVG, HTML, PS, PDF, POV, DXF, etc.

Main Editing Features of Inkscape:

• You can transform images with tools including rotate, flip, move, scale, skew, etc.
• It provides a good number of filters to enhance images such as bevels, blurs, bumps, color, morphology, protrusions, shadow and glows, textures, non-realistic 3D shaders, pixellize, etc.
• To draw objects over images or create graphics, you get tools like 2D shapes, 3D boxes, freehand drawing, curves, straight lines, spray objects by sculpting, calligraphic, gradients, fill color, eraser, etc.
• You can add multiple layers to create an artwork using it.

Conclusion:

Inkscape is a feature rich image editor and painting software which comes in a portable package. You can carry this portable version in a pen drive and use it on the go.

IrfanView

IrfanView is a popular graphics viewer which also provides some image editing tools. Besides an installer version, it comes in a portable package (ZIP download file) as well. Hence, you can use it as a portable image editor.

It lets you modify images of a wide number of image formats which include camera images, cursor images, JPG, PNG, BMP, GIF, HEIC, PSD, TGA, WebP, EMF, WMF, etc. As for saving the edited version of an image, it supports some common output formats such as BMP, JPG, ICO, TGA, TIFF, PCX, PDF, GIF, etc.

Key Editing Features of IrfanView:

• It lets you auto-crop borders of an image, transform an image (rotate, flip, resize, etc.), add a border, add a shape, add a text, insert a watermark, etc.
• You can find various options in it which let you auto-adjust colors, convert to grayscale, invert image colors, increase/ decrease color depth, remove red-eye effect, sharpen an image, etc.
• To further enhance an image, you can apply various effects to it, such as 3D button, blur, emboss, oil paint, edge detection, pixelate, sepia, fisheye, white noise, color temperature, etc.

Additional Features:

• It allows you to edit EXIF date and time of a JPG image.
• You get a dedicated batch conversion feature in it which lets you convert format of multiple images and also lets you batch edit images prior to conversion.
• It also provides a feature to create a panorama image with multiple photos.

Limitation:

As per the description written on its official website, it is free for non-commercial use.

Conclusion:

IrfanView is an easy to use portable image viewer and browser which let you apply some basic editing to images.

Krita

Krita is a feature rich painting software which can be used as a portable photo editor. It provides both installer and portable versions which can be downloaded from its official website. The users of all major operating systems can work with this software including Windows, Mac, and Linux.

To edit existing images, it supports a wide number of formats including Camera Raw images, OpenRaster images, GIF, GIMP images, PNG, JPG, BMP, PSD, EXR, SVG, TGA, TIFF, WebP, Windows icon, etc. Plus, it lets you create new designs using inbuilt templates such as design templates, comic templates, texture templates, etc. Now, to modify images, you can use below mentioned tools and features.

Key image editing features:

• You can apply basic transformations to an image such as rotate, resize, offset, mirror, shear, etc.
• It lets you apply various types of filters to enhance your photos, e.g., artistic, blur, edge detection, emboss, color adjusts, etc.
• It also lets you convert image color space, split image, fill selection with pattern, etc.
• As it is a painting software, you get various drawing tools in it such as shape tools, multibrush tool, freehand path tool, dynamic brush tool, bezier curve tool, gradient tool, selection tools, etc.
• It lets you create multiple arts and arrange them in a single image using its Layers feature.

Conclusion:

In general, it is one of the best portable image editing and painting software which you can use to edit photos as well as draw graphics in various formats.

PicPick

PicPick is basically a featured screen capture software that also provides its own photo editor. This software comes in both installer and portable packages which you can download from below given link. Hence, it can be used as a portable image editor. You can edit JPG, PNG, GIF, TIFF, Metafiles, TGA, PSD, Icons, and some more images in it.

Main Features:

• You can resize images, rotate images, and apply some effects over them such as Invert, Grayscale, Pixelate, Blur, Watermark, Sharpen, Color Balance, etc.
• It lets you manually draw over images using tools like brush, marker, text, stamps, shapes, etc.

Additional Features:

• It lets you share an edited image or screenshot via Facebook, Twitter, Cloud Services, Skype, Email, Internet URL, and some other means.
• This software allows you to capture full screen, active window, fixed region, and more.

Limitation:

• It can be used for free for private use only.

Conclusion:

PicPick is a great portable screenshot capture software which can be used to edit taken screenshots as well as existing images in various formats.

SunlitGreen Photo Editor

SunlitGreen Photo Editor is yet another free portable photo editor for Windows. It is a simple photo editor with a clean and intuitive user interface. You get all required editing tools using which you can edit an image as per your requirements. It supports standard image formats as input including BMP, GIF, ICO, JPG, and PNG. As for saving edited images, it supports only BMP, PNG, and JPG image formats.

Main Editing Features of SunlitGreen Photo Editor:

• You can edit image size and canvas size, rotate an image, crop an image, etc.
• It lets you adjust color profile of an image by making adjustments to parameters like levels, curves, brightness, contrast, color balance, hue/ saturation, etc. You can also find auto level, auto contrast, invert, and desaturate options in it.
• You can find two types of filters to apply to images including Blur and Sharpen.
• It provides a Fill tool which lets you fill selected part of an image with a chosen color.

Conclusion:

It is a simple portable photo editor with all the basic image editing tools you look for.

NPS Image Editor

NPS Image Editor is yet another free portable photo editing software for Windows. In it, you can modify existing images as well as create a new graphic design from scratch. It provides some built-in presets for designing a specific type of image such as Twitter Header Image, Facebook Cover Photo, Metro Tile, VGA, etc. To edit existing images, it supports formats including BMP, JPG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, etc.

Key Features of this Portable Photo Editor:

• The basic transformation tools are provided in it including resize, crop, rotate, flip, skew, tile, etc.
• Using its Color menu, you can invert existing colors of an image, adjust color matrix, count colors in an image, change color mode, etc.
• Filters like Artistic and Blur are available in to let you manipulate the appearance of an image.
• It can be used to create drawings over an image using tools like pencil, airbrush, bucket fill, text, freeform shape, etc.
• Some formatting options are also provided in its Format menu, such as Border Style Fill Style, Text Formatting, Smooth Edges, etc.

Additional Features:

Some additional tools are provided in it which you can use accordingly including Palette Editor, Brush Manager, Document Recovery, Image Viewer, Script Execution, etc.

Conclusion:

This is another handy portable image editor with the essential tools required to manipulate images.

Hornil StylePix

Hornil StylePix is a lightweight portable image editing software for Windows. It is a simple yet quite effective software to edit images. You can manipulate and enhance various aspects of an image using it. It works well with all standard image formats including JPEG, PNG, TIFF, TGA, RAS, ICO, WMF, PCX, etc. Also, it provides an inbuilt image explorer to easily browse through various image directory and import images to edit in it.

Main Features:

• It provides standard transformations tools such as rotate, resize, flip, etc.
• You can create arts over an image with the help of tools like brush, clone brush, spray, flood fill, gradation fill, text, etc.
• It contains a dedicated Object menu which lets you insert an image layer, flatten image, merge objects, align objects, etc.
• A set of filters can be applied over an image to enhance its look, such as color, blur, sharpen, distort, sketch, morphological, etc.

Conclusion:

It is another good portable photo editor which provides an essential set of editing features.

FotoSketcher

FotoSketcher is a basic portable image editor for Windows. It provides a nicely designed GUI to modify images with a limited set of editing tools. The good part of this software that it provides “Before” and “After” pics, to visualize and compare changes in real time. With this software, you can edit pictures in formats of BMP, JPG, and PNG.

Main Editing Features:

• It lets you crop an image.
• You can apply different effects over an image in various drawing styles such as pencil sketch effects, painting effects, stylized effects, etc.
• You can add text to an image in a customized font.

Conclusion:

It is quite a basic portable image editor which lets you edit and compare original and edited images side by side.

Fotografix

Fotografix is the next free portable image editor software for Windows. It lets you edit pictures in a lot of common formats including BMP, GIF, JPEG, PSD, TIFF, ICO, etc. Let’s see what are the main features you get in here.

Main Features:

• You get basic transformation (rotate, resize, flip, crop, etc.) and color profile adjustment (desaturate, black & white, invert, threshold, posterize, etc.) features in it.
• A lot of standard photo filters are provided in it, such as blur, sharpen, find edges, stylize, noise, etc.
• It provides a few drawing tools to manually create arts over an image, such as brush, text, fill, clone, etc.

Conclusion:

It is a very basic photo editor which comes in a portable package and can be used without installation.

Pencil2D

Pencil2D is a portable 2D animation software which lets you edit images as well. It lets you edit images in JPG, PNG, TIFF, and BMP formats, which you can open by using its File menu > Import option.

Main Editing Features:

This software basically allows you to draw over an image. For that, it provides tools like pencil tool, pen tool, paint bucket, eyedropper tool, brush tool, smudge tool, etc. A color palette is also available in it to make the selection of colors.

Conclusion:

In terms of editing, it only lets you draw over images. Besides that, you don’t get other standard image editing features in it. But, if you want to draw 2D animations, it is one of the best. You can know about its features with respect to animation creation in this article.