A photo editor unlike no other: XnRetro
The author should be a role model for us. He describes his very amazing program in 15 words. We should take after him, but you know us: Verbosity is in our genes.
We thought long and hard about how to describe this program and, believe it or not, the best way to describe it is to show you some of the images we created with it, right out of the box, without reading anything or bothering to look at the samples. We’re good we tells ya!
XnRetro has many Retro effects, in case you want to make yourself look like you were photographed in 1918, which EB actually was. She was 23 then. But besides the many retro effects, you can further amaze yourself and any potential viewers, but adding a vignette, different lighting effects, and even a frame. And all without knowing anymore about graphic editors than EB does about cleaning and dressing an elk. She can barely clean and dress herself let alone an Elk. But that’s another story for another day.
Behold below some images we created with XnRetro in less than 5 minutes — it’s true — LESS than five minutes. Imagine what you could do in say 10 minutes or so? Think about that balding husband of yours obfuscated behind misty clouds and soft yellow lighting — why he might look something like the dude you married!
So now behold our 5-minute handiwork… just feast your eyes …
It’s time to bring in the developer – the man of few words, the guy who you’d like to be our word mentor, to give you his 15-word description of program that took us 250+ words and several pictures to describe;
“XnRetro allows you to create stunning images with vintage or instant effect on your Desktop.
Features
20 color effects
15 light effects such as bokeh, leak
28 frame borders
Adjustments like contrast, gamma, saturation, …
Vignetting
Noise
Save or share the result. ”
Yes folks, you can save the images you create anywhere on your computer you like, or dazzle your Facebook, Twitter (and other social networks) friends and enemies with images that look professionally edited (if you’re good).
The program download links are located in the bottom 1/3 of the page under “Windows”. There’s a 64-bit and a 32-bit version. It’s a zip file, you don’t have to install anything. Just unzip the file and click on the program’s executable (EXE) to run it. Hint: Right-click the program’s exe file and choose Pin to Start Menu, Pin to Taskbar, or Send to : Desktop (Create shortcut) otherwise you’ll be kicking yourself when you go to run the program again and have to Windows hunting to find it.
If you have read the above about downloading the correct version for your computer (32bit or 64bit) then you may pass Go and collect your freeware program XnRetro by visiting http://www.xnview.com/en/xnretro/ right now.
Yes, EB? NO! I don’t have an elk.
Oh, by-the-whale… XnRetro works on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8x and Windows 10. Yippee!
Downloaded program, extracted all the files and saved it to my Desktop, but no matter what I tried could not get the program to open to work/design area. I tried 5 different times. I am using Windows 8.1, 64 Bit. All I would get when I click to use is the list of files within the program. Could someone explain what I may have doe wrong?
Thank you!
As we note at the bottom of our newsletters all freeware picks are tested on at least different computers and two different operating system XnRetro was tested on a 64-bit Windows 7 computer with 8GB of RAM and a Windows 10 computer with 2 GB of RAM – the program worked as described. The sample images you see in the post were created by us using XnRetro.
There is no guarantee that software we review that works on our computers will work on your computer – but we do test each program on 2 and sometimes 3 computers.
Again, as we remind folks all the time, if you’re having trouble with a program that we have thoroughly tested that was not developed by us, then your best bet is to contact the developer of the product at the site normally linked in the article.
No two computers are the same nor are they maintained the same nor configured the same. We use due diligence in testing software programs and normally (as in this case) show images of the program running on our computers and in this case images created with the program. We cannot, unfortunately, test programs on dozens of different computers – we don’t have dozens of computers.
If you can’t run this program please contact the developer and ask his assistance – he knows his program far better than we.
Thanks
TC
Yes, I got the same problem. There is an exe file inside of the unzipped files, but that doesn’t work.
As we note at the bottom of our newsletters all freeware picks are tested on at least different computers and two different operating system XnRetro was tested on a 64-bit Windows 7 computer with 8GB of RAM and a Windows 10 computer with 2 GB of RAM – the program worked as described. The sample images you see in the post were created by us using XnRetro.
There is no guarantee that software we review that works on our computers will work on your computer – but we do test each program on 2 and sometimes 3 computers.
Again, as we remind folks all the time, if you’re having trouble with a program that we have thoroughly tested that was not developed by us, then your best bet is to contact the developer of the product at the site normally linked in the article.
No two computers are the same nor are they maintained the same nor configured the same. We use due diligence in testing software programs and normally (as in this case) show images of the program running on our computers and in this case images created with the program. We cannot, unfortunately, test programs on dozens of different computers – we don’t have dozens of computers.
If you can’t run this program please contact the developer and ask his assistance – he knows his program far better than we.
Thanks
TC
Couldn’t open the file, either. Received a notice box stating: Adobe Reader could not open because it either is not a supported file type or because the file has been damaged, e.g. incorrectly decoded”.
As we note at the bottom of our newsletters all freeware picks are tested on at least different computers and two different operating system XnRetro was tested on a 64-bit Windows 7 computer with 8GB of RAM and a Windows 10 computer with 2 GB of RAM – the program worked as described. The sample images you see in the post were created by us using XnRetro.
There is no guarantee that software we review that works on our computers will work on your computer – but we do test each program on 2 and sometimes 3 computers.
Again, as we remind folks all the time, if you’re having trouble with a program that we have thoroughly tested that was not developed by us, then your best bet is to contact the developer of the product at the site normally linked in the article.
No two computers are the same nor are they maintained the same nor configured the same. We use due diligence in testing software programs and normally (as in this case) show images of the program running on our computers and in this case images created with the program. We cannot, unfortunately, test programs on dozens of different computers – we don’t have dozens of computers.
If you can’t run this program please contact the developer and ask his assistance – he knows his program far better than we.
Thanks
TC
Yes, I have had the same problem some thing called QtCore4.dll is missing from my computer and it says to try reinstalling the program but nothing works.
As we note at the bottom of our newsletters all freeware picks are tested on at least different computers and two different operating system XnRetro was tested on a 64-bit Windows 7 computer with 8GB of RAM and a Windows 10 computer with 2 GB of RAM – the program worked as described. The sample images you see in the post were created by us using XnRetro.
There is no guarantee that software we review that works on our computers will work on your computer – but we do test each program on 2 and sometimes 3 computers.
Again, as we remind folks all the time, if you’re having trouble with a program that we have thoroughly tested that was not developed by us, then your best bet is to contact the developer of the product at the site normally linked in the article.
No two computers are the same nor are they maintained the same nor configured the same. We use due diligence in testing software programs and normally (as in this case) show images of the program running on our computers and in this case images created with the program. We cannot, unfortunately, test programs on dozens of different computers – we don’t have dozens of computers.
If you can’t run this program please contact the developer and ask his assistance – he knows his program far better than we.
Thanks
TC
I use Windows 8.1. You need to download an unzip file. There is a free Win Zip file free from the Store in Windows 8.1. The problem I am having is there is no way to delete the picture from the program when you are finished with it. So I need a little more help with using the program. Is there a place to go for help in using the program?
Susan
Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 and all versions of Windows back to XP have built-in compressed (zip) file support. You don’t need a 3rd-party too. WinZip is bundled with malware, we strongly urge you not to use WinZip. If you feel you need a 3rd-party compression tool, we recommend 7-zip – but as we have said – you don’t need any 3rd-party software if your using Windows XP or newer.
I was very interested in this program. But after reading the above problems I don’t think I will even try. Until you explain again just what we have to do correctly.
Please check into this program again for I know from the past you will and can tell us what to look out for and etc.
Frankly I don’t understand “all the problems”. We tested it on two different computers, two different operating systems, at two different times and we had no problems. XnRetro has been available for several years and it’s quite popular – if problems were the rule then I don’t think the developer would still be offering it.
I don’t know why all the problems. I saved it, opened it, extracted all files, opened the file and put the exe on my desktop and it worked great.
I get a message telling me Before you can open a file you have to download them when I try to open the zip file
What a great program – Thanks TC & EB! I’ve been playing with it for the past two hours. Love it!