ImageChef, a four-year-old startup in San Francisco lets users simply add text within an image.
Anyone who has tried to do serious image editing know just how tedious it can get. Though the capabilities are currently limited (you can only choose from a pre-set selection of image templates), it’s great for the average blogger or MySpace user.
You pick from a selection of ImageChef templates (see below). Then all it takes is typing in the text you want and one click later it’s ready to go.
While ImageChef doesn’t let you do anything you couldn’t do in Photoshop or some other image editor, it’s much easier, taking just seconds to customize a template.
The next step is moving into video editing and mobile applications, but a lot of other people are doing that already; ImageChef is releasing what they’re calling “some major new tools” in March.
At the same time, ImageChef CEO Rolf Rando says they plan to steer away services that require high server and bandwidth capacity, such as video and photo slideshow hosting. This has allowed them to self-fund themselves far, and they don’t plan to raise VC money.
It’s also possible to use ImageChef capabilities through Friendster, SixApart, and RockYou. ImageChef is a good example of a company that found a way to get one particular task right — in this case putting custom text in stock images. To support the free image hosting, they sell customized mobile phone wallpapers in about 10 countries (mostly in the US, Europe, and Latin America). The company says it has sold several million to date.
Update: We should also mention PhotoCrank, which does something similar — letting you add graphics and captions to mobile photos. It recently released Mobile Monograms, which lets users monogram their phone. See image below. The company is looking to raise a first round of capital.
18 Comments
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Jonathan Abrams said:
“doesn’t let you do anything you couldn’t do in Photoshop” ???
Actually, I’m pretty good at Photoshop, and there is NO way I could figure out how to create graphics like ImageChef with my personalized text as a tattoo, name in the sand, license plate, etc. that would look as good as ImageChef. I doubt many people could, and it would probably take days, rather than a few seconds. So it seems like you don’t quite get how useful and fun this stuff is. Readers should just try it out for themselves.
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Alex Masycheff said:
Thank you, John! It seems to be a nice tool. Personally, I’ll try to use it for creating an avatar in my blog.
Can you excuse me for a general comment? Generally, I think it’s a good example of tools that add a new value (in this case, it’s fun, in other case, it can be useful knowledge or whatsoever) to an image by integrating it with a text. If we’re talking about fun, such integration brings us to comics (e.g. the Comic Life tool, unfortunately, for Mac users only) or tools like the ones you presented. If it’s something about knowledge, such integration gives us tools for labeling photos to identify people and objects on pictures, record comments, etc.
Are you planning to cover one day other tools that enable combining text and image for different purposes? I think it can be really interesting. Thanks!
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DÄ°LEK-ONUR said:
dilek-onur
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Mary said:
very nice work
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Laho Laho Laho said:
Me sijum o recki shope cao cao
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Laho Laho Laho said:
recki cao
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mostafa said:
hay
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artan said:
un ju kisha lut mem tregu ku muj me gjet tjeter ven image se qikjo imagechefi u ba bajat shum
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eros said:
Erosi
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antigona said:
antigona ku je
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Gökhan said:
bence berbat bi site
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batuhan said:
sensizlik_bana_olumden_beter27@hotmail.co.uk kızlar konusalım tamam mı bu sıte berbat 05465249440
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nedim said:
i’m nedim from bosnia anbody speak english
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EDO said:
EDO + VALE
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xamse said:
how i can dicorayt my website
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jona said:
a dini naj image tjeter
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RASİM said:
ne dıyonzu amk bıse nalamyıom D::D
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EREN said:
TUM BU YAZILARIN KISACASI EREN + AYLIN VE BEN MAKEDONYADA YASIYORUM
