InstantMask is a free program that provides a quick and easy way to remove backgrounds and crop out foreground figures or elements from any type of image. The user is required to use a drawing tool to roughly outline the “foreground” (desired) image element as well as the area directly adjacent to it, and InstantMask will do the rest.

This is the first of a new series of posts entitled “10 wallpaper selections”, which will consist entirely of (you guessed it) wallpaper images that I like and use. I decided to do this after the thought occurred to me that the desktop wallpaper for many people is the foremost image that they will see for many hours during the day (or most of the day for people, like myself, whose work primarily involves using a computer). I hope you enjoy these 10 selections.

SE-Screensaver is a free collection of screensaver themes packed inside a single installable screensaver file. Themes include several variations on the famous "The Matrix" screensaver, a 2D slideshow that can point to an image directory on your hard drive, animated fractals, analogue and digital clocks, kaleidoscopes, amoebas, snowfall, fractal trees, and others. There are nine different themes in all, many of which have several mini variations.

If you’ve ever been on the National Geographic Photography site then you already know that they feature some of the best, high quality photographs to be found on the internet. What you may not know, however, is that the site has a special wallpapers section, and that the majority of images in the Photography site are available for download in wallpaper sizes (with a maximum width of at least 1280 pixels for most images, and some are available at 1600 pixels).

Note that there are in fact two different National Geographic URLs with two different wallpaper sections, here and here.

Want to find cool wallpaper? I was recently admiring the wallpaper my friend Jeff (who, incidentally, works for Microsoft) had on his computer. When I asked him about the source he showed me the new cool wallpaper image search provided in Bing. This posting will show you how to use Bing image search to find great wallpaper images.

Seadragon.com from Microsoft Labs is a free web service designed to view, zoom, pan-into, and share large images on the internet without degrading them or otherwise making them smaller.

Dropresize creates a special folder on your machine such that any images placed in this folder are automatically resized as per a predefined height or width and quality setting. This free program is designed for quickly resizing images for the purposes of posting on the internet.

PhotoJoy is a free app that uses your own photo collection to create dynamic
desktop wallpaper, screensavers, and desktop widgets.

PhotoFilmStrip is a free program that can create video from images quickly and easily, including the Ken Burns style zoom-in/zoom-out effect commonly used in documentaries. Other features include the ability to add subtitles, add a soundtrack, and use black and white/sepia versions of your images. PhotoFilmStrip is multiplatform (Windows/Linux).

JacksonPollock.org is a free flash toy that simulates the "action painting" style of American abstract expressionist painter Jackson Pollock.

Viewer2 is a free image viewing and tagging app that combines form and function into a powerful program that is a joy to use. It offers an innovative tagging process based on organizing image thumbnails and folders visually and grouping them in various ways that make it very easy to work with and tag them. Includes a powerful, versatile search function that indexes metadata as well as filenames and paths.

PrtScr is a free screen capturing program that combines good functionality with an excellent user experience. It offers much of what you would expect out of a screen capture program within a stylish, visually appealing user interface.