No matter what program a graphics designer uses for creating their web images, they will almost always agree that filters give them that little extra effect that they may be looking for in an image. If you are not familiar with filters, they are small programs or plugins that work inside and in conjunction to graphic programs such as Phototshop, Paint Shop Pro and a multitude of others. There are all manner of filters, from the simple to the more complex, but all have something unique to offer a graphic designer. Many of these filters are offered free by their creators and can easily be downloaded from the web. (Please see the filter links page included in this editorial for download sites.) 

This editorial will cover some of the filters I believe to be the most useful and perhaps the most fun. Since there is a real artist hidden inside everyone that creates web graphics, regardless if they are a novice or a more seasoned graphic designer I will start with a filter that gives effects similar to that of oils, watercolor pencil lines and even the old salt and water effects. This filter comes in a bundle called Paint Engine by Fantastic Machine and is offered for free on their website. While this filter comes with several presets already saved for your convenience, you can also create your own by experimenting with the sliders or using the randomize button, which moves all the sliders for you randomly giving you different effects each time. 

Paint Engine works with the following programs: Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, Paint Shop Pro, Unlead Photo Impact 4, Corel Photo-Paint, and Fractal Designer Painter. Below are only a few examples of what can be accomplished with this filter. 
 
 

Original image

Pastel2 setting applied

Randomized settings. Image #3

About now you may be wondering why anyone would create such a useless image as the one displayed in the Randomized settings Image#3 box, shown in the table directly above. As is often said, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and it takes a keen eye to notice that even an image as seemingly useless as this has many possibilities, and I explain this in more detail a little further down the page.

Now for the possibilities discussed above: The image on the left was created using Image #3 directly above, it was then put into FM Tile Tools and the Collage Circular was applied. This gave the image a soft sponge like effect.  After this the seamless filter of  FM Tile Tools was applied: First with Border width set to 0.25, Stretch Control, 0.25 Vertical unchecked. and then with Border width set to 0.25, Stretch Control, 0.25 Vertical checked. To see just one example of a use for such an image, click on the tile on the left.

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