Why settle for just having hilarious cats on your t-shirt\mug\canvas prints? Wouldn’t your awesome Picniked photo be so much better? We think so! Picnik has partnered-up with the clever QOOP (cue-oop!), allowing you to shoot your creation straight to QOOP and direct to your new mouse pad. You ask, “Dude, where and how?!?” Under the Save&Share tab you’ll see Print Photo… then all the cool QOOP options. Clicking one of their options (prints, postcards, key chains, disks, calendars, more, more) will deliver you to QOOP with your current open picture (and your Photo History… coming soon!).

Not one to rest on any single project at a time, we also decided to go international in a big way becoming PhotoBox.com’s new killer photo-editor. Completing their picture (sorry) with storage, sharing, publishing and lots of other photo-coolness. If you’re just about anywhere in Europe, you’ve got to have heard of these sharp guys: Photobox.fr in France, Photobox.de in Germany and Photobox.co.uk. Picnik runs in those languages too, but you already knew that. Finally, hold on to your hat\hut\chapeau\capello for their coming releases all across Europe!

Given the fanatical font geekery here at Picnik World HQ, we’re thrilled to finally announce that we’ve unveiled our brand new and exclusive offering of 15 fonts from FontShop®, available only to Premium Picnikers. This collection of typefaces from the FontFont® library was hand-picked just for our users and represents an incredible selection of truly professional, quality fonts. In fact, if you want to use these fonts without the incredibly affordable Picnik Premium membership, you’ll be paying thousands of dollars. No joke, they’re that awesome.

So, without further ado, here’s the list:

FF DIN - Cool, crisp, minimal. Albert Jan-Pool’s skillful reworking of the official traffic type of Germany (DIN stands for Deutsches Institut für Normung, or “German Institute for Standardisation”) will work in any setting, and has been used on ABC’s World News With Charles Gibson, MTV Latin America, JetBlue Airways, and Adidas.

FF Meta - Erik Spiekermann’s humanist typeface is considered by many to be groundbreaking, and the most influential sans serif of the digital age. Designed to be readable and sturdy on a small scale (it was intended for Deutsche Bundespost, to be easily legible on postage stamp scale) and in large letters (or on a mail truck), it can be used for a look that’s both modern and approachable, as has the Stockholm Metro, Imperial College London, Environment Agency of England and Wales, and I.D. Magazine.

FF Meta Serif - It took three years and three designers to create this sturdy serif companion to Spiekermann’s FF Meta. Ideal for a classic look or longer passages of text.

FF Tartine Script - This natural, flowing script drawn by Parisian font designer Xavier Dupré is at home on both greeting cards and cans of gourmet soup.

FF Erikrighthand - The handwriting of Dutch designer Erik van Blokland is bold and legible and yours to pretend ownership of!

FF Pepe - Give your images a vintage, personal touch with the elegant award-winning script by Spanish designer Pepe Gimeno.

FF Brokenscript - Get in touch with your inner Berliner with Just van Rossum’s interpretation of old German type. Known as a “textura blackletter”, FontShoppers might affectionately call it “heavy metal”.

FF Market - H. A. Simon’s script is the kind of casual freestyle lettering you’d see price-pointing produce or refrigerator markdowns.

FF Providence Sans - The basic print letters of a child are often the most human and legible. Drawn with youthful care by Guy Jeffrey Nelson.

FF Oxide - The letters found on shipping containers, warehouse walls, and military munitions can now be found on your pics, thanks to celebrated New York designer Christian Schwartz.

FF Cocon - Curvaceous and organic, the type of Dutch designer Evert Bloemsma has become synonymous with “Web 2.0″.

FF Marker - Legit graffiti can’t be made with a font, but Thomas Marecki’s typeface from FF Tag Team gets you pretty darn close.

FF Confidential - Just van Rossum’s deliciously damaged homage to industrial typography, FF Confidential is good for advertising, displays, or flyers for anarchist organisations.

So check them all out, and let us know what you think!

It’s true: Picnik is now on MySpace! All kajillion MySpace users can now access photo-editing superstarpowers at myspace.com/getpicnik. And stay tuned, we’ve got some special MySpace-only features cookin’ in the oven.

Don’t forget to add us as a friend!

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day (and the fact that this past weekend was our biggest ever, smashing the record for our previous biggest weekend ever), Picnik’s gone from grass green to kelly green! We’ve got everything Oirish in our Shapes: shamrocks, flags, pots of gold, rainbows, harps, hats, and of course, everyone’s favorite perfect pint.

And don’t forget to click on our green-like-the-hills-o’-Ireland link to vote for your very favorite web-based photo-editor in the Publishing & Photography category for the Webware 100!

Now we’ve done all that with plenty of time to get down the pub. Pionta Guinness le do thiol!

(That means “Pint of Guinness, please!”)

Picnik began life with one purpose: Bring photo editing awesomeness to everyone. We’ve approached this in three distinct ways: First, make it available to everyone, everywhere. Second, make it a joy to use. Third, make it cheap. Today, we’re unveiling significant changes to improve the Picnik experience in all three respects — and it’s all thanks to the feedback, support, and crazed fandom we’ve received from all of you.

Now all Picnik users will have full access to our huge range of edit tools, special effects, fonts and shapes that previously were only available as Premium features. Free users will have this largess supported by ads.

For a 100% ad-free experience and exclusive access to new Advanced editing tools, brand-new infinite Photo History, professional fonts from FontShop, Fullscreen mode, early access to new features, special partner offers, priority support, and much more to come, sign up for Picnik Premium for only $24.95 USD a year.

Why the change?
We want to make everyone feel like a photo editing superstar. Picnik is already the world’s leading online photo editor, but there are still a lot of people living tragic, gloomy lives believing that powerful photo editing tools cost hundreds of dollars, come in unopenable boxes, and are impossible to use. By offering an ad-supported version of Picnik, we can make much richer, deeper, and ultimately better photo-editing functionality available to more people around the globe: Photo editing awesomeness for everyone.

At the same time, we have a dedicated and ever-growing community of Picnik Premium users who’ve told us that they always want the highest level of Picnik functionality without ads. Above all, our goal is to make Picnik the best photo editing experience available, regardless of whether you support us directly or our advertisers do.

So, to break it down, here’s the new split between Premium and free:

	Premium	Free
No ads
Advanced editing tools
Fullscreen mode
Exclusive content, including professional fonts from FontShop (coming soon!)
Early access to new features
Exclusive partner offers
Priority support
Perfect Memory
Photo History	Unlimited	5 most recent
Easy and fast connections to popular photo sites and social networks	Unlimited	1 at a time
Easiest and most fun photo editor in the currently known universe
All the essential photo fixing tools
Tons of creative effects, fonts, and clipart
Instant and automatic feature updates
Unlimited undo
Browser plug-in

If you’ve got any questions or suggestions for the future, please send us all the feedback you want through Picnik. Meanwhile, stay tuned for more updates — we’ve got some features coming that we can’t wait for everyone to see!

Happy Picniking!

Welcome, 日本語-speaking photographers: Picnik is now available in Japanese! That’s right, in addition to Chinese, German, Spanish, French, Korean, Italian, and Portuguese, we’ve translated our little photo-editor into that all-important ninth language, and we’re very excited about it, too!

As always, to change languages, just click on the little globe at the top of the Picnik page, choose your preferred tongue from the drop-down list, and enjoy.

よろしくネ!

The pace here at Picnik World HQ is never exactly slow, but 2008 is shaping up to be a record breaker. Not only did we just celebrate our biggest traffic day ever this past weekend, Team Picnik is also up to all sorts of terribly exciting new projects. Things we’ve wanted to add to Picnik for a very, very long time.

First up: a lot of performance work. We’re pleased to say Picnik now works even better for those few of you without nitrogen-cooled, eight-core monoliths, and those fewer of you on (gasp!) dialup. What else are we working on? We can’t tell you. It’s super secret. But it’s coming. Soon.

And in case this doesn’t quite feel warp speed enough, we’re proud to present: Focal Zoom! One of our favorite effects so far, if done right, Focal Zoom will actually make you dizzy. Note: applying this filter multiple times may very well lead to Ludicrous Speed. You’ve been warned.

Stay tuned as February starts to unwind. There’s lots to come.

(view original)

Our Christmas shapes and fonts were a staggering success. But now, it’s time for Picnik to doff that heavy winter gear, and slip into something a little more comfortable.

We’ve just added a bevy of new Valentine’s Day shapes, from lipstick-smothered kisses to candy hearts to chilled champagne, and fonts from cute and curly to romantic and elegant. Sure, Hello Kitty Valentine’s cards are totally awesome, but they’re not terribly unique. Now you, that special someone, or that special four-legged someone can be the star of the card.

In this world, there are photo editors, and then there are photo editors, and some photographers only use a photo editor that has Curves. Now those photographers can use Picnik.

What are Curves? They’re complicated, fiddly things that professionals, purists, and hardcore hobbyists like to use, because they give you complete control over the colors and exposure of your photograph and limitless creative variations. Our curves, which have all the functionality, individual channel adjustments, and amusing maths a pro would expect, also have lots of great presets, and are so non-fiddly that even a normal person can have fun with it and get great results.

As with all our features, Curves works in real time, which, we really should point out, is pretty darned special. And our presets, like Daguerreotype, Ambrotype, and Velvia, are all hand-crafted and Picnik-tested to be pitch-perfect and still adjustable. Curves can be found under a new Advanced heading at the end of the Effects section.

Check it out, and we look forward to hearing what you think!

By surprisingly popular request, you can now give anyone the gift of Picnik Premium! Just click one of our shiny new gift buttons from inside Picnik or, better yet, click this link to get started. You’ll be able to either email your lucky someone a special code, or print out a custom, super snazzy card for that extra touch. Last minute gifty-goodness awaits.

We’ve also snuck in some great new Premium effects: Orton-ish, Neon, and 1960’s. Orton-ish mimics the sleekly ethereal look of the Orton Technique. Neon makes even the most boring photo into a neon sign work of art. And 1960’s will have you thinking you’re digging through an old shoebox of forgotten photos.

And that’s not all! Here at Picnik World Headquarters, located in Seattle, the team sometimes gets a wee bit sick of the rain. Not to mention the howling wind. Yes, the legends are true. To combat this, some choose to scoot off to sunnier climes (you know who you are), while the rest come up with new effects! Thus, we’re happy to introduce Snow. Now anyone, even Seattleites, can have a perfect White Christmas.

Happy Holidays from Team Picnik!