It's very easy to build up a custom collection of media files; take a few digital photos, shoot a movie or two on your mobile phone, download a little music, and your PC will be packed with files in no time at all.

Processing these files afterwards, though, is a little more challenging. What if some of your photos need work, your videos could benefit from a little trimming, maybe your audio files need an edit or two?

You could opt for a commercial solution, of course. But this could be expensive - the best image and video editors in particular come with a sizeable price tag - and may also be overkill for what you need.

A simpler solution might be to opt for a free media editor. There are a wide range available, from straightforward beginner-friendly tools which can handle the basics, to advanced, high-end applications which are up for almost any challenge. So which are the best? We pitched fifteen top names against each other - 5 graphics, 5 audio and video editors - in an effort to find out.

Just keep in mind that, while all our tools are free, it's increasingly common for programs to come bundled with browser toolbars and other potentially unwanted extras.

You don't have to install these, but sometimes you'll have to do a little work to avoid it, so make sure you don't simply keep clicking "Next" through an installation: read each dialog, choose the Custom installation option where it's offered, and refuse any bundled toolbars if you'd rather do without them.

Graphics editors

1. Paint.NET

Just as you'd expect from a project which (it was hoped) would one day replace the regular Windows Paint, Paint.NET focuses primarily on ease of use. And in general it succeeds very well.

The toolbar buttons are sensibly chosen, for instance, with helpful tooltips available to explain how everything works. The menus are well designed: even if you've never used the program before, you won't be searching long for a particular function. And overall it's easy to open an image, carry out some basic edit, repair or retouching task, and save it in the format you need.

Still, demanding graphics users may be left wanting more.

The program's file format support is mostly essentials-only, for instance (although it can read and write DirectDraw Surface/ DDS files, too).

Vector drawing and paint tools are a little on the basic side.

The selection of effects (and their configurability) is limited by comparison with some of the competition.

And although Paint.NET has a very lengthy list of plugins available to extend its abilities, the program uses a standard of its own: you can't simply drop in your own Photoshop plugins and expect them to work.

Of course if you only need a basic feature set then none of this matters (if anything, not having too much extra junk cluttering the menus and toolbars makes the program easier to use). So while Paint.NET may not be the ideal editing choice for experienced users, if you're a beginner - or just in a hurry - then the program will get most basic jobs done with the minimum of hassle or fuss.

We liked

Ease of use, clean interface, lots of plugins available, busy online community ready to help if you need advice

We disliked

Drawing tools are very basic, no Photoshop plugin support, limited number of effects, short on configurability, no local help

2. PixBuilder Studio

At first glance, PixBuilder Studio seems to be a fairly basic editor, along the lines of Paint.NET. There's a similar toolbar, up-front layer and history panels, the same sort of natural interface for basic operations: it's all very easy to use. But take a closer look and you'll soon spot more advanced features, dotted around the package.

There's support for importing more file types, for instance, including icons (ICO) and Photoshop PSD formats (although the program can't write either).

PixBuilder is strong on selection options, too. You can choose areas of your image by rectangles, polygons, magnetic polygons, single rows and columns, a colour range and more.

The program has more features than you'd expect in a number of areas. So when painting, for example, you don't just get to choose from a selection of prebuilt brushes, but you can also edit these in some fairly subtle ways (diameter, hardness, angle, roundness, spacing).

And if you'd like to use PixBuilder Studio on an underpowered system then you'll appreciate the memory manager, which enables you to restrict how much RAM the program will consume.

You only get a very few effects built in as standard, though. There's no red-eye remover here, no noise removal, no distortion effects and so on. But by way of compensation, you do get support for Photoshop 8BF filters, so if you're willing to invest the time and effort to get set up then you'll be able to install just as many effects as you need.

The fact that you need to carry out this preparation means PixBuilder Studio won't be for everyone. If you just want to fix up a few party photos to remove a little red-eye, say, it'll be easier to install Paint.NET and get the job done right away.

But if you're looking for a tool which goes just a little beyond the basics, with good layer and selection tools, PDF import and 8BF support, then PixBuilder Studio could be the ideal choice.

We liked

Straightforward interface, PSD and ICO import, good layer and selection controls, memory manager, Photoshop 8BF filter support

We disliked

Short of built-in effects, can't write PSD/ ICO files, requires some preparation before you can use 8BF filters

3. PhotoScape 3.6

PhotoScape takes an unusual approach to the editing interface, with a thumbnail browser, an area for a picture preview, and a compact tabbed pane containing surprisingly few buttons. Your first impressions will be that there's no way it can compete with the competition, then - but start clicking a few of those buttons and you might just be surprised.

You may only see one of the program's photo frames up front, for instance, but there's actually around 170 available for use.

It's easy to add lines, polygons, ellipses, squares, stars, and many other objects - including speech bubbles, complete with captions - to a photo.

And while seeing a single listbox with the word "filter" probably won't leave you expecting very much, give it a click and it actually turns out to be packed with functions. And not just obvious choices, like Blur, Emboss or Noise. You also multiple film effects, some powerful vignetting tools, and an attractive lens flare. As well as multiple distortion tools, smart tools to correct red-eye, remove moles and more, and eleven ways to turn your image into a piece of art ("Oil Painting", "Pastel", "Pen", "Pencil", "Cartoon" and more).

The unusual form of presentation may mean some will never take to PhotoScape. And it's no doubt there are some crucial omissions to the program. There's no layer support, for instance, and you can't select areas of a photo to work on in the usual way. (Although the program does partly address this by providing tools, like Red Eye Correction or Mole Removal, where you must first select the relevant part of the photo before they'll work.)

Still, there is plenty of more basic image editing power here. And PhotoScape extends this even further with a host of associated programs, including a screen capture tool, a module to convert RAW files to JPG, batch rename and editing tools, printing utilities, even an option to create animated GIFs from multiple photos. So its interface may be quirky, but if you can live without layers then there's a lot to like here.

We liked

Plenty of effects, a good selection of photo frames, lots of bonus features,

We disliked

Quirky interface, no layers, limited selection options, some effects deliver below average results, no local help, very little brush control

4. GIMP 2.6.1.1

It started life as a student project way back in 1995, but GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program - is now a powerful image editor which is available on Linux, Windows and the Mac.

Old age hasn't lead to a more finely-tuned interface, though, unfortunately, and the program's images, dialogs and toolbars all open in separate panes. Which can be a little confusing. It seems the complaints have finally hit home, though, and the interface will be unified into a single window in an upcoming release.

Fortunately there are plenty of compensations for any interface confusion, though, and the first appears as soon as you hit File > Open. As well as the common image formats, GIMP can read a host of others, including Photoshop PSDs, Windows icons (ICO), PS and EPS files, even PDFs and AutoDesk FLIC animations.

Once your image is available, then it can be processed by stacks of essential features. And these show huge attention to detail. So you don't get just one "blur" filter, for instance, but rather 6, and each of these is further configurable in a host of valuable ways. There are some excellent distortion filters, too, and a top-quality "oil painting" option.

The Colours menu is another strong point, with its ability to tweak hue, lightness and saturation, brightness, contrast, levels, and more. Again, you get a rich set of tools to do whatever you want, without any of it being particularly difficult. That is, if you don't want to tweak your image manually then a click or two and GIMP will handle everything on your behalf.

And elsewhere there are a host of painting options, a good range of selection tools, plenty of layer control, and just far more power than you any right to expect from a free tool.

If you only need something very basic, just to resize a few clips or apply simple image corrections, then it's probably not worth the effort of installing GIMP. The program isn't particularly complicated, but it does have a lot of features, and you're likely to spend quite some time learning how everything works.

If you're looking for real image editing power, though, and you're willing to spend time getting over the initial learning curve, then the GIMP just might be all you'll ever need.

We liked

Wide file format support, lots of powerful filters and editing options, highly configurable, customisable keyboard shortcuts,

We disliked

Quirky interface, some filters don't have preview options, local help not installed by default

5. Photo Pos Pro

Photo Pos Pro got off to a bad start by attempting to install a browser toolbar during setup. That's acceptable if it's done up-front, but the program makes it less than obvious - you must choose the "custom installation" option to clearly see what's happening.

With that done, though, Photo Pos Pro launches to reveal a fairly clear and conventional interface. The toolbar buttons are a little small and there's a vast array of menu options to explore, but most users should still feel at home right away.

You get all the usual basic manipulations, for instance: flips, rotations, resizes and more. You can tweak image colours, brightness and contrast manually, or get the program to do the hard work for you. There's a good set of effects, and plenty of selection tools and layer options for when you need to get a little more advanced (although this can get a little complicated at times).

The program also includes some relatively unusual features. So there's a very capable thumbnail browser, for instance. The HTML Export wizard allows you to save a tweaked image as a customised web page. And Photo Pos Pro doesn't just have a few canned batch processing options to, say, rename images or convert between formats: you get a full script editor which supports applying any sequence of 29 commands to the images of your choice: resize, rotations, brightness and contrast tweaks, colour changes, whatever you want.

And these more surprising aspects of the program keep popping up, everywhere you look. Like an HTML Image Map creator, for instance. The ability to open some animations and movies to grab a particular frame, at least in theory (it didn't always work for us). And the library of objects which Photo Pos Pro can use to customise an image: the buttons and banners, the decorative clipart, the frames, picture boxes, the text with special effects applied, and more.

You don't get quite the painting, selection or layer control which you'll see with GIMP, however, and so if you're looking for the powerful basics then that remains our favourite. Photo Pos Pro has plenty to like about it, though - the script editor alone could save you hours of work - and so if you'll make use of its wider feature range then it could be the ideal choice for all your photo work.

We liked

Thumbnail browser, web features, batch processing/ script editor, loads of features, local help file

We disliked

Tries to store browser toolbar during installation

What is the best free graphics editing software?

If you're mostly interested in carrying out simple operations - resize this, crop that, add a text caption maybe - then Paint.NET could be ideal. It's clean, easy to use, handles the basics well, and supports layers for more advanced work if you ever need that.

If you need a little more power then there's something to like about each of our test tools. So PixBuilder Studio may be useful if you need PSD import, and 8BF filter support; Photo Pos Pro is a good choice for batch processing, carrying out the same operations on a set of photos; and PhotoScape comes packed with extra functions and annotation options, including a raft of photo frames.

For all-round editing power, though, the winner has to be GIMP. The multi-windowed interface can be confusing, but you'll get over that in time, and then details like the program's file format support, its lengthy feature list and configurability all help to ensure you'll get the best possible image editing results.