Open source stitching software

9 Best Photo Stitching Software in 2022 (Updated Weekly)

By Natalia Robert By Ingrid Paola Miranda Marin

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Using photo stitching software is essential for landscape and panorama photographers. It can deliver excellent results and save you a lot of time. The following list covers the best photo stitching software options.

To create a panorama, you have to stitch photos together. Once they are aligned, they will make one impressive view. A wide-angle lens is helpful, but you would still need to do some cropping. If you have a tripod, stitching together a panorama is a lot easier! A tripod helps you keep a consistent horizon when you take panoramas.

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9 Best Photo Stitching Software Options

There are a variety of photo stitchers available. So let’s take a look at the top 10 best photo stitching software options.

1. Hugin

Hugin is a photo stitching software capable of assembling a mosaic of photographs into a panorama.

Hugin’s interface is functional and user friendly. The software has great features. Some of them are control points or corrections of inconsistent levels. Manual adjustments of projections are also included.

Hugin offers a series of online tutorials in 9 languages. They show the different stages of the panorama stitching process. And they teach you how to use blend masks and create textures.

Hugin is an open-source initiative. It is available for free and is compatible with Windows, Mac, or Linux.

2. PTGui

PTGui is the best choice for professional-level photo stitching software. PTGui allows for stitching panoramas with many rows and columns.

PTGui has a less expensive option that will offer plenty for amateur photographers. The more expensive version, PTGui Pro, gives added features that any pro would love.

PTGui Pro includes features like Automatic Seam Placement and a Fill-Holes function. PTGui Pro also offers a Batch Stitcher, which can generate control points to set up a panorama.

You can also stitch and blend HDR source images into an HDR panorama with PTGui Pro. Viewpoint correction and masking are also included.

PTGui works with Windows, Mac, or Linux. There is a free trial version and a one-time license fee.

3. Panoweaver 10

Panoweaver 10 offers a standard and pro version. The standard version offers a good amount of features. They include gigapixel panoramas, little planet panoramas, and full manual adjustments.

For a bit more of an investment, the Pro version has added features. These include HDR processing, masking, and Dehaze.

One of the biggest benefits of Panoweaver 10 is that it offers the option of automatic stitching. This is great for those of us who sometimes want to be less hands-on.

Panoweaver 10 is available for Windows and Mac.

4. AutoStitch

Autostitch lets you stitch many photos into a seamless panoramic image.

This photo stitching software is the perfect solution if you want a program that will do it all for you. It requires no user input to sift through images. AutoStitch selects the images that match up. Then it pieces them together to create a panorama.

The downside to this is that if you do want to make individual adjustments, you cannot. AutoStitch is ideal for the photographer who doesn’t do too many panoramas. And it’s also good if you are not looking to control every aspect of its creation.

A demo version of this photo stitching software is available for free. As a standalone, AutoStitch is available for Windows and Mac OS X.

5.

PanoramaStudio

PanoramaStudio is photo stitching software available for Windows and Mac. There is a standard and pro version. The latter offers a few more options, like support for ultra-wide-angle and fish-eye lenses.

This software offers interactive tools that allow you to add hotspots to panoramic images and create virtual tours.

PanoramaStudio allows you to export interactive panoramas to HTML5. It also offers multiple editing tools to correct flaws and enhance your pictures.

This software is perfect if you usually work with Adobe Lightroom. You can find it as a Lightroom plugin.

PanoramaStudio is a paid software. Yet, you can give it a try thanks to its free trial period.

6. Panorama Stitcher

This photo stitching software is a fantastic option for Mac users. A mini-version is available for free, but it can only stitch together up to five photos.

For panoramas of more than five photos, you will need to buy the full version of Panorama Stitcher. It doesn’t compare to the detailed control you have in other software options like PTGui. But in true Mac fashion, it is very user-friendly.

It is currently available for Macs only via the App Store.

7. PhotoStitcher

Another fantastic option for beginners in photo stitching is PhotoStitcher. It features a user-friendly interface and an entire suite of software to alter images.

PhotoStitcher is capable of stitching photos of different angles or resolutions. It also does automatic image completion.

This panorama stitching software also automates things like cropping and exposure balancing. This gives you the option to be as hands-off as you’d like.

A free trial download is available. The full PhotoStitcher software is affordably priced.

PhotoStitcher is available for Windows or Mac.

8. GigaPan Stitch

If you’re dedicated to taking photos of landscapes and panoramas, you may already own GigaPan Epic hardware. If that is the case, then you’re aware of GigaPan Stitch software.

GigaPan Stitch is a functional panorama stitching software. It combines photos across many rows and columns.

It is proprietary and only for use with GigaPan hardware. But it provides a great option to stay within the GigaPan product family. This software is basic. Yet, it is capable of stitching together panoramas with many rows of images.

Once you register your GigaPan hardware, you receive a license key for the stitching software. If you want to test it out before committing, a free 14-day trial available for download.

GigaPan Stitch is available for Windows or Mac.

9. Photoshop

While not a standalone panorama photo stitcher software, Photoshop is a good choice. It has powerful photo stitching capabilities within its arsenal of features. Photoshop’s Photomerge plugin is basic but handy for the occasional panorama.

You can access the photo stitching option in the menus (File > Automate > Photomerge). This will open a new window where can you add the individual photos to be merged. Also, choose the geometric projection, and select a few minor options.

The plugin will then do the stitching for you!

Once merged, the new file is a PSD file with separate layers for each image. One downside to using the Photoshop Photomerge plugin is that it’s not very detailed in its controls.

Since you are already working within Photoshop, you will have all the tools to finesse the image. You don’t need separate software.

Photoshop is not an ideal photo stitching solution if you offer many panoramas commercially. Yet, it is perfect for those of us who do the occasional panorama for fun.

Photoshop is available for Windows or Mac. You can access this cloud-based software with a monthly or yearly plan.

Conclusion

Finding the right photo stitching software can feel overwhelming… no matter if you do panoramas as a hobby or profession. But we have covered a variety of options to get you started. But there is something for everyone… whether you are ready to invest money in photo stitching software or not. With so many options at your fingertips, the photo stitching possibilities are endless!

Are you looking for a fun and easy way to master landscape photography? Check out our Simply Stunning Landscapes course. Take stunning images in the most average locations!

Best Photo Stitching Software in 2022: Free & Paid

If you’ve shot multiple photos for a panorama, this guide to the best photo stitching software will save you hours of time.

Sure – your fancy smartphone or compact camera might have a built-in panorama photo stitching feature, but it’s unlikely to have any control over the final image… nor will it be great quality.

Editor's Choice

Panorama Studio

Easily create seamless panoramas with this feature -rich easy to use software that's available for a great price.

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By using one of the photo stitching software on this list, you’ll be able to create epic panoramic images in no time.

You’ll find both free and paid photo stitchers for Windows and Mac OS – if you need full control and professional results, the paid options are obviously more powerful, and usually offer a free trial.

Image stitching software has come a long way in recent years, so let’s have a look at the best options for your panorama stitching escapades!

Table of Contents

10 Best Photo Stitching Software in 2022 (Free & Paid)

1. Panorama Studio

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Editor's Choice

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Windows, Mac OS
Price: $39.95 USD/$79.90 USD (+ free trial)

Panorama Studio Pro is easily our top choice for best photo stitching software in 2022.

While we love its photo stitching, what really shines are its interactive tools. Interactive panoramas allow viewers to explore worlds inside worlds, following their curiosity into the details of a scene and beyond.

You can easily add hotspots, save your panoramic images to HTML5, and create virtual tours. What’s more, these features are available in both the basic and pro versions of Panorama Studio 3.

Panorama Studio’s editing tools are robust, allowing you to change the focal length, image alignment, blending, and exposure. You can also add contrast, adjust curves/levels/color, and sharpen, with or without masks.

If you prefer another program’s photo stitching, but want to use Panorama Studio’s awesome interactive controls, no problem. Simply import a finished panorama into Panorama Studio and then choose whatever control points and/or other enhancements you’re interested in.

If Adobe Lightroom is your photo editing software of choice, you’re in luck – Panorama Studio Pro also comes as an Adobe Lightroom Classic plugin.

The clincher, though, is its price. The standard image stitching software version is just under $40 and the pro version retails for just under $80 – a great bargain for all the functionality of this impressive software.

2. Hugin

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Editor's Choice

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Windows, Mac OS, Linux
Price: Free (Open Source)

If you’re looking for free panorama stitching software and don’t mind a program that is quite hands-on, Hugin is the best of the bunch.

The panorama maker offers an automatic alignment and manual option. For manual panorama stitching, you’ll need to add in control points before it will stitch your photos together, but the software is feature-rich and can do some pretty heavy lifting.

It definitely excels at blending photos that were taken at different angles and/or with different cameras. It’s stitching process can also fix issues, such as distortion in the source images.

There are also plenty of options for changing projection and field of view, and it even has its own lens database.

While Hugin is functionally better than many other photo stitching programs, its downside is its user interface. Highly functional …yes. Easy-to-use … no.

If you’re a techie, this won’t be much of a problem, and even if you’re not, there are plenty of tutorials to get you off and running. Just don’t expect to be able to import, press a few buttons, and have your panorama immediately materialize in front of you.

That being said, Hugin offers a veritable arsenal of features, is continually being developed, and as part of the open-source initiative, the price is right: free.

3. PTGUI Pro

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Editor's Choice

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Windows, Mac OS, Linux
Price: $154 USD/$305 USD

PTGui is a piece of fast, pro-level photo stitching software that is supremely easy to use, yields great results, and can process a gigapixel panorama in only 25 seconds.

In fact, PTGui is so fast that it can render a panoramic image in less time than it would take many programs to simply save the same image!

Not only is it the fastest photo stitching software, but PTGui also offers the most extensive user control… except for maybe Hugin. Unlike Hugin, however, PTGui’s user interface is quite polished.

Using the PTGui’s app wizard, you can load images, set the control points, and create a panoramic image in three or four clicks. There are a number of automatic features and it even comes with a drag-and-drop feature, making it especially easy for beginners to get started.

For HDR panorama enthusiasts, PTGui also has awesome HDR rendering. Its use of Exposure-Fusion instead of tone-mapping makes for some incredibly realistic images.

And it’s worth mentioning again – PTGui is fast. Superfast. Even when working with large data sets and/or timelapse photography.

Of the two options – standard and pro – PTGui Pro has batch processing and HDR, as well as viewpoint correction, exposure/vignetting/white balance correction, exposure fusion, and masking. Pretty much all of the heavy-hitting features.

The major downside is the price of this speedy panorama maker. PTGui goes for $154 and PTGui Pro for $307. There’s a free trial version that comes with all the features, but all resulting images have watermarks.

In the end, though, PTGui is the best photo stitching software for pros who appreciate a high level of control, fast outputs, fantastic HDR rending and frequently work with large data sets or high-resolution photos.

If you don’t need the speed, Panorama Studio or Hugin should meet your needs for far less $$.

4. Panoweaver 10

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Editor's Choice

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Windows, Mac OS
Price: $149.95 USD/ $399.95 USD

Another popular photo stitching application, Panoweaver 10 is Part of EasyPano’s virtual tour software trilogy: Panoweaver 10, Tourweaver 7, and VRTourMaker 1. That makes it a bit unique in this list, as virtual reality is a strong part of its focus.

Panoweaver 10 is highly automated and designed to need as little user input as possible. You can, of course, make all the fine-tuning adjustments you need to, but if you want a “hands-off” approach, simply upload your photos, select the image type, and press stitch. Crop, save and you’re done.

If you want to move beyond the automated processes, there are plenty of tutorials available for you to make the most of this feature-rich stitching software too.

Panoweaver 10 supports just about any panoramic image you might want to create – cylindrical, spherical, cubic, high-resolution gigapixel panoramas, and little-planet panoramas.

It also accepts just about any image file as well as being able to save in a wide variety of formats – from all the common image file types to PSDs, HTML5, Flash VR, and *.SWF.

What makes Panoweaver 10 stand out from the crowd, however, is its publishing capacities. The Pro version comes with extensive cross-platform publishing options across multiple mobile devices and platforms.

As they say on their website: “Publish once, view everywhere.” Being part of Easypano’s VR trilogy, all outputs support multi-platforms for VR.

Both versions are pretty pricey. The standard version retails for $99 and comes with all the panorama creation editing tools you’d expect. The Pro version is where you’ll find the cross-platform publishing, batch processing, and HDR panorama batch processing. It retails for $299.

There’s a trial version but the outcomes are watermarked.

The final word? Panoweaver 10 (especially the Pro version) is pricey but well worth it if you appreciate the automation, are looking to do VR, are interested in the full suite of Easypano VR tools, and/or will benefit from the cross-publishing options.

5. Image Composite Editor

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Editor's Choice

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Windows
Price: Free

For those running Windows, Microsoft’s Image Composite Editor (ICE) runs a close second to best free photo stitching software out in the world today.

Up until recently, it wasn’t particularly user friendly, but its most recent update (2.0) made the interface much more intuitive. It now has an app guide that will take you through each step of creating panoramic images.

A few of the features worth noting are autocomplete, which fills in the missing pixels around the edges of a completed. Microsoft ICE can also create panoramas from stills taken from video (i.e. from panning).

Types of panoramas supported include spherical, cylindrical, stereographic, Mercator, planar, and orthographic. Finished panoramic images can be saved JPEG, TIFF, PSD/PSB format, and the tiled format used by HD View and Deep Zoom.

This most recent update to this popular photo stitching software also includes automatic exposure blending, GigaPan panorama shots, and the ability to create gigapixel panoramas.

But there’s good news and bad news…

The good news is that Microsoft ICE works on both Windows 8 and Windows 10 and as a plugin for Photoshop. And it’s free.

The bad news? As of recently, it seems to have been discontinued and all the normal download links for version 2.0 no longer work. Luckily some very loyal fans of ICE have posted a link for downloading the installer for ICE 2.0 in the internet archives.

Click here or here for the 64-bit version of 2.0.3; here for the 32-bit version. Just be aware, there probably won’t be any more updates.

(Note: Microsoft’s image composite editor isn’t the only image stitching software recently discontinued – you might have heard of an excellent photo stitching software program called Autopano Pro/Autopano Giga, which was discontinued in 2018 after it was bought by GoPro. Totally unfortunate, for not only was Autopano Giga excellent software, but it worked on Linux and had a strong support community.)

6. GigaPan Stitch

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Editor's Choice

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Windows, Mac OS
Price: Free

Gigapan Stitch, though designed primarily for Gigapan panorama, works both for standard panoramic image stitching as well as for Gigapan stitching.

It’s included with the purchase of any of Gigapan’s robots and is designed to seamlessly integrate with all Gigapan camera equipment as well as with its online community.

If you’re only creating panoramas via a Gigapan Epic, this might well be the only software you need.

That being said, Gigapan Stitch hasn’t been updated recently and is falling a bit behind the other best photo stitching software available today.

If you’d like higher quality outputs and more flexibility in your panorama stitching process, take a look at PTGUI Pro or Hugin. Both support Gigapan technology, and in general, yield better results.

7. Panorama Stitcher

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Editor's Choice

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Mac OS X (Requires macOS 10.12 or later)
Price: $15 USD (free trial version)

If you’re a Mac user and want Mac-native panorama stitching software that’s quick, powerful, and easy to use, Panorama Stitcher is an excellent choice.

Panorama Stitcher for Mac is fully automated photo stitching software that was designed to seamlessly stitch together your images in literally one click. It works especially well with drone footage but will do a decent job on most projects.

If you already have some experience with photo stitching, you know that it’s not always easy to render an end result that’s totally artefact-free. Panorama Stitcher manages to remove both artefacts and ghosting automatically – you don’t have to do a thing.

Of course, if you want more control it’ll be better to go with panorama stitching software like Hugin or PTGui, but Panorama Stitcher does the job admirably for most dabblers and hobbyists and is supremely easy to use.

Another plus is that the support on this software is reputedly top-notch – they generally get back to you within 24 hours. Add to this the fact that the paid version is just $15, and there’s little reason to not give it a try.

(Note: the free trial will only stitch together 5 photos at a time. )

8. PhotoStitcher

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Windows, Mac OS
Price: $19.99

Moving either further away from complex panorama software like PTGui and Hugin, the fully automatic panorama stitching software, PhotoStitcher, prides itself on being completely non-technical. It can make full-view panoramas without any user input at all.

Similar to Panorama Stitcher, simply upload your panorama shots into the software and Photostitcher will stitch them together in just one click.

It will even combine photos from different shooting angles, different resolutions, and even multiple perspectives into a single, perfectly-aligned panorama.

Some of its nicer features include Auto Complete, accelerated stitching on machines with multiple CPU cores, and the ability to create multi-row panoramas.

It also gives you the option of selecting the projection – planar, cylindrical, spherical, stereographic, Mercator, or orthographic.

Is it the best photo stitching software out there? No. Images aren’t saved at a particularly high resolution and you don’t have any control over the results.

Still, at $19.99 it’s one of the more affordable options available and will work well for those who just want quick, hands-off photo stitching.

Note: the free trial version works well but won’t let you save the images you create. If you like it, you’ll have to buy it.

9. Adobe Photoshop

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Windows, Mac OS
Price: begins at $9.99 per month

If you only plan to make occasional panoramas and already have the world’s most popular graphic design software Photoshop, it might be worth your while to take a look at Photoshop’s Photomerge option.

From the File menu, go to Automate and then to Photomerge. From there a new window will pop up asking you to select the photos you’d like to stitch, the desired projection, whether you want exposure blending and vignette removal, etc.

Your new panorama will be rendered as a PSD file with each image included as a separate layer.

Once your image is rendered, you can then turn it into a smart object and modify it at will. Missing pixels can be filled in via Content-Aware Fill.

(Note: It’s useful to apply Photoshop’s Adaptive Wide Angle filter if there’s any distortion in the finished panorama.)

While there aren’t as many panorama tools available in Photoshop as in, say, PTGui, Photomerge does an impressive job of photo stitching all on its own. It also works with Raw files and you have all of Photoshop’s tremendous image editing power right at your fingertips.

Obviously, you wouldn’t want to invest in Photoshop solely for its photo stitching software capabilities, but if you already have it and just create the occasional panorama, there’s really no need to go elsewhere.

10. Adobe Lightroom Classic

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Windows, Mac OS
Price: begins at $9. 99 per month

Last but certainly not least, Lightrooom Classic also has an excellent photo stitcher built-in. It doesn’t offer the same amount of control as some of the dedicated panorama apps, but it’s more than adequate for most panorama stitching.

In fact, sometimes it stitches photos together better than PTGui or Hugin.

If Lightroom is already your main photo editing app, there’s something to be said for being able to load your panorama shots directly into your primary editing app and processing them there as well.

All the photo editing tools you need are right there and you don’t need to jump into any other program.

Lightroom Classic will, of course, work with your Raw files directly. It can also create HDR panoramas and has a content-aware fill option that will let you fill in missing pixels.

Like Photoshop, it wouldn’t make sense to buy a subscription to Lightroom just for its image stitching software capabilities, but if it’s already one of your main photo editing apps, it’s more than worth giving its photo stitching a test drive.

Final Words

Creating panoramic images is a lot easier today than it was in days of old. Much of it is now automated, and, depending on what photo stitching software you use, can be entirely hands off too.

Unfortunately, a couple of the more excellent image stitching software options have been discontinued (Microsoft ICE and Autopano Giga). Still, there are plenty of fantastic options to choose from.

From stitching software that focuses on interactive panoramas and VR, to photo stitchers that are fully automated, to those with a high degree of user control … there’s something for everyone.

Finding the best photo stitching software for your own personal needs might take a bit of trial and error, but eventually one or two of them should stand out from the crowd.

So whether you’re making a panorama for an immersive VR experience, an awesome website header, a wall display installation, or just for fun, check out the options above and let us know which one works best for you.

Editor's Choice

Panorama Studio

Easily create seamless panoramas with this feature -rich easy to use software that's available for a great price.

Check Current Price

what it is and how it works

Open Source is open source software. Such an application can be modified (modified, supplemented) to fit your needs without violating the developers' copyrights, as well as studied for vulnerabilities, used to develop other programs, etc.

The concept of open source software is an alternative to proprietary software distributed by commercial companies with limited or completely closed source code. The term itself was proposed in 1998 as a more correct, although close in meaning, synonym for free-software (free software). Most open source programs are also freely redistributable.

The term free-software (free software) appeared in 1985 thanks to the developer Richard Stallman, an employee of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. At the time, he was working on several freeware programs, including a text editor for minicomputers. After this program was sold to a commercial company, at 1983 founded a project called GNU. It was a completely free UNIX-compatible operating system with a set of the same free application programs.

The development of this project was the non-profit foundation Free Software Foundation created by Stallman and his team of enthusiasts. Its activities were based on the following principles:

free use - the ability to run the program for any purpose;
free study - the ability to explore the program and adapt it to the needs of the user, which requires open source code and documentation;
free distribution — the owner's right to share the program with other users at his own discretion;
free improvement - the opportunity to improve the software and thereby benefit the entire user community.

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According to the philosophy of the Free Software Foundation, software was considered free software if it met all four criteria. However, certain conflicts arose here:

Free software does not have to be non-commercial, it can be distributed and used on a paid basis.

The term “free” in the English-speaking environment often means not only “free”, but also “free” - that is, the program could be distributed free of charge, but at the same time not be available for study and / or modification, which is contrary to the principles of the Free Software Foundation .

To resolve this ambiguity, in 1998 programmers and free software ideologues Eric Raymond and Bruce Perens coined the term open source. To develop the concept in the same year, they founded the non-profit foundation Open Source Initiative.

The first open source product was Netscape Communicator, then the main competitor to Internet Explorer. The founders of OSI developed the definition of open source and its criteria based on the Debian Free Software Guide (DFSG). They identified 10 requirements that an open source license must meet. We will focus on the key ones:

There shall be no restriction on the parties from selling and/or distributing the program as part of the aggregate software that includes programs from other sources.
The sale of open source software does not involve the payment of royalties or other fees to the developer.
Redistributions of software must be in source code (preferred) or compiled form. If the program is not distributed in source code, it should be accompanied by extensive advertising of how to obtain it (preferably free downloads on the net).
It is not allowed to deliberately obfuscate the source code of the program in order to complicate its study, reproduction, editing or use.
No form of discrimination is permitted in the distribution of open source software against any individual, group of people, or industry.
You may modify the software or create derivative works from it, subject to the same license as the original software.

If we summarize all the differences between the concepts of open and free software, they boil down to the following:

Free-software prioritizes the right of a person (user) to freely distribute, use and study software.
The concept of open source emphasizes the convenience of open source in terms of development, modernization and support of software.

But in practice, these differences are often leveled and "among the people" both concepts are used, if not as identical, then as close synonyms.

At first glance, the concepts of open source/free-software and licenses are incompatible with each other. And at first, open source enthusiasts didn't really use license agreements. However, the experience of one of the founders of the Open Source Initiative showed that even maximum freedom must be regulated, especially when it comes to a product of intellectual labor.

A license does not necessarily mean restrictions and payments to the licensee. This is any agreement between the parties, which discusses the principles of their relationship with each other. Now open source programs are distributed under several types of licenses.

Public Domain. These licenses are most often for creative content. These works are in the public domain and belong to the entire community, not to individual authors and developers. They can be used as you like without asking permission. Accordingly, they are not subject to copyright, intellectual property, trademark or patent laws. An example of such a license is CC0 from Creative Commons.
Permissive. They are similar in nature to the public domain, but do not require a copyright waiver. Such licenses practically do not restrict the use of the software product by users and developers. They also do not restrict the application of other licenses to products derived from the original, that is, they are not copyleft. Examples of such license agreements are BSD, MIT, Apache, WTFPL.
Copyleft. Category name - is a derivative antonym of copyright, that is, such licenses give the right to distribute copies and derivatives of the original product without the permission of the author or copyright owner. However, distribution must be subject to the same license as the original product. That is, you cannot make proprietary software that is a derivative of free software. Examples of copyleft licenses are the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike and the GPL.

In contrast to these license categories, open source software uses proprietary licenses. Such agreements recognize the program as the private property of its author and his exclusive right to distribute, use, copy and modify it. That is, proprietary software by all accounts cannot be free. In this case, however, the source code itself in such programs may be open.

savings - the vast majority of open source products, as well as their modifications and copies, are distributed free of charge;
support — communities of enthusiasts are quickly formed around open source projects, who are constantly developing manuals, looking for and fixing bugs, creating plug-ins that expand the functionality of the main software, etc. ;
quick feedback - because many open source programs are created by small teams, the user gets answers to questions from them faster;
privacy - unlike proprietary software, open source programs generally do not require the user to provide personal data that can then be used for advertising or other purposes;
Compatibility - Most open source products are developed for multiple platforms, making life easier for users of multiple operating systems.

availability - developer can find any program for learning and development, creating their own projects, and absolutely free;
adaptability — the developer can modify the "open" program for his specific tasks;
support - the presence of a developed community of experts allows the developer to get any help on the software, and also be sure that the programs he needs are constantly being finalized and improved.

attracting customers - participating in open source projects, corporations attract the attention of users to their other products (including paid ones), and also develop an ecosystem around them through third-party developers, saving their own resources;
recruiting employees - by constantly interacting with the community of open source enthusiasts, the company can find among them valuable personnel to work on their projects;
stimulating development - by buying an open source company, a corporation retains its employees and gives them an incentive to develop their projects further;
competition - The presence of open source programs forces corporations to constantly improve their commercial products of a similar purpose.

Plagiarism. Commercial developers can profit from an "open" product by using its source code for their projects with little or no modification without attribution. Thus, in fact, someone else's software is presented as their own and sold at tangible prices.

Reduced support. The developer of an open source program often does not know that it is used in other projects, and therefore cannot provide adequate support for its development. Also, many open source creators quickly lose interest in work without receiving a financial incentive.

Vulnerabilities. Many open source projects are based on products from other vendors. Often, developers do not communicate with each other, which ultimately leads to vulnerabilities that attackers can exploit - for example, to steal personal data.

Historically, the first software product officially recognized as open source was the Netscape Communicator browser. Initially created on a commercial basis, it began to lose in the competition with Microsoft's Internet Explorer, which forced its developers to open the source code of the program. Subsequently, on the basis of this browser, the open Mozilla Firefox was also developed.

Other well-known examples of free software are:

OpenOffice is a text editor similar in function and interface to the paid Microsoft Office package;
GIMP graphic editor, whose capabilities are not inferior to the functionality of paid Adobe Photoshop;
WordPress is a content management system used in blog sites, news resources;
Android is a mobile operating system for smartphones and tablets that is installed on more than 2.5 billion devices today;
Linux (GNU/Linux) is a desktop operating system popular with developers, system administrators, and other IT professionals due to its openness.

Today, the open source software market is growing steadily, successfully competing with proprietary programs. Open source gives users a legitimate opportunity to use quality products absolutely free or for a relatively small fee. This is especially true for countries with strict intellectual property and copyright laws.

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8 Best photo stitching software

2019

When it comes to capturing stunning landscapes, frames are never big enough, even with a wide-angle lens! Okay, let's say you have a wide angle lens; even then you might have to crop the image if you want to0189 focus panoramic shot. However, if you have a tripod and a camera with manual options, you have the best solution - panoramic shots with photo stitching! Photo stitching is a process used to create a panoramic shot by merging multiple images, given that all of these images have overlapping segments. The best thing about this method is that you can take high resolution panoramic shots using your 18-55mm or other lenses.

Don't worry if you're not familiar with the term Photo Stitching - it's incredibly easy! In this post, we have a list of 8 best photo stitching software that you can use to create panoramic images with enhanced clarity and resolution. If you want to use the software, you should be more careful while shooting. For example, it is essential that all images have a common exposure and that the tripod level remains the same during the shooting process. If they are set, we will simply navigate to the list.

1. Hugin

Hugin is an open source initiative that improves panoramic photography by combining overlapping images, as we discussed earlier. Hugin is available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X and is used by a large number of photographers when they need high resolution panoramic shots. It's a fact that Hugin prioritizes customizability and advanced features, and thus it's more or less for pros. For example, you can find breakpoints and edit the parameters used to get the best result.

Other notable features of Hugin include the ability to correct wavy shots due to level inconsistencies, support for various types of projections, advanced fixes, support for HDR stitching, etc. Hugin's user interface isn't all that complicated, but you can get used to it if you are willing to put in some effort. So choose Hugin when you need a feature rich and professional panorama software.

Price: free

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2. Image Composite Editor

Image Composite Editor is the common name for Microsoft Research Image Composite Editor, and is a project of the Computational Photography Group of the Microsoft Research Wing. In addition to the combination of overlapping shots and exporting to popular formats such as JPEG and TIFF, the Image Composite Editor offers support for Silverlight DeepZoom and HD View, which are multi-resolution tiled formats. In addition, it is possible to upload an image with different resolutions to the Photosynth site of Microsoft Corporation. The Image Composite Editor is only available for Windows and supports Windows XP, 7, 8 and Windows 8.1.

Notable features of ICE are support for various kinds of camera movement, support for Gigapixel images, an exposure blending function, and a function to automatically fill in missing parts of an image such as sky, clouds, etc. The exceptional beginner and professional will find the Image Composite Editor useful. and that's what keeps it separate.

Price: free

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3. Color Autopano

Kolor Autopano is a premium photo stitching program available for Windows (Windows 7, 8; 64-bit only, ready for Windows 10), Linux Ubuntu 14. 04 and Mac OS X 10.5 and later! Despite the features it offers, Kolor Autopano has an extremely intuitive user interface that allows almost any user to complete the panorama stitching process in two steps. You can get two variants of Kolor Autopano - Kolor Autopano Pro and Kolor Autopano Giga. The latter option offers additional features such as a masking tool and pre-stitching plugins. However, Kolor Autopano's main features include support for up to 400 input file formats, 7 export file formats, and the ability to create 360 and 180 degree panoramas with minimal effort.

If you want to really experience the full power of Kolor Autopano, you can visit the gallery page where you have a set of panoramas that are stitched together with the tool.

Price: 99 euros for Autopano Pro and 199 euros for Autopano Giga

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In contrast, you can use Autostitch to stitch photos in the most efficient way without any outside interference.

For example, the first photo stitching program mentioned in the list requires you to select match points and then starts merging. On the other hand, Autostitch can find suitable areas of the entered images and continue the process of stitching the images.

A demo version of the tool is available with fewer options, but you will have to upgrade to the Pro version if you need features such as cylindrical and planar projections. To find matches between images, Autostitch uses the SIFT algorithm. In short, when you need a reasonably simple image stitching software, you can go for Autostitch. It is available for both OS X and Windows.

Price: free demo and commercial versions available

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5. PTGui

PTGui is an incredibly fast solution you can depend on when you need photo stitching software with an impressive user interface. PTGui is suitable for Mac OS X and Windows and is suitable for both professionals and hobbyists. There are some features you would miss out on if you stuck with the regular version of PTGui, but the overall feature script is really impressive. For example, the feature section includes automatic image stitching, support for gigapixel panoramas, support for wide format export files, interactive panorama perspective adjustment, etc. In addition, upgrading to PTGui Pro version will provide you with viewpoint correction, support for HDR panorama stitching, Fusion exposure, global exposure setting, etc.

In addition, PTGui also supports various types of projections. All things considered, PTGui makes sense as a professional photo stitching software.

Free: Personal license is available for 79 euros

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6. Panoramaplus X4

Panoramaplus X4 - this them with special efforts. The whole process is more or less automated, so you don't have to think about match points or other technical stuff when you run this tool. On the other hand, you can select all the images you want in the full panoramic shots and move on, pretty easy. The notable features of the PanoramaPlus X4 include the ability to capture panoramic shots from videos, tools to optimize panoramic shots through various kinds of editing, built-in sharing features for uploading directly to Facebook and Flickr, etc.

In addition, PanoramaPlus X4 offers support for almost all popular image formats. Given the amount you have to pay, you get Christmas!

Price: £ 20, 42

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7. ArcSoft Panorama Maker

ArcSoft Panorama MAKER - this is a multi -function software for lining, Mac OS X. An optimal panoramic image is three steps away when you use ArcSoft Panorama Maker to process stitching. ArcSoft Panorama Maker offers impressive features for both creation and editing. For example, when it comes to the stitching aspect, you have five different stitching modes; You have to choose the format you want and choose the photos to fill the space - you're done.

On the other hand, when you want to edit a panoramic photo, there are many options. For example, there are Align Points and Photo Blend to help you adjust the tone in overlapping areas, while ArcSoft Panorama Maker's fine-tuning features help you get the best output in terms of panoramic images. All things considered, ArcSoft Panorama Maker makes sense - just like that.

Price: $79.99; Free trial available

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8. Panoweaver 9

Panoweaver 9 is another panorama stitching software that gives you the final result in just three steps! You can use it to stitch different kinds of images, such as fisheye photos, regular photos, and RAW and HDR photos, with the same level of efficiency. Going out, you can get Cubic, Cylindrical, Spherical or single fisheye mode. Of course, you may have advanced features if you are ready to upgrade to the Pro version of Panoweaver 9. There are both standard and professional versions of Panoweaver 9, and there are differences in feature availability.