Summary
I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve found a feature I liked in a free photo editor, only to get hit with that “subscribe to Pro” message. So I thought I would get the same message from Image Toolbox sooner or later, but after spending some time with it, I found tools I wouldn’t even think to look for in a photo editor. I could even add page numbers to a PDF without paying for another app. And none of it asked me to pay. That got me wondering what else I’d missed. I removed the location data hiding in my photos I could erase only the location or all of it If you share an original picture with GPS metadata, someone could use those coordinates to find where you took it. That could reveal where you live. Image Toolbox lets you remove that location information before sharing without deleting the rest of the metadata. I only had to swipe up to find the Delete EXIF option. It offers four presets: Privacy, Location only, All metadata, and Keep dates and copyright. I chose All metadata to remove as much information as possible, but Location only works if you just want to hide where you took a picture. You can also choose several pictures at once instead of processing each one separately. The process took a few seconds. Before I processed the image, it contained information like its GPS coordinates, the exact date and time I took it, and the phone I used. After using Image Toolbox, those details were gone. I could still see the usual file details, though, like its filename, path, size, and last-modified date. Removing EXIF metadata doesn’t remove location clues from a picture, such as your house number, street signs, or famous landmarks. Watch out for these details before sharing the picture. Resize and Convert I shrank one photo’s file size by 81% Resize and Convert lets you change an image’s size or convert it to other formats. Photos from newer phones can take up a lot of space, especially when you’ve got hundreds. Compression helps, but over-compressing can make pictures look worse. I tried it on a 3.4 MB photo, and Image Toolbox reduced it to 645 kB, an 81% reduction. I zoomed in to compare it with the original and couldn’t spot a difference. I didn’t shrink the picture’s dimensions, either. The app lets you process various pictures at once, saving you time. I tested the feature by selecting three pictures and choosing WebP as the output format. WebP can produce smaller files than JPEG with little difference in appearance, which is handy when you’re uploading pictures. I also moved the quality slider to 80% to see how much I could reduce the file sizes without making the photos look noticeably worse. As I adjusted the quality slider, the file-size preview showed me an estimate of how much space the picture would take up. At 80%, it estimated around 436 kB, but the saved picture was actually 645 kB. Keep that in mind when uploading a picture somewhere with a file-size limit, since the actual size might differ from what the preview shows. To save space, check the compressed picture before deleting the original. Otherwise, keeping both will just take up more space. Image Toolbox also lets you delete the original after saving. So many PDF tools to choose from I could number pages and rearrange them PDF tools let you turn multiple pictures into a PDF, combine PDFs, or convert PDF pages into images. They’re helpful when you want to send multiple pictures as one document or extract a page from a PDF. You can do this without installing yet another app on your Android phone. I started with Page Numbering in the Tools tab because it helps me keep track of where I am in a long PDF and makes it easier to tell someone which page to look at. I selected a five-page PDF, numbered the pages in red, and used the size slider to adjust the number size. After hitting Save, I opened the file in Files by Google, and the red page numbers appeared at the size I’d chosen. Image Toolbox also lets you rearrange PDF pages, which is useful if a scanned page ends up in the wrong spot and you don’t want to start over. I tried Rearrange PDF on the same five-page PDF. I just long-pressed a page and dragged it wherever I wanted. The other pages slid into place, and the new order stayed after saving. So many tools can feel like too much Finding the tool you need can take time I can see why Image Toolbox might feel overwhelming to beginners. Each tab has a long list of options, and some use photo-editing terms you might not recognize. The app does have a Help & Tips section, but I found it near the bottom of Settings. The app never clearly labels where users can find this helpful information on the main page. A better approach would be a mini tutorial when you first open each feature, as I’ve seen in other photo editing apps. If you don’t know where to find help, a simple edit can take longer than you expect. Check what’s free before paying for Pro Image Toolbox offers basic editing tools and more advanced features I’d normally pay for in other apps. I know I’ll keep exploring other photo editing apps, but now I’ll think twice before paying for a Pro version after only getting a general idea of what it can do. You can try the same thing, and you never know. You might find everything you need in this free app.