Flickr users will be able soon to edit photos more extensively than just rotate and crop, using the Flash based online photo editor. The deal has been signed and Picnik tools will be integrated via an iframe within next few months. I should say that currently Flickr users can edit their photos using Picnik but only within Picnik work area (there are also built in support for Photobucket, Picasa and Facebook albums.). After editing, users can add the edited photo to their Flickr account or, if they are a Flickr pro user, overwrite the original.

Until Adobe not yet launched their online version of Photoshop, Picnik surely is the best featured, quickest and easiest to use online photo editor. After rather long initial loading you are amazed how perfectly smoothly Picnik works and much quicker than some offline photo editors. Picnik provides amazing functionality within attractive User Interface. It’s perfect for users who don’t want to spend hours learning Photoshop or Gimp just to adjust exposure of photo or add some creative effects. Picnik is also best solution for professionals who don’t have access to local software for any reason.

Picnik is 3rd in popularity now behind Flektor and iLike according to Picnik co-founder Mike Harrington. Most people in Picnik team  have work experience with Microsoft and well-known projects, for example Picnik CEO Jonathan Sposato had to do with the deployment of Google Desktop Gadgets & Sidebar, Picnik Co-Founder Mike Harrington was the director of development for Half-Life, designer Peter Roman worked on a number of RealNetwork properties, including RealPlayer, Rhapsody, Realguide.com

Which options provides Picnik to users? (Premium account features advanced editing tools, more effects, more fonts and shapes and cost $24.95 for a whole year and are available for everyone currently free).

Most astonishing Picnik features are unlimited ‘Undos’ and possibility to get photos to edit from anywhere just entering the URL for any website.

Photo correction

Autofix – improve look of your photos in one click.

Rotate and Straighten – rotate your photo 90° left or right, flip it horizontally or vertically, straighten crooked photo.

Crop and scale – you can crop your photo or scale it either proportionally or not.

Exposure and contrast – you can manually adjust exposure and contrast with simple sliders. You can also see the Histogram and adjust Highlights and Shadows. (Premium users can apply Local contrast as well)

Colors – you can adjust White Balance, Saturation and Temperature in your photos.

Sharpen – using simple slider you can add sharpness to your photos. (For Premium users there is also Unsharp mask).

Red eye fix (for Premium users arealso available Teeth Whiten and Blemish Fix).

Creative Effects

Text and Shapes – you can use them to add to your photo copyright sign or to make e-card for your friends. Also you can add Border or Rounded edges. (Polaroid, Drop shadow and Museum Matte effects for Premium users.)

You can apply to your photo Sepia, Soften, Black and White filters. (Premium users can also use Nightvision, Cimemascope, Infrared, Pixelate, Pencil sketch)

Finally you can save edited photos to your local computer in JPG, PNG, TIFF, PDF, GIF, BMP formats or put it online or send by email.

Picnik also provides Yahoo widget, bookmarklet, toolbars and extension for Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari to grab an image directly from any webpage, grab a screenshot of any website or upload a photo directly to Picnik via drag-and-drop.

You can keep pulse on Picnik’s new features and improvements checking out their blog.