Yahoo adds editing tools to Flickr site

Yahoo Inc. has touched up its popular online photo-sharing service, Flickr, with free editing tools aimed at the growing number of shutterbugs who want to doctor their digital pictures.

The editing software, introduced recently in a partnership with Picnik Inc., represents Yahoo’s latest attempt to broaden Flickr’s appeal as the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company closes its older Yahoo Photos service.

Although Flickr offers free accounts with limited photo storage to all comers, the service also sells $24.95 annual subscriptions that accommodate unlimited uploading. Yahoo is betting the editing tools will encourage more people to pay to show a larger number of pictures on the site.

Picnik’s software provides more than 20 different applications for basic editing jobs, such as removing red eyes from photos, and special effects that can jazz up photos with richer colors and fanciful borders.

The editing software fills a glaring void at Flickr, which has blossomed into one of the Web’s busiest photo-sharing communities. Most of Flickr’s rivals, including Shutterfly Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co.’s Snapfish, Kodak Gallery and Google Inc.’s Picasa, already offer free photo-editing tools.