Computer/graphics program to tilt or flatten images so they appear flat?

[Gunbird]

Frequently I find images of city signs and displays that are slightly tilted to one side (shot not taken straight on) and I would like to use those, if only I could find a program that lets me modify said imagine into a rectangular shape. I hope this makes sense? Anyone know of a graphics program, preferably free, that lets me do that?

For instance, see this image:


I want to tilt/agle it such a way the city sign becomes flat, rectangular, and usable for me, like this:. Anyone?

[Barbarian]

Photoshop ?

Perspective tool.

[Earther]

I used Photoshop and selected the sign, deleted the background and used the Edit > Transform > Distort option to line the edges up with some guidelines I placed over the image.

[Gunbird]

Typically, I had a Photoshop that you could download for free a while back on my recently deceased PC....I need to find that again and get a Photoshop for Dummies book I think.

Thx Barbarian, Earther for the hint/help

[Earther]

Happy to help Johan.

[Westfalia Chris]

I think GIMP has an equivalent function, and that one is free, open-source, and for that, reasonably user-friendly. If you could wait for it, I'll check once I'm back home by six o'clock or so.

EDIT: Checked, and it does. There is a manual perspective function that can be used for your purposes.

[Vermis]

I think GIMP has an equivalent function

Second that. Definitely does.

[Raxxus]

Office lens? otherwise photoshop.

[Gunbird]

Thx gents, if I can't find that free and obsolete version of Photoshop again I will Gimp a try for my needs. Even if saying that just sounds so very wrong....

[gary42]

Try Gimpshop.  Gimp that looks like PS.  Way easier than Gimp.

[Connectamabob]

Try Gimpshop.  Gimp that looks like PS.  Way easier than Gimp.

Word of warning: Gimpshop hasn't been actively maintained in years, and no longer reflects modern versions of either PhotoShop or GIMP. If you do download GS, get it from the original archive here:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/gimpshop.mirror/

Do not DL from the shiny official-looking GimpShop site, as it is not run by anyone affiliated with the creation or maintaining of GS. It's basically a scam site pretending to be the official GimpShop site. The version available from this site will be either a hotlink of the archive above, or a malware-modded but otherwise un-updated re-hosting. There is no actual official GimpShop site. The official GS project is dead, in part because this very scam site's activities, and as of this writing there are no legit public forks.

[Mainly28s]

Paint.net should also do the trick- an open-source equivalent of Paint Shop Pro.

[Westfalia Chris]

Paint.net should also do the trick- an open-source equivalent of Paint Shop Pro.

Sadly, it doesn't appear to do so - I couldn't find a transform tool except for basic scaling and rotation in the 4.0.5 version I run.

[gary42]

Good info about gimpshop.  I haven'downloaded it in ages.  DO avoid the scamsites and try connectamabob's link.  For something simple like this an old version would be fine.  I'm not sure if any of the paint programs will allow you to "transform"objects like you're hoping to do.