Editing your photos on your iPhone is one thing, but editing your photos on your Mac can take your photography skills to a whole 'nother level. Many of us still keep our main libraries on our Macs because of its faster processors, larger storage, and all-around bigger computing power. The Mac is still the best device for serious photo editing, so you need some serious photo editing apps to make an impact. The built-in Photos app on Mac offers several useful photo editing tools. You can crop, adjust lighting and color, set the white balance, add filters, remove unwanted blemishes, and a few more things. However, in all honesty?
One of the best online Photoshop alternatives out there, Pixlr editor does a remarkable job for editing photos. It brings a bunch of great and powerful tools that make it one of the best online Photoshop like software out there. As a photographer I spend most of my time in Adobe Lightroom 5 and Adobe Photoshop CC. Photoshop CC definitely takes advantage of multiple cores and now has Open CL support. So filters will run faster on the new Mac Pro. All of these applications are 64bit native and that means that they’ll take advantage of additional RAM.
It's not really meant to be a robust editing app, so If you are looking for something to really finish your photos right, we've got a list of the best photo editors for Mac right here. Affinity Photo. If you're looking for a photo editing app that goes above and beyond for the pricetag, while still allowing you complete creative control over your images, then it might be worth it to take a peek at Affinity Photo.
Affinity Photo supports unlimited layers, groups, layer adjustments, filters, masking, and more: you also have access to tools like dodge, red-eye fix, burn, blemish, clone, and patch (so pretty much Photoshop without all the convoluted bells and whistles). Nondestructive auto-saving makes undoing everything you've done easy, so if you need to start from the beginning, the option is there. Play, manipulate, edit, and get hella creative with Affinity Photo whether you're a serious graphic designer or someone who's just looking to do some basic editing.
Your photography will seriously thank you. $49.99 - Fotor Photo Editor. Searching for a super simple, straight-forward photo editing app that's there to help you edit and not confuse you to the point of ripping out your hair? Then check out Fotor Photo Editor! With this photo editor, you can easily adjust contrast and color of more washed-out photos, add borders, tilt and shift your images, add different text, slap on a few filters, and so much more, all from the easy-to-find toolbox on the right side of the app. You can even create collages of your photography masterpieces! The BBC once called Fotor Photo Editor 'light Photoshop', and they're kind of right!
You can go above and beyond editing your images with Fotor Photo Editor without getting bogged down by more complicated editing buttons and tools. Free - Lightroom. Pretty much anything you want to do with your photo, you can accomplish with Lightroom. You can blend and merge shadows and highlights, sharpen dull, blurry images so they look crisp and clear, add details and tint colors to make a photo stand out, and so, so much more.
While it is a bit more on the complicated side, people who use the program and know how to navigate it are hooked. Keep in mind, there are two versions of the app — there's the Classic version, which is more preferred, and the 2018 CC version. If you're hesitant about the program and paying for it, you can download Lightroom free for 30 days as part of a trial period. After that, you can add it to your Photoshop CC subscription for $9.99 per month. Free trial - Pixelmator.
Amp up your photo editing skills with a little bit of help from Pixelmator! This particular photo editing app allows you to combine two different photos into one (while still allowing you to edit over each layer), add shapes, gradients, filters, tints, and more, and completely change and edit your photography to make it fit perfectly to your aesthetic. You can even mask and cut off certain areas of the photo, giving you more creative control over your final image. Similar to other photo editing apps, you can also adjust contrast, color, saturation level, definition, and so much more. It's another great alternative to Photoshop, at least according to our managing editor Lory Gil. $29.99 - GIMP. Love Photoshop (or the idea of Photoshop.) but don't want all the complicated components and nonsense that comes along with it?
Then it might be worth it to take a peek at GIMP. Similar to Photoshop, GIMP allows you full control over editing your photos: it's an advanced image manipulation program with detailed customization for color reproduction. You can add layers to your photos, edit and tweak colors, adjust contrast, crop, adjust saturation, and so much more. If you're someone who admires Photoshop but is terrified of the price (or just thinks it's not worth it) then GIMP might be the perfect pal for you. Free - Snapheal. Say 'bye-bye' to nasty photobombs, zits, perky distractions, and so much more in your photos thanks to Snapheal!
Snapheal is a little bit unique in the sense that it's more of a 'delete now, ask questions later' app. It's more about cleaning up a photo than it is editing it and adding a whole bunch of layers. The tools can either remove large objects or smaller imperfections depending on the mode. You can even adjust the masking tool, use a magic rope, or clone stamp your way to a new photo. If you're someone who's a perfectionist when it comes to your photography and you just can't stand that one stupid, distracting blur in the background, then Snapheal is the guy for you. $7.99 - Preview.
I know what you're thinking: 'Preview? Really, Cella?' To which I respond: 'Uh, yeah. Duh, my dude. You use it every day!'
Sure, you can't do a bunch of fancy things with Preview like add filters, adjust contrast, and fix saturation, but you can quickly crop a photo, adjust the color, rotate it, add shapes, texts, and a signature, export as a different format, and more. Yes, Preview isn't perfect, but it is easy to use and fantastic for making small, fast changes to your photography. It's already on your Mac.
How do you edit your photography? What is your favorite photo editing app for the Mac? Why does it work the best for you? Let us know what your top picks are in the comments down below!
Updated August 2018: All the choices on this list are still the best of the best!
Photoshop is so ubiquitous these days that, like Google, it's become a verb: 'to Photoshop' is shorthand for editing an image. This might give the impression that Adobe has the market sewn up with its package – but that's not actually the case. In fact, the backlash against Adobe's move to the Creative Cloud in 2013 helped spur on a wide range of alternatives to Photoshop (there are even some options worth exploring). Whether you're looking elsewhere because you can't afford the subscription, or you want to support smaller development houses, or you just don't need all the millions of features that come with Photoshop CC, there are a number of options open to you. Here are the best image editing software options that aren't Photoshop. Can this Photoshop alternative topple Adobe from its throne?.
Platform: Mac, Windows, iPad. Price: £48.99/$49.99 (one-off payment) Serif's Affinity Photo started creating a stir in the creative community almost the moment it was released, and it's perhaps the most serious Photoshop alternative we've seen to date. Fully compatible with Photoshop and other file formats, it's aimed squarely at professional photographers and designers, and although Affinity Photo is hugely cheaper than Photoshop (with no subscription), its creators argue it's actually better, promising higher speeds, fewer crashes and unlimited undos. In truth, the amount of improved performance you'll get will probably depend what equipment you're using (it's been specifically designed to take advantage of the latest quad core technology). Originally Mac-only, Affinity Photo is now available on, and in summer of 2017 Serif also launched. Anyone looking for an alternative to Photoshop, Affinity Photo is definitely worth investigating. You can find out more about the features and capabilities on Affinity Photo.
Sketch includes tools similar to that of Photoshop and Illustrator at a fraction of the price. Platform: Mac. Price: $99/year or A professional vector graphics app for creatives, in recent years Sketch has created enormous buzz within the design community, and web designers in particular. With a simple UI, Sketch has many features similar to that of Photoshop and Illustrator, including layers, gradients, colour picker and style presets.
Its popularity means there are also plenty of community-created you can use to extend its functionality. The development team behind Sketch has made it as flexible as possible, with it supporting infinite zooming and vector shapes that are perfect for multiple resolutions. You can build a new graphic from primitive shapes or start a new one with the Vector or Pencil tool. GIMP is a popular, free alternative to Photoshop.
Platform: Linux, Windows, Mac. Price: Free A free, open-source alternative to Photoshop that's been around for donkey's years, GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program. Today it's available in versions for Linux, Windows and Mac. GIMP offers a wide toolset, similar to Photoshop in many ways, and is a great option if you're looking for a no-cost image editor. The interface differs somewhat from Photoshop, but a version of GIMP is available that mimics Adobe's look and feel, making it easier to migrate over if you're ditching Photoshop. The full suite of tools is available here – everything you're accustomed to is within easy reach, including painting tools, colour correction, cloning, selection, and enhancement.
The team that oversees development has worked hard to ensure compatibility too, so you'll be able to work with all the popular file formats without any trouble at all. You'll also find a very capable file manager built in, along similar lines to Adobe's Bridge.
Overall, this is a great option whether you've either got a limited budget, or want to move away from Photoshop for other reasons. Mac tool Pixelmator Pro promises a faster workflow than using Photoshop. Platform: Mac.
Price: $39.99 Pixelmator has been around for a while now, but more recently the team released the Pixelmator Pro. While the previous tool used floating windows, the Pro version has a more usable single-window UI, and offers non-destructive image editing.
The team have pared back the interface, which should make it easy to pick up – and there's a 'hidden interface' option you can activate if you just want to see your image, with no distractions. This Photoshop alternative is geared up especially for use on a Mac, and it supports features like tabs, fullscreen and split view. Pixlr comes with more than 600 effects. Platform: iOS, Android, web app. Price: Free Pixlr is a free Photoshop alternative that boasts more than 600 effects, overlays and borders. It also lets you do all the main things you'd expect from a basic photo editor, from cropping and re-sizing to removing red-eye and whitening teeth.
And if you're used to using Photoshop, then you'll find Pixlr's user interface easy to pick up quickly, as it's very similar. This free app is available in both iOS and Android varieties, or use can use it as a web app. Platform: Windows. Price: $599.99 / £599.99 (entire CorelDRAW Graphics Suite) or PHOTO-PAINT is a dedicated photo editor in the CorelDRAW Graphics Suite. The suite has been updated for 2018 to offer a Corel AfterShot 3 HDR support, as well as interactive tools for straightening photos and adjusting perspective. There's also improved stylus control, with the PHOTO-PAINT responding to different pressures, bearing tilt and rotation. The suite is geared up to work perfectly with Windows 10, offering multi-monitor viewing and support for.
For photo editing, free Windows tool Paint.net is an excellent alternative to Photoshop. Platform: Windows. Price: Free Paint.net is a Windows-based alternative to the Paint editor that Microsoft shipped with versions of Windows. Don't let that put you off, though: it's a surprisingly capable and useful tool, available completely free of charge. The software started out life as a Microsoft-sponsored undergraduate project, and has become an open source project maintained by some of the alumni. The focus is on ease of use, and there's a definite tendency towards photo editing rather than artistic creation. That said, there are a range of special effects available, allowing you to easily create fake perspective, blend and push pixels around the canvas, tile and repeat selections, and so on.
A good range of selection tools, support for layers, and adjustments such as curves and brightness/contrast mean that Paint.net is a great alternative to Photoshop for photo editing, especially if you can do without some of the more recent additions to Photoshop's toolset. SumoPaint works in the browser, and requires Adobe Flash. Platform: Browser or iPad. Price: Free (basic), $4/mo (Pro) SumoPaint is a highly capable, free browser-based image editor. All the standard features you'd expect from a desktop tool are present and correct. It's lightweight and quick to load, and the free version is very usable.
There's also a paid-for Pro version and a paid-for iPad app. The standard range of tools and adjustments you'd expect are all included.
Brushes, pencils, shapes, text, cloning, gradients, etc are all quickly accessed from the Photoshop-esque floating toolbar. It can also open saved documents from your hard drive, making SumoPaint a perfectly viable option for editing and reediting.
Some tools work in different ways to Photoshop, offering possibilities that would be difficult to match in Adobe's offering. There are, however, limitations that will put off some users. Acorn offers non-destructive filters. Platform: Mac OS X.
Price: $29.99 Image editing software Acorn debuted back in 2007 and has provided hobbyists and artists on a budget with a great, affordable alternative to Photoshop ever since. Features of the software include layer styles, non-destructive filters, curves and levels, blending modes and much more. The most recent edition – Acorn 6 – includes new Scale and Transform options, the ability to use the Clone tool across layers or images, and the ability to use emoji on a path (if you so wish). Related articles:.