People love photos. We are more visual now than ever. With most of us using smartphones and digital cameras to share with the world everything from what we had for dinner to holiday and birthday memories. We snap, share and print more than ever before.
It comes with editing functions like Crop, Resize, Adjust Color. It also has annotation and selection tools. You can edit photos, split & merge PDFs, and more by using Preview app on a Mac computer. So, this is all you can do with the Preview app. You can not only preview various files and do basic editing in your photos. How to Compare Photos Before and After Editing in Photos App for Mac. There is also an option to compare your photo before and after editing. Open the Photos app on your computer and then double-click a photo/video to open it. Then, click on Edit in the toolbar.
All of this makes our choice of editing tools something worth thinking about. If you asked any Mac user what they use their computer for, editing photos would come near the top of the list.There are, of course, many tools you can use to edit photos on a Mac, including Apple's own Photos.
Photos is a useful tool, with numerous features that make it easy to resize and retouch an image, or even a batch of images. But it is quite basic, compared to some of the other tools on the market. At the other end of the spectrum is the heavy-duty suite of Adobe Creative Cloud (CC) tools, such as Lightroom and Photoshop. However, not everyone needs something so robust, or has the time to learn. Not every Mac can handle the system requirements either.
A happy medium is to look into a range of photo editing apps. We have included and cover several in this article, connecting them to various aspects of the photo editing process. This way, you get a feel how an app performs when undertaking something you do often when editing, or something you know you need help with. However, Setapp includes all best tools to take your photo editing to the next level photo. Discover some of the best apps in the market, with mentions throughout of strengths and weaknesses.
How to edit pictures on macOS?
You can make your photos look better without diving into any third-party software. Apple’s native Photos and Preview apps have the basic functionality that could save you lots of trouble. You can take a picture and instantly enhance it in Photos – crop, adjust color, or apply filters.
The Preview app has an in-built Markup toolbox with some solid photo editing capabilities. If you need to remove image background or do some color adjustment, this could be your perfect go-to instrument.
But before entrusting photos to a default tool, define what has to be done. The chances are, Apple’s native software might fall short of meeting your needs.
#1: Improve composition: Crop, straighten, rotate, and flip
Getting pictures ready for the web often means cropping and straightening. If you need to get a whole group ready, and the changes are simple and easy to do, the native Mac Photos app can do this.
To crop an image automatically or manually with Photos, open the photo and click Edit > Crop. Choose Auto for automatic cropping or customize aspect ratio if you want to crop a specific area. To manually straighten your photo, click Crop > Dial, and then adjust the area by dragging up and down.
Also, look no further if your task is to rotate or flip an image. Once you launch Photos, choose Image in the top menu bar, and click Rotate clockwise/counterclockwise or Flip vertical/horizontal to apply desired changes.
PhotoBulk gives you the advantage of real-time previewing for all photos in the set you are working on, giving you the ability to automatically edit, crop, watermark and straighten a whole folder of images in minutes.
To crop your photos with CameraBag Pro click the Crop button in the right-hand toolbar (second from bottom).
- To straighten your image, drag the dial up or down.
- To crop the photo, drag one corner inwards, then drag the box around the image until its positioned the way you want it.
Batch resize photos in Preview app
Let’s say you want to set custom dimensions for 20 images. It’s very likely, your eyes might betray you if you go through them one by one.
In the Preview app, you can batch resize any number of photos without even opening all of them. Drag images onto Preview icon in your dock and select thumbnails for all by clicking Edit > Select All. Set any dimensions and press OK to see your photos in the new shape.
#2: Adjust lighting and exposure
Back when print film was the only option, waiting for and chasing the light was a challenge every photographer had to struggle with. You could make some changes after a picture was taken, when they were being printed. But you had to be careful. Print film was expensive and you couldn't afford to take dozens of the same shot.
Now you can do a lot more with pictures after they're taken. Editing software won't turn a poor picture into a Pulitzer prize winner, but various apps can be used to improve and enhance the lighting of a picture. Within Photos, for example – Apple's native images app – you can make some changes to the light levels and overall warmth of an image. To quickly fix exposure, brightness, and other lighting values, click Edit and start adjusting by moving sliders to the right or to the left.
Other apps that are good at adjusting the light levels and exposure within an image include the following - and each comes with numerous other handy features:
TouchRetouch - Includes a range of tools for selecting areas you want to erase. TouchRetouch is also great at making color adjustments to your photos to ensure that your final edited work looks the way it should, which includes lighting changes.
PhotoBulk - Mentioned earlier in this article. It can apply lighting adjustments to a whole folder of images in only a few clicks, taking a matter of minutes. Useful if you're someone who regularly needs to make simple, quick adjustments to large numbers of pictures with a short turnaround to think about.
Photolemur - an AI-powered photo enhancer that automates the editing process. This is the first photo enhancer that can actually think for itself. You don't need to learn what the pros know and you don't need to spend hours messing around with sliders and editing every image manually. Using 12 smart AI-powered technologies, Photolemur identifies then makes changes to images, including adjustments to lighting, colors and exposure.
To adjust the lighting and color with CameraBag Pro:
- Click the Adjustments tab on the right-hand toolbar (first from the top). The color adjustments are grouped at the top and the lighting adjustments are below. Drag the slider in each adjustment left or right to change its value.
- Scroll further down and you'll see options for adjusting hue and saturation and for using curves to adjust highlights and shadow. To use curves, click on the Curves tool, choose whether you want to apply the change to all channels or only the red, blue or green channel. Then, when the curve appears, drag the points on it up or down.
Tip: you can undo any change by pressing the Off icon in the bottom toolbar. You can also undo anything pay pressing Command-Z.
#3: Remove small and big imperfections
Imperfections spoil perfect pictures. It doesn't matter if its dirt or rainwater on a lens, or background distractions such as rubbish or graffiti, it can make it harder to get an image ready to be published or printed. Thankfully, almost every photography app comes equipped with features that make it easier to erase or clone out imperfections of any size.
Quickly retouch and correct Red-Eye in Photos
Apple's Photos app includes a healing brush and red-eye correction tools that enhance your images. To quickly retouch, click on the arrow next to the bandage icon, customize the size of your brush and apply it to a specific area in a photo. For red-eye correction, use the same logic or choose auto-correction.
There's another option, great for beginners: TouchRetouch. It comes with a wide range of easy-to-use features that help you identify and remove imperfections. Including a single click tool for blemishes, and a clone stamp to copy pixels from one part of the picture to cover an imperfection you want removed. You can also crop a section of a photo if it proves too difficult to clone pixels.
#4: Make your photos sharper and reduce noise
You can apply some basic sharpness adjustments and reduce noise in Photos. The same Edit section we’ve discussed previously comes to help here. Upload your photo and click on Noise Reduction – you can either choose auto or customize the value by moving the slider. In the Sharpen section, set custom values for Intensity, Edges, and Falloff.
CameraBag Pro is also useful for making images sharper. It comes with an adjustment tool that identifies where changes are needed within a picture, remedying them automatically.
When making changes to sharpness, you need a tool and a screen that is configured to what your eyes see. A powerful graphics card and high-resolution screen is a must if you are doing this professionally. With the right app supporting this work, they can spot imperfections that you might miss. Producing sharp images has become a necessity when everyone is equipped with smartphones that come equipped with HD screens.
Emulsion is another option for this. Built for Mac users, giving photo editors a powerful and usable creative workspace for enthusiast and professional photographers.
#5: Fix color balance
When making edits to photos, the color balance is worth reviewing to ensure some areas aren't too warm or cold, depending on the look you are aiming for. This is something you can change using Photos.
How to use Selective Color in Photos
Once you open your image with Apple’s native app, click Edit and scroll down to SelectiveColor. In the drop-down menu, you can adjust Hue, Saturation, and Luminance, as well as customize a range of colors, based on your preferences.
More conveniently, you can make changes as part of a series of edits within other photo editing apps, such as Emulsion.
Emulsion provides an immersive environment, created by photographers. Different areas of the picture can be made warmer, colder, brighter or darker - making small but necessary changes to enhance the original image to stunning effect.
#6: Photo effects and filters
Long before Instagram was popular, photographers have always been keen on using filters. Some of the most basic could apply the warmth of a sunset, or the grainy impurities of older film cameras to modern images. With the right tools, you can do amazing things to images. Even make a picture look as though it was printed on metal.
Add filters to your image with Photos
The easiest way is to apply filters in Photos. Simply click Edit > Filters and fit any of the suggested effects on your photo. The collection is pretty limited though.
Enhance photo effects with Photolemur and CameraBag Pro
Some apps are more equipped than others for applying filters and special effects.
Photolemur can also make enhancements and apply color and texture changes to single or whole batches of images. It can even enhance the color of foliage and the sky.
CameraBag Pro comes with dozens of filters, including black & white, classic photographic styles, grainy effects, mattes, vintage, numerous types of film stocks, and many more. Well worth testing out if you want to apply a range of styles to your images.
#7: Prepare photos for web or commercial print publishing
And finally, you are going to want to make sure your images are ready for the web, commercial use, or printing. This could include watermarking them to protect your creative and intellectual property. Thankfully, photo apps often give you the ability to ensure RAW files - after edits - are turned into high resolution or web versions (where the file size needs to be much smaller) - and watermarks are applied.
Photobulk can add watermark to portrait, landscape, and cropped photos in a single batch.
That's all.
How to bring an edited image back into your Photos library
Once you’re done with editing, you can Save or Export your image from Photos to desktop. To bring it back to your Photos library, click File > Import or simply drag it into the app.
What is the best app for photo editing?
Every app we've mentioned here has several features worth recommending, including Photos. What you choose partly depends on what you need and how familiar you are with photo editing software. Here is how we would classify the apps mentioned in this article - all of them available from Setapp - alongside Photos, a Mac tool available on every macOS device.
- Quick and simple: Photos - for a basic tool that can make a few changes, we would always recommend Photos.
- Accelerated editing and resizing: Preview. This native app is mainly known for its Markup toolbar – an easy access to basic color adjustment, cropping, etc. Also, the app batch resizes tons of your photos lightning fast.
- Robust, ideal for professionals: CameraBag Pro. Described as the ultimate tool for bringing both advanced adjustments and one-click filters to your photos and videos. A photographer's and filmmaker's dream. Emulsion comes a close second in this category, providing photographers and film makers with an immersive environment to work on your images, with an interface which scales from small laptops to professional 5k workstations.
- AI-powered, smart automated editing: Photolemur is capable of taking away the strain of manual photo editing. It can produce better lighting than the original image, make quick enhancements, and keeping you in control. On the other hand, Photolemur analysis images with 12 smart technologies that can automatically make adjustments to pictures.
- Removing imperfections: TouchRetouch is an ideal option.
- Bulk edits: Photobulk and CameraBag Pro.
Key Takeaways: Short tips about mentioned apps
Discover all the 6 best photo editing apps, available for Setapp members - this is a quick way to weed out which app is right for you.
TouchRetouch, an app to remove unwanted objects from any photos with the absolute minimum of effort.
One-touch removal tool makes distracting lines vanish in seconds - mark only a section of a line to remove it whole (no need to be precise - the app is so smart that can remove the entire line.)
This app can remove unwanted things from any photo:
- telephone posts and wires
- surface scratches (straight and curved) and shadows
- skin blemishes and pimples
- human-made objects like garbage cans, street signs, and telephone posts
- photobombing persons
- and whatever you think that is spoiling your photos.
Emulsion app is a photo catalog which allows non-destructive editing, metadata manipulation, photo organization, and more:
- it allows quick access to your collections by folder, albums, tags, places, people, or ratings
- allows you search through all collections by name or other metadata characteristics
- lets you edit details in EXIF metadata
- can apply changes to one or to multiple pictures
- can adjust exposure, gradient, texture, tones, highlights, sharpening, gamma, RGB channels, noise reduction, vibrancy, temperature/tint, and almost everything else
- Emulsion app includes some essential tools like a clone tool, cropping, rotation, magnification, and preset filters (you can even add dust and scratches for a retro look)
CameraBag Pro is the robust editing app to apply, tweak, and compare professional filters and adjustments across your photos.
Photolemur, an AI-powered photo enhancer that automates the editing process.
This app makes almost any photo look better without manual editing, as well as allows to automatically enhance a batch of images at once with drag-and-drop simplicity. The app has 12 smart technologies ranging from color recovery and exposure compensation to smart noise reduction to automatically analyze and adjust your photos.
Photobulk, an app for batch editing: add text/image watermarks, rename, resize, compress photos, and optimize them for the web in a click.
It can be a hard choice, and different photographers - amateurs and pros will have different opinions on each app. It could be worth downloading a few from Setapp to find which you prefer, trying out different features on various aspects of photo editing.
These might also interest you:
Meantime, prepare for all the awesome things you can do with Setapp.
Read onSign Up
Using a photo editor app can help you edit your photos with ease and allow you to create high-quality small size images to share on the web.
Here we will consider the list of the top 15 best free photo editing apps in 2021 to get a perfect job done:
Read on for the detailed analysis of each app.
Top 15 Best Free Photo Editor Apps
You're convinced that you want to get a photo editor software, but not sure where to start. There are many free online photo editor programs to choose from. We've narrowed down the best free photo editor that you can use without paying a hefty price.
1. Adobe Photoshop Express Editor
Best Photo Editing Software Overall
Although Photoshop can be a bit intimidating, its sister product Adobe Photoshop Express Editor is an altogether different animal. All the tools are readily accessible and easy to use.
Adobe Photoshop Express Editor is a free photo editor. It is jam-packed with features that will allow you to make your images pop. You will be able to remove red-eye, resize images, make color corrections, and more.
It works right from your browser or mobile app. Editing photos is a snap with tools to balance color, resize, crop, change lighting, rotate, and more. The interface is appealing yet user-friendly. Our only gripes are that it was designed in Flash and not HTML5, and image formats can be somewhat limited.
👆 Special Features:
- Crop
- Rotate
- Remove Red and pet-eye
- Auto-Fix
- Text Tool
- Blemish Removal
- Corrections
- Customization
- Perspective Correction
- Pop-Color Tool
- Image Resize
- Watermark Images
- JPEG Quality Output
- Looks
- Borders
✅ PROS:
- Simple and complex customization
- Easy to use
- Compatible with other Adobe Products
- Gives you the edits you need to improve photos significantly
⛔️ CONS:
- Some features require creative cloud membership that has a fee
- The photo organizer tool is a separate app
2. Canva
Best Photo Editing App for Social Media
Canva is an easy to use photo editor app that allows users to create graphics and edit photos by merely dragging and dropping. It takes no time at all to build a design from scratch, and you don't have to be a pro to learn how to use this free photo editing software. It has tons of features that will help you create the ultimate design or touch up your pre-existing photos.
One of the best features of Canva is its extensive library of templates. Within minutes you can drop your photos into a preset layout and then style it using dozens of fonts, illustrations, graphics, colors, and design elements.
With Canva, you can create stunning pieces quickly that you can share, print, or export. This online photo editor also comes complete with built-in support using search, tabs, and articles to find help with any issue.
👆 Special Features:
- Photo Straightener
- Image Cropper
- The Ability to Add Text
- Speech Bubble Maker
- Transparency Tool
- Photo Enhancer
- Photo Blur
- Photo Vignette
- Design Grids
- Free Icons
- Photo Frames
- Web Wireframe
- Stickers
- Badges
- Add Texture
Best Mac For Photo Editing
✅ PROS:
- Great for marketing photos on social media
- Make and design ebooks
- Excellent for web presentations
- Tons of great features for free
- Saves project history
⛔️ CONS:
- Unable to remove an image’s background
- Needs to increase font size
3. Resizing.app
Best Photo Resizer
One of our favorites is an online image resizer, called Resizing.app. The company has a straightforward website and process to resize images online within seconds. One of the coolest features is the ability to export your newly sized image into a different format.
Resizing.app couldn’t be easier to use. You simply drag and drop your images into the box on the home page. Then you select how you want to resize your image (by width, by height, custom size, by percentage, or by the largest side of the image). You can choose to compress your image for quality assurance and then just pick your new file format (jpg, png or webp). Once you hit the save button, your new image is saved to your computer. Voila’ all done. No frills but also no hassles.
Unfortunately, this online service does not have any additional photo editing capabilities to go along with resizing. But hey! It’s free, and we like free and simple.
If you resize your images and photos regularly, we highly recommend you to add the Resizing extension to your Google Chrome; it is also entirely free.
👆 Special Features:
- Resizing by width, by height, custom size, by percentage, and by the largest side of the image.
- Compress a photo
- Crop an image
- Convert an image to JPEG, PNG, WEBP
- Optimize a picture
✅ PROS:
- Free
- Easy to use
- Online
- Convert TIFF and HEIC files into JPEG, PNG or WEBP
- Has extention for Google Chrome
⛔️ CONS:
Free Photo Editing For Mac Computers
- Doesn't have any additional photo editing capabilities
4. inPixio
Another app we tested looking for the best free photo editor was inPixio. In reviews, inPixio earns high marks for usability, features, support, speed, and pricing. It has some fantastic tools to fix perspective (straighten buildings), image correction, dehaze, and you can even edit metadata right within the app to add headlines, captions, and copyright details.
inPixio also offers a free tool to remove the background from an image. It works pretty well if the photo has a clear color distinction between what you want to remove and what you want to keep. inPixio is fun to use, although it may not rank as the best free photo editor on the block, it is worth checking out.
To purchase the full program, you will need to select either the inPixio Photo Studio 10 for $49.99 or inPixio Photo Studio Professional version for $59.99. The price is for the full software you can install and use on your Mac or Windows PC.
Looking for one for your Mac? Read our review of the best mac photo editor.
👆 Special Features:
- Eraser
- Correction Patch
- Cloning stamp
- Cutter
- Retouching and Correction
- Perspective correction
- Film grain module
✅ PROS:
- Tools for retouching photos, resizing, removing backgrounds, cropping, fixing sharpness, trimming, and adding filters.
- Share images within the app.
- Erase objects easily from photos.
- No ads.
- It doesn’t “push” you to upgrade.
- Special effects to enhance your images.
⛔️ CONS:
- The background removal tool doesn’t always yield perfect results.
- Some users complain that it does not work as advertised.
- Puts watermarks on images with the free version.
- Cannot batch edit.
- Works by installing multiple modules.
5. Instasize
If you are in the market for the best free photo editing app, you will want to check out Instasize. The app was designed for social media and influencers who want to create eye-catching, creative photos, and videos for their social feeds. The software includes dozens of visually stunning filters, color editing tools, and you can even edit your videos with it.
Instasize has a broad fan base of more than 500,000 users. The plethora of editing tools also include photo retouching features, fonts, and text editing. The free version is limited, but if you are willing to pay $4.99/month, the Premium version is loaded with goodies.
👆 Special Features:
- Collage maker
- Naturally enhancing filters
- Advanced editing adjustments
- Borders
- Beauty tools: edit blemishes, whiten teeth, remove redness, etc.
- Social media formats
- Pro fonts and text editor
- Video editing
✅ PROS:
- Geared toward creating engaging content for social media.
- Dozens of useful features, including backgrounds, beauty enhancements, borders, and filters, to make content creation easy.
- Create collages in a snap.
- Automatic resizing for social media formats.
- Fast and easy to use.
⛔️ CONS:
- The free version is stripped down and includes ads.
- Some users complain about the ads and some glitches.
- Only works on mobile devices, no app for PC or Mac.
6. Adobe Photoshop Lightroom
A well-known name in the photo game is Adobe, which makes dozens of photo enhancement and editing products. One such app is the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom app.
This product is a cloud-based product where you can upload batches of images and edit them together. It wouldn’t be from Adobe without excellent photo editing tools built-in, and if you run into trouble, they have online tutorials to walk you through it all.
You can edit photos easily with all the expected features, share photos, take pictures from inside the app and sync them across all your devices. The Premium version cost is $9.99/month, which may be more than most users want to pay. If you want access to all the creative cloud apps, that figure balloons to $52.99/month.
👆 Special Features:
- Preset creation
- Split Toning
- Tone Curve
- Batch editing on desktop
- Camera
- Healing Brushes
- RAW Editing
- Cloud Storage
- Sync Presets & Profiles
✅ PROS:
- Runs on Mac, Windows, Android, and iOS.
- Easy to use, clean interface.
- Create albums to organize all your photos.
- Built-in presets to make editing easy.
⛔️ CONS:
- Costly to use cloud storage.
- May be too much for some users.
7. Fotor
Best Free Photo Editing App Online
Fotor is a photo editor software that allows you to utilize its photo editing suite to create top-notch photos. In just a few clicks you can adjust the color, size, lighting and more. It also has an HDR effect for your advanced editing needs.
The magic of Fotor is its extensive library of one-click filters to enhance and liven up any photo. Although Fotor is not as powerful as Photoshop and not as feature-rich as GIMP, it holds its own with a solid set of skills such as RAW file processing, borders, frames, color enhancement, and lighting adjustments.
If you like Fotor, there is also a Pro version you can purchase. However, it only works on the Windows platform. Read our review of the best windows photo editor.
👆 Special Features:
- Image Shape
- Fonts
- Stickers
- Align
- Drop Shadow
- Transparency
- CLone
- Color Picker
- Photo Collage
- Filters
- HDR
- Beauty Retouching
✅ PROS:
- Has web, mobile and desktop version
- Smart filters and effects
- Collage maker
- Raw file converter
- Has a social network
⛔️ CONS:
- Lots of ads
- Inability to edit photos at a deeper level
- Incompatible with creating images from scratch
8. VSCO
VSCO is another contender in our line-up of the best free picture editing apps. VSCO is a minimalistic app with a simple interface and powerful features. Its best feature is the vast library of filters to enhance your images and make them share-worthy.
You can do so within the VSCO social media channel. Yes, they have their own social network but you aren’t limited to just that one. VSCO also offers some other photo editing tools such as adjusting color, balance, highlights, cropping, and spot healing. The free version is limited to only ten filters, which isn’t very many compared to the 200+ you get with the paid version. A VSCO premium membership costs $19.99/year.
👆 Special Features:
- Filters
- Clarity
- Tint
- Fade
- X-Skew
- Y-Skew
- Skin Tone
- Highlights Tint
- Shadows Tint
✅ PROS:
- Includes its own social network to share images.
- Easy to use interface.
- Excellent editing tools with the paid version.
- Powerful camera features like ISO, exposure, white balance, and focus.
- Save images in RAW format.
- Video editing.
- Create montages easily.
- The ability to share from within the app.
⛔️ CONS:
- Requires a paid subscription for the best features.
- Only works on mobile devices, no app for PC or Mac.
- Not as good for social media image creation.
- Pushes upgrading.
- No option to take selfies with the app.
- No zoom features.
9. BeFunky
BeFunky is much more than just a free photo editor. With easy to use features, this photo editor app provides high-quality results whenever you use it to edit photos or make collages. You’ll have fun using this software for years to come.
Using the myriad of free collage layouts and design elements, you can quickly create a new Facebook banner or other social media image. The program is an online photo editor but also supports a handy mobile app. Integrations allow you to save your masterpiece to Dropbox or Google Drive and share it on Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter. BeFunky’s drag-and-drop functionality makes it a breeze to use.
👆 Special Features:
- Collage
- Crop
- Resize
- Digital Art
- Cartoonizer
- Enhance DLX
- Font Pairing
- Create Wallpapers for Your Device
- Edit and Replace Colors
- Batch Processing
✅ PROS:
- Complete control of your work
- Easier than most programs to use
- Privacy
- Editing tools have variety
⛔️ CONS:
- No eraser tool
- Additional content has a cost
10. Pixlr
You can’t beat the convenience factor of a powerful photo editor that runs in your browser, and Pixlr delivers. Pixlr is a great way to have a convenient photo editor at your fingertips that is user-friendly and can provide the professional-looking images you imagined.
Pixlr is a Photoshop clone that offers a generous treasure trove of image-editing features along with the ability to import photos from Facebook. Pixlr has also been compared to GIMP in terms of functionality and user interface. Although it may be overkill for some, it’s just the right balance of form and functionality for others.
👆 Special Features:
- Edit Photos Using Dropbox
- Layers
- Filters
- Adjustments
- Texts
- Fonts
- Magic Wand
- Lasso
- Brushes
- Eraser
- Object Transform
- Color Replace
- Digital Painting
- Image Retouching
- Digital Inking
- Photo Collage
- Effects
✅ PROS:
- Available on desktop and mobile
- Supports layers and masks
- Customize the interface
⛔️ CONS:
- Some ads
11. Snapseed for Android and iOS
Best Photo Editing App for Professional Photographers
Snapseed is a free online photo editor designed for the serious photographer who wants to enhance their photos professionally. Its primary focus is on providing filters that will change the effects. You can also share your creations with its export tool.
The software uses stacks/layers of edits so you can remove, arrange, or apply them at will. These stacks can be saved as a “look,” meaning a style which you can then use to apply to other photos. Compared to other apps, Snapseed shines with an impressive array of filters, brushes, and nondestructive editing tools that will delight any serious photo editing buff.
👆 Special Features:
- Pre-Made Filters
- Looks
- Tools
- Export
✅ PROS:
- Nondestructive editing
- Selective edit brushes
- Photographic filters
⛔️ CONS:
- More suitable for experienced users
- No auto-save
12. PhotoScape
PhotoScape was designed for the beginner, but don’t let that fool you; it is a powerhouse of features and functionality. Although the layout of PhotoScape is a bit clunky, the tools are solid, and along with retouching features, you can easily add filters to your images, create animated GIFs, batch edit photos, create slideshows and more using dozens of free templates.
The list of accolades is impressive for a free photo editor app.
PhotoScape gives you the ability to create stunning images with access to multiple tools. Enhancing your photos becomes more convenient, and you aren't disappointed by a system that doesn't deliver. It has your basic features and more advanced ones such as Batch Processing, Font pairing, and Digital Art.
👆 Special Features:
- Viewer
- Editor
- Batch Editor
- Page
- Combine
- Animated GIF
- Splitter
- Screen Capture
- Color Picker
- Rename
- Raw Converter
- Paper Print
- Face Search
✅ PROS:
- Plenty of Features
- Effects Preview
⛔️ CONS:
- Redundant Interface
13. Paint.NET
Paint.Net started as a built-in program on the Windows platform and evolved into its own standalone photo editing software with an innovative user interface that supports many features. This photo editor can be extended through plug-ins to give a wide variety to what the photo editor app can do.
While it provides a clean layout and powerful tools, this program is not for beginners. It boasts of a main working window with the tools corralled into their own movable windows. The program uses layers to keep everything organized. A design aficionado will be disappointed with the lack of some features, but for most users, it’s a great solution.
👆 Special Features:
- Layers
- Unlimited Undo
- Special Effects
- Powerful Tools
- Unlimited History
✅ PROS:
- Innovative Interface
- Keyboard Shortcuts for Tools and Menu Items
- Font Previews
⛔️ CONS:
- Little Control Over Text
- Minimal Layer Effects
- Few Brush Options
14. GIMP
Best Open-source Photo Editor
GIMP is open-source software and a favorite among many graphic designers. GIMP has often been compared to Photoshop. While it shares many of the same features and functionality of the popular photo editing software, GIMP is free.
Some of the highlights are a plethora of brushes to choose from, filters, and even plugins to make the software more desirable. GIMP also supports animation. Because of all this, GIMP is by far our pick for the best free photo editor.
👆 Special Features:
- Color Correction
- Skin Retouching
- Eyes Brightening
- Customizable Interface
- Graphic Design Elements
- Original Artwork
- Photo Enhancement
- Inkscape
- Swatch booker
✅ PROS:
- Compatible With Many File Types
- Developer Support
- User-Friendly Interface
- Open Source Code
⛔️ CONS:
- Functionality
15. Photo Pos Pro
Photo Pos Pro is excellent for creating computer graphic designs and text that will pop. It is a powerful software that can be mastered by advanced and beginner photo editors. The system has a program that offers assistance for beginners who need step by step instructions.
With Photo Pos Pro, you get the best of both worlds, the choice of a beginner or expert interface. Photographers will love the support for RAW files, the many filters, and retouching tools. Both the novice and pro interfaces are a bit confusing and cluttered. It’s a very personal preference when picking the best free photo editor for you.
👆 Special Features:
- Filters
- Layers
- Masks
- Curves
- Scripts
- Effects
- Brushes
- Frames and Collages
- Text Effects
- RAW Files Support
- Remove, Erase, and Replace Backgrounds
✅ PROS:
- Great For Any Level of Experience
- Superb Help and Tutorials
- Manual Editing and Automatic One-Click Editing Balance
⛔️ CONS:
- Large Learning Curve
- Software Glitches
How to Choose The Best Free Photo Editor?
When it comes to choosing the best photo editor software, there are many things to take into account. The top features to look at are the file formats, organizing tools, photo sharing, and standard editing tools. These items are significant for those who're interested in doing photo editing whether it is for pleasure or career.
File Formats
File formats like jpg, gif, and png are essential to have if you're uploading your photos to the Internet. These formats allow you to compress the file size of the images to publish them on the web.
Organizing Tools
Having a free online photo editor should come with tools to help keep you organized. It is essential to have features that will keep track of your photos by using thumbnail previews, search, and naming schemes.
Standard Editing Tools
Having the basics is vital to being successful at photo editing and utilizing the photo editor software of your choice. Some of the typical tools you'll need are adjusting brightness and contrast in your photos, crop, resize, and rotating the images. They should be easy to catch onto and fast to use.
Searching for how to resize images without losing quality? Follow our step-by-step guide on how to do it at no time.
Photo Sharing
We all know how eager we get to post our work and personal photos online. With the right program, it will reduce the time it'll take to upload the image online. That will decrease the need to have a photo editor software that has blogging tools to get your photos posted.
If you want to edit your photos like a PRO, check out the following presets of ours. Alternatively, you can leave it to professionals; FixThePhoto is one of the best photo editing companies to assign your photo retouching tasks.
Finding the best free photo editor is what will set you apart with your photography whether it's a hobby or your career. Choose from these free online photo editor apps to enhance your photos with a few simple clicks. The best part about photo editor online software is that you don't have to break the bank with these free, high-quality programs and can do it from any device, because they are web-based.
Related Articles:
5 Free Image Resizer Apps for You in 2020
5 Tips on How to Optimize Images for Web
Launchberg editors pick and review products independently. We may earn affiliate commissions when you purchase an item via our links—it helps support our testing.