When we talk about photo editing, Adobe Photoshop always comes to mind. After all, it’s the best photo editing tool in the world, being used by professional photographers, businesses and even for personal use. It will let you edit any photo in ways you can’t even imagine.
However, it is still not the go to tool for most users due to many reasons. First of all, its is very complex to use, making it hard for an average user to take advantage of it, also, most don’t need such robust editing features in their daily editing. Last but not least, it is hella expensive and most people can’t even afford it.
The best productivity and GTD app suite for Mac, iPhone, and iPad Things. OmniFocus 3 introduces a refreshed design, the ability to batch edit tasks, the introduction of tags for organizing tasks, and a range other improvements and enhancements. Form can play an important factor. We want to want to use our tools! Contenders for The Best. Sep 11, 2017 5. DigiKam Photo Manager. One of the best tool to organize photos, digiKam Photo Manager is an open source application which is good for Linux, Windows, and Mac-OSX. Features of digiKam Photo Manager: It is an advanced photo management tool which makes importing and organizing digital photos simple and easy.
Fortunately, we don’t have to depend on Photoshop for our photo editing needs as there are tons of free and paid photo editing tools available. Of course, they are not as good as Photoshop, but they offer quite robust editing tools and some can be even compared to as best Photoshop alternatives.
- Windows only for this version, but there are different options for Mac: ACDSee Photo Studio for Mac 4 and ACDSee Mac Pro 3. Affinity Photo. This relative newcomer has been making a lot of waves in a short period of time and offers some power workflow and editing tools in a slick package.
- Which is the best Photo Organizing App? As all of these tools are free to use, you can try each and choose the best one for you. However, if you ask about the software we would want, it will surely be the Adobe Bridge CC.
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Contents
- The Pro Review From TechReviewPro
10 Best Free Photo Editing Software to Edit Photos Like a Pro
To help you edit your photos on your favorite operating system, we have created a list of free best photo editing software containing editing software for Windows, Mac and Linux. All you need to do is choosing the best photo editing software for your needs and start editing!
Best Photo Editing Software for Windows
Let’s check out the best photo editing software available for the most used desktop OS, Windows.
1. GIMP
GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) actually works on all three operating systems, Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, so we will start with it. GIMP is a free, open-source photo editor and sometimes called a free alternative to Photoshop. It’s editing capabilities are almost close to Photoshop and will let you do all types of basic and complex editing like, effects, crop, sharp, lasso, paint and brush tools and tons of other features to make your pictures look out of this world.
However, it is also a bit complicated to understand, so you better have some editing knowledge or a handy guide to GIMP opened up. It does define what a specific tool does just by hovering your mouse cursor over it, so a little time spent with it can help you start editing like a pro.
2. PhotoScape
PhotoScape is another feature rich freeware tool available for Windows and Linux that is perfect for an average user. It will let you do all types of edits like, resize, adjust colors, add effects, backlight correction, add frames, remove red eye, stamp, draw and add text to a picture. At a time you can add multiple pictures to edit them at the same time and save some extra time.
Apart from photo editing tools, it also has many other features, including Print, create slideshows, create GIFs, split and merge photos, RAW converter, Face search, screenshot color picker and batch rename files. It is a free tool, but if you like the tool and want to help the developers, you can also donate them as much as you please.
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3. Paint.Net
“Paint”, rings any bells? Yes! It is a beefed up version of MS Paint we all loved to play around with in our childhood. MS Paint is a good editor, but it lacks many editing features of a good photo editor, so Paint.Net was created. It is a completely free tool without any kind of limitations and you can use it for personal and commercial use.
It is an extremely light photo editor with tons of handy features. It offers editing features such as, blur, sharpen, distortion, noise, embossing, red eye removal, 3D zoom, effects, add shapes and Magic Wand. All of this available in a simple interface, making it the best photo editing software for beginners.
4. Pixlr
Pixlr comes with a free version with limited features and a pro membership that offers all the features. The reason why it is in this list is because its free version offers all the features required by an average user. With the free version you will get editing tools like, effects, borders, overlays, auto-adjust, crop/resize, adjust color, remove red-eye, whiten teeth and add stickers.
Pixlr has dedicated clients for Windows and Mac, but you can also edit photos right from the web client, so you can basically use it on any OS. Going for the paid version ($1.99/month) will give you more control over your pictures, like editing specific areas of a picture, control effects, double exposure and change color channels.
Also See : 11 Best Free 3D Modeling Software for Beginners to Make 3D Printing Easier
Best Photo Editing Software for Mac OS X
Although, most editing tools support both Windows and Mac, but there are some specifically made for Mac OS X as well. Let’s checkout free photo editing software for Mac.
5. Photos
Photos is a photo organizing tool offered by Apple itself in the latest version of Mac OS X. It organizes all your photos and provides you complete control over what you can do with them. Along with organizing it also lets you edit your photos to make them look fabulous. The editing tools are also quite powerful for an organizing tool, you can enhance photos, use filters, edit multiple photos, add effects, adjust colors, draw, add text and add vignette.
Photos work with Apple’s iCloud service, so you can easily edit photos in the cloud and the edits will be made to the photo in all of your Apple devices. You can also easily share the photos right from the app to your favorite social media app or to a friend.
6. Picasa
Just like Photos app by Apple, Picasa is also a photo organizing tool offered by Google. It doesn’t offer as amazing editing features as Apple’s Photos, but if you like basic edits with ease, then Picasa is for you. It will let you adjust your photos, like resize, crop and add different effects to make them look vivid.
Editing features do lack, but it will do wonders when it comes to organizing your photos. It will take all your photo in the PC and show them in a simple interface. Here you can easily edit or share them, and even save photos in Google Drive to save space on your PC. The photos can be synced with Google+ and other web albums on supported sites.
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7. Seashore
Seashore is a relatively new photo editing tool, so it is still underdevelopment and may have some bugs. However, it is a open-source photo editing tool available for Mac OS X with quite handy features, making it worth adding to this list. It is based on the source code of GIMP, but they have highly tweaked it to make it comfortable for Mac users.
It is made for average users, so it doesn’t offer as robust features as GIMP, but it is simple. Its features include, crop/resize, add transparent background, Mask Selection, Aspect ratios, Pencil tool, repeating gradients, brushes, core images, contrast and add effects.
Also Read:6 Best Photo Organizing Tools and Alternatives for Picasa
Best Photo Editing Software for Linux
Let’s check out our selection of photo editing software for Linux.
8. Fotoxx
Fotoxx is a feature rich photo editing tool for Linux that can even be used by professional photographers. It is an open-source tool and completely free to use, and it can both manage and edit photos. Its editing features include, adjust color/brightness/contrast, remove color castes, blur or sharpen images, vignetting, Red-eye removal, smart erase, remove dark spots, clone, crop, resize, add effects, draw/write on image, panorama and much much more.
The program is available in multiple languages and you can use it for both personal and commercial use.
9. darktable
darktable is another open-source photo editor for Linux that is both feature rich and very simple to use. It offers non-destructive editing and speedy edits with OpenCL. Its editing features consist of base curve, exposure, white balance, invert, adjust levels, tone curve, overexposed, velvia, channel mixer, color contrast/zones/correction/transfer, lens correction, raw denoise, sharpen, blur, equalizer and many more.
darktable is multilingual and is available in total 18 languages. Its interface is also quite simple and very light at the same time, make it easy to work without any of the latencies.
10 Fotor – Free Online Photo Editor
Fotor is actually a web based photo editing tool, so it works on all OSs, including Linux. Although, you need to sign up to their membership to access all the features, but their free offering is quite good as well. All you need to do is upload the image to Fotor website and start editing without delay.
It will let you add effects, borders, themes, stickers, use HDR, make collages, crop/resize and use templates. However, some of the premium effects, frames, themes and stickers can only be used with the membership.
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The Pro Review From TechReviewPro
Nowadays, everyone is crazy about photos, so need of a professional photo editing software also arises. Fortunately, we can easily access tons of free photo editing software to easily edit our photos.
All the above mentioned photo editing software tools are completely free and we have covered all the major operating systems, so you should be able to find a good photo editor available for your OS. Some tools also have multi-platform support, so do keep that in mind if you find a good tool in this list. Happy editing!
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How do you choose the best photo editing software? We’ve picked the best paid-for mainstream photo editing programs that will work on both Mac and PC, and we’re looking for ease of use, quality of results, versatility or pixel-crunching power. There are also free, mobile or online photo editors out there but we’ll keep those for another guide.
The answer to the best photo editor question used to be easy – get Photoshop. It’s become clear, though, that photographers and enthusiasts want more than Photoshop can offer. It doesn’t catalog your growing photo library and it doesn’t give you ideas and inspiration to feed your creative vision. Basically it’s just a big box of spanners.
So we’ll kick off with the complex little ecosystem that is Adobe’s subscription-based Photography Plan, then look at alternatives that deliver better quality, better organisation, better inspiration or just better value.
These are not in any particular order since each program has its own particular strengths, so make sure you keep going to the end of the list, because there’s something here for everyone.
Best photo editors in 2019
1. Adobe Photoshop CC
It’s the most powerful photo editing application in the world and there may be times when nothing else will do
Platform: Mac and PC | Image-editing: Yes | Cataloguing: No | Raw conversion: Yes | Preset effects: No | Image layers: Yes | Plug-in version: No
Photography plan (20GB)Photoshop is still the go-to image-editing tool for artists, illustrators and designers, but photographers have a different bunch of needs that might be better met these days by a cataloguing/enhancement tool like Lightroom or an effects tool like Alien Skin Exposure X3. Photoshop’s layering, masking and retouching tools are still the standard by which all others are judged, but it’s designed for painstaking work on single images, or multi-layer composites, rather than quick day-to-day editing. The only way to get Photoshop now is via an Adobe subscription. The regular Photography Plan is best value and also gets you Lightroom CC and Lightroom Classic as well.
2. Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC
Things just got confusing. The ‘new’ Lightroom is a stripped-down tool based around cloud storage
Platform: Mac and PC | Image-editing: Yes | Cataloguing: Yes | Raw conversion: Yes | Preset effects: Yes | Image layers: No | Plug-in version: No
Photography plan (20GB)Where Photoshop is for detailed manipulation, Lightroom concentrates on image organisation and regular photo enhancements. Now, though, there are two versions. The ‘old’ one has been rebranded Lightroom Classic (see below) while the ‘new’ Lightroom CC offers a streamlined interface and integrated cloud storage. You can get Lightroom CC and 1GB storage for the same price as the regular Photography Plan, but you don’t get Photoshop, which is a significant drawback. Lightroom CC is super-slick to use, but it’s missing a couple of tools in Lightroom Classic and it doesn’t support plug-ins and external image-editors except for Photoshop. If you want Lightroom and Photoshop AND 1GB storage the plan costs twice as much… ouch.
3. Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic CC
It’s the ‘old’ Lightroom with a new name, and sticks to regular desktop-based image storage
Platform: Mac and PC | Image-editing: Yes | Cataloguing: Yes | Raw conversion: Yes | Preset effects: Yes | Image layers: No | Plug-in version: No
Photography plan (20GB)Lightroom and Photoshop are the perfect double-act. One takes care of organising and enhancing your photos while the other handles any more complex layers-based image manipulation. Lightroom Classic is the old ‘full fat’ version of Lightroom. It feels a bit more ponderous and complicated than the cloud-based Lightroom CC, but it is more powerful and does support plug-ins. You get both Photoshop and Lightroom CC/Classic as part of Adobe’s subscription-based Photography Plan and, to be honest, this combination is good value and takes some beating. For many, though, the idea of paying a subscription to use software is just too much to swallow, which is why we’re going to move swiftly on to the rest of our list.
4. Phase One Capture One Pro 12
Expensive but beautiful, Capture One is a direct rival to Lightroom and pitched firmly at professionals
Platform: Mac and PC | Image-editing: Yes | Cataloguing: Yes | Raw conversion: Yes | Preset effects: Yes | Image layers: No | Plug-in version: No
Capture One covers almost exactly the same territory as Adobe Lightroom Classic, offering cataloguing tools, seamless raw processing, manual image enhancement tools alongside preset effects and a non-destructive workflow that means you can revisit your adjustments at any time. Its raw conversions are sharper and less noisy than Adobe’s, but it doesn’t support such a wide range of camera raw formats or as large a number of lens correction profiles. It doesn’t have Adobe’s mobile apps and online synchronisation options either, but it does offer professional-grade ‘tethering’ tools for studio photographers capturing images via a computer. It also has a better system for applying local adjustments, using adjustment layers and masks. It’s expensive, but very, very good.
Best Photo Organizing Tool For Mac
5. Serif Affinity Photo 1.6
If you want Photoshop but don’t want Adobe’s subscription plan, this is the answer!
Platform: Mac and PC | Image-editing: Yes | Cataloguing: No | Raw conversion: Yes | Preset effects: No | Image layers: Yes | Plug-in version: No
Serif built its reputation off the back of low-cost Windows versions of professional graphics tools, but with its new Affinity line it’s shaken off its budget past for good. Affinity Photo might have a budget price, but it’s a full-on, full-powered Photoshop rival for professionals, that can even teach its Adobe equivalent a trick or two. Its layering, masking and retouching tools are as powerful as Photoshop’s, its filter effects can be applied ‘live’ and its HDR tone mapping and workspace tools are excellent. Like Photoshop, though, it’s focused solely on in-depth, technical image manipulation. It doesn’t have its own browsing and cataloguing tools and it doesn’t do instant preset effects. Affinity Photo will bring the tools, but you have to bring the vision.
6. Adobe Photoshop Elements 2019
Aimed squarely at beginners, Elements 2018 does a decent job but is starting to look dated
Platform: Mac and PC | Image-editing: Yes | Cataloguing: Yes | Raw conversion: Yes | Preset effects: Yes | Image layers: Yes | Plug-in version: No
On paper, Elements 19 ticks all the boxes, just like previous annual releases. It offers quite a lot of the photo-editing power of Photoshop wrapped up in a novice friendly interface with quick fixes, guided edits and an Expert mode for more experienced users. It also comes with its own Organizer application for storing, organising and searching your photos. But while it’s fine for beginners who want to stay beginners, its family-friendly interface could become annoying, and while the Elements Editor will give you a head start if you upgrade to Photoshop, the Organizer is a bit of a dead end that’s nothing like Lightroom, so if you do move on up to Adobe’s Photography Plan you’ll have to learn Lightroom from scratch. The 2019 version adds Adobe Sensei AI tech to suggest new ways to use your pictures, and there are some more Guided Edits too.
7. Alien Skin Exposure X4
Microsoft Photo Organizing Software
Trying to recapture the romance of analog images? Exposure X3 combines retro looks and regular editing
Platform: Mac and PC | Image-editing: Yes | Cataloguing: Yes | Raw conversion: Yes | Preset effects: Yes | Image layers: No | Plug-in version: Yes
Exposure X4 offers blends old analog 'looks' with contemporary photo enhancement tools. It has a large catalog of antique and modern film effects that simulate fading, cross processing, grain, light leaks, vignetting, borders and a whole range of traditional films and processing techniques. These are all built using tools that can also be used for regular image enhancements, including curves, colour adjustments and more. But while it offers adjustment layers for ’stacking’ and blending corrections, you can’t combine images. What you do get, though, is a fast and effective folder-browsing system for organising your photos with all the power of filtering and keyword searches without the fuss of importing them into a catalog. Version 4 adds smart albums, transform tools, movable light effects and improved raw processing.
8. Skylum Luminar 3
Now with Libraries for image organisation, Luminar is developing fast
Platform: Mac and PC | Image-editing: Yes | Cataloguing: Yes | Raw conversion: Yes | Preset effects: Yes | Image layers: Yes | Plug-in version: Yes
Luminar takes an interesting approach to photo editing, offering a collection of preset effects organised into categories for those who just want to apply an instant ‘look’. These are made using a collection of filters which you can combine at will to create presets of your own. It also introduces the idea of custom workspaces which you can set up for specific image types, like Black and White or Portraits. The raw conversions don’t quite match the quality of the big three – Adobe Capture One, DxO – but they do the job and they’re backed up by some great editing tools. Luminar supports both adjustment layers and image layers, so you can create Photoshop-style composite images. The big news is that Luminar 3 – a free update for Luminar 2018 users – adds image cataloguing tools via Libraries and fully non-destructive editing so that you can go back and change any edit, any time.
9. ON1 Photo RAW 2019
An all-in-one tool that does just about everything. Like Luminar and Exposure X3, it’s come a long way, very fast
Platform: Mac and PC | Image-editing: Yes | Cataloguing: Yes | Raw conversion: Yes | Preset effects: Yes | Image layers: Yes | Plug-in version: Yes
ON1 Photo RAW started out as ON1 Perfect Suite and has quickly evolved into a more modern, integrated program rather than a collection of plug-ins. It can still work as a plug-in for Lightroom and Photoshop, where you can browse the huge library of preset effects and manual adjustment filters to create ‘looks’ that the host programs can’t, but ON1 Photo RAW also works as a standalone program, complete with its own image browsing/cataloguing tools. In fact, this could be the only photo editing tool you’ll ever need – though the interface text is quite small and the raw conversions don’t match the quality you get from Capture One and DxO PhotoLab. For power, value and spectacle, though, ON1 Photo RAW 2019 is terrific, and version 2019.2 adds AI-powered image masking and cutouts.
10. DxO PhotoLab 2
The name has changed, the software has moved on, and PhotoLab is now a very serious contender indeed
Platform: Mac and PC | Image-editing: Yes | Cataloguing: No | Raw conversion: Yes | Preset effects: Yes | Image layers: No | Plug-in version: No
Best Photo Organizing Tool
DxO Optics Pro, famous for its lab-derived lens correction profiles and awesome raw conversions, has evolved. Last year DxO bought the Google Nik Collection (which it intends to develop separately) and integrated the control point adjustment tools to bring out PhotoLab. The big difference between PhotoLab and Optics Pro is that you can now apply powerful localised adjustments to your images. PhotoLab doesn’t have its own cataloguing tools, though it does have a basic folder browser, and to get the full benefit of its raw tools, perspective corrections (DxO ViewPoint) and film ‘looks’ (DxO FilmPack) you need to pay extra. It doesn’t support Fujifilm X-Trans files, either. PhotoLab’s raw conversions and lens corrections are, however, quite sublime. Version 2 adds a 'PhotoLibrary' feature with an autofill search tool, but this feature still feels fairly limited.