You don’t have to use Adobe Photoshop on your Mac to edit images like a pro. There are plenty of Photoshop alternatives for Mac that you can download or use in-browser to create just the right images and graphics for your projects. And some of them are completely free!
None of these are necessarily one-size-fits-all solutions. Each tool tends to serve a specific purpose; Do you want to edit online or on a desktop? Are you editing photos or multiple file types? Is all the work for web or will images get printed?
Here’s a list of the best Photoshop alternatives for Mac in 2020, but not in any particular order. Have a read through to find the one that’s right for you.
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Gimp has a strong user community that supports its product and a large feature set, though it has a different interface and way of doing things than Photoshop. For those used to doing things in Photoshop, but who are interested in checking out this free software, look into Gimpshop. Jun 18, 2019 Adobe Photoshop is widely accepted as one of the most powerful photo editing tools for photographers, photo editors, and graphic designers. And, it’s the go-to tool for professionals for.
1. Affinity Photo
Affinity Photo is a past Apple Mac App of the Year Winner and the professional tool has everything you’d expect in a premium photo-editing product.
Use it to edit and retouch images as well as create multi-layer pieces. The professional corrections and adjustments tools rival any other app out there and it has a great noise-reduction filter. Retouching options include the usual dodge, burn, clone, patch, blemish, and red eye tools, but there’s also an inpainting brush and liquify feature.
Other key features:
- Dedicated camera RAW workspace
- HDR merge
- Panorama stitching
- Bath processing
- 360-degree image editing
Cost: $49.99
Try it:From the App Store
2. Sketch
Sketch isn’t a photo-editing app per se, but you can editing images within the Mac prototyping tool.
The best part of editing in Sketch is that all edits are nondestructive, meaning that any of your changes take effect without overwriting the original image file. (So you can always go back to the original if you want.)
Sketch allows for basic image editing including inverting images, cropping and color fill. It can be described as a basic bitmap editor and for many simple projects is enough.
Other key features:
- Color adjustment capability – hue, saturation, brightness and contrast
- Reduce image/file size
- Replace and change images in projects with one click (Since you are using the same tool)
- Ability to work in layers
- Also includes ability to edit vector elements
Cost: $99/year
Try it:From Sketch
3. GIMP
GIMP offers powerful photo manipulation and editing capability in a free, open source package. (You can also download the source code and make changes as you see fit and add more functionality with third-party plugins.)
GIMP is designed for high-quality photo manipulation including retouching images and photo restorations. Users can also use it to create original artwork, a feature that many other non-Photoshop editors don’t provide (or have but it can be difficult to use).
Other key features:
Jan 04, 2020 Best Photo Editing Apps for Mac in 2020. 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. Fotor Photo Editor. Love Photoshop (or the idea of. Best Mac Photo Editing Software - Free/Trial or Cheap 1. Apple’s Photos (Built-in app) 2. Luminar (7 days trial) 3. Photolemur 3 (Free Version with watermark) 4. Aurora HDR (14 days trial) 5. Pixelmator (Trial 30 Days) 6. Adobe Photoshop Elements 2020 (Trial link) 7. Affinity Photo (Free Trial) 8. After all our testing was said and done, CyberLink PhotoDirector Ultra 10 stood out as the best Mac photo editing software. We think it is a good fit for users of any skill level, but it has features that make it especially good for beginners. To find out if this software is a. Luminar has been ranked among the best photo editing software for Mac by CleverFiles and Photolemur, among others. What could be improved: Mobile users might consider a mobile-specific app for an on-the-go photo editor, since Luminar is desktop only. Best apple mac photo editing software. RRP: $29.99 Pixelmator is one of the most popular photo-editing apps on the Mac, as it hits the sweet spot that combines powerful editing tools, an attractive and easy-to-use interface, and a very.
- Ability to create icons and other elements
- Use for scripted image manipulation (C, C++, Perl, Python, Scheme and more)
- Color management tools included with Scribus, Inkscape and SwatchBooker
- Large number of usable file formats and a customizable workspace
- Extensive tutorial library on the website so you can learn the tool easily
Cost: Free
Try it:From GIMP
4. Pixelmator Pro
Pixelmator Pro is a nondestructive editor that allows you to make changes to images and draw in the app. It also includes a nifty machine learning auto color adjustments tool to help make color changes a breeze.
One of the best features of Pixelmator Pro is that you can even export images for the web – hello, optimization – so you don’t have to use multiple tools to edit and then shrink image for top website quality production. Pixelmator Pro also includes some workflow tools to help you work more efficiently.
Other key features:
What Photoshop To Buy
- Works with Mac’s Touch Bar
- Live preview option so you can see how changes will look before committing
- Text editing capabilities
- SVG editing and export
- Painting tools so you can draw anything by hand
Cost: $59.99
Try it: From the App Store or try the free demo
5. Pixlr Pro
Pixlr Pro is an in-browser image editing app that’s packed with photo, vector and text editing capability. You can edit like a pro with tools that include layer masks, multiple brush options, curve and level adjustments, color and blend modes, effects and filters, and transform and wrap tools.
What’s different about Pixlr Pro, which also has a free version, is that you don’t have to download anything to use it. All the tools are right in your browser (and it has strong browser compatibility). It also includes a lot of other goodies to help jumpstart projects, such as templates and fonts.
Other key features:
- Includes access to 1 million royalty-free stock images
- Comes with more than 10,000 photo templates
- Works with PSD and Sketch image files
- Smart healing tools for photo correction
- Refine edge tool make it easy to mask complex objects
Cost: $5/month
Try it:From Pixlr
6. PicMonkey
PicMonkey is a well-known online photo editor and retoucher. It has the most complicated structure of features of all the tools in this list with free, basic and pro pricing plans with different levels of features and tools.
If you plan to use any of the advanced features – save and export, advanced retouching, effects and overlays, fonts – then you are probably looking at the pro level plan. Free plans include ads; paid plans do not. PicMonkey is a pretty straightforward tool that is popular with users creating images for social media and online-only use with a simple photo editor and design tools.
Other key features:
- Add-ons include filters, overlays and text tools
- Touch up photos to add more visual interest
- Watermark and other templates to make projects quick
- Ability to create a photo collage
- Simple interface with ready to use buttons in-browser or using the desktop app
Cost: Starting at $5.99/month
Try it: From PicMonkey
7. Fotor
The tool that the BBC called “Photoshop lite” is simple and easy to use. Edit images, add effects and text or tough up portraits like a pro with Fotor.
The photo editor has all the tools you’d expect for everyday editing with shape and aspect ratio cropping, color, saturation and white balance options and ability to straighten and rotate images. You can also create a custom college in the app.
Other key features:
- Bath processing option
- Tilt-shirt tools adds focus and blurring for a professional look
- 13 1-tap photo enhancement options
- Use popular file formats such as RAW, PNG, JPG, BMP, GIF and TIFF
- Optimize images for retina displays
Cost: Free
Try it:From the App Store
8. Acorn
Acorn is another nondestructive piece of Mac photo editing software that has a robust set of tools. The company claims that it has “everything you need in an image editor” with the ability to add layer masks and selections to touch up images or make something entirely new. You can also remove backgrounds, combine images, perform color corrections, resize, transform, crop and more.
While Acorn is billed as an image editor, it also includes vector tools as well and a text on a path feature.
Other key features:
- 100+ photo effects — vignette, drop shadow, gradients, sharpening, color correction, distortions, blurs
- Web export and scaling
- Smart layer export
- Camera RAW image import and editing
- Ability to import Photoshop brushes
Cost: $29.99
Try it:From The Flying Meat store (other addons also available)
9. SumoPaint
SumoPaint has free and paid version with different options. One key difference is whether you want to edit image on- or off-line (paid only).
SumoPaint is billed as an image manipulator with plenty of options, not all of which are designed for working with photos. The native Sumo file format also provides a nondestructive save option. The tool includes plenty of brushes, shapes and colors and gradients to jumpstart any project. It also allows for use of layers and comes with plenty of filters.
Other key features:
- Lighting, reflection and mosaic tools
- Animated and 3D brush options
- Auto-smoothing feature
- Text tool
- Ability to adjust curves and levels with ease
Cost: $4/month
Try it:From SumoPaint
10. DxO PhotoLab
DxO PhotoLab is the go-to for RAW photo editing. It’s packed with features – you might even mistake the dashboard for Photoshop at a glance – and doesn’t get bogged down when working with large files and detailed images.
The tools include the ability to editing using control points to work on just the parts of a photo you want to edit, there are plenty of brushes for precise work, a graduated filter makes landscape photos look great and the auto repair mode can remove unwanted elements from images.
Other key features:
- Smooth transitions between elements that preserve textures and shadows
- Fast processing
- Auto lighting optimization tool
- ClearView filter removes atmospheric haze from landscape photos
- 40,000 camera and lens combinations
Cost: $99.99 (Essential Edition)
Try it:From DxO
Adobe’s Photoshop software is good – there’s a reason it’s the gold standard in image manipulation – but it comes at a pretty high cost. We’ve put together some of the best Photoshop alternatives out there, and they’re all much cheaper.
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Back in the day, you used to be able to buy a copy of Photoshop, and once you paid for it, you owned it. Upgrades weren’t necessarily free, but they were heavily discounted. These days, upgrades are free, but your software only works when you pay every month. While Adobe manages to sweeten the pot by adding in a number of services like mobile apps and cloud syncing, the fees add up – the cheapest Creative Cloud plans that let you access Photoshop cost either $120 a year or $20 on a month-to-month basis.
Before we jump into the list of Photoshop alternatives, there are a couple of Adobe apps you should look at – apps that are still available without a recurring subscription. If your interest in Photoshop lies primarily with its photo manipulation abilities, Adobe’s Lightroom application is still available as a standalone title; you can buy it once and own it forever. You can snag it from Amazon for $143, which is about the same cost as a year’s access to the cheapest Creative Cloud plan.
Adobe also makes a less powerful version of Photoshop known as Photoshop Elements. You can pick up the current version, Photoshop Elements 14, for just $77, just half the price of Lightroom. While you’ll miss out on some of Photoshop’s more powerful features, you do get some of the more impressive ones, like their new dehaze filter (which can quickly clear up a foggy photo).
Pixlr – Free or $15/year
Pixlr is a surprisingly versatile web app. The web, in general, has gotten increasingly powerful in the past few years, and Pixlr is a great example of it. It offers a few simple tools like filters and stickers and overlays, but it also has some surprisingly strong features, like support for layers and other non-destructive editing tools.
The company has also put out mobile versions of their apps and a chrome extension for some offline editing. After Autodesk acquired the site, Pixlr also put out a desktop app; while it’s a subscription service like Adobe’s Creative Cloud, it only costs $1.99 a month, or fifteen bucks a year. Head over to Pixlr.com to try it for free.
GIMP – Free, open source
GIMP (the GNU Image Manipulation Project) is practically historic when it comes to freely available software – but unlike most older projects, it’s been constantly updated with bug fixes and new features. Those features make it one of the most powerful image manipulation applications outside of Photoshop itself. It’s actually available for Windows and Linux in addition to the Mac, which makes it a great option if you use your Mac in a mixed-computer household.
Unlike most of Photoshop replacements, GIMP actually supports a robust extensibility framework, with a number of common programming languages. That sounds complex, but what it means is that you can find third party plugins for GIMP, just like with Photoshop. GIMP also supports all the other complex Photoshop features you’re used to, like layers, masking, channels, and curves. Where it tends to fall behind is in supporting advanced features and new camera formats. If you’re looking for a photo-centric replacement, GIMP might not be what you need, but if you’re looking for something more on the graphic design end of things, GIMP could do the job well. Download a free copy from Gimp.org.
Pixelmator – $30
Pixelmator is one of our favorite apps, Photoshop replacement or otherwise. It features a gorgeous user interface, and really typifies what a Mac app should look like. Unlike some of the free options on our list, Pixelmator’s cost includes getting support from responsive developers, in addition to free point updates.
One of the cooler Pixelmator features is its support for iOS. Use it on your Mac, then install it on your iPhone or iPad, and pick up where you left off. While Pixelmator is sold in the Mac App Store, you can download a free, 30-day trial straight from the company’s website.
Affinity Photo – $50
Affinity Photo is from Serif, which also publishes the popular Affinity Designer design software for the Mac. Affinity Photo is their newest product, and actually rated as the top Mac app for all of 2015 by Apple. One of the features that sets this app apart from the others on our list is its appreciable support for RAW files – the “raw” photo recorded by DSLRs and other serious cameras. Most Photoshop alternatives tend to fall down in this area.
Affinity Photo scored a big update in December, which added support for the new DCI-P3 panels found in the latest 5K iMacs, panorama photo stitching, and a haze removal filter (one of the best new Photoshop features). It also adds extensions for use in Apple Photos; it really integrates into your Mac better than just about any other photo software, including Photoshop. Serif offers a free, 14-day trial of Affinity Photo on their website, after which you can snag it in the Mac App Store for $50.
Acorn 5 – The Image Editor for Humans – $30
Acorn 5 comes from a company called Flying Meat, Inc. As the names of both the company and the app might intimate, they don’t take themselves too seriously. Don’t take that to mean that their app isn’t any good, however, because it’s a powerful program that prides itself on being easy to use. Like Affinity Photo before it, Acorn 5 supports 30-bit displays, like those found in the latest 5K iMacs.
Free Program Comparable To Photoshop
One of the things we really like about Acorn 5 is the huge list of free tutorials that Flying Meat created to instruct users on how Acorn works. There’s a set of text and video tutorials that cover just about any feature you can find in the app, from saving an image and straightening a photo to blurring a background and artificially aging a person’s face. Flying Meat offers a 14-day free trial of Acorn 5, but the full version is available both in the Mac App Store and on Flying Meat’s website for just $30.
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