Free photo editing software for Mac 4: Pixen Pixen is a free graphics editor for Mac OS X and is very good for animation and pixel based editing. Its features include layers capability, title view, animation features, etc. Free photo editing software for Mac 5: Picasa Picasa serves as the perfect photo editor, photo viewer, photo manager and photo sharing tool.

• Best Free Photo Editing App For Macbook Air
• Free Mac Photo Editor Download
• Free Photo Editor For Mac

• There’s no argument — Adobe Photoshop remains the best photo-editing application on the market. A look at the best free photo-editing software on the market, each of which provides much of.
• Best Photo Editor Apps for Mac. 1] Photoshop CC. It doesn’t matter what kind of editing you want to do or whether you are a professional photographer or a newbie who wants to start photo editing, you can certainly use Photoshop, which has proved to be the best photo editing software for Mac. Although this is a paid software, the vast majority of people use this tool because of available features, accessibility, ease of use, affordable price and so on.
• Best for: Hands-off photo editing, instant effects, filter lovers. If you want an app that’ll hold your hand through the editing process, or perhaps just do it all for you, Aviary is a good choice. It features a ton of instant enhancements for specific scenes like night shots and pictures of food.
• 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.
• Asking which is the best pixel-based photo editor for Mac OS X may sound like a simple and straightforward question, however, it is a more complex question than it may at first seem. There are lots of factors to consider when deciding which is the best photo editor and the importance of the various factors will vary from user to user.

There is a plenty of image editing softwares for MacOS, but it`s really challenging to pick up truly the best photo editing app for Mac. In this article we selected 10 best photo editing apps, some of them are paid, some photo editing apps are free, but each and every one will let you edit your images successfully and easy.

At first glance, it may be difficult to find the best free photo editor for a phone or Mac of the same level as those apps developed by Adobe Co. But there is a plenty of photo editing Mac apps and you have to browse a little and pick up what`s best for you. Take your time reading this article about Top 10 best photo editing apps for Mac.

1. DxO OpticsPro for Photos

Official website: DxO
Alternatives: Fotor, PhotoScape, Lightroom Classic

• A simple user-friendly interface
• Lens correction with a huge base of cameras + lenses combinations
• Good photo retouching features
• Deep color correction
• No advertising

• Dark dots and lines on contrasting borders may appear

A family of DxO products aimed at images editing. The main feature of this application is that it has a huge database of “camera - lens” combinations, named “profile” by the developer. Currently, the number of these profiles already exceeds 40,000, and this data supports the program to accomplish what others cannot. DxO OpticsPro for Photos is a basic powerful photo editor with the considered Lightroom-like interface, but as for me, it looks more like Adobe Premiere.

In addition to all the standard tools for basic image editing, I like the Lens Sharpness correction module, it replaces the previous filter version used by DxO and called Lens Softness. Based on the knowledge of the subject area, this feature allows overcoming the “softness” of the lens and adding micro contrast to the objects in the image. Particularly evidently, the filter works for noisy photos shot at high ISO, although it brings positive effect to mostly clear photos as well.

Another interesting tool is Repair: the same “magic eraser” that allows you to remove wires from your pictures, unwanted people, dirt and many other wasteful things. Retaining the old simplicity, the new Repair demonstrates the markedly improved algorithms of photo retouching, allowing no trace of “withdrawn” larger objects.

In fact, the tools that I have never seen before, and which is very handy for quick fixes in the editing are here, quite a lot. Should be mentioned, when it comes to speed, the DxO Photo Lab - is the fastest app for editing photos on your phone. The process of working with the program can be minimized: immediately after selecting photos “Photo Lab” loads the appropriate profile and implements the default settings, and here is the thing you should praise this application for – they are composed very reasonable, and their action resembles a button to “magic”. Overwhelmingly, you can even leave all other features untouched, you just need to select the photos that you want to improve, and click on the “magic” button.

2. Photoshop Elements

Official website: Photoshop Elements
Alternatives: Lightroom CC, GIMP, Paint.NET

• The ability to retouch with the same performance as in Photoshop
• Easy to learn
• Supports almost all known RAW formats
• Plenty of tutorials

• Some photo editing aspects are unclear
• Same old interface

Adobe Photoshop Elements is an Adobe Photoshop portfolio program that was designed for photo editing and holds its position among the best apps for mac photo editing tightly. If you are not going to seriously turn your hobby for photographing into a professional activity, then there is no point in studying all the options Photoshop offers. (view more about how to get Lightroom for free or download Photoshop free). The Adobe Photoshop Elements interface is significantly different from the “original” one. It is simpler in some features, but this does not make it too easy to understand. Thanks to the brand-new features, the new frames and new bookmarks it takes time to get familiar with these complex functions, but it is still simpler than Photoshop. The absence of some functions from the original does not mean you cannot process the photo with the same high performance.

Large colorful tool icons with clear and understandable, comprehensive text and graphics tips help both beginners and experienced users. The workspace is organized the same way as most Adobe products but is focused on the “home” user — that is, full of smart tips and controls. Same to other Adobe products, you can customize everything up to your taste, combining toolbars and panels in a way most convenient for you. Adobe Photoshop Elements contains all the most popular and necessary tools, such as intelligent selection of areas, scaling and cropping images, correction adjusted to the background image, restoration of damaged parts, and so on. Plus, complemented by special automatic tools that are only available within Photoshop Elements and not in the main version of Adobe Photoshop.

3. Pixelmator Pro

Official website: Pixelmator
Alternatives: Polarr, PhotoScape, Ribbet

• Quick pick and recovery tools
• The Apple Core ML toolkit improves photo editing learning
• Very flexible features for working with RAW photos

• A dark interface with monochrome elements is occasionally inconvenient
• Not all features are flexible in usage
• The limited ability of data export from other apps

The original version of Pixelmator is, perhaps, one of the brightest success of third-party developers for the macOS. To succeed by releasing a photo editor, when Adobe itself is the main competitor offering the app for a single platform?

Setting Photoshop, it throes user into the extreme number of tool panels, Pixelmator Pro`s interface is neat and understood. It is simple enough to be user-friendly and even primitive, which provides the excellent user experience. An amazing feature that Pixelmator Pro offers is the naming of layers imported from external files by their content. This is provided by the means of neural network. Similar technology is involved with selection tools, allowing you to more accurately find the boundaries of objects, erase, offering improved performance when removing unnecessary parts of the image.

Pixelmator Pro uses all the latest advantages of Apple native computer hardware and software environment and therefore requires the latest macOS version. It is thanks to deep integration with Apple's graphics API that allows Pixelmator Pro to manage amazing real-time tricks, for example, highlighting areas that will be selected using “smart selection”. The same smooth and natural effects accompany the user through the entire interface: moving and distributing objects into layers, drawing with brushes, applying effects - everything happens right before our eyes, with high sensitivity, and at high FPS rates. Some tools (color correction, layer styles and effects) now have “recipes” – they are profiles of preset or saved settings.

Pixelmator is perfectly integrated into macOS: file versions, a full-screen mode and split-screen mode, export and import options, TouchBar support – all this is done at a level appropriate satisfy even the most naughty Mac users.

4. Affinity Photo

Official website: Affinity Photo
Alternatives: Lightroom CC, Photoshop Express, Pixelmator

• The program is easy to use
• Requires a little space at your hard disk
• The announced fee of $50 is quite affordable
• Functionality is sufficient enough to replace Photoshop

• No replacement of “actions” for the recording of repetitive actions
• Rough reaction to the sliders

As Photoshop keeps leading positions among the best photo editing apps for Mac desktop, Affinity Photo is its worthy competitor. The software is offered for one time $50 payment with no subscriptions or any other stuff required. The first start can be confusing as it resembles Photoshop interface a lot. It has almost the same style and design, but further examinations uncover a lot of unique peculiarities.

The most outstanding among them is segregation of editorial process into stages like in Lightroom. There are five of them: Photo, Develop, Liquify, Tone Mapping and Export. The Photo section contains basic photo editing elements and anyone will hardly be surprised by it. Layers, masks and image correction tools: starting from exposure up to manipulations with colors on the HSL-panel. The Develop section is handy for the RAW files processing. It resembles Adobe Camera Raw a lot.

Liquify adapted to correcting and imposition of distortions, Tone Mapping activates HDR effects for image processing. Another Affinity Photo feature is the smart Assistant. With it, you can “program” the app to react to actions. Affinity Photo is still a “young” application that regularly receives complex updates.. The two-week trial is offered by the developer, so try it now, you might even forget about Adobe Photoshop Express after it!

5. PhotoScape X

Official website: PhotoScape
Developer: MOOII Tech
Alternatives: Fotor, Photoshop Elements

• Perfect optimization for Mac
• Totally free
• Supports many most known RAW formats

• Quality loss after saving
• Minor bugs

This is probably the most Photoshop-like application for the Mac, which can be downloaded from the App Store and is considered to be one of the best free Mac apps for photo editing. PhotoScape has almost everything you might need to view, optimize, edit, print or just having some fun with photos. The main panel of the application offers all the necessary tools: images views, optimization of failed shots, printing of multiple photos on one page as a collage, or adding filters.

The application supports a variety of formats, including RAW too. This app carries so many features, many consider it as a complete and free alternative to Photoshop. Of course, the level of Photoshop is undeniably higher, but this software is really an excellent alternative to the front-runner like Adobe and turns editing photos into a very exciting experience. PhotoScape had an older version, but then it did not have such great features, and the interface was more old-fashioned, but PhotoScape X brought it closer to the level of perfection. The way this application inherits the modern minimalistic style of Adobe in dark colors is particularly noticeable, and this makes PhotoScape X rock.

6. CameraBag Photo

Official website: CameraBag Photo
Alternatives: Affinity Photo, Pixelmator, Fotor

• A great number of presets
• Quick and easy photo editing
• Support of RAW

• It lacks most of the key tools
• Lack of color space analysis
• The need to download codecs for Windows

CameraBag Photo is a tool for editing photos without unnecessary functions, offering the user about 200 pre-installed filters and the ability to customize any filter to your taste. The interface is simple and intuitive to use. On the right side, you’ll find a complete set of filters and common customization tools. This makes it much easier to choose a preset but does not make it easy to use it. The bottom panel displays customizable settings to make color correction of your photos. The thing I personally find useful in CameraBag Photo is the preview of the image folder for applying of a specific preset or tool, for example, B&W converting. I can easily see which of the photos in this folder looks better with this preset. From the user's point of view, CameraBag Photo does not resemble Adobe product at all.

When we talk about the bad things in CameraBag Photo, it lacks the tool to reduce noise. So you should avoid it in case you do specialize in freeze light. There is also no perspective correction or tools that can replace it. CameraBag Photo has serious limitations: lack of evaluation of color space. In addition, unlike working on a Mac, for Windows, you must have the appropriate “codec” preinstalled to convert RAW. Codecs for many old cameras come with Windows, but for the latest cameras, you may have to buy a codec.

7. Luminar

Official website: Luminar
Alternatives: Photoshop Express, Fotor, PhotoScape

• Layers and masks editing almost at the level with Photoshop
• Supports blend modes
• Many filters and presets

• The alignment tool for verticals in Lightroom is more convenient
• Lacks a Warp tool
• No copyright adding to the photo

Luminar 2018 offers most of the features that a modern amateur photographer needs for photo editing. It has new filters, increased application speed and a dedicated RAW processing module. Luminar adapts for a handier workflow by means of adaptive toolbars and feature sections.

Luminar 2018 app has been restructured and developed from scratch to speed up it. Latest filters combine more natural, rich and deep colors. The program offers basic tools like layers, masks and blending modes, so you can easily cope with complex and creative photo retouching. Luminar 2018 runs a new RAW processor that can operate high-resolution images in a shorter time. What I like the most is lens distortion correction features. This app has over 40 filters for color, sharpness and detail correction. New filters include the ability to enhance color with Brilliance, selectively brighten or darken certain areas of an image with Dodge & Burn, as well as the ability to change lighting and add sun rays to a photo with sun rays.

8. Fotor

Official website: Fotor
Customers feedback: Fotor reviews
Alternatives: iPiccy, BeFunky, Photoscape

• Very intuitive interface
• Free
• Wide selection of presets
• Advertising free
• Works with RAW

• Some features are limited
• Creates noise while working with image
• Low image retouching features

Fotor for Mac is recognized for its web version. Later as the company developed, they created an application for phones, Mac and Windows. It`s one of the best free photo editing apps for Mac, with an option to extend to Fotor Pro version, but the app does not require it and you will not see any built-in ads there. The range of tools is pretty wide, quite common and basic. Photo editing, cropping, text editor, various elements and more profound options like color correction, image retouching, textures along with the use of presets are all on board.

The program has four operating modes: Photo Editor, Touch Up, Collage and HDR, which generate a lot of space for work. Worth saying, Fotor supports manipulations with RAWs, which is rarely offered by free apps for photo editing. The app adds lots of noises to the image while I`m working with it, but they all vanish after saving the photo. Excellent presets are available, the variety is outstanding and quality is much higher than many best photo editing apps provide. Sincerely speaking, the retouch quality is less than average, but if you just need slings corrections of small defects of the skin, background, or just add shadows, then Fotor will cope with this very easily and conveniently.

9. Movavi Photo Editor

Official website: Movavi
Alternatives: Fotor, Lightroom CC, BeFunky

Best Free Photo Editing App For Macbook Air

• Easy to use
• Intuitive user interface
• Primitive and elevated tools selection

• Not great value for the money, both commercial and business versions
• There`s a lot of space to improve the feature set

Movavi Photo Editor is a fast, simple and fairly functional image editor compared to most photo editor apps. It is like the mix of Photoshop, Lightroom and Pixelmator. This is a program with quite impressive photo enhancement features, with an elegant interface and effective workflow. Guide and tips help in onboarding – they are much more informative than in the Photoshop, so you get used to the interface elements shortly after you start using it. The photo editing app itself is functional enough for people who have no desire to study Lightroom or other similar photo editing softwares.

The great feature in Movavi Photo Editor is the “restoration” of old photos. It automatically removes scuffs and scratches. The function is based on neural networks technology. This means that with each following upgrade it is to edit photos even better because it is trained on the basis of previously edited materials. The only thing that “Restoration” cannot do is to add color to black and white photos. But if the photo turned yellow with time or was in sepia originally, then it will turn black and white after using “Restoration” tool.

After a few days using Movavi Photo Editor, it became clear that the photo app for Mac is designed for those who want to quickly edit photos on the non-professional level without additional actions taken. It does not replace both Photoshop and Lightroom, or analogues developed by Affinity Co.

10. Polarr

Official website: Polarr
Alternatives: Movavi, BeFunky, InPixio

• Easy to use
• Each filter is customizable

• Too limited in work

Polarr is a photo editor that has professional tools, but this application is simple and user-friendly. There is a large number of features, but it does not overload the app. There are internal purchases offered, but all the key features are free so it can be compared to any of the listed photo editor app free here. For those who do not want to do color correction manually, there are filters. Worth saying that filters in this software are not just covered effects, instead they are implemented as the quick setting of image parameters.

As for the functionality of the photo editing app in general, it supports work with most image formats available, including RAW, provides a set of color correcting masks, filters, curves, gives users access to a variety of tools that allow managing hue, brightness, clarity, sharpness, balance tone, blur etc. In the matter of fact, it takes some time to deal with all the features Polarr Photo Editor offers, but taking into account the great variety of tools, the interface looks pretty light and laconic. The developer visually divided mainframe into two parts sharing all the tools and feature icons between them, so that user can focus on the image while being supported by all features available at a glance.

Your iPhone takes beautiful photos, but the right apps can make them even better. Most photographers accept post-production as a part of their workflow, but a lot of the time our smartphone images miss out on this important step.

There’s no shortage of solid photo editors for iPhone, and plenty of the options are free. Today we’ve rounded up our favorites including basic adjustment apps, quick fixers, whole-image manipulators, and more.

1. Photos

Best for: Quick edits, JPEGs, and sharing.

Your iPhone already comes with an impressive image editor, built right into the Photos app. Launch it, find a photo, and tap Edit in the top-right corner of the screen.

Here you can crop and rotate your image, apply filters, and adjust a wide variety of parameters. Rescue the highlights and shadows, adjust exposure and contrast, or convert to black and white.

Photos has its limitations, however. While it can handle RAW files, it only serves up lossy JPEGsJPEG, GIF, or PNG? Image Filetypes Explained and TestedJPEG, GIF, or PNG? Image Filetypes Explained and TestedDo you know the differences between JPEGs, GIFs, PNGs, and other image filetypes? Do you know when you should use one instead of the other? Fear not, MakeUseOf explains everything!Read More to other apps. That means you can’t make edits in Photos and export your RAW to other apps without first duplicating it.

2. Google Snapseed

Best for: All-round RAW and JPEG editing.

Google’s Snapseed is photo editing powerhouse on both iOS and Android. In 2016 the app was updated to support RAW editing, which makes it probably the best free image editor on the platform.

In addition to several filters, which Snapseed refers to as Looks, there’s a dizzying array of editing tools to choose from. These range from the basics to perspective shifts, selective coloring, instant HDR, and extensive monochrome filters and options.

The app controls nicely too. Just drag left and right to adjust a parameter’s strength, or drag up and down to change the parameter.

Download:Google Snapseed

3. Aviary Photo Editor

Best for: Hands-off photo editing, instant effects, filter lovers.

If you want an app that’ll hold your hand through the editing process, or perhaps just do it all for you, Aviary is a good choice. It features a ton of instant enhancements for specific scenes like night shots and pictures of food.

There’s also a healthy lineup of filters, and a lot more available for download once you’ve signed in with an Adobe ID. Most of the photo editing tools you’d expect are present, including highlight and shadow recovery, tinting, and white balance correction.

There’s also a few extra features that you don’t normally find, like the ability to add text and stickers to your image, and a “whitening” tool for teeth. There’s even a meme mode for adding text at the top and bottom of your images, making this a Swiss Army knife of mobile photo editing.

Download: Photo Editor by Aviary [No Longer Available]

4. Instagram

Best for: Instagram users, tilt-shift effects, filter lovers.

You’ll need an Instagram account in order to use the app, but you don’t necessarily need to post anything. If you only want to use the social media app for its editing tools and filter presets, you can!

Enable Airplane Mode on your iPhone before tapping Share, then wait for the upload to fail. Tap the X to cancel the upload, and you’ll find your image in your device’s Camera Roll.

Instagram’s tools are familiar and efficient. Since it’s the app that started the filter craze, the included presets are pretty good. It’s also one of the quickest way of applying tilt-shift or vignetting to an image. That said, there are plenty of reasons to use other photo editing apps over Instagram filters.

Download:Instagram

5. Adobe Photoshop Fix

Best for: A select few editing tools and quick fixes.

Adobe’s iOS lineup is largely crippled by a reliance on Creative Cloud and no “proper” version of apps like PhotoshopWe Need to Talk About the iPad Pro's App ProblemWe Need to Talk About the iPad Pro's App ProblemAre you a professional who is thinking of picking up the new iPad Pro? Don't do anything till you've read this.Read More for iPad Pro. Lightroom has a good set of editing tools, but if you want to make any real use of it you’ll need to pay for a Creative Cloud subscription.

Photoshop Fix doesn’t try to be a full-fledged photo editor, but it does a select few tasks well. Two standout features are the liquify tool, which allows you to blend and stretch images for subtle or wacky adjustments, and the defocus mask, which is perfect for faking depth of field in your shots.

There’s a healthy range of the usual exposure, contrast, and saturation adjustment sliders, plus spot healing and red eye removal. However, it has no support for RAW editing.

Download:Adobe Photoshop Fix

6. Prisma

Best for: Weird and wonderful transformations.

Prisma is an app unlike any other here. When you load an image in Prisma, it sends that image to a server where it’s converted into a particular style of art. These styles are modeled on great artists like Picasso and Matisse, but also venture into comic book and futuristic territory.

You can adjust the strength of the filter, which is fortunate since the app produces a mixture of impressive and slightly-off images. Some filters produce images that really look like computer-generated artwork; others transform images into something weird and wonderful.

Prisma has some of its features locked behind a premium subscription. If you want more styles, unlimited HD renders, and an ad-free experience, you’ll need to cough up $3 per month.

Download:Prisma

7. Lens Distortions

Best for: Faking weather effects and retro lenses.

Free Mac Photo Editor Download

This app is all about emulating the look of fancy glass, weather effects, and lighting. It also includes some basic photo editing tools, and uses layers to blend various effects together.

Free Photo Editor For Mac

In addition to lens distortions, like blurs and flares, the app includes bokeh balls, fog, rain, snow, and shimmering effects. You can adjust the intensity, position, and scale of the effects as you see fit. It’s a great step toward achieving that vintage photography feel on any image that’s already on your iPhone.

To unlock even more effects and filters you can subscribe for $1 per month. You can also expand the various categories by buying packs outright if you’d rather pay once and keep forever.

Download:Lens Distortions

8. VSCO

Best for: RAW capture and editing, filters.

You’re going to either love or hate VSCO’s abstract, minimalist interface. To its credit, the app has improved over the years with better labels on its editing tools and a more straightforward approach to image editing.

It’s also the only app on this list capable of capturing RAW imagesThe Best Apps and Tips for Taking RAW Photos on Your iPhoneThe Best Apps and Tips for Taking RAW Photos on Your iPhoneIt's a feature most iPhone photographers have wanted forever, but you'll need the right app to get the job done.Read More. Tap on the camera and then change the image format to RAW to capture four times as much data every time you press the shutter (if these 12MB RAW file sizes are anything to go by).

The app brings Instagram levels of complexity to RAW editing, with a number of filters included and more available with a VSCO X subscription ($20 per year).

Download:VSCO

The Power to Edit Photos in Your iPhone

If you’re serious about your photography, you should be shooting RAW. Support for the format, which captures and retains more detail than lossy JPEG, means you can push your images further in post-production.

Those who often take videos with their iPhone as well should look into investing in the best iPhone gimbalsThe 5 Best Gimbals for the iPhoneThe 5 Best Gimbals for the iPhoneIf you're after the best gimbal for iPhone, we can help. Here are the top gimbals for mobile videography available today.Read More for more stable video.

Explore more about: Image Editor, iOS Apps, Smartphone Photography.