Apple's Photos for Mac is great, but it can be limiting. Looking for an alternative photo editor for the Mac? Here's our pick of the best free or low-cost photo editing software for macOS. Adobe Photoshop Elements. Where you can use it: Mac and Windows Why we love it: While not truly a free photo editor, Photoshop Elements does have a free trial, and it’s far and away among the best photo editing software for Mac and Windows.The suite of automated editing tools — including for exposure, color balance, and reducing the effects of camera shake — make short work of the. As for a free photo editing software for Mac, Fotor offers enough features for basic tasks (roughly ⅓ of full functionality). Touch Up feature is designed to edit selfies – use the assistant to delete black dots, brush for smoothing, or copy certain areas. Different brushes for makeup effects are available in the Make Up tab.
Apple's Photos for Mac is great, but it can be limiting. Looking for an alternative photo editor for the Mac? Here's our pick of the best free or low-cost photo editing software for macOS. Gimp (Free) Gimp is a free open-source photo editing app that has been on the market for over 22 years and is available for Windows, Mac, and even Linux. Unlike many free apps, Gimp doesn’t have any ads or in-app purchases. Its grey interface might seem a little old-fashioned and it may be a bit sluggish when it comes to complex effects, though.
You can use free image editors as a launchpad before you jump on the pro packages. As a novice, you might be interested in creating greeting cards or social media posts. For your perusal, we have listed some of the best free photo editors for Mac. Let’s explore the list, which can work on your Mac like Photoshop.
What Are The Best Free Photo Editing Mac Apps in 2020?
#1. Apple Photos
Apple’s stock app offers you great editing tools to resize, crop, collage, zoom, warp your images. And once you edit your pictures, you can create GIF of the same. A glaring feature of the Apple Photos app is it allows you to store all your images and edits in iCloud. Thus, you can quickly access all your photos and pictures on other Apple devices like iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV.
![Free Free](https://img.movavi.com/movavi.com.12/screens/picture-editor/33/en/4.jpg)
Smart Sliders helps you edit images like a pro, even if you are a beginner. By using the markup tool, you can add text, shapes, sketches, or signature to your images. And last but not least, you can turn Live Photos into a funny video to share on your social media pages.
#2. GIMP
For more than 20 years, GIMP has continuously been one of the best raw image editors for Mac. This GNU Image Manipulation Program was developed for Linux, but since it is open-source, you can use its tools on your Mac computers. If you are in a creative field of digital media and advertisement, you can use your imagination to create the most elegant images.
This software supports multiple languages like C, C++, Perl, Python, Scheme, and others. Whether you are working for digital or printed media, you can always get high-fidelity color reproduction by using high-quality color management features.
#3. Fotor Photo Editor
BBC mentioned this app as lite Photoshop. This probably sums up everything. With many other testimonials, Fotor is your reliable companion if you want to use lots of editing options and effects. This app is primarily divided into four main features: portraits touch up, batch, collage, and photo editing.
You can adjust exposure, brightness, contrast, white balance, and saturation. Further, Fotor helps users sharpen/blur, highlight, add a vignette, or film grain of the image. Check its flexible text editing tool, which allows you to adjust text fonts, size, and color.
#4. PhotoScape X
This is your all-in-one image editor that comes with countless features to create and edit the best photo on your Mac. For your social media posts, you can take any picture and remove the background. Although this one is a nasty trick, you should give credit to the original image source.
One of the significant features of PhotoScape X is you can use this software in international languages like English, Spanish, Português, Dutch, French, Italian, and languages of some eastern countries.
#5. Photo Image Editor Pixelstyle
Pixelstyle can overwhelm you with its repertoire of features. However, as a beginner, you can quickly filter your requirements and pick features of this software. Among its more than a dozen filters, you will be impressed by a few like copying elements or layers, gradient filling, cloning, smudging, image resizing, and others.
Red-eye is one of the notorious killers of picture quality. Thankfully, Pixelstyle has a tool to remove red-eye from your photos. For amateurs, this software offers fantastic photo adjustments to adjust brightness, contrast, hue, and white point. What is the microsoft word on mac.
#6. Polarr
Whether you are a pro editor or a learner of creative arts, Polarr has something to impress you. For novices, Polarr has auto-enhance tools and high-quality filters to go into details of photos. For pro users, they can explore layer support, curve tools, local adjustments, and other features.
If you compare Polarr with Photoshop, you will find the former more accessible and intuitive. By using watermark support, you can be the sole owner of your creation. Since it works offline, you don’t need a constant Internet connection.
#7. Paint S
Paint S is arguably the best image editing tool for social media professionals, who frequently have to add text to images. Apart from adding text, you can also crop, rotate, and scale images easily. The software’s ability to support layers allows you to re-edit your images freely.
A notable feature of this software is you can save your images in several formats like TIFF, JPEG, PNG, BMP, and many other popular formats. To make your photos more attractive, Paint S helps you select and remove unwanted elements.
#8. Gravit Designer
Gravit Designer is the most modern photo editor for Mac. Whether you are a novice or a professional, you can explore its features to create killer marketing communication (including websites, icons, UI design, presentations) or you can use it to design concept art. The interface is intuitive and neat.
The software offers more than 40 effects and 28 blending modes, which is one of the hightlights. Among other smart features of Gravit Designer are powerful text engine, out-of-the-box web fonts, assets & design templates, multiple export formats, and more.
That’s all, folks!
Wrapping up…
I hope the above apps will push you to the next level, and once you achieve that proficiency, you can use premium photo editors on your Mac.
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Would you like to add something to this list of free picture editor for Mac? Share your feedback with us in the Comments section below.
Nikhil runs iGB’s official YouTube channel. He is the official lensman of iGB and GB’s small studio is Nikhil’s playground, where he does all wonders with his remarkable signature. When Nikhil is not in his studio, you may spot him in a gourmet restaurant, chomping his way through some delicious food. He is a great traveler, who can go for long drives in search of good food.
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Remember when we sent off our tiny rolls of film to be developed? These days, powerful photography is a mere click away with the incredible photo editing software available for personal computers and smartphones. Try your hand at photography for personal or professional use using Polar Photo Editor. A feature-packed and impressive editing tool.
If you are looking to touch up some photos without the expense or large footprint of professional programs like Adobe Lightroom, then check out this app. For a free and lightweight program it is a remarkably empowering tool. From the basic functions of cropping and color correction to curve adjustments and haze removal. An award-winning app that is said to be one of the best free photo editing tools on the market.
The one-stop photography shop for beginners and pros alike
Thorough toolbox for efficient editing
Today even a simple photo editing app can transform your photos using auto-enhance features and inbuilt filters. Why go to the trouble of downloading a new app? Polarr Photo Editor for Mac has a free version that will give you more powerful tools for complex photo editing, without your bank account or hard drive taking the hit of bigger paid programs.
Crop, edit or add text to your photos using the inbuilt tools. You can also customize your own filters (and save them for future use) or select one of the comprehensive library of tools on the menu on the right hand side. Make adjustments to the color, play around with the exposure and add highlights, a vignette, or a border. The drop-down menu of tools on the right is encyclopedic – add photorealistic effects, radial or gradient masks, change the perspective, or amount of “noise”. You can use the curve tool to radically change the color balance or make more subtle edits with the temperature or saturation tool.
Instead of walking you through the features of this program (which are in abundance) let’s see where this app stands ahead or behind of its competitors.
Compared with industry behemoths Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop, this app is lightweight and easy-to-use. This may come at the price of lacking some complexity offered by the others. The free version of Polarr Photo Editor does not give you the option of adding or removing layers for example. Nevertheless, for only 44.9 MB of space (both Lightroom and Photoshop are over 1GB) you get a huge array of editing options in a sleek and simple user interface. When you install the app you can choose the “Express” for personal use or “Pro” version, and then select to view it in Light, Dark or Dark+.
Compared with Photoshop, this app was refreshingly uncluttered and intuitive. Open a photo with the upward facing arrow, save your image with the downward arrow below. For personal photo editing you have all the tools you need and more, and you can tailor your own menu on the right with the instruments you want quick access to. For first-timers to the program or photography beginners there is whole library of short tutorials and links to online resources. The tutorials offer a succinct snapshot of the program features with clear and illustrated examples. You can personalize the app with keyboard shortcuts, and if you choose to go Pro then there is the possibility of family sharing between six accounts.
When you have finished editing your photo you have the option of adding a watermark, logo, or metadata like the artist name or copyright. Unlike Windows Photos however there is no geotagging or keywords and the shadows and highlights tool has a shorter range.
This is not the only area where Polarr Photo Editor falls short however. The “sharing” button is pretty limited. On the Mac version you can only share your photo through Mail, Message, Airdrop, or you can add it to your Photos (there is no button for instant upload to social media platforms). Also if you are using the free version be wary of what tools you use; edit with “Pro” tools and you will have to upgrade in order to save your photo.
Where can you run this program?
Polarr Photo Editor is multiplatform. The app is supported on Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems, and both Android and iOS devices. You will need Windows 8, 8.1, or 10. For Apple users, Mac OS X v10.9 or up. The program is also optimized for Windows 10 tablets so you can use touch screen. For mobile devices you will need Android 4.2 or iOS 10.0 with at least 512 RAM.
Is there a better alternative?
For more complex photo editing then the Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop are the most popular programs – for a reason. Both offer options for geotagging your photos and an even greater range on tone contrasts and shadows. Software such as Adobe Lightroom Classic, or Dx0 PhotoLab are the programs of choice for professionals for their vast range of enhancement features and in-depth edits. You will need to pay however as all these programs come with stiff price tags. For budget alternatives the Google Photos Editor is a surprisingly powerful unsung free option that allows you to enhance images or organize them into collages.
If you are looking to edit photos from your smartphone Photorr is an insane armory of editing tools. Radically improve and correct your photos right from your phone and it is entirely free.
Our take
As photo editing software goes, Polarr is far from perfect. It could be improved by an auto-enhance tool to give you a basic leg up before you start editing and the limited sharing option is frustrating. That said, for a free program you would be hard to beat this app. It supports a whole range of images and allows for RAW camera import. There are tons of ready-made filters available and if you are new the editing game then the tutorials will get you familiar with the program in no time at all. The Express version will allow for complex editing like dehazing photos or distorting the lens to add a wide angle or fish-eye effect. For even more features there is a paid upgrade, but the free version is pretty thorough.
Should you download it?
Whether you simply want to tweak some photos, or you are a budding professional this is an ace program full of editing options. Do download it and see it for yourself, it won’t cost you anything!
Best Free Photo Editing Software For Mac
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