Best pro photo editors for Mac 2018 It's no longer the case that Adobe is king when it comes to image editing and manipulation. We take a look at the best Mac photo editors for creative professionals. It's a free 3D graphics application and considered as one of the best free video editor for Mac. It can be used for modeling, rigging, texturing, UV unwrapping, skinning, animating, rendering, water and smoke simulations, particle and other simulations, non-linear editing, compositing, and creating interactive 3D. The best free photo editing software for Mac isn't lacking features. These image editors have high-quality features to help you create great pictures.
• Gold: Works as well as (or better than) on Windows with workarounds. Html editor for mac textedit. • Silver: Works excellently for normal use, but has some problems for which there are no workarounds.
Easiest to Dive In | |
Photography Plan | Photoshop Elements |
How We Found the Best Photo Editing Software Programs
5 programs tested
The Best Photo Editing Software Programs
Top rated photo editor. To find the best photo editing software, we pitted the best programs tech-giant Adobe has to offer (Photoshop, Lightroom, and Photo Elements) against three highly commended competitors to find out which one was user-friendly enough for beginners and powerful enough for professionals.
The 3 Best Photo Editing Software Programs
- Adobe Creative Cloud Photography Plan -
Most Powerful
- Serif Affinity Photo -
Easiest to Dive In
- Adobe Photoshop Elements 2018 -
Best for One-Click Editing
Adobe Creative Cloud Photography Plan
Access to Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC
Customizable image editing tools
Easy to learn
Why we chose it
Access to Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC
The Adobe Photography Plan combines two Adobe applications — Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC — into one bundle. Lightroom CC is Adobe’s dedicated photography software. If you’re working with large quantities of photos, you’ll want to take advantage of Lightroom’s organizational system: With it, you can rank photos out of five stars, tag photos, and edit information to keep track of where you took a photo. Subscribing to Lightroom CC (either on its own or as part of the Photography Plan) also gives iPhone and iPad users access to a mobile version of the software.
Photoshop CC, meanwhile, won’t do much to help you stay organized — but it has more advanced tools than Lightroom, like layers, masks, and customizable toolbars.
Customizable image editing tools
Photoshop has over sixty basic tools and customizations to choose from, in addition to its more advanced color, lighting, filter, and 3D tools (among others). These basic tools themselves are customizable, so you can do more than just correct red eyes; you can also specify how large, dark, or light you want pupils to appear. More advanced tools — everything from saturation and contrast to lens correction, liquefy, and RAW photo processing — are similarly customizable. Actions are also processed rapidly, allowing you to quickly assess whether your experiments are working.
Easy to learn
Despite the number of tools (and how easy it is to fall into the rabbit warren of adjustments and filters), we found Adobe surprisingly easy to use. You should expect a learning curve, since Photoshop is intended to be an extremely hands-on program, but Adobe supports you at every step. It has an abundance of online resources — a hidden benefit to choosing a company that’s been in the field for decades — and Photoshop CC particularly impressed us with its tutorials and guidance, helping us learn both terminology (what exactly the clone tool does) and technique (how to create and add to masks).
Hovering over the individual tools in Photoshop's left-hand bar pops up five-second gifs that demonstrate each tool — though you can easily change your settings and remove this feature once you get the hang of things.
Points to consider
Subscription service
Our only complaint about Adobe’s Photography Plan is that it’s a subscription service; you’ll sign up for a year-long contract and pay fees monthly rather than making a one-time purchase. While this subscription is significantly cheaper than the one-time purchase model that Photoshop used to follow (complete with a painful $1,500 price tag), if you cancel your subscription, you’ll lose access to all of the programs and tools, as well as any photos that remain in Adobe’s proprietary format. Make sure you’ve completely exported your library if you decide to cancel your contract.
Photoshop CC | |||
Photoshop CC | |||
Serif Affinity Photo
No organizational tools
Why we chose it
Easy to use
We were primarily drawn to Serif Affinity Photo because of how easy it was to use. Its customizable control panel initially appears overwhelming, with 22 adjustments options immediately available on your right-hand dashboard. However, each one is neatly packaged so that no matter what you want to do, you can quickly find and open the relevant folder.
Helpful presets
We also appreciated how Serif provides a number of immediate preset options on all of its effects. You can also manually adjust each effect for more control, but the presets offer a nice introduction for beginners.
One-time purchase
One of the keenest edges Serif Affinity has over Adobe’s Photography plan is that it’s a one-time purchase of $50, rather than a $10 or $20 monthly subscription. This means that, depending on your cloud storage needs (in turn based on how many photos you have and their editing needs), Serif Affinity becomes the more affordable plan after five months, possibly as early as three months.
Points to consider
No organizational tools
https://safelucky.netlify.app/vsdc-free-video-editor-for-mac.html. However, Serif Affinity’s budget plan comes with one significant drawback: It doesn’t offer any organizational tools. If you’re dealing with hundreds or thousands of photos that you need to organize, or would like to sort by place, date, or personalized keyword, you’ll want to consider Adobe’s Photography Plan or take a look at Photoshop Elements 2018.
Adobe Photoshop Elements 2018
One-click editing
Settings for different skill levels
Why we chose it
One-click editing
If you’re just trying to create, say, annual holiday cards, and the idea of learning new photo editing terms, tools, tricks, and techniques feels daunting, Adobe Photoshop Elements transforms the process into a few simple clicks — with a couple of sliders you can adjust if you’re feeling adventurous. That’s it. Photoshop Elements 2018 gives you high-quality photographs without a technical learning curve, so long as you stay within its predetermined adjustments.
Settings for different skill levels
We love that Photoshop Elements offers three tiers of photo editing: Quick, Guided, and Expert. Quick is simply that — with a few auto-adjustments, possibly a camera filter or picture frame, you can take your photograph from raw image to printer-ready. Guided gives you almost 50 options, where it will walk you through step-by-step the process of adjusting brightness, straightening or resizing a photo, or adding filters. Finally, the Expert mode lays out all of the program’s tools with minimal instruction.
Points to consider
Light on advanced editing tools
Even though the Expert mode of Photoshop Elements is more advanced than either the Quick or Guided modes, it doesn’t compete with our top picks. In addition to its clunky ‘90s-era design, it lacks all of the tools found in Photoshop CC or Serif Affinity Photo. That said, it could be a good introduction when you feel like trying out some additional techniques outside of the guided programs.
How to Find the Right Photo Editing Software for You
Decide what tools you need
Different types of image editing require different tools. No matter what you’ll be doing, you’ll want to know which ones you need for your most common projects — these functions might not be immediately necessary, but they’ll let you tackle tasks a little more complex than wiping away corgi footprints.
- Layers let you combine separate images or edit specific areas of a photograph. These are helpful if you’re trying to remove a photo-bomber from your wedding ceremony on the beach or swapping out the snowy background of your cute dog photo to send him floating through space instead.
- Applying a mask layer is another technique to isolate areas of a photo for specific editing. If you’d like to make changes to the background of your photograph without affecting the subject, or if you’d like to create a cut-out of a tiny dog from one photograph to layer him into a desert landscape in another, you’ll probably use a mask.
- Finally, preset filters let you adjust your photos with a single click. These could either take the form of a typical Instagram filter (you click “Black and White” or “Landscape” and it automatically alters your photo) or auto-adjustments on a tool-by-tool case.
Knowing what types of editing you’ll be using the software for will help you narrow down which tools are essential and which are just nice to have.
Test drive several options
All of our top picks offer a free trial, and we recommend taking full advantage of them. You probably know what you’re going to be using the software for, and now’s a good time to see how each of them perform on the type of image editing you need. Pay attention to the number of tools and effects provided, how easy they are to use, and the organization features of each program.
Determine how much you’re willing to spend
Prices for photo editing software vary a lot, and depending on what you’ll be using it for, you may not need to pay a premium. The most powerful tool on the market, Adobe’s Photography Plan, runs on a subscription model for $10 per month. If you don’t need all of that technical prowess, Serif Affinity will meet all your image editing needs for a one-time purchase of $50. There are even a number of free photo editing software options available if you don’t want to make any investment.
Photo Editing Software FAQ
In most situations, you should edit your photos in the raw camera format as opposed to a standard format like JPEG. The raw files will contain a lot more information about the picture, so you can be more precise in your editing. Once you’re ready to show it to the world, you can then convert it to a shareable format like JPEG or PNG.
You can download and install Photoshop on up to two computers, regardless of the operating system. However, you’ll only be able to use one Photoshop on one computer at a time.
Photoshop CC is the more powerful editing tool — you’ll need to manipulate multiple layers here — while Lightroom CC offers sorting and organizing features into its slightly more basic editing capabilities. https://safelucky.netlify.app/video-editor-for-mac-1068.html. Both programs offer preset filters as well, so you can adjust your photos to a preset perfection with only a few clicks. Adobe’s Photography plan includes both programs.
Best Free Photo Editor For Mac
The Best Photo Editing Software Programs: Summed Up
Our Other Software Reviews
Over the years, we’ve put just about every type of software imaginable through the ringer to find the best of the best. Check out some of our favorite reviews below:
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Fun and Easy Photo Editor
Paid version: PhotoScape X Pro
If you are a user of Windows XP, 7, Vista, or 8, please use PhotoScape 3.7.
English, Español, Português, Deutsch, Français, Italiano, 日本語, 简体中文, 한국어
Sierra 10.12, High Sierra 10.13, Mojave 10.14
Supports Photos Extension
English, Español, Português, Deutsch, Français, Italiano, 日本語, 简体中文, 한국어
PhotoScape X is an all-in-one photo editing software which provides photo-related features
such as Photo Viewer, Editor, Cut Out, Batch, Collage, Combine, Create GIF, Color Picker, Screen Capture, RAW images and More.
Try a variety of effects, filters and adjustments to make your own distinct style.
Apply film effect to get your own analogue feelings.
Apply light leak effect to turn out a boring and featureless photo into an astonishing photo.
240+ figures, and 1,000+ patterns | Watch video
- Viewer: Photo | Video | Audio Browser, Loupe View, Full Screen, Flag, Star Rating, Lossless Rotate, Share (Email,Twitter,Facebook), Metadata (Exif,IPTC,GPS) Viewer.
- Editor: 1,000+ Filters & Effects, Frames, Objects, Brushes & Tools, Rotate, Straighten, Flip, Resize, Crop, Circular Crop, Perspective Crop, Mask (Local Adjustments), Project.
- Cut Out: Remove the background from an image. (Magic Eraser, Lasso tool, Brush tool)
- Batch: Batch edit multiple photos.
- Collage: Merge multiple photos on the collage frame to create one final photo.
- Combine: Attach multiple photos vertically or horizontally to create one final photo.
- GIF Creator: Create Animated GIF.
- Print: Print photos.
- Screen Capture: Capture your screenshot and save it.
- Color Picker: Zoom in on images, search and pick a color.
- Split: Slice a photo into several pieces.
- Batch Format Change: Convert multiple images to another format at once.
- Batch Resize: Resize multiple images at the same time.
- Batch Rename: Change photo file names in batch mode.
- Filters & Effects: Magic Color, Miniature, Bloom, HDR, Surrealistic, Grayscale, Sepia, Badicoot, Black & White, Negative, Auto Levels, Auto Contrast, Sharpen, Blur, Add Noise, Film Grain, Reduce Noise, Despeckle, Soften Skin, Bokeh Blur, Dehaze, Shadows/Highlights, Point Color, Replace Color, White Balance, Vignette, Color Fill, Pattern Fill, Dilate, Erode, Curves, Levels, Color Balance, Channel Mixer, Selective Color, Hue/Saturation, Graident Fill, Gradient Map, Chromatic Aberration, Opacity, Enhance Document, Threadhold, Jitter, Edge, Emboss, Watercolor Pencil, Colored Pencil, Posterize, Cellophane, Newsprint, Dither, Stippling, Brush Strokes, Mosaic, Kaleidoscope, Triangles, Crystallize, Frosted Glass, Stained Glass, Glass Blocks, Illusion, Motion Blur, Zoom Blur, Radial Blur, Twirl, Wave, Underwater, Spot Light, Tiny Planet, Text Mask, Stretch, Scissor, Fisheye, Reflection, Perspective, Lens Correction, Transform, Warp, 3D Objects, 3D Planes, Brighten, Darken, Deepen, Vibrance, Clarity, Contrast, Saturation, Color Temperature, Tint, Exposure, Gamma Correction, Doge, Burn, Vivid, 80+ Films, 80+ Duotones, 100+ Light Leaks, 120+ Overlays, 40+ Old Photos, 40+ Dirt & Scratches, 40+ Textures, 20+ Lens Flares, and more. [Expand]
- Frames: 290+ Frames, 240+ Shapes, Borders
- Objects: 1,000+ Stickers, 240+ Figures, Image, Text, Text Warp, Magnifier, Arrow, Line, Rectangle, Rounded Rectangle, Circle, Object Transform, Object Mask
- Brushes & Tools: Draw | Scatter | Paint Brush, Paint Bucket, Mosaic Brush, Fix Red Eye, Mixer Brush, Spot Healing Brush, Liquify, Clone Stamp
- Photo Merge: Merge to HDR, Focus Stacking
- Photos Extension: Extension for Photos app (macOS 10.11+)
- Languages: English, Español, Português, Deutsch, Français, Italiano, 한국어, 日本語, 简体中文
* Version 3.0.2 (May 18, 2019)
* Version 3.0.1 (May 2, 2019)
* Version 3.0 (Apr 23, 2019)
- Added ‘Auto Color’ filter
- Added ’Surrealistic’ filter
- Added 26 Blurred Textures
- Added 210 Face and 60 Ball Stickers
- Added Margins option to Print tab
- Added Zoom (Actual Pixels) option to Preferences
- Added ‘Fit & Fill (Don’t Enlarge)’ option to Loupe View and Full Screen
- Improved Color Balance, Point Color, Replace Color, and Cut Out
- Improved RAW support
- Improved UI
- Fixed permission issue on macOS Mojave 10.14 (macOS)
- Fixed bugs
- Added Spot Light, Whites, Blacks, Colorize, and Remove Color Cast filters to Editor tab
- Added HDR, Whites, Blacks filters to Batch tab
- Added 'Focus Stacking' and 'Merge to HDR' to Viewer tab
- Added two more resize algorithms (Sharper, Nearest Neighbor)
- Added 150 Emoji and 117 Stationery Stickers
- Improved Lens Profile Correction, Fisheye, HDR, Auto Contrast, and Dehaze filters
- Improved Mask feature (Fill, Clear Mask)
- Improved Slideshow feature
- Support borderless printing (macOS)
- Improved UI
- Fixed bugs
* Version 2.8.1 (May 26, 2018)
* Version 2.8 (May 19, 2018)
- Added Color, Curve, Blur, Light filters to Batch tab
- Added 30 Figures
- Added 30 Blurred Textures
- Added 50 Light Leaks
- Added 38 Lights
- Added Jpeg Quality Preview Window
- Added “Show GPS Badge” option to Viewer tab
- Added “Outline Only” option to Text object
- Support 'Edit With” menu in Photos app (macOS 10.13+)
- Support Share Extensions (macOS)
- Support system “Share' menu (Windows 10 version 1803+)
- Support Text Templates
- Support Object Layers
- Support Jpeg Preview
- Improved Spot Healing Brush
- Improved Noise Reduction
- Improved Magic Color
- New Filters: Lens Profile Correction, Margin/Round Corners, Offset, and Border Line
- Shortcut: Space bar to compare
- Shortcut: Cmd+Wheel to zoom
- Improved UI
- Fixed bugs
* Version 2.7 (Dec 21, 2017)
- Added 'Cut Out' tab (Magic Eraser, Lasso tool, Brush tool)
- Added 'Collage Project' feature for later re-editing
- Added 'Magic Color' filter
- Added 'Paint Bucket' tool
- Added object context menu
- Added 'Print' menu to collage tab
- Added more metadata fields to text object
- Added 11 Draw Brushes
- Added 21 Scatter Brushes
- Support HEIC, HEVC (macOS 10.13+)
- Support Audio, Video files in Viewer tab
- Support Dual Loupe View
- Improved 'Replace Color' filter
- Improved Mask feature (Copy Mask, Paste Mask)
- Improved color profile support
- Improved RAW support
- Improved UI
- Fixed bugs
* Version 2.6.2 (Jul 16, 2017)
* Version 2.6.1 (Jul 15, 2017)
* Version 2.6 (Jul 06, 2017)
- Added Photos Extension (macOS 10.11+)
- Added Photo Management features (Flag, Rating, and Filtering)
- Added Edit Metadata, Paste Metadata, Edit Capture Time, Copy To, Move To, and Split menu
- Added Object Transform
- Added Text Warp (Arch, Arc, Circle, Bulge, Inflate, Squeeze, Flag, Fish, …)
- Added 20 Lens Flares
- Added 40 Old Photo Effects
- Added 150 Pixel Stickers
- Added Draw tool
- Added Filename Caption in Print and Combine tab
- Added “Stretch”, “Auto Rotate”, “Cell Border' options to Print tab
- Added more gradient styles
- Added drop shadow style to Image/Sticker object
- Added curve type to Arrow/Line object
- New Filters: Text Mask, Enhance Document, Kaleidoscope, Triangles, and Scissor
- Support Português, Français, and Italiano (English, Español, Português, Deutsch, Français, Italiano, 한국어, 日本語, 简体中文)
- Improved Gesture function in Loupe View and Full Screen
- Improved Sandbox support
- Improved RAW support
- Improved UI
- Fixed bugs
- Added “Save Project” feature to Editor tab for later re-editing
- Added “Load/Save Settings” menu to Batch tab
- Added Loupe View
- Added metadata fields to text object
- Added “Open with” menu
- Added Eraser brush
- Added 120 overlays, 40 textures, 42 dirt & scratches
- New Filters: Add Noise, Despeckle, Bokeh Blur, Pattern Fill, Opacity, Transform, Warp, 3D Object, 3D Plane
- Improved RAW support
- Improved Batch editor UI
- Fixed bugs
* Version 2.4 (May 20, 2016)
- New Filters: HDR, Dehaze, Reduce Noise, Hue/Saturation, Gradient Fill, Gradient Map, Color Fill, Posterize, Dither, Stippling, Brush Strokes, Frosted Glass, Stained Glass, Underwater, Tiny Planet, Stretch, Perspective, Chromatic Aberration, and Lens Correction
- New Tools: Bloom, Mixer Brush, Spot Healing Brush, and Liquify
- New Figure object
- Support Local Adjustments (Mask)
- Support RAW images (Please visit Mac OS Support: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205272)
- Support German and Simplified Chinese (English, Español, Deutsch, 한국어, 日本語, 简体中文)
- Sort by 'Date Taken'
- Added Perspective Crop option
- Added Crop option to Batch tab
- Added Arrow Style option
- Added 23 film effects, 55 frames, 20 shapes, 917 patterns, and 395 figures more
- Improved UI
- Fixed a possible crash when changing fonts
- Fixed bugs
Best Free Photo Editor For Mac Air
* Version 2.3 (Oct 28, 2015)- Redesigned User Interface of the Editor
- New Quick Menu
- New Filters: Film Grain, Channel Mixer, Tint, Threshold, Emboss, Swirl, Wave, Motion Blur, Zoom Blur, Radial Blur, and Glass Tile
- New Objects: Magnifier, Filter object (Mosaic, Jitter, Blur, Crystalize, and Newsprint)
- New Brushes: Dodge, Burn, and Sharpen
- Objects support styles of Outline, Drop Shadow, Outer Glow, and Gradient
- Added Open and Close menu to Editor tab
- Added Align and Snap functions for editing objects
- Added 17 more frames
- Support Spanish
- Fixed bugs
Gimp Photo Editor
- Easy and simple UI/UX
- Animated GIF playable on Viewer tab
- Memorize your last used tab
- Added a vibrance filter to Editor tab
- Added a circular crop option to Editor tab
- Added a watermark function to Create GIF tab
- Added 8 more light leaks, 130 more frames and 4 more patterns
- Added support for Japanese and Korean languages
- Upgraded in many ways
- Fixed bugs
Best Free Photo Editing For Macbook Air
- Added a 'Print' tab
- Added 80 more collage templates, 25 light leaks, 40 frames, 6 patterns
- Improved 'Bloom' filter
- Improved 'Rename' tool
- Fixed bugs
Best Free Photo Editor For Mac 2017
FUN AND EASY PHOTO EDITOR FOR MAC AND WINDOWS 10, PHOTOSCAPE X
E-MAIL: photoscapeteam@gmail.com
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