12 Best Free Photoshop Alternatives You Should Try

1

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is one of the most popular photo editing software out there used by both professionals to create and edit masterful images, and yours truly who just needs it for basic image manipulation. No matter which side of the fence you’re on, I’m sure you’ve at least tried Photoshop. However, due to Adobe’s Creative Cloud subscription (whopping $20.99/month), Photoshop can prove to be quite expensive for people just getting into photo editing. Plus, with the plethora of tools on offer in Photoshop, it can be quite tough to use. So, if you are looking for Photoshop alternatives that are easier to use or free for your Windows PC, Mac, Linux machine or even your Android or iOS device, well we have you covered with the best 15 rivals.

#Graphic Design Software #Image Editing #Digital Drawing And Painting 2 user reviews

2

Krita

Krita is a free tool like Photoshop that is almost as feature rich in the options it offers as Photoshop is. It also happens to be one of the tools that are highly recommended by people in online forums about photo editing and creative editing. Another thing I really like about Krita is the fact that it looks and feels very similar to Photoshop — the toolbars are arranged in a very similar way, it has a dark theme by default (but you can configure that if you want some other color scheme in the app).

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3

GIMP

Gimp has many issues. While you can make preset brushes, the brushes themselves to not have separate settings so you have to repeatedly load the formatting to each brush each time you swap. So say you are swapping to the eraser from the brush, has the same formatting as the brush. This is annoying and takes up a bit more time. I use Gimp to edit pictures I make on other alternatives. Gimp does give you the ability to edit as if you are using Photoshop but doesn’t have the drawing capability of other programs IMO just because of this tedious problem by itself.

#Photo Editing #Graphic Design Software #Digital Drawing And Painting 59 social mentions

4

Paint.NET

Paint.NET was originally developed to be a more powerful version of MS Paint and as such it brings a lot of the features from MS Paint. While Paint.NET is nowhere near as powerful as Photoshop, it brings a lot of features that make it a viable alternative for people looking for a free Photoshop alternative for Windows. Paint.NET supports layers with blending modes which is one of the most used features in Photoshop. It also has a history tool that can come in handy to quickly undo multiple edits in a project. Basically, it’s a very well rounded tool for image editing even though it’s not as powerful as Photoshop can be when used properly.

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5

Seashore

Seashore is another Photoshop alternative that’s aimed solely at Mac users. It brings some important features from Photoshop including support for layers. The app also supports pressure sensitivity, so if you’re using a pressure sensitive drawing tablet, you’ll be able to make full use of its pressure levels. Personally, I found Seashore to be more easy in terms of beginner-usability, and it’s also completely free which is awesome.

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6

Pixlr Editor

One of the best online Photoshop alternatives out there, Pixlr editor does a remarkable job for editing photos. It brings a bunch of great and powerful tools that make it one of the best online Photoshop like software out there. Pixlr Editor comes with support for layers and blending modes, a lot of effects and filters, a history tool and even has the healing tool that a lot of Photoshop users love using.

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7

Pixlr

I would recommend BIMP for self-created master pieces and Pixlr for `Photoshop` mainly because after you master both Pixlr Express and Pixlr Editor you can do a lot of amazing stuff. (took my 8 curious months to master)

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8

Sumo Paint

Sumopaint is yet another online Photoshop alternative that you can consider using for projects that don’t necessarily need the level of complexity that Photoshop offers. Being an online tool, Sumopaint can be used on any machine you have and it does offer a bunch of great Photoshop like features. The tool brings support for layers and blending modes which is a very useful feature for projects that are more than just resizing and cropping.

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9

PicMonkey

There are also a bunch of filters and effects that you might find useful. However, PicMonkey isn’t nearly as feature-rich as Photoshop is, and it tends to respond a little slow at times. That said, the biggest problem in PicMonkey is that unless you subscribe to a pro subscription, you’ll not be able to export your images..

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10

Affinity Photo

Affinity Photo is a very popular image editing application that’s every bit as powerful as Photoshop is and is definitely one of the best paid Photoshop alternatives out there. The app brings a ton of cool and useful features including tools like the Pen tool, rulers, guides, and grids. It also has the healing tool, the clone tool, and most other tools you’d find in Photoshop. It also has support for layers with blending modes and a lot more. However, the app isn’t cheap and you’ll have to pay a one-time price of $49.99 to get it.

#Graphic Design Software #Digital Drawing And Painting #Photos & Graphics 32 social mentions

11

Pixelmator

Pixelmator is a macOS only photo editing tool that brings with it a ton of Photoshop like features and tools, and it also supports some of the latest features that Apple has brought to macOS such as editing and exporting images stored in the High Efficiency Image File format. There are the usual features like support for layers and blending modes, a plethora of tools to use for editing the images, support for live previews and SVG files. I also love the interface of Pixelmator and find it to be quite a lot better than Photoshop’s UI. However, it’s a very Mac-oriented interface so you might not like it as much as I do.

#Art Tools #Illustrations #Image Editing

12

Photoline

PhotoLine is an image editing software that brings quite a bit of great features to Windows and macOS systems. The overall UI of the software is decent but not great, however, it brings support for layers and blending modes, rulers and guides, along with a bunch of great effects and filters. The app also supports drawing vector images so if that’s something you need, this is definitely the app for you. PhotoLine is available to try for free for 30 days, however, you’ll have to pay to continue using it past that time.

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If you’re using an iOS device, PhotoWizard is definitely one of the most powerful free apps you can use to edit photos. The app doesn’t come with support for layers, but it brings a lot of powerful features you probably won’t find on other Photoshop alternatives for iOS. There’s a histogram, motion blur, gaussian blur, curve editing, masking and a lot more. The app is definitely a pretty powerful app for iOS devices, plus the masking feature works really well.