The Best Free Photo Editor For Mac 2017

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Pixlr Editor was once available as a downloadable desktop app for Windows and Mac, but earlier this year its developer announced that the free photo editor would be going online-only.

Jul 25,2019• Proven solutions

  • Whether you shoot with a smartphone camera or a DSLR, you need software to get the most out of your images. Here's what you need to know to pick the best photo editing software.
  • The best free photo-editing software. The site separates its photo editing into Pixlr Editor (advanced) and Pixlr Express (efficient). The best Mac apps of 2018; The best iPhone apps.

Many people are looking of free Mac video editing software since they have tons of videos and are eager to edit the videos either for better presentation or preservation. Are there any free video editing software for Mac users that are really good? Many people ask this in forums. Here we compare some great Mac video editors, followed by the detailed information of each editor for your reference, and we also made a comparison table for Mac video editor in terms of video format, pros and cons of the 10 best free video editors for Mac. Check it out!

Updates: Are you also looking for video editors for Windows, Linux, mobile phone, or online? Check our latest post 36 Best Video Editors for All the Platforms.

Part 1: Best Free Video Editing Software for Mac Quick Comparison Table

We’ve summarized the features, pros and cons of these best video editing software for Mac users in the comparison table below. You can choose the best suitable one based on your editing skills and needs at the current stage.

Level Products Input formats Output formats Pros Cons
For beginners Apple iMovie DV, HDV, AVCHD, Apple Intermediate Codec, Motion JPEG/A, iFrame, h.264, MP4, MOV... H.264/MPEG-4, MOV, AVI, DV... Available on iPhone/iPad; Comptiable well with Apple ecosystem Audio is copyrighted
Avidemux 3GP, ASF, AVI, FLV, H263, JPEG, MKV, MP4, MPEG, MPEG4, MPG, and OGM AVI, FLV, M1V, M2V, MKV, MP4, MPEG, MPG, OGM and TS Clean and easy to use interface; Open source software without built-in purchase Exporting process is slack
OpenShot WebM, AVCHD, HEVC... MP4, AVI, MPEG... Provide free built in effects and animations; Support 3D title Buggy at times; Freeze and crash often
ZS4 Video Editor AVI, WAV, Image Files AVI, WMV, WAV, Jpg, Png More than 120 built-in video effects; unlimited tracks User interface is not friendly
HyperEngine-AV AVI, BMP, Cubic VR, DLS, DV, FLC... AIFF, AVI, BMP, DV Stream, FLC, MPEG-4... Includes twelve studio-quality effects; Create slide shows Discontinued to release new version
For semi-pros Kdenlive AVI, MP4, FFmpeg... QuickTime, AVI, WMV, MPEG... Open source software Not friendly for greenhands; Update slowly
Blender STL, ABC, FBX... FBX, DAE, ABC... Fast poly modeling tools; Customizable input Unintuitive layers system; Animation management is not smooth
For pros Davinci Resolve MP4, MOV, MTS, AVI... QuickTime, AVI, R3D, MXF, DPX... Learning curve is not steep; Offer advance color grading Single screen editing workflow is not friendly
Lightworks MPEG-2, AVC, RED R3D, DPX, Apple Pro Res... MPEG4/H.264 Package is lightweight; Only need 3GB RAM to use Effect library is limited
HitFilm Express H.264, AVCHD, QuickTime, AVI, M2T, M2TS, MTS, MXF H.264, Apple ProRes, AVI High level ideo effects compositor No motion graphics feature

From the above comparison table, we can see there are so many pros and cons in different aspects. However, you may want to take look at another software - Filmora9- before you decide to use the one you like. It is anexcellnt Mac video editor that can meet your basic and advanced needs.

Part 2: Best Free Video Editing Software for Beginners: Wondershare Filmora9 for Mac (Video Tutorial)

Wondershare Filmora9 for Mac offers some persuasive advantages over other video editing tools available for Apple Mac. It not only includes basic video editing tools but also provides various advanced video effects for you to apply. Below are some features that can help you understand the best Mac video editor. Download it now to have a try!

  • Supports almost all kinds of video formats, including MP4, AVI, MOV, AVCHD, MKV and more.
  • Complete all classic video editing like crop, trim, cut, split and combine in a few clicks.
  • Make your footage look like Hollywood film with color tuning tool.
  • Make good use of your music with Audio Mixer and Audio Equalizer.
  • Exclusive Action Cam Tool allows you to cut and merge large action cam footages within minutes.
  • Advanced video editing tools like Tilt Shift, Face off, Mosaic, Jump Cut, etc for you to explore.
  • Convert your edited to any popular video format or fit video to mobile devices.
  • Burn your own DVD collection or upload to YouTube and Vimeo instantly.
  • Up to 100 audio and video tracks to organize your project and layer media.
  • Make exciting GoPro/action cam videos with precise speed controls.

How to Edit Videos with Wondershare Filmora9 (originally Wondershare Video Editor)


Import Media Files

Upload media files from your computer or transport from all kinds of cameras, smart phones and elsewhere. Or directly drag-n-drop them to the program.


Edit Your Video

Easily complete basic video editing by clicking the icons above the timeline. Add different video effects and filters to personalize it. For advanced video editing, you can easily create green screen effects.


Save & Enjoy

Save your video in different formats, share via Vimeo, YouTube, burn to DVD and more.

Part 3: Top 10 Best Free Mac Video Editors for Beginners/Semi-pros/Professionals

We’ve done some research and found out the following free video editing software for Mac users. Some of them are for video editing novice, while some free video editing software are for professionals (but if you need to use the professional features, you may need to purchase the Pro version). Hope you can find the right video editor based on your needs from the following list.

Best Free Video Editing Software for Mac [Beginners]

1. Apple iMovie

iMovie comes with every new Mac (OS X) and you don't need to pay extra money for it. The latest iMovie 11 is a great and free video editor for Mac with many great features such as movie trailer, one step effect, audio editing, etc. And in just a few steps, you can share your movies to YouTube or export videos for your iPhone, iPad, etc. However, iMovie is only free if you buy a new Mac. And when getting started with iMovie, you will find it hard to master this software. All in all, iMovie is one of the best free video editing software for Mac users and receives good reputation. You can learn some iMovie video editing tips and trick at how to use iMovie.

Features:

  • Supports editing 4K video
  • You can also use it on iPhone/iPad
  • 10 video filters are for you

Pros: Available on iPhone/iPad; Comptiable well with Apple ecosystem

Cons: Audio is copyrighted, so you need to download royalty-free music by yourself

2.Avidemux

Avidemux is another great free video editor designed for simple cutting, filtering and encoding tasks. It is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, Linux and BSD under the GNU GPL license and supports a variety of video, image and audio formats, including AVI, DVD compatible MPEG files, MP4, MOV, ASF, JPG, AAC, AC3, etc. High compatibility with many video formats is the highlight of this free video editing software for Mac. You can also cut ads from a TV recording, or just save a small part of the video.

It also offers some filters to use, such as color correction. You can apply these filters to your video to make it more beautiful.

Features:

  • It supports AVI MP4 and ASF
  • Based on H.264 encoder

Pros: Clean and easy to use interface; Open source software without built-in purchase

Cons: Exporting process is slack, which means it will take longer time

3.OpenShot

OpenShot is a free, simple to use open-source video editor for Mac, Windows, and Linux. It is a good video editor for beginners to learn and train video editing skills. If you just want to mae some basic editing without having to spend too much time, OpenShot can be one of your best choices.

Apart from doing basic video editing, you can also render 3D animation. This free editor for Mac also supports more than 70 languages. No need to worry about the language barrier to stop you from editing video.

Features:

  • You can trim/slice video quickly
  • Show waveforms while editing
  • Offer templates to edit titles

Pros: Provide free built in effects and animations; Support 3D title

Cons: Buggy at times; It freezes and crashes often

4.ZS4 Video Editor

ZS4 Video Editor is a free video editor for Mac which provides media experts with a facility to combine a variety of media types into one (or more) output file(s). Besides Mac, it is also available for Windows and Linux. ZS4 Video Editor comes with over 150 built-in video effects which can help you bring your videos to the next level instantly.

More importanly, you can use it to combine various media files into one, like video, audio and photo. With this all-in-one editor, no more needs to install too many annoying apps.

Features:

  • You can edit photos, videos, and audio files
  • It is easy to use

Pros: More than 120 built-in video effects; unlimited tracks

Cons: User interface is not friendly

5.HyperEngine-AV

HyperEngine-AV is a free video editing software for Mac used to capture, edit, organize process, and export video, audio, and text to create DVD quality movies and slide shows. It comes with twelve studio-quality effects from Arboretum's Hyperprism suite of audio processors. Besides, it offers text features to display credits, section titles, or karaoke lyrics with fully editable font, size, type, color, style, alignment, and scroll direction. Definitely, HyperEngin-AV is really a good free video editor for Mac users.

Features:

  • You can use it to create slide shows
  • Supports capturing desktop and editing video

Pros: Includes twelve studio-quality effects; Create slide shows

Cons: It is discontinued to release new version

Best Free Mac Video Editing Software for Semi-pros

1.Kdenlive

Although the development team has moved full-stream-ahead on Linux, you can still use this excellent free video editor on Mac with packages available via MacPorts. Kdenlive supports almost all popular media formats, and you can easily add the files to software's multitrack timeline.

You can create 2D titles to light up project like aligning texts and rotating. For editing huge size of video file, it offers proxy to make the editing experience smoother.

Features:

  • It allows you to edit several audio and video tracks
  • You can customize shortcuts easily

Pros: It is open source software

Cons: Not friendly for greenhands; Update slowly

2.Blender

Like Avidemux, Blender is available for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux, FreeBSD and OpenBSD. 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 applications, animated film, video games, or other visual effects. Blender has lots of advanced features like powerful character animation tools, modifier-based modeling tools, a node-based material and compositing system, Python for embedded scripting and so on.

Features:

  • It is a 3D creation suite
  • It supports CPU and GPU rendering
  • It has various sculpting tools and brushes

Pros: Fast poly modeling tools; Customizable input

Cons: Unintuitive layers system; Animation management is not smooth

Free

Best Free Mac Video Editing Software for Professionals

In our impression, professional-thing costs a lot. But it isn’t true when coming to video editing software like DaVinci Resolve, Lightworks and HitFilm. There are two versions for those video editing software, and the lite version or the free version usually costs no money with limited features which makes them good choice for people who are looking for professional video editing solution to some degree.

1. Davinci Resolve

Blackmagic Design's Davinci Resolve has been growing from an advanced color-grading tool to an video post-production solution. If you are an experienced video maker and want to apply a high quality color correction/grading to your footage, Davinci Resolve's free basic version can be your choice.

Timeline curve function is a powerful feature for you to add keyframe if you want to edit a specific scene. Also it offers full 3D editing particle systems to let you release creativity.

Features:

  • Multi track timeline you can choose
  • Trimming video is easy to use
  • You can adjust constant or variable speed

Pros: Learning curve is not steep; Offer advance color grading

Cons: Single screen editing workflow is not friendly

2.Lightworks

Lightworks is a professional video editing software for Windows and Mac, its free version offers you limited export option. It includes video effects, multicam editing, titling, as well as the multi layered timeline approach which is perfect for advanced video editing needs.

Features:

  • It is a rewarded editor in the world
  • It offers Proxy for 4K
  • Compatible well with Mac

Pros: Package is lightweight; Only need 3GB RAM to use

Cons: Effects library is limited

3.HitFilm Express

HitFilm Express is more like a compositing video editor, compared with Adobe After Effects, it's more easy-to-use and friendly to semi-pros. People who are not familiar with the video editing process may find using HitFilm Express difficult.

Features:

  • Various courses are available
  • It offers Proxy for 4K
  • More than 400 video effects

Pros: High level ideo effects compositor

Cons: It lacks motion graphics feature

Conclusion

You may have found the best video editor for Mac after reading this article. I’ll try my best to keep the list up to date, but if your favorite free video editor for Mac isn’t listed above, please leave a comment and let me know. This article is for mac version, click here to get more info about free video editing software for Windows.


Easy-to-use and powerful video editor for all creators.


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  • Choosing Video Editing Software
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What are the best photo editing apps for enhancing your iPhone photos? With so many apps to choose from, how do you know which ones to use? In this article, you’ll discover the 10 best photo editor apps for iPhone. And we’ll help you choose the right photo editing apps for your needs.

1. Snapseed

Best For: All-purpose photo editing with precise control over color and exposure

  • Huge range of editing tools, yet very easy to use
  • Exposure, color, and sharpening adjustments
  • Crop, rotate, straighten, and perspective correction
  • Selective adjustments, brushes, and healing tool
  • Black & white, vintage, and texture filters
  • Portrait enhancement, lens blur, and vignette
  • Double exposure, frames, and text
  • Price: FREE

Snapseed is one of the most popular iPhone photo editing apps.

Why? Because it’s easy to use, even though it offers a powerful collection of editing tools. It’s also completely free to download and use!

This photo editor app is suitable for both complete beginners and experienced iPhone photographers.

With the Snapseed tools, you can easily improve exposure, color, and sharpness. And you can crop, rotate and straighten images.

Selective tools and brushes allow you to edit certain parts of your image. And the Healing tool is great for removing objects from your photos.

The Portrait tool is perfect for creating flawless portrait photos with smooth skin and sparkling eyes.

Snapseed also has a selection of filters to create different moods in your photos.

Filters make it easy to convert your photos to black and white or create a vintage look with textures.

If you’re new to iPhone photography, Snapseed should be the first photo editor app you download. With this app, you’ll be able to create stunning edits that will dramatically improve your images.

Snapseed is available for FREE from the App Store. Unlike many other photo editing apps, there are no extra in-app purchases to pay for.

2. VSCO

Best For: Creating beautiful edits with elegant film-like filters

  • Subtle one-tap filter presets that create the look of classic film
  • Adjustable filter strength
  • Full set of 130+ filters available via an annual subscription
  • Editing tools for cropping, exposure, color, and sharpness
  • Built-in camera app with advanced manual controls
  • Price: FREE (with a subscription fee for additional filters and tools)

VSCO (pronounced visco) is another incredible photo editing app. In fact, it’s one of the best photo filter apps for iPhone.

The vast collection of VSCO filters allow you to create the look of classic film in your iPhone photos. These filters are perfect for adding a vintage feel to your images.

Unlike other apps where the filters can be overpowering, VSCO filters are subtle. Many of them have a soft, faded look for beautifully understated edits.

You can adjust the strength of the filters to suit your taste. And you can fine-tune the exposure or color using VSCO’s editing tools.

VSCO is FREE to download from the App Store. It comes with 10 free filter presets and a set of photo editing tools.

You can access the full range of over 130 filters, as well as additional editing tools, by subscribing to VSCO X membership ($19.99 a year).

Learn how to use VSCO with our in-depth tutorials:
VSCO App Tutorial: How To Shoot & Edit Beautiful iPhone Photos
How To Use VSCO Filters To Create Beautiful iPhone Photos

3. Afterlight 2

Best For: All-purpose photo editing with additional creative options

  • Exposure, color, and sharpening adjustments
  • Advanced tools such as curves, selective color, gradients, and blend modes
  • Dust and light leak overlays
  • Free filter packs by well-known mobile photographers
  • Double-exposure tool for blending images
  • Layers tool for adding text and artwork
  • Price: $2.99

Afterlight 2 is easy to use despite its comprehensive set of editing tools.

The app offers typical editing tools such as color, exposure, sharpness, and crop tools.

But it also has a set of advanced tools, such as curves and selective color. These allow you to fine-tune the colors and tones in your photos to get the very best out of your images.

The filters and overlays in Afterlight 2 are great for enhancing or changing the mood in your photos. The app comes with a basic set of filters, and you can add more collections of filters for free.

The customizable text and artwork is a fun way to add graphics to your images. And the double-exposure tool lets you create unique combinations of blended images.

If you want to move beyond basic image editing, Afterlight 2 is an excellent place to start.

Afterlight 2 is available for $2.99 on the App Store. It promises to never have any extra in-app purchases or subscriptions. And the app is even updated with new free content every month.

4. Enlight

Best For: Selective control over edits and artistic effects

  • Selective control over exposure, color, and details
  • Masking tool for seamless blending of effects
  • Crop, rotate, straighten, and perspective correction
  • Filters, two-tone gradients, light leaks, and vignettes
  • Black & white, paint, and sketch effects
  • Clone tool for removing unwanted defects
  • Double-exposure, tilt-shift, and photo montages
  • Drawing tools, text, borders, and frames
  • Price: $3.99

Enlight is the perfect app for getting creative with your editing.

As well as traditional editing tools and filters, it has a fantastic selection of artistic effects. You can turn a picture into a drawing or painting, and add unique design elements to your photos.

The Mask tool allows you to apply effects to just certain parts of an image. This gives you ultimate control over your editing.

You can also create double-exposures and fake-miniature tilt-shifts. And you can display your favorite images in a beautiful collage.

Whether you want to perform a simple edit or create an artistic masterpiece, you can do it all with Enlight!

5. TouchRetouch

Best For: Removing unwanted blemishes and objects from your photos

  • Quickly remove unwanted objects for a cleaner composition
  • Brush and lasso tools for accurate object selection
  • Remove dust spots, wires, people, and other objects
  • Remove blemishes and smooth out wrinkles in portrait photos
  • Duplicate objects using the clone tool
  • Price: $1.99

Many photoshop apps offer the ability to remove unwanted elements from a photo. But this is the sole purpose of TouchRetouch. And it’s still one of the easiest and most effective apps to use.

Simply use your finger to highlight the object you want to remove. The app automatically replaces that object with pixels from the surrounding area.

The Blemish Remover tool is perfect for creating flawless portrait photos.

And the Line Removal tool makes it easy to remove electricity and telephone cables from your image.

It might take a few attempts to remove complex elements. But TouchRetouch makes it easy to start over if you’re not happy with the results.

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6. Instagram

Best For: Enhancing your images right before you share them

  • Good selection of color and black & white filters
  • Exposure, color, and sharpening adjustments
  • Crop, rotate, straighten, and perspective correction
  • Vignette and tilt-shift effects
  • Give your photos a final polish before sharing them on Instagram
  • Price: FREE

Do you share your photos on Instagram? If so, you definitely shouldn’t overlook the editing tools in this app.

Instagram doesn’t have the same range of editing tools as apps like Snapseed and Enlight. But if you only want to make basic adjustments, it may be all you need.

It has a good range of color and black and white filters for changing the look and feel of your image.

There’s also a handy set of editing tools. You can adjust exposure, color, and sharpness. There are options to crop, rotate, straighten, and correct perspective. And you can add a vignette or tilt-shift effect.

If you prefer to edit your photos in a different app, you can still apply an Instagram filter before sharing.

7. Adobe Lightroom CC

Best For: Precise fine-tuning of color and exposure with advanced editing tools

  • Powerful set of editing tools within a simple user interface
  • One-tap presets for quick edits
  • Advanced editing tools such as curves and color mix
  • Selective adjustments and perspective correction
  • Adobe Creative Cloud syncs your edits between iPhone, iPad, computer, and web
  • Price: FREE (with a subscription fee for additional features)

Adobe Lightroom CC gives you a powerful, yet simple solution for editing your photos.

Lightroom is suitable for both beginners and advanced users.

The one-tap filter presets offer a quick and easy way to enhance your images. And the simple adjustment sliders let you tweak exposure, color, and detail.

But you can go much further than this. The advanced adjustment tools, such as Curves, Color Mix, and Split Tone offer ultimate control over your editing.

If you’re familiar with editing your photos on a computer using Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop, you’ll feel right at home with this app.

Adobe Lightroom CC is FREE to download from the App Store. But you’ll need to pay to access the premium features.

The premium upgrade unlocks tools such as selective adjustments and perspective correction. It also gives you access to your photos across all your devices via Adobe Creative Cloud.

8. Mextures

Best For: Applying textures, grains, and light leaks for beautiful creative edits

  • Grit, grain, grunge, and vintage film textures
  • Analog light leaks and beautiful gradients
  • Stack and blend effects using layers
  • Fine-tune images with editing tools and filter presets
  • Save, share, and import “formulas”
  • Price: $2.99 (with in-app purchases)

Mextures is a fantastic app for applying textures to your iPhone photos. It also has a range of other effects including grain, light leaks, and gradients.

You can add wonderful mood and visual interest to your iPhone photos in Mextures. It’s easy to create unique edits by combining and blending different effects.

The app also has a set of standard editing tools and filters for fine-tuning your image.

If you’re new to Mextures, you can start by using the wide range of preset “formulas.” You can save and share your own formulas, and even import formulas from other Mextures users.

Learn how to use Mextures to add wonderful textures to your iPhone photos.

9. Lens Distortions

Best For: Enhancing your photos with sunlight, lens flares, rain, snow, and fog

  • Add beauty and drama to your shots with natural sunlight and lens flares
  • Create atmosphere and drama with rain, snow, or fog
  • Frame your subject or blur the edges with elegant glass textures
  • Layer several different overlays on a single image
  • Adjust the opacity, brightness, and color of each overlay
  • Price: FREE (with in-app purchases for additional effects)

There are many apps that add light and weather effects to your photos, but Lens Distortions is one of the best.

Its high-quality overlays include sunlight, lens flares, rain, snow, and fog. There are also shimmer effects and glass elements to add sparkle or blur to your image.

For a unique look, you can layer up different effects on your image.

Sliders allow you to adjust the opacity, brightness, contrast, and color of each overlay. You can make the elements stand out for a bold look, or tone them down so they blend in.

Lens Distortions is available for FREE from the App Store. The app comes with a basic collection of overlays. More are available as in-app purchases – and they’re definitely worth it.

10. Superimpose X

Best For: Creating unique digital art by combining and blending images

  • Combine two or more photos to create a composite image
  • Perfect for replacing the background of a photo
  • Create stunning double-exposure and fantasy-style images
  • Blend textures onto an image for an arty look
  • Add filters, blur, shadows, and other creative effects
  • Variety of masking tools for selecting parts of an image
  • Price: $4.99

Superimpose X is the perfect app for combining and blending several photos into a single composite image.

It has a good choice of masking tools for selecting different kinds of subject. The Refine Hair tool is particularly useful for selecting hair in portrait photos.

You can adjust the blend mode and opacity of each layer to control how the images blend together.

The Best Free Photo Editor For Mac 2017 Price

Superimpose X has a wide range of tools for editing each layer. You can use filters, adjustments, shadows, blur, gradients, and distortions. Or add an artistic touch with the brush tool.

With Superimpose X, the creative possibilities are endless. Your imagination is the only limit!

Best Photo Editing Apps: How To Choose The Right Apps For You

Now that you’ve discovered the 10 best photo editing apps, how do you choose the right apps for you?

Read on and let us help you decide…

If you’re new to photo editing, the best photo editor app is Snapseed. That said, it has a wide range of editing tools, so it’s suitable for more advanced users too.

If you like the idea of using one-tap filters to create classic, understated edits, VSCO is a great choice.

For more advanced editing tools, such as curves and selective color adjustments, try Adobe Lightroom CC or Afterlight 2.

TouchRetouch is a great app to have in your collection. Use it whenever you want to remove unwanted objects from your iPhone photos.

Lens Distortions is fantastic for adding realistic sunlight, lens flares, rain, snow, and fog. These effects are great for adding beauty and drama to your landscape photos.

Do you enjoy getting creative with your edits? If so, Enlight might be the perfect app for you. Afterlight 2 also has a good selection of creative tools.

Mextures is the best photo editing app for adding textures and light leaks.

If you want to create truly unique artwork, including fantasy-style images and double-exposures, try Superimpose X.

Best Photo Editing Apps For Mac

Do you share your photos on Instagram? Then why not use its filters and editing tools to give your images a final polish before sharing.