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.
Photo editing on the road is always challenging, with the need for a high-quality display, fast graphics, and lots of RAM at odds with carrying a lightweight laptop.
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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old simplicity, the new Repair demonstrates the markedly improved algorithms of photo retouching, allowing no trace of “withdrawn” larger objects.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
Gimp
User-friendly Interface- 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
Mac Simple Image Editor
- 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
- 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
Image Editor For Mac Free
Response Speed- 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.
It can be hard to know where to start when it comes to what image editor to use on your Mac. There are so many options that it can be hard to know where to start and what’s worth trying. Do you want Photoshop? Pixlr? And what the heck is a GIMP?
The good news is that picking a good photo editor is easier than it sounds. You simply need to lay out a few heuristics and they’ll do all the sorting for you. The various photo-editing programs for OS X have different advantages. Picking the best one is as easy as choosing the program that hews closest to your needs.
We’ll rate image-editing programs on these characteristics: price, ease of use, and features. Ideally, you should pick the cheapest program that has all the features you need. Here’s how the programs break down.
Best Image Editors for Mac
Apple Photos App
Apple bundles its new Photos app with Yosemite as a replacement for iPhoto. Photos is primarily a photo-management system and isn’t great for editing. Its real strength is in allowing you to sort your photos into albums and sync them to iCloud.
However, Photos has a few useful functions for editing photos. You can enhance, rotate, crop, recolor, retouch and remove redeye from photos. Pretty basic stuff. No sign of advanced features like layers and nondestructive editing.
Difficulty: Easy
Features: Minimal
Price: Free
Adobe Photoshop
Photoshop is the king of photo-editing apps. If dwarfs everything else on this list as the universal standard in creative businesses.
Photoshop is an incredibly powerful tool for those willing to learn how to navigate its intricate menus and endless options. The program can do amazing things like algorithmically selecting hair to move into a separate layer.
If you plan to do serious graphic design or work professionally in the field, you need Photoshop. It’s just that good.
However, there is a major learning curve. I remember opening Photoshop for the first time and being overwhelmed with menus and options. It’s not easy to learn.
Photoshop is also expensive. Adobe has moved to an asinine pricing structure designed to milk people of as much money as possible. Photoshop Creative Cloud costs $10–20 per month, depending on your plan. It’s not much up front, but the costs definitely add up.
That’s Photoshop. Expensive, hard to learn, but practically irreplaceable.
Difficulty: Hard
Free Image Editing Software Mac
Features: Complete
Price: $10–20 / month
Pixlr
Pixlr is a cool web-based approach to editing photos. The app lets you edit content right there in a browser window, making it a good cross-platform service as well.
The menus are deceptively simple, hiding a great deal of functionality under a few simple categories. This is no Photoshop, but it has a lot more power than something like Photos.
Pixlr’s simplicity and free price make it a great option for anyone looking for a more elegant photo-editing app. I would definitely recommend it to intermediate users who aren’t quite ready to tackle Photoshop yet.
Difficulty: Medium
Features: Mostly there
Price: Free
Pixelmator
People invested in the Apple ecosystem looking for another intermediate photo-editing program should check out Pixelmator. It’s an OS X app that syncs with its iPad counterpart through Handoff so you can edit across platforms.
Pixelmator is built for Yosemite and feels far more at home on OS X than Photoshop. Where Adobe builds functional but inelegant apps, Pixelmator is beautiful to use.
It does not have as many features as Photoshop, it has most of the important ones. There are layers, color adjustments, effects, selections and context-specific editing. There are also vector tools, giving it an edge over Photoshop.
The functionality is decent, and the learning curve is a lot easier than it could be.
Difficulty: Medium
Features: Fairly Complete
Price: $30
GIMP
GIMP is the weird one. The GNU Image Manipulation Program is a free and open-source project worked on by thousands of developers for years now. It’s the FOSS Photoshop replacement.
Or, that’s at least what it aims to be. While championed by FOSS geeks as a Photoshop replacement, GIMP has often failed to live up to the massive feature set offered by Adobe. It began running natively on OS X only at version 2.8.2- previous versions made you install X11.
A lot of the features are there, but GIMP actually manages to be less intuitive than Photoshop. Navigating the learning curve is difficult, especially for people used to Photoshop.
GIMP is best for FOSS geeks and people looking for a powerful and free program without pirating Photoshop.
Difficulty: High
Best Image Editor For Mac
Features: Complete
What Is The Best Photo Editor For Macbook Air
Price: Free
Final Thoughts
Out of all of the photo-editing apps I tried, Photoshop was the best. It demands you master its fractal interface, but rewards you with features and photo-editing abilities you just can’t get anywhere else.
If the price is too much for you, though, any of the other apps listed here are great supplements, especially if you don’t need all the features.
Mac Os Image Editor
For intermediate users, Pixelmator is the best option. It’s a beautiful app that integrates well into Apple’s ecosystem.
For beginners, Pixlr or Photos are best. They provide a good amount of features wrapped inside an easy-to-use interface. They’re also free, a great feature for someone who doesn’t need to sink a lot of money into photo editing.
Which is your favorite? Let us know in the comments.