Check out our Best Free Photo Editor for Mac article for a full overview of our top 5, PhotoDirector Essential, GIMP Photo Editor, Fotor Photo Editor, Pixelmator, Photoscape X. Pixlr offers a robust array of free photo editing tools, including cropping, rotating, adjusting color and brightness, along with special effects such as selective blur and spot color. There are also a variety of page templates and collages where you can place and organize photos. All features are available for free, but you can pay to remove in-app ads.
It's available for both iPhone and Android. PhotoDirector is a complete photo editor for iPhone and Android, packed with tools such as cropping and rotating, adjusting perspective and controlling exposure, along with special effects such as object removal, sky replacement, light rays and more. However, the interface is a bit cluttered and can be overwhelming for new users, and the app struggles to sell you to the premium version. Some of the more advanced features, for example, can only be applied once a day while using the free version.
Some photo editing apps are one-trick ponies, but they do it so well that they're worth keeping. Color Splash, available for both iPhone and Android, converts your photo to black and white and then lets you re-add spot colors with your finger. It's easy to do and the effect looks great. Unfortunately, every photo has a relatively small watermark unless you upgrade to the paid version.
If the main reason you want to edit photos is to retouch faces, why not buy an app that focuses exclusively on that? Visage Lab focuses exclusively on allowing you to perform retouching work, with tools to adjust lighting, remove wrinkles, blur or change backgrounds, and even make complete makeovers with hair color changes. The app is free for both iPhone and Android, but there are ads in the app and many effects are restricted to the paid premium version. This is the option for casual photographers looking for a photo editor that keeps things hassle-free. The interface is perhaps the easiest among all photo editing applications, simply select the tool and then choose the intensity or customize your selection from a few options.
There are no sliders, dials, or other widgets that slow you down. And there's no shortage of features; tools range from white balance to perspective control, HDR enhancement and lens blur. Best of all, since it's a Google product, you're not harassed with in-app ads or update notices. Snapseed is available for iPhone and Android.
The best free photo editors for PC should be just what you need, especially if you're not tackling professional workloads that require all the professional-grade editing tools needed. You'll be amazed at the number of free photo editing apps available for Windows that are just as capable of erasing unsightly photo imperfections and correcting colors as their paid counterparts. Some even come with premium features that will help you hone your photo editing skills. However, users who are not professionals may find them a bit exaggerated.
Most people who just want to edit their vacation photos or dedicate themselves to photo editing don't need them. This is especially because there are some fantastic free photo retouching apps for Windows that come with all the vital features. A handful, including GIMP, our current top pick for the best free photo editing software, even have advanced tools like plugins, masks, and layers. If you're just hoping to make some simple edits, like cropping or straightening an image, consider buying one of the free apps instead (unless, of course, you have a lot of money and only want the best of the best).
Since we've put some of these Adobe alternatives to the test, we thought we'd help you find the ideal one by compiling a list of the best free photo editors for PC, including some free photo editing programs for beginners. However, if you have an Apple computer, there are also some great free photo editors for Mac. GIMP (the GNU Image Manipulation Program) is the best free photo editor. It's packed with the kind of image enhancement tools you'd find in premium software, and more are being added every day.
GIMP is a free, open source photo editor, and its community of users and developers has created a huge collection of add-ons to further expand its usefulness. Many of them come pre-installed, and you can download more from the official glossary. If that's not enough, you can even install Photoshop plugins. If you have a lot of photos that you need to edit quickly, Ashampoo Photo Optimizer could be your tool.
Its interface is clean and tidy, and it's completely ad-free (although you'll need to send an email address before you can start using it). For more advanced editing, check out Ashampoo Photo Optimizer 7, the premium version of the software with improved optimization tools. Canva is a photo editor that runs on your web browser and is ideal for turning your favorite photos into cards, posters, invitations and social media posts. If you're interested in maintaining a polished online presence, it's the perfect tool for you.
You won't find advanced tools like cloning brushes and smart selectors here, but there are a set of useful sliders for applying tints, vignette effects, focusing, adjusting brightness, saturation and contrast, and much more. The text editing tools are intuitive and there is a large selection of backgrounds and other graphics to complete your designs. Fotor is a free photo editing software for beginners, ideal for improving your photos quickly. If there's a specific retouching area you need to do with, for example, the clone brush or the healing tool, you're out of luck.
However, if your needs are simple, your high-end filter stack really shines. There is a foolproof tilt change tool, for example, and a number of vintage and vibrant color settings, which can be easily accessed through Fotor's intelligent menu system. You can also manually modify your own curves and levels, but without the complexity of high-end tools. Fotor's most prominent feature, IMHO, is its batch processing tool, which is the only feature that is sorely lacking in many free photo editors.
Give him a bunch of photos and he'll filter them all at once, perfect if you have a memory card full of Christmas photos and need to cover up the results of an unreliable camera or a shaky hand. The interface of this free photo editor is smarter and more accessible than GIMP's variety of menus and toolbars, with everything organized logically and coherently. If it's still too intimidating, there's also an optional “novice” design that resembles Fotor's filter-based approach. It's a shame that the free version of Photo Pos Pro only allows exporting to a maximum of 1,024 x 1,024 pixels.
If you're preparing images for sharing online, this may not be a problem, but it limits the usefulness of the software if you want to print your work. More isn't, believe it or not, it's always better. The simplicity of Paint, NET is one of its main selling points; it's a free, fast, and easy-to-operate photo editor that's ideal for trivial tasks that don't necessarily justify the power of tools like GIMP. However, don't let the name fool you.
This isn't just a cheap copy of Microsoft's ultra-basic Paint, even if it was originally intended to replace it. It's a proper photo editor, just one that gets to the basic side of the curve. The meat, of course, is in photo editing. The PhotoScape interface is one of the most esoteric applications we've seen here, with tools grouped into pages in strange configurations.
It certainly doesn't try to imitate Photoshop, and it includes fewer features. We would definitely target this towards the beginner, but that doesn't mean you can't get some solid results. PhotoScape filters are quite advanced, making it a good choice if you need to level, sharpen, or add a soft filter to images quickly in an instant. Pixlr X is the successor to Pixlr Editor, which was one of our favorite free online photo editors for many years.
Pixlr X makes several improvements over its predecessor. For starters, it's based on HTML5 instead of Flash, which means it can be run in any modern browser. It's also sleek and well-designed, with an interface reminiscent of Photoshop Express and a choice of light or dark color combinations. With Pixlr X, you can make precise changes to colors and saturation, sharpen and blur images, apply vignette and frame effects, and combine multiple images.
There's also support for layers, an advanced feature you won't find in many free online photo editors, as well as a variety of tools for painting and drawing. We think this is a great option, whether you want a quick way to adjust your photos or if you need to perform some advanced tasks. When you're done, you can share your creation on the main social networks, as well as on the PiZap, Dropbox and Google Drive servers themselves. Alternatively, you can save it to your hard drive, send it via email, or get a code to insert.
You can only export your work in high quality if you have opened your wallet for the premium editor, but sharing nonsense on social networks is unlikely to be a problem. It's also worth considering what you'll be using the exported photos for. Online photo editors can often only export images in JPG format, and only with relatively low resolutions. That might be fine for images you want to display online (and many of these photo editors include tools to send images directly to Facebook or Twitter), but if you want to print your work, you'd better use a tool like GIMP or Paint, NET that will allow you to export in almost any format, in high resolutions.
Pixlr is easy to use and offers 2 million combinations of free effects, overlays and filters. All menu options are located at the bottom of the application for easy access, and you can always see the before and after before committing to editing. Tools include crop, rotate, double exposure, common settings, autocorrect, auto-shrink, blur, soften, sharpen, splash, heal, and remove red-eye. For precise control, brushes are included for lighting, darkening, pixelating and scribbling.
There are also cool effects, lots of overlays, and styling options like pencil and watercolor. Pixlr also supports frames and text. The effects and styles you can add to an image with Google's Snapseed app are very nice, and applying them is extremely easy with just a swipe of your finger. You can save edited images with a custom name to any folder or open them directly from Snapseed in another application.
BeFunky is an extremely easy to use application because the buttons are clear and understandable and all the editing tools are classified into sections that make it easy to find. PiZap allows you to edit the images you have on your device or one of your Facebook account. You can also open stock photos and backgrounds from an integrated gallery. With more than 500 million installs, PicsArt is clearly one of the most popular free photo editing apps.
Probably because it's packed with features, some completely exclusive to the others on this list. The PicLab image editing app shows a small watermark at the bottom of the image when you save it, but if the other apps on this list didn't do it for you, you might like this. It has an image editor and a collage maker. PicLab Pro removes the watermark, unlocks all filters, stickers, fonts and overlays, and provides more ad-free features.
There is often a trial that you can use for free. GIMP (GNU image manipulation software) is one of the best editing applications available anywhere and at any price. Its feature set is incredibly comprehensive and more are being added all the time. Darktable is easily the best program out there that replicates the functions and experience of using Lightroom.
Plus, it's free with no annoying paid features to unlock. Like Lightroom, Darktable allows you to view all your photos in a digital “lightbox” and then non-destructively enhance and adjust each photo as desired. Created primarily as a RAW editor, Darktable works with JPEG, TIFF, and a host of other files. Darktable Bridges the Gap Between Raw Developers and Image Management Software.
Like GIMP, Darktable is also completely open source, which means that it also has a lot of plugins available to users. But also, like GIMP and Lightroom, this software is aimed at advanced users with advanced needs. If you're a beginner photographer with simplicity as your goal, there are probably other places you'd better look. Photoscape lacks the more intricate and complex editing tools of GIMP or Darktable, but it's also incredibly fast and easy to use.
I use it for batch editing JPEG for eBay or email because I can quickly apply global settings and then reduce the size of a large number of full-resolution photos in just a few seconds. At any time, you can save the image back to your device with a single button, a great way to save multiple iterations of the same image with different edits. From pre-set filters and collages to makeup and facial editing tools, you're sure to find the perfect app that fits your photo publishing needs. They allow you to do things like change saturation and hue, apply textures and filters, add fun stickers like emojis and animals, and crop the canvas to fit your Facebook cover photo.
It has a dozen filters for basic photo effects, one-touch brightness and exposure controls, a correction brush to remove imperfections, crop and rotate, text overlays, and more. It also has a great batch processor, so if you want to apply the same filter or setting to a bunch of photos, this will do it. Whether you post a photo to Instagram, upload an image to a digital photo frame, or just send images to a friend, you can work wonders with the right photo editor. One of the most outstanding features of Snapseed is that, for each effect, filter or edit you implement, the application creates a “stack”, also known in Adobe terms as a layer.
These free photo editing apps will help you make the photos you take on your phone or tablet even more incredible than they already are. It's a shame you can't apply the same color changes to an entire set of images at once, but otherwise it's a brilliant free photo editor for making quick corrections. There are no filters or options for editing photos either, so you'll want to use a different app for that. All the basic photo filters also work live, inside the camera, if you don't feel like spending years editing and want to have everything in the shot.
If you take a selfie, just tap the three-star icon at the bottom and a huge selection of portrait filters will appear for you to browse. Depending on your Internet connection, filters may take a while to load for the first time. After applying a filter, you may also want to recheck the final image on a larger screen, if possible. .
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