Photo editing is an important part of enhancing and saving our memorable moments. With just a little bit of touch up of a photo editing software can make our photos look more beautiful and charming.
Most of the people prefer Photoshop as their ultimate photo editing tool. But everyone may not find Photoshop easy to go with. You need to learn how to use it. Though those you know can do almost everything with their photos but a newbie or those who just need to modify a bit of their photos find Photoshop quite difficult.
To offer you some ease, we have come up with 9 best and coolest Photoshop alternatives. These softwares can help you enhance your photos and apply many effects. Many of these are available for free, however some of them you need to buy. Let us have a glance on their features.
1. GIMP
GIMP(GNU Image Manipulation Program) is one of the best and feature rich image editing software. It will provide all Photoshop capabilities to enhance images. It is equipped with advanced filtering, layering, stitching and many other features.
GIMP is available for free. It is available for Windows, Linux and OS X. You can do robust graphic manipulation with GIMP. The more you work with it, the better it goes for you. It is an open source software hence new features keep on adding to it constantly to make it better.
2. Adobe Photoshop Express
Another wonderful photo editor.
Adobe Photoshop Express is a free software that you can use to edit images on your browser. It is also available as Android, iOS apps and Windows Phone.
It is good for simple as well as advanced editing. You can perform cropping, straightening, adjust brightness,contrast, tint, white balance, removing red eye etc. You can also remove blemishes and marks from photos with touchup feature. Its easy and interactive user interface makes it good for newbies also.
3. Paint.net
Paint.net is a photo editing software rich in advanced tools. You can open and edit multiple images with its friendly tabbed display. You can identify images by thumbnail as shown in the image below.
It is available for free for Windows only. Though it is less powerful than GIMP but is easier and newbies like it for its simplicity and ease of access. You can drag and drop images and work upon them. Use basic editing or add layers and effects.
4. Pixlr Editor
Pixlr is a free cloud based photo editing service. You can not only edit and enhance your photos but can also share them with your friends and relatives. Use it from anywhere, you just need internet connection and browser.
There are numerous selection features and enhancing tools available. With the left toolbar you can do basic editing like cropping, contrast, dodge, burn, blur, clone stamp etc. It supports text overlays and layering.
5. Apple Aperture
Apple Aperture is developed by Apple for Mac users. It is available for
$79.99/£54.99. It is a brilliant alternative to Photoshop, specially for photographers. Though it lacks many features that Adobe contains like 3D, web linking etc. However, an average user does not requires these features so its good for general use.
Aperture contains many innovative enhancement tools. With its Autoenhance you get accurate exposure, brightness, vibrancy and curves.
6. PicMonkey
PicMonkey is a very powerful yet easy web-based photo editing tool that lets you to edit you photos and create powerful collages. So, you don’t required to install any additional software, you can access and use this tool directly from your web browser. All you required to have isFlash-enabled web browser.
It allows you to add special effects, stickers, text, frames, etc. You can even add your own quirky touches overlays. You can use PicMonkey for free without even registering yourself.
However, they have very affordable paid plan at just $2.75/month which will provide you an ad-free environment with tons of additional effects, textures, fonts and overlays.
7. Picasa
Picasa is a free image viewer, editor, organizer and collage maker owned by Google. It can effectively manage your image files. You can import and tag your pictures also.
Most of the people use Picasa to make collage or to give basic editing like color enhancement, cropping, straightening, removing red eye, color and contrast, saturation etc. It offers many different colors modes. You can email these images or post them on your blog. It is available for Windows and Mac.
It has a very interactive user interface that makes people at ease while working in it.
8. Acron
Acron is a beautiful image editing software available for
OS X for $29.99/£20.99. A budget software with high-end features. You can perform basic as well as advanced editing with layering, non-destructive filters, curves, multiple layer selection and new shape tools.
Acron 4 is faster than its predecessors. Now edit pictures like pro with Acron.
9. Serif PhotoPlus X7
Serif PhotoPlus X7 is one of the direct competitor to Photoshop and hence a good alternative. The software is available for Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP at £79.99.
While beginners may not find it their cup of tea but its a great tool for professional photographers and editors. Many professionals are using this software and find its service wonderful at an affordable price.
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