You can use free image editors as a launchpad before you jump on the pro packages. As a novice, you might be interested in creating greeting cards or social media posts. For your perusal, we have listed some of the best free photo editors for Mac. Let’s explore the list, which can work on your Mac like Photoshop.
Verdict: 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. Pixelmator is one of the most popular photo-editing apps on the Mac, as it hits the sweet spot that combines powerful editing tools, an attractive and easy-to-use interface, and a very competitive. Canva is the best free photo editing software for Mac. It is used for the professional level of photo editing with different kinds of templates. To make logos, posters, pamphlets, and hashtags of.
What Are The Best Free Photo Editing Mac Apps in 2020?
#1. Apple Photos
Apple’s stock app offers you great editing tools to resize, crop, collage, zoom, warp your images. And once you edit your pictures, you can create GIF of the same. A glaring feature of the Apple Photos app is it allows you to store all your images and edits in iCloud. Thus, you can quickly access all your photos and pictures on other Apple devices like iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV.
Smart Sliders helps you edit images like a pro, even if you are a beginner. By using the markup tool, you can add text, shapes, sketches, or signature to your images. And last but not least, you can turn Live Photos into a funny video to share on your social media pages.
Mac Os X Photo Editor
#2. GIMP
For more than 20 years, GIMP has continuously been one of the best raw image editors for Mac. This GNU Image Manipulation Program was developed for Linux, but since it is open-source, you can use its tools on your Mac computers. If you are in a creative field of digital media and advertisement, you can use your imagination to create the most elegant images.
This software supports multiple languages like C, C++, Perl, Python, Scheme, and others. Whether you are working for digital or printed media, you can always get high-fidelity color reproduction by using high-quality color management features.
#3. Fotor Photo Editor
BBC mentioned this app as lite Photoshop. This probably sums up everything. With many other testimonials, Fotor is your reliable companion if you want to use lots of editing options and effects. This app is primarily divided into four main features: portraits touch up, batch, collage, and photo editing.
You can adjust exposure, brightness, contrast, white balance, and saturation. Further, Fotor helps users sharpen/blur, highlight, add a vignette, or film grain of the image. Check its flexible text editing tool, which allows you to adjust text fonts, size, and color.
#4. PhotoScape X
This is your all-in-one image editor that comes with countless features to create and edit the best photo on your Mac. For your social media posts, you can take any picture and remove the background. Although this one is a nasty trick, you should give credit to the original image source.
One of the significant features of PhotoScape X is you can use this software in international languages like English, Spanish, Português, Dutch, French, Italian, and languages of some eastern countries.
#5. Photo Image Editor Pixelstyle
Pixelstyle can overwhelm you with its repertoire of features. However, as a beginner, you can quickly filter your requirements and pick features of this software. Among its more than a dozen filters, you will be impressed by a few like copying elements or layers, gradient filling, cloning, smudging, image resizing, and others.
Red-eye is one of the notorious killers of picture quality. Thankfully, Pixelstyle has a tool to remove red-eye from your photos. For amateurs, this software offers fantastic photo adjustments to adjust brightness, contrast, hue, and white point.
#6. Polarr
Whether you are a pro editor or a learner of creative arts, Polarr has something to impress you. For novices, Polarr has auto-enhance tools and high-quality filters to go into details of photos. For pro users, they can explore layer support, curve tools, local adjustments, and other features.
If you compare Polarr with Photoshop, you will find the former more accessible and intuitive. By using watermark support, you can be the sole owner of your creation. Since it works offline, you don’t need a constant Internet connection.
#7. Paint S
Paint S is arguably the best image editing tool for social media professionals, who frequently have to add text to images. Apart from adding text, you can also crop, rotate, and scale images easily. The software’s ability to support layers allows you to re-edit your images freely.
A notable feature of this software is you can save your images in several formats like TIFF, JPEG, PNG, BMP, and many other popular formats. To make your photos more attractive, Paint S helps you select and remove unwanted elements.
#8. Gravit Designer
Gravit Designer is the most modern photo editor for Mac. Whether you are a novice or a professional, you can explore its features to create killer marketing communication (including websites, icons, UI design, presentations) or you can use it to design concept art. The interface is intuitive and neat.
The software offers more than 40 effects and 28 blending modes, which is one of the hightlights. Among other smart features of Gravit Designer are powerful text engine, out-of-the-box web fonts, assets & design templates, multiple export formats, and more.
That’s all, folks!
Wrapping up…
I hope the above apps will push you to the next level, and once you achieve that proficiency, you can use premium photo editors on your Mac.
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Would you like to add something to this list of free picture editor for Mac? Share your feedback with us in the Comments section below.
Nikhil runs iGB’s official YouTube channel. He is the official lensman of iGB and GB’s small studio is Nikhil’s playground, where he does all wonders with his remarkable signature. When Nikhil is not in his studio, you may spot him in a gourmet restaurant, chomping his way through some delicious food. He is a great traveler, who can go for long drives in search of good food.
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Many people assume they need an Adobe subscription to edit photos, even semi-professionally, but that’s not true. Photos for Mac is the answer for anyone who wonders, “Does Mac come with a photo editor?” Moreover, the good-old Preview you use to open PDFs and images has enough basic tools for editing an image on your Mac. In this guide, we’ll take a closer look at what you can do with Mac’s native photo editors and exactly how to do that.
As you start editing your pictures, it’s common to start accumulating duplicates of the same image—the original, an edited one, and perhaps any other version you might crop or resize later. So, it’s best to use an app like Gemini 2 to help you find and eliminate duplicate files wasting space on your Mac.
With Gemini 2, you can scan your entire hard drive, your photo library, or just a specific folder for duplicates. Then, you can choose to review all of the copies it found to select which version to delete. Or you can let Gemini 2’s AI decide, and you can remove your duplicate photos with just one click of the Smart Cleanup button. And the best part is that you Download and try Gemini 2 for free.
How to edit pictures on Mac using the Photos app
As an editing app, Photos comes with everything you need to adjust the quality, light, color, sharpness, and other qualities of the pictures you take. It may lack the editing power of professional software like Photoshop, but it’s the perfect tool for aspiring and amateur photographers. It’s equally useful for the millions of us who take pictures every day and want to make them look good before posting online and sharing with friends. With this free photo editor for Mac, you’ll be able to adjust, resize, crop, rotate, and enhance your photos, as well as apply filters to them — all without spending a penny.
To edit a picture, go through the following steps:
- Launch the Photos app.
- Find the image or group of images you want to edit in your library.
- Double-click on the photo you want to edit (or press Command-Return).
- Click Edit in the toolbar. Now you’ll see three tabs above the image: Adjust, Filters, and Crop. Clicking on one will unveil further editing options in the right-hand menu.
- Another way to open a picture to edit is to press Command-Return to open in Edit view.
How to adjust pics in the Photos app
There’s a whole range of ways to use the Adjust feature to make significant or subtle changes to your pics. (And remember, if you aren’t happy with any of them, just click Revert to Original in the top left-hand corner of the editing window).
The Photos Adjust feature can be broken down into several specific tools.
- Light: everything from shadows to brightness to contrast.
- Color: make it warmer, colder, or adjust specific colors in a small area of a picture.
- Black & White: make the shot monochrome.
- Retouch: improve sharpness and other aspects of the picture.
- Red-eye: remove red eyes on a pic.
- White Balance, Curves, Noise Reduction, and many more.
Each of these settings can be adjusted with a series of sliders. Simply move one or more and watch the photo change. Click Done once you are happy with the edits you’ve made.
How to crop photos on Mac using Photos app
When you crop a picture, you can adjust the ratio or remove the parts you don’t want to improve its composition. With Photos, you can also flip it from horizontal to vertical, or the other way around.
Mac Picture Editor Like Paint
Here is how you crop an image using Photos:
- Launch Photos.
- Find the photo you want to edit and double-click on it.
- Click Edit and go to Crop in the top toolbar of Photos.
- Click on Aspect on the right to choose an aspect ratio, or click Auto In the bottom right-hand corner of the screen to crop automatically.
- Click Done once you are happy with the picture.
Another way to crop or resize is to make these changes manually. Go through steps 1 - 3 above, then select Aspect. Now you can adjust the aspect ratio according to a series of pre-set parameters.
Once you’re satisfied with the result, click Done, or revert to the original if you want to start over.
How to apply filters in Photos app
In Photos, you have a series of nine filters designed to copy classic photography styles. Filters have been a part of taking photos — professionally and for fun — for generations before Instagram and Snapchat, so Apple made it easy to apply these with a few clicks.
Here’s how you apply a filter in the Photos app:
- Launch Photos.
- Find the photo you want to edit and double-click on it.
- Click Edit and go to Filters in the top toolbar.
- Choose from the Vivid, Dramatic, and Black & White options.
- Once you’re happy with the changes, click Done, or revert to try again.
Because you’ll probably edit your photos one or two at a time, you might not notice the duplicates your computer has accumulated over time. So, you should regularly use Gemini 2 to scan for copies of your pictures that are just wasting space on your hard drive.
How to edit photos with Mac’s Preview
Another way to make changes to photos using a native Mac tool is to use Preview. Although most people use it to view and make some changes to PDFs, it can also help make quick changes to images. It isn’t as feature-rich as Photos, but if you need a quick adjustment before sending or publishing a photo, it can get the job done. Let’s start with the basics: resizing an image.
How to resize an image with Mac’s Preview
Resizing an image doesn’t have to be a guessing game. Do the following to make a proportional resize and avoid the image looking squished or too stretched:
- Open the photo with Preview.
- Go to Tools in the Apple menu.
- Click Adjust Size.
- This will open a window where you can adjust the size of the pic either in pixels or in inches/centimeters.
- Make sure you keep the Scale proportionally box checked. That way, the image will preserve its original aspect ratio.
- Click OK when you’re done.
To rotate a photo, there is a rotate button on the top toolbar of the app (it looks like a square with an arrow). Click once or more, depending on how many times an image needs rotating to get in the right position. From the Apple menu, click File > Save once you’re done.
If you want to undo any changes, click Edit, then select Undo. You can also revert to the original to start again before making further edits. To do that, go to File > Revert to > Last Opened.
Now, if you want to crop an image, that’s also easily done with Preview, although the app lacks the more robust options available in Photos.
- Click and drag your cursor on the area of the picture you want to crop
- Click the Crop button in the top right-hand corner
- Now click File > Save to save this image, or revert or undo to start again
And finally, you can also adjust the color using Preview. Here’s how:
- Click Tools in the Apple menu
- Go to Adjust Color
- A range of sliders will appear, giving you the tools to adjust any of the following: exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, saturation, temperature, tint, sepia, and sharpness. Although not quite as many options as Photos offers, this is a decent selection of edits that you can make quickly and easily without any third-party apps.
Edit photos with third-party Mac photo editors
Of course, if you’re looking to do more advanced edits to your photos, there is no shortage of third-party apps for you to use. Apps like Lightroom that allow you to make lighting adjustments and do some minor cleanup to your photographs. Or Photoshop that will allow you to change the composition and create entirely new images. While apps like this aren’t necessarily cheap or easy-to-use, they are powerhouses for editing photos on your Mac.
Apple Photo Editor Free
But between Photos and Preview, every Mac user has two robust, easy-to-use native photo editors to edit pictures to perfection before posting them online, sharing with friends and family, or sending to a client. You don’t have to spend weeks mastering Photoshop or other heavyweight photo editors — any change you need is a few clicks away.