6 Free Alternatives to Adobe Photoshop

Dictionary Oxford includes Photoshop as a verb. Means edit, manipulate, or alter a photographic image digitally using the image editing program Photoshop. In Spanish, this photography tool is also often mentioned when we talk about retouched images. And despite the rise in AI-generated images, Photoshop remains link in digital publishing. However, its high cost and resource consumption force many find an alternative to Adobe Photoshop for free use on your computers.

Today you can edit a photo from almost any device. From iPhone and Android, you can go to the official applications. Both of their names are Photo (Photo in English) and turn on filters, effects and settings almost automatically removes the background, enhances parts of the image, changes brightness and color, etc. But if that’s not enough, there are dozens of photo editing apps, free and paid, available in their respective app stores.

And if we focus on Adobe Photoshop alternatives The desktop version for Windows and Mac has cheaper paid options such as Pixelmator, Affinity Photo or ACDSee Photo Studio. Not to mention free and open source alternatives. retouch images like a pro. Below we highlight the most popular and complete free alternatives. For installing and retouching photos from the browser.

GIMP

If we talk about free alternatives to Adobe Photoshop, we must mention GIMP, one of the oldest free software projects. It is a free and open-source image editor. available for Windows, Mac and Linux. It is designed for graphic designers, photographers and illustrators, so you can do whatever you want with this application. photo retouching, painting and digital imaging.

GIMP is similar to Photoshop and has many features that allow you to digital retouching of your images. And to make it more convenient for you, you can customize its main window to suit you. It is compatible with most formatshas filters, color retouchingmasks, light fixtures, good assortment brushes and textures…And for the more experienced, it allows you to retouch images using scripts in C, C++, Perl, Python and Scheme, among others.

Crete

Adobe Photoshop started out as a photo retouching application, but today it is used interchangeably by both designers and designers. photographers or illustrators. In this last area, Krita excels in that it offers everything you need. draw and illustrate professionally. Plus, it offers features you won’t find in Photoshop to make your job easier. creation of comics and manga. Although you can also use this app just to sketch, take notes, or create simple diagrams on the fly.

As an image editor, Krita is also no slouch. So it’s a good free alternative to Adobe Photoshop if you’re not looking for complexity. It has basic editing functions, filters and a good palette of tools for editing anything. Otherwise, it gets along well with almost any image or photograph format. The same goes for peripherals if you decide to draw or edit on pen displays or graphics tablets.

Photo editor Canva

Today you can edit photos like a pro from your phone, tablet, or computer. Using the application or from the website. And if we’re talking about photo retouching online, we should mention Canva yes or yes. This is one of the most famous online editor suites currently filled with many tools. This time we are interested in Canva Photo Editor. Although it also has specialized assistants for specific tasks such as removing the background from an image, creating cards, or designing T-shirts or calendars.

Canva Photo Editor’s philosophy is to give you almost everything you can do. That is, you won’t have to fight with the application, since it’s there very intuitive and manageable. With a couple of clicks you can apply effects and filtersadd text, objects and other elements, customize colors and lighting, top drawing, etc. And for a fraction of the price, you have advanced editing features at your fingertips based on artificial intelligence. It also has templates, free resources so you don’t have to start your creations from scratch, and it plays well with most image formats. And it works over the Internet, without installing anything on your PC or Mac.

PhotoScape

PhotoScape, available for Windows and macOS, was one of the first alternatives to Adobe Photoshop that was free to install. And although it hasn’t been updated in a while, it’s still a good option for retouching and fixing images. Has a master of creating collages, color correction, filters, effects, background removalBatch processing of photos, creation of GIF files, has an extensive catalog frames, patterns and objects Add textures, paint brushes, and more to your images.

In practice, PhotoScape is very convenient to handle. Its appearance is reminiscent of Photoshop, so you won’t have any trouble getting used to the changes. However, on their website you will find video tutorials for studying to perform most of the editing tasks you need. And as you can see, many of these tasks you will learn how to do it in PhotoScape faster than Adobe Photoshop.

Polarr

If you’re looking for a free alternative to Adobe Photoshop that specializes in tasks like improved color and lightingsharpness or distortion, Polarr is a great option. Plus, it’s web-based, can be installed on a PC or Mac, and can be used on iPhone, iPad, and Android mobile devices. Yes, really. This app freemium. That is, you can work with it for free, although it has some paid functions.

Without paying a single euro, Polarr offers automatic settingscutting and resizing tasks, as well as adjusting color, lighting and exposure, text, layers… It also has 14 free filters, with the ability to create your own automatic filters. As incentives this allows retouch facial features or human figure, add watermarks, goes well with most formats and its interface can be customized depending on what tasks you perform most often.

MediBang Paint

MediBang Paint is a full-fledged digital painting tool. Especially manga and comics. If you are using Adobe Photoshop for design and illustration, in this application you will find a good replacement, free and available for PC, Mac, tablets and smartphones. Although he has paid version on Steam with exclusive features. And if you’re learning to draw digitally, there are resources, tutorials, and lessons to help you learn how to use the app.

Designed to work with iPad and Apple Pencilyou can use it with other periphery digital painting combined with your PC or Mac. It is intended for both professionals and beginners. You will find many brushes, textures, filters and other tools for drawing or retouching images, coloring, inserting images into vignettes, etc.