Top photo editing apps: for iPhone, Android, Mac, PC
There are tons of free options available with ergonomic and user-friendly interfaces that can be used on your mobile device, computer, or online to create artistic or professional pictures. In this article, we will show you the best apps to edit your photos on your telephone, computer or online for free.
Mobile apps
The famous free application that comes with a user-friendly photo editor, different modes, and filters. You can also cut and crop your pictures, use filters on videos, or use different editing tools, such as Contrast, Saturation, White Balance, and much more. There is a Discover mode for viewing other users pictures and finding inspiration. There are 10 free presets, but if you need more options, you can opt for a paid subscription for $19.99 a year, and discover more than 200 presets and different filters.
Snapseed is an application developed by Google to simply edit your photos using 29 tools and filters. You can also save your favorite editing templates and use them later. If you need one program to adjust the colours and light of your photos or to make small changes, try Snapseed.
Adobe Photoshop Express
Adobe Photoshop Express is the «younger brother» of the most popular photo editor in the world. To have a full version of the application with all the features you have to pay a subscription fee of $9.99 per month, otherwise, you can use basic features in a free version. You can explore Color Temperature, Vibrance, Blue effect, Perspective correction and much more to make your pictures look flawless and professional. You can even create collages and add text in different styles suitable for mobile photography.
Another application from Adobe, Lightroom, is also a photo editor, but with the function of taking photos in manual mode and editing them on the go with professional capture modes. Lightroom is useful when basic editing is needed. For more complex and professional purposes it is better to use Photoshop Express or enable the Premium account (for $9.99 per month) with more features and tools.
Adobe Photoshop Fix
Adobe Photoshop Fix offers effective and easy-to-use photo retouching and editing on your mobile device. You can restore, smooth, lighten and reshape your photos and also use other tools to take your photography to the next level. The application is free and is a good option for simple photo correction as well as for creating artistic or professional images.
Enlight Photofox
Enlight Photofox is one of the best apps to create digital art. You can use beautiful double exposures, mix photos, use surreal backgrounds and a variety of artistic glitches as well as draw, paint and add text and other elements to your photographic masterpiece. Unfortunately, the app is only available for iOS devices, but there is a good alternative app for Android devices – Enlight Pixaloop.
Afterlight
Afterlight is a multifunctional mobile editor with a bunch of useful effects, some of which are available for free, whereas others come with a $2.99/month subscription. You can try more than 130 filters, use 60 textures, overlays and 20 tools. With Afterlight, it’s no longer difficult to create an artistic picture.
Photo Collage Maker
If you love creating collages, we have good news as Photo Collage Maker is free and specially designed to make beautiful collages. You can choose different grids, frames, and layouts. Moreover, there are hundreds of stickers, doodles, and fonts that you can use to make your photo collage truly unique.
PicsArt Photo & Video Editor
PicsArt Photo & VideoEditor is a useful all-in-one app. You can edit your photos and videos, cut and crop them, create collages, add stickers, glitch effects, vintage and futuristic filters and much more. It even has a face swap app to improve portrait photos and selfies. The app is free, but you can get a Gold subscription plan with more features for $8 a month.
Prisma
Prisma is a photo editor app that transforms your pictures into paintings. You can find more than 250 styles of famous artists, from Van Gogh and Picasso to Munch and Hokusai. You can share your masterpieces in the Prisma community and get inspired by other artistic creations. The app is free, but with a Premium account for $7.99 per month you get more filters and styles.
Computer apps
If you are looking for software to edit your photos on your computer, you can try any one of the free software options listed below.
GIMP
One of the oldest photo editing programs is GIMP. It is a graphics editor program for creating and processing raster and vector graphics. You can use it to retouch photos, combine and create images, and more. It is free and compatible with Linux, Windows, Mac OS.
Paint.net
A free and open-source alternative to Photoshop is Paint.net. Among the most notable features of the program is its impressive library of special effects and filters. It is also easy extensible with user-created modules, and has the ability to manipulate image layers, scaling from 1% to 3200%. Moreover, there are many other functions: including blurring, red-eye removal, and other features. Unfortunately, The Paint.net is only compatible with Windows.
Photoscape X
Photoscape X is an all-in-one computer application that allows you to edit photos, create an animated GIF, use a wide color palette, liquify, sharpen, blur and brush your photos and use many other different tools and options to make your photos look professional and unique.
InPixio
InPixio software works pretty much the same as Photoshop or Paint.net. You can crop and cut your pictures, use more than 90 different tools, filters, and frames, adjust contrast, brightness, white balance and use other photo options. It is user-friendly and only compatible with Windows operating systems.
Online photo editors
If you don’t want to install any additional software on your computer or mobile app, you can also use free online photo editors. Here, you will find the best of them.
Canva
Canva is a great photo editor if you work with social networks, create colorful presentations and projects from scratch, or if you use templates. With Canva, you can also create postcards, invitations, advertising flyers and much more for professional and personal use. To get started, you just need to upload a photo and use the tools in the left menu panel.
Pixlr
With Pixlr you can easily resize your image, add layers and color shades, as well as create composite images. Here you can find the best tools from Photoshop, such as lasso, magic wand, and many more. Use the left-side menu panel to discover all the features Pixlr has to offer.
Photopea
Photopea is the best free, online option for all who are familiar with Photoshop. Its interface is very similar to that of Photoshop and therefore, easy to use for advanced photo editors. It supports many image formats, such as GIF, XD, PDF, PSD not to mention JPG and PNG. The free version lets you undo up to 30 steps and use basic tools, but if you want to make more changes with Photopea, you can upgrade to a Pro account for $9 a month (or $10 for 3 months/$40 a year), which adds several features, let’s you undo up to 60 steps and removes all ads.
PicsArt
PicsArt is different from other photo editing applications. With it, you can create works of art by adding prodigious effects, filters, masks, and layers. It’s a perfect online app for creating illustrations, cards, and editing your pictures in a funny and unconventional way.
Polarr
Polarr online app resembles mobile applications where you can apply different filters and effects to photos, adjust colors, light, saturation and anything you need to make your image look professional and yet minimalist. Use the two-sided menu to apply changes, but remember that the free version enables the download of just one photo per day.
