What is the best photo editing software?

Question

PhotographyPhoto EditorGraphic Design

What is the best photo editing software?

39

Options
Considered

484

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Recs.

Jan 30, 2024

Last
Updated

34 Options Considered

Best photo editing software	Price	Platforms	License
70 Krita	Free	Windows, Linux, Mac, Android	Open source
62 Gimp	Free	Windows 10/8/7; Linux; MacOS	GPLv3+
60 Photoshop	$9.99/mo	Windows, macOS	Hagu
55 Affinity Photo	$74.99	OSX, iPad, Windows	-
-- Pixelmator	$29.99	OSX	-

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score 49 · Answer 1

Krita

Top Pro

Free and open source

The simple fact that If Its is free can easily steal away begginers and part time hobyists from wallet breaking options. See More

Top Con

WIP touch interface

Touch interface is available as a workspace layout option in the "Window" menu, but things could be improved, such as adding brush presets and layer docker by default. See More

OrganizedAello's Experience

This is great too, I was able replace Corel Painter which is not great at editing images. Krita is great at image editing and artwork, it replaced Adobe Photoshop at Paris No 8 University in France! See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Linux, Mac, Android

License:Open source

Technology:C++, Qt

Top Pro

Constantly updated

Krita is getting constant releases with updates and bug fixes. New features are added at a pace that far surpasses the other alternatives. See More

Top Con

Documentation is lacking

Krita's official documentation is incomplete in some areas, especially for new features that are constantly added. But this is compensated with it's great design and usability which makes it easier to understand how things work. See More

ReflectiveCocytus's Experience

Very good app! See More

Top Pro

Multi platform

Windows, Linux and OS X builds. See More

Top Con

Working with text is not that pleasant

You can't resize text directly without having to open the text editor dialog, unless that text is converted from vector into a paint layer (which defeats the purpose). The problem is the same with changing the fonts, but not as tiresome. See More

PassionateKakka's Experience

Krita works flawlessly whether it is for painting or for photo editing. The default brushes are more than enough to get you starting on painting your most creative ideas. Designing graphic using vector could be improved though, especially the text editor box that's tiresome to use compared to Inkscape. But Krita and Inkscape are two different beast that works amazing in their own field, I would recommend both as your main graphic software. See More

Top Pro

Very customizable

Although the UI is rather busy, Krita is very customizable. The editing window can be themed and the sidebar can be customized extensively throw many dockers or panes. See More

Top Con

New features are not tested thoroughly

Since releases are so often and with little time between them, usually new features are not tested a lot and this can bring a lot of bugs with them. Which fortunately are quickly patched in the next release. See More

Top Pro

Easy editing in a tiled view

Tiled view that shows your image tiled in the editor, and permits you to edit it as you are seeing it tiled. If the brush passes out of your texture, it will just automatically wrap back the painting to the other side of the original texture, while permitting you to paint and see the results on any of the tiled "clones" (the shortcut key to activate this is w by default). See More

Top Pro

Lots of good brushes out of the box

Krita has lots of good default brush that you could just use and be content with. See More

Top Pro

Intuitive, Photoshop-like interface

All the most used and useful tools are easy to find in Krita's UI and are often just one click away. They are not hidden behind menus or dropdowns. A realitivley intuitive GUI, very similar to Photoshop. See More

Top Pro

Easy to use layout

All the most used and useful tools are easy to find in Krita's UI and are often just one click away. They are not hidden behind menus or dropdowns. See More

Top Pro

Amazing support for displaying brushes

Krita's preset brushes are one of the default dockers. Each brush has a preview on mouseover that shows a detailed view of the type of brush involved. All the brushes also have useful and descriptive names such as "HP Pencil" or "Textured Fuzzy". See More

Top Pro

Tileable drawing feature

Verry useful for painting game textures, and making seamless textures, Krita comes loaded in with a seamless view, witch permits you to keep painting accross seams, as it automatically wraps your work around to the other side. See More

Top Pro

Versatile

While Krita is mainly a program to do art, you could also do photo editing with no problem. The support for non-destructive editing and the inclusion of G'Mic plugins extends Krita from a painting software with simple photo editing to a professionally capable photo editing software. See More

See All

score 63 · Answer 2

Gimp

Top Pro

Free and open source

GIMP is completely free and open source, meaning you can use GIMP and all of its features without spending a penny. This makes it an excellent case for artists or designers who may not have the budget to spend over US $700 on Photoshop. See More

Top Con

Less features than other programs

Being a free program, it shouldn't be surprising that it has limited features. For those needing more advanced features for something more professional, GIMP just isn't for you. See More

OrganizedAello's Experience

Works great on Windows/Linux. I was able to replace Corel Photo-Paint, which ironically replaced Photoshop years ago. With that thinking, Open Source & Linux let me replace all the snooping junk from Microsoft & Apple. We have a choice to be free from Apple, Adobe, Microsoft, Corel and others. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows 10/8/7; Linux; MacOS

Tethered capture:No

License:GPLv3+

Non-Distructive Editing:No, Feature in development with GEGL

See All Specs

Top Pro

Cross-platform

Unlike Photoshop or Pixelmator, GIMP is cross platform compatible with Linux, Mac and Windows making it perfect for a team with varying hardware. See More

Top Con

Unintuitive interface

GIMP doesn't embrace OS X application design, thus Mac users might have a hard time wrapping their heads around GIMP's interface. See More

greggman's Experience

i can only guess that people who use the gIMP just don't know what they're missing. Photoshop, Affinity Designer, Pixelmator etc all allow non-destructive adjustment layers and layer styles. Those 2 features alone put them in a different league than gIMP. Maybe someday gIMP will gain those features but until then it's really a huge step down in usefulness. See More

Top Pro

Powerful

GIMP is the most feature rich free image editing tool. It has most image manipulation and workflow tools that you would expect from an image editing software and what it lacks it makes up with plugins. See More

Top Con

Poor performance

MagicalYonggungChasa's Experience

Their motto: do one thing and do it well, is written all over this piece of software. Unlike the overly complicated and very expensive dog's breakfast called photoshop, the GIMP keeps the number of ways to do the same thing to an absolute minimum. When you're trying to meet deadlines, simplicity will get you there quicker. That's the GIMP. 'Nuff said. See More

Top Pro

Script-Fu

You can automate pretty much anything. See More

Top Con

Mediocre usability overall

Many simple tasks are complicated in GIMP. For example, changing the brush size is annoying. Basically the UI is not bad, but not very good either. See More

IncredibleEuthenia's Experience

Working with GIMP compared to Photoshop or other paid photo editing programs is painful. The usability is so bad compared with paid competitors that I can't use it anymore. See More

Top Pro

Lightweight

Compared to to other photo editing programs, GIMP is doesn't take up much space and isn't very resource-intensive. See More

Top Con

Lacks adjustment layers

Adjustment layers offer a non-destructive way of combining different photo manipulations. Without adjustment layers the only way to see changes is by irreversibly editing the image. They are promised in future updates. See More

TruthfulRaetTawy's Experience

Krita is not stable and too simple See More

Top Pro

Feature rich

GIMP is the most feature rich free image editing tool. It has most image manipulation and workflow tools that you would expect from an image editing software and what it lacks it makes up with plugins. See More

Top Con

Osx uses it on a X11 server

A native user interface would be much better for this kind of program See More

RespectfulAsaruludu's Experience

Mature, stable, and powerful. As for the UI, read the manual, noobs! See More

Top Pro

Free, open source and cross-platform

GIMP is completely free and open source, meaning you can use GIMP and all of its features without spending a penny. This makes it an excellent case for artists or designers who may not have the budget to spend over 700 USD on Photoshop. It is also available for free on Windows, Mac OS and Linux. It's licensed under GPL with source code available here. See More

Fun Guy's Experience

Not as good as photoshop, but still very nice See More

Top Pro

Beginner-friendly

Gimp has less features than programs like Photoshop, but for a beginner, or someone not needing complicated options, Gimp is the perfect choice. It allows you to quickly do basic photo manipulation so you can easily get the product you need without having to worry about complicated features getting in the way. See More

AuthenticAnshar's Experience

Simple, powerful and lightweight. See More

Top Pro

A portable version is available

You can put GIMP on a flash drive and have it with you to load up on just about any computer. See More

Glucksritter's Experience

Quite easy to use and is a beginner friendly emvorpm,emt See More

Top Pro

Modular & single-window interface options

By default GIMP splits out each window, but you can check to use the one screen mode in options if you prefer. See More

MR Chief's Experience

GIMP is a free open source profession photo editor! It is capable to do everything that the other "industry standard" software like Photoshop can do. The only downside it that there are no adjustment layer so you can't do non destructive editing but you can always make a copy of your photo before do any change or go back with Ctr + Z if anything goes wrong! I strongly recommend GIMP! See More

Top Pro

Full channel support

ShojiVR's Experience

Closest Alternative to Adobe Photoshop but Doesn’t support CMYK See More

Top Pro

Content-aware tools with a plugin

There's a content-aware fill plugin available for GIMP. See More

Top Pro

Tons of online tutorials

GIMP is free and it can also do pretty match anything and as a result there are tons of people using it and making beginner and also advanced tutorials for it! See More

See All

score 63 · Answer 3

Photoshop

Top Pro

Industry standard

Photoshop is used by professionals everywhere in a wide variety of fields including photography, graphic design and digital art. It is the de facto standard for image manipulation. If you've seen a magazine ad featuring a model, you've probably seen the effects of Photoshop. You won't be alone when using Photoshop. See More

Top Con

Expensive

The standalone version of Photoshop costs $19.99/month, though it can be leased as part of the Creative Cloud Photography bundle that includes Lightroom for $9.99/month. See More

CatTrem's Experience

Simply the best but a bit pricey. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, macOS

Tethered capture:via Bridge

License:Hagu

Top Pro

Trove of plugins that extend functionality are available

A wide variety of plugins that add new effects, improve existing functionality and simplify workflow are available. See More

Top Con

Latest versions of Photoshop are subscription-only

While you can still buy CS6 from 2012 without needing a subscription by contacting Adobe support or the cut-down Photoshop Elements, any full-version version of Photoshop past CS6 requires a subscription. See More

AdaptableMoros's Experience

I believe this is the only software with so many youtube tutorials, where you can learn everything. See More

Top Pro

Lots of tutorials

There's a huge number of both free and paid tutorials available online. Websites like Lynda.com offer premium high-quality, in-depth tutorials, but there are plenty of free alternatives to be found on YouTube, blogs and specialized sites on the Internet. See More

Top Con

Learning it can take some time

While you can relatively quickly learn how to perform a few basic image editing tasks, understanding Photoshop's ins and outs can be difficult. It's partially due to the sheer amount of functionality that Photoshop packs (and understanding that some of the advanced functionality can take a while to understand on its own), and partially due to it being aimed at professionals with little hand-holding for novice users. See More

ShojiVR's Experience

Legendary photo app. Still a bit hellish to learn for a novice but what a massive number of amazing features. See More

Top Pro

A cheaper, standalone version called Photoshop Elements is available

A stripped down version of Photoshop, called Photoshop Elements can be bought as a standalone application for $100. See More

Top Con

Very slow

It needs a very power CPU and GPU and many GBs of RAM and still it is so slow. See More

YesIInserted17FloppyDisksToInstallWin95's Experience

Photoshop is still the best, but it was the best like 10 versions ago. I don't need the newer AI stuff like I did not needed the cloud storage. Adobe gave us stuff we did not ask for and send us the new (subscription based) bill. No Thanks. It is time to die. Thank god other companies have spot the market gap, and pushing hard to fill it. Bye Photoshop it has been a wonderful 15 years, but I didn't ask for any of this. See More

Top Pro

Includes powerful content-aware tools

Photoshop includes content-aware tools such as content-aware fill that can fill in a select area based on what surrounds it. See More

Top Con

Stop paying, it vaporises

With Adobes adaptation of the "subscription world" PhotoShop too is available as subscription software only. This means it will never become yours. And if you stop paying, you won't have any PhotoShop any more. Whether you are OK with that or not, it also means that PhotoShop for a large part becomes software for those "who can afford it". Or "push cost to others". Like customers of professionals. Which is also a way to become an "industry standard". See More

Fun Guy's Experience

Best damn photoeditor... expensive though! See More

Top Pro

Packs a staggering amount of functionality

Photoshop is the most fully featured image editing software available today allowing you to perform highly advanced image manipulation. It has tools for RAW image adjustments, lens correction, retouching, image stitching, HDR, fixing framing. It supports most professional color modes and file formats. It includes extensive lists of filters, styles, effects, fonts as well as tools for painting, sketching and typography work. It understands both raster and vector graphics. It even includes tools for video editing, working with 3D objects and support for 3D printing. See More

Top Con

Affinity Photo is just as good at a fraciton of the price

Switching from Photoshop to Affinity Photo and it's hard to notice the difference quality of a professional's work. They say that PS is the industry standard, but so very few pros that tried Affinity Photo ever look back. See More

michael thompson's Experience

basically you get what you pay for. A bit expensive product, but worth to use due to it's numerous features See More

Top Pro

Integrates with Creative Cloud

You can save all projects directly to the Creative Cloud allowing you to access them from any device and with any relevant Adobe software. See More

Top Con

Not good enough to be so expensive

Probably the only big advantage Photoshop has over the other free software is the adjustment layers. But still too expensive for just one feature. See More

MR Chief's Experience

The only advantage Photoshop has over GIMP is the adjustment layers but compare to GOMP which is free and open source, Photoshop is very overpriced and overrated! See More

Top Pro

Creative Cloud Photography subscription includes Lightroom

Lightroom is another image editing software from Adobe that's specifically designed for photo editing and managing of large quantities of digital images. See More

Top Con

Batch editing of images is not straightforward

Photoshop is designed to work extensively on one image at a time and while batch editing support exists, it's not that intuitive to use. See More

Rob Frydryck's Experience

Expensive for what you get. See More

Top Pro

Mobile companion apps available

There's a free mobile app available for iOS, Android & Windows Phone. See More

Top Con

Asset management capabilities are lacking

In Photoshop asset management is done through a separate program called Bridge. As Bridge is supposed to be a file management tool for not just Photoshop's files, but for files generated by all of Adobe's applications it covers a breadth of capabilities, but not depth. See More

See All

score 51 · Answer 4

Affinity Photo

Top Pro

Lifetime updates

Pay once, get updates forever. See More

Top Con

Limited selection of plugins

Plugin support was only recently added to AP and not many plugins have been created for the program so far. See More

Rob Frydryck's Experience

Just as good as Photoshop for my pro work at a fraction of the price See More

Specs

Platforms:OSX, iPad, Windows

Top Pro

Interface will be familiar to those coming from Photoshop

The interface, especially the Photo persona, is laid out in way that's very similar to Photoshop - a panel for icons for tools on the left, a panel for information and settings on the right. See More

Top Con

Can not import gimp or krita files

Free alternatives like GIMP (and Krita) are sort of "go to" apps you can always install and use for simple image editing or graphics on any computer. Affinity's support for Photoshop is great, but having support also for opening and editing GIMP and Krita files would make the versatility and use of this program absolutely superb. See More

IncredibleEuthenia's Experience

This is it! Use this, it's amazing!!! See More

Top Pro

Compatible with Photoshop PSD files

Affinity Photo can import and export .psd files. See More

Fun Guy's Experience

Haven't had time to use it more, but the initial experience is very promising. See More

Top Pro

Great performance

Uses the GPU extensively for fast speed on any platform. See More

DelightfulBiegkegaellies's Experience

Decently powerful as photoshop, much eaier, faster, more stable, modern and also updates release really fast See More

Top Pro

Supports layer styles

Layer styles allow non-destructively applying effects to a layer. See More

Top Pro

Personas allow separation of concerns

At a high level the interface is organized into broad groups of tools called Personas. Personas like Photo for in-depth image manipulation, Liquify for warping the image, Develop for basic RAW photo development and Export for exporting. Each persona displays only those tools that are needed for that task. See More

Top Pro

Powerful effects

Dozens of visual effects available. All run extremely fast with live previews See More

Top Pro

Non-destructive adjustment layers

Extensive adjustment layers are non-destructive. See More

Top Pro

Everything is well organized

Easy to find and use tools. See More

Top Pro

Runs faster than Photoshop's old code

Top Pro

Lots and lots of undo

Top Pro

The easiest, even easier than photoshop

Top Pro

The perfect combination of Photoshop and Lightroom - all in one

Top Pro

Supports Photoshop brushes, shapes, etc.

Top Pro

Many tutorials

But still it does not actually matter which tutorial you're actually watching, Photoshop or Affinity's, they are pretty much the same. See More

Top Pro

Very, very cheap for such an app

Top Pro

Has an iPad app

Top Pro

Decent functionality, 100% comparable with Photoshop

Top Pro

Much more lightweight than photoshop

Top Pro

RAW file editing

Top Pro

HDR image editing

Top Pro

Powerful, cheap and lightweight

Top Pro

Very modern and intuitive interface

Top Pro

Color correction

Top Pro

Very fast to learn

Takes about 20 mins, it's that easy. See More

Top Pro

Growing decently fast

Top Pro

Panorama creation

Top Pro

Imports free images from Unsplash

See All

score 14 · Answer 5

Pixelmator

Top Pro

Feature rich

Not only does Piexelmator provide easy to use tools that you should expect in any image editor, it also has rare tools such as layer styles, liquify tools and OS X optimized, fast image manipulation engine among others. See More

Top Con

Only available on Mac OS

Only runs on Mac OS, unlikely to ever support anything else. See More

Specs

Platforms:OSX

Tethered capture:No

Top Pro

Powerful effects

Dozens of visual effects available, easily discovered from the visual Effects Browser, broken into categories. Effects have interactive dialogs and live preview. See More

Top Pro

Supports layer styles

Layer styles allow non-destructively applying effects to a layer. See More

Top Pro

Beautiful, easy to use UI

Pixelmator's interface is pleasant to look at, easy to use and specifically optimized for OS X users, making it very intuitive for long-time Mac users. See More

Top Pro

Loads fast

Gives you common image editing capabilities almost instantly. See More

Top Pro

Great performance

Pixelmator's image engine is specifically optimized for use with Macs, providing one the best performance results available on OS X. See More

Top Pro

Inexpensive

Pixelmator costs just $30 on the App Store. Additionally, it often comes bundled with other software that you might also find useful bringing the price down. See More

Top Pro

Loads quickly

Gives you common image editing capabilities almost instantly. See More

Top Pro

Multiple-display support

Pixelmator can be used across any number of monitors. See More

See All

score 17 · Answer 6

Darktable

Top Pro

Feature rich

There are a lot of different modules. See More

Top Con

Can be overwhelming

There are a lot of different modules. You're going to need some time watching tutorials to understand how to get the best out of it. See More

ResourcefulTaneRore's Experience

I've used Darktable as my main editing and cataloging tool for the last thre years. Darktable have all the capabilities I need for my photographic work. Regarding the "CON Can be overwhelming", this also applies to other software of the same level of sophistication (Lightroom, Capture One...). See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Linux, Mac

Tethered capture:Yes

Technology:C

Non-Distructive Editing:Yes

Top Pro

Fast and Flexible

A very well considered UI makes edits fast and fluid. You can redo or undo any step without disturbing any other part of your edit. The UI doesn't get in the way. See More

Top Con

For tethered capture on Linux you may need additional software installed that is not a dependency for Darktable

First make sure you have gphoto2 and libgphoto2. See More

OrganizedAello's Experience

Works great in Fedora Linux Design Suite. I was able to dump Windows & Apple. See More

Top Pro

Good batch editing capabilities

Darktable allows applying the same set of operations to multiple images and saving your history stack as a style (you can pick exactly which modules). See More

Top Con

No official Windows version

Whilst official builds exist for Linux and OSX, this isn't the case for Windows (though unofficial versions do exist). See More

Top Pro

Edits are saved to a separate file

Original files are untouched by any edits. No worries on what was done before or if an accidental save occurs. All work is separate from the originals. See More

Top Pro

Customizable

Darktable allows favoriting modules and remapping hotkeys. See More

Top Pro

Allows for local adjustments

Most modules, by default, affect the whole image, but have the option to only be applied to masked-off areas (be those drawn masks, parametric ones, or a combination of the two). See More

Top Pro

Supports tethered capture

On the camera set it to use USB Remote. Open Darktable, on the left side under Import, click scan for devices. The camera should appear. Click on tethered shoot. Next on the right side look for the gear icon above the battery n/a and click it. go to the session options tab, and change the base directory to the location you want to save photos. close that settings window and try taking a picture. It should come right up. See More

See All

score 12 · Answer 7

Photopea

Top Pro

Quick author's feedback

Author is really comunicative. Bugs are fixed quickly, ideas for new stuff are implemented. See More

RickZeeland's Experience

No Flash or plugins needed ! See More

Specs

Platforms:Web (in a browser)

Top Pro

Works on all OS

Works on all standard browsers without additional plugins (i.e. does NOT require Flash for example). See More

Top Pro

Supports PSD

You can open a PSD file and edit it just like in Photoshop. See More

Top Pro

Free

No fees, no premium functions, no price, all is really free. See More

Top Pro

Drag and drop support

Photopea allows dragging & dropping images in to the browser window to upload them and add to the scene. See More

Top Pro

SVG support

Supports SVG vector graphics. See More

Top Pro

Cloud based

No install, no downloading - easy in browser and quick. See More

Top Pro

Uses Photoshop standard shortcuts

See All

score 19 · Answer 8

Lightroom

Top Pro

Excellent asset management capabilities

Lightroom allows, for example, organizing images based on folders, color labels, flags, rating, keywords, GPS location, it can automatically create smart albums (albums that automatically update based on set rules) and it can be set to automatically backup, rename based on set rules, apply default processing, add keywords to images on import. It offers that functionality in an intuitive way and allows extensively customizing layout, behavior and workflow of managing assets to better suit your needs. See More

Top Con

No layer-based image editing capabilities

There are no layers removing any ability to blend images, create composits, overlay text, etc. See More

Yanis's Experience

One of the best out there ! See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows OSX

Tethered capture:Yes

Top Pro

HDR support

Can merge multiple shots into one in order to expand dynamic range. See More

Top Con

Hot folder option could be better

It can take a couple of seconds for Lightroom to check the folder for incoming images and that can noticeably slow down the workflow. Additionally, only the last image is imported as active. See More

Top Pro

Facial recognition helps find and tag people

Lightroom has built-in facial recognition support that can be used to find the same person in any collection of photographs. See More

Top Con

There's a learning curve

Top Pro

A good number of cameras have built-in lens profiles for lens distortion correction

Lightroom has over 900 lens profiles from all kinds of manufacturers, including major lens brands like Canon, Nikon, Leica, Pentax, Ricoh, etc. You can see the full list of supported lenses here. Lens profiles will in most cases speed up the process of correcting lens distortion down to 1-2 clicks. See More

Top Con

Telemetry

Adobe is interested in what you do with "their" software. Just install wireshark and see the story unfold. Don't have that or too difficult? Just take a bank note, scan it. See if you can get it on your screen... See More

Top Pro

Intuitive interface that's streamlined for a photographer's workflow

At a high level the interface is organized into broad groups of tools called workflow modules. Modules like "Library" for asset management and "Develop" for manipulating the photos. Each module displays only those tools that are needed for that task. This allows you to separate concerns between tasks and reduces interface clutter. When you're, for example, developing the image, you're not bothered by interface tools relating to exporting it. Within each module tools are grouped in a logical manner. Develop module, for example, will group tools relating to basic image adjustment, lens correction, and effects. And there are a plethora of keyboard shortcuts that improve the workflow speed even further. At all times you can easily navigate between images you're working via arrow keys, quickly compare images before and after making edits with \, or see side by side comparisons with y. See More

Top Con

Expensive and subscription

As with other software offerings, Adobes portfolio keeps giving. For the customer/ user however, this means that you never own your software, but you rent it. Until the point your landlord throws you out. See More

Top Pro

Supports tethered capture

You can connect your camera directly to Lightroom and have Lightroom display images as soon as they are captured. See More

Top Con

Proprietary

As all Adobe software it is proprietary, closed source. See More

See All

score 14 · Answer 9

Capture One Pro

Top Con

Expensive

Has hefty price tag, although both license and subscriptions are on offer. See More

Top Pro

Capture Pilot enables using Capture One collaboratively during a shoot

Capture pilot is a feature that allows any web-enabled device to remotely connect to Capture One and use a subset of its functionality like view a selected catalogue, rate images and even make minor edits to photos. An iOS app for Capture Pilot is available as well that in addition to default functionality also allows controlling a tethered camera though that functionality has to be purchased separately. See More

Chrise's Experience

I have been using Capture one for 3 yrs. I find it easier to use than PS Which is more complicated and expensive over time See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows OSX

Tethered capture:Yes

Top Con

Doesn't support color checkers

Unfortunately, there's no way to create color profiles using the Color Checker Passport. See More

Top Pro

Well thought out tethered capture implementation

Once you hook up your camera to Capture One, the program offers a bunch of useful tools and workflows based on your needs. For example, it has Composition Mode that allows setting up the shot without taking up hard-drive space by replacing the last image taken with the a one as soon as you take it. It has Hot Folder functionality that will keep an eye on changes in a set folder and as soon as any new images appear in that folder they will be added to Capture One; great for cameras that are not supported by Capture One natively and unlike other Hot Folder functionality in other programs C1 captures everything coming in quickly and imports all images as active. Many cameras can be controlled via the program and if the camera has live view, similar functionality can be enabled in Capture One. Plus, live view allows superimposing an overlay; great for cover shooting. There's also a overlay mask that shows wether a shot is in focus or not. And many other functions and design decision that help with ease of use. See More

Top Con

Asset management could be better

While it does have asset managment, it isn't as robust or intuitive as some of the competition, like Lightroom in particular. See More

Top Pro

Extremely robust color editing

A huge amount of color editing options, with the ability to modify overall, to extremely targeted ranges. Especially robust support for editing skin tones. See More

Top Pro

Clean and sharp default processing

Straight imports seem a bit sharper and more dynamic than many other RAW editors. See More

Top Pro

Very intuitive Irs, easier to use and raw conversion using Sony seems better

See All

score 4 · Answer 10

Snapseed

Top Con

No Windows version

Although it can be run using an emulator, read article. See More

Top Pro

RAW files support

Super-helpful feature for a pro photograper on the go. See More

Top Pro

High quality photo editing

Snapseed includes many features of high end photo editing software, auto correct, image tuning and other effects. Snapseed makes editing your photos easy and gives the photographer many options to choose from in how they present their images. Scrolling up and down lets the user choose from different effects and tools, swiping left to right determines the intensity. This app includes many effects such as tilt shift that are hard to find elsewhere. See More

Top Pro

Free

With the acquisition of Snapseed by Google, the app was lowered in price from $4.99 to free. See More

Top Pro

Selective adjustments

In order to make adjustments to just one part of an image, tap and hold the box on the top right corner of the screen. See More

Top Pro

Clever Interface

Snapseed interface is controlled with swipes, up and down to choose the option and left and right to choose the intensity. It does take a bit of getting used to, but once you have the interface is very nice and easy to use. See More

See All

score 3 · Answer 11

RawTherapee

Top Con

Mac version is unstable

Top Pro

Excellent docs

RawTherapee community maintains a wiki called RawPedia that covers everything about the software from top to bottom. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Linux, Mac

Technology:C++

Top Con

History is lost when opening a new image or closing the app

History resets as soon as you open a new image in the image editor. A fix for it is planned in a future update. See More

See All

score 10 · Answer 12

Paint.NET

Top Pro

Free software

No charge for this software, donations are welcomed. See More

Top Con

Only available on Windows

No OSX or Linux versions are planned. See More

DiplomaticNabia's Experience

Easy and intuitive interface which is essential for me, a person just now becoming interested in computer-generated graphics, or creating any art for that matter, at 40 years of age. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows

Technology:.NET

Top Pro

Active and friendly community

The forums are filled with tutorials, people who are eager to help, and who are friendly while they do so. See More

Top Con

Not really comparable/ in same league

Not really comparable/ in same league as other entries on this list, which are full featured, advanced image manipulation software (e.g. Photoshop, Gimp, Capture, Light/ Darktable). Would be similar to comparing Notepad with Word. Must be why MicroSoft gives it away. See More

ShojiVR's Experience

Only available on Windows See More

Top Pro

Lightweight

Paint.net provides a streamlined but effective core tool set. Support for advanced and niche features is provided through modular plugins, allowing the user to install only what's needed. See More

Top Con

No project-based interface

You can only edit a single image at a time in Paint.NET. For example, in other tools you can open 5 or a 100 images at the same time, and stack those windows in all directions. Furthermore, when you are editing in Paint.NET you can only "view" a single image at a time, even though you can have multiple images open. This limits your zooming ability, as the image will go fullscreen quite quickly, and hide parts of it behind the floating toolbars which can not be embedded anywhere on the screen. See More

Top Pro

HiDPI support

Paint.NET supports HiDPI displays fully, with no scaling problems. See More

Top Pro

Easy to learn and use

Unlike most photo editing software, Paint.NET is simple to learn and easy to use. This leads to less time learning the in's and out's of Paint.NET and more photo editing. For those who only edit photos sporadically and don't have time to invest in learning complicated tools for editing, Paint.Net will suit your needs. See More

Top Pro

Actively developed

The project is active and being continually expanded and refined. See More

Top Pro

Plugins allow extra functionality

Plugins can be made by anyone in the community, and are offered for download on the forum. They extend the capabilities of Paint.NET to cover most tasks. See More

See All

score 4 · Answer 13

DxO Optics Pro

Top Pro

Good default processing

Top Con

Only the last image from a hot folder is made active

Specs

Platforms:Windows OSX

Tethered capture:No

Top Pro

Powerful perspective correction capabilities via a plugin

Top Con

No asset management capabilities

Top Pro

Integrates with Lightroom

Top Con

Doesn't support color chekers

Top Pro

Supports tethered capture

Top Pro

Awesome auto settings

Top Pro

Great lens distortion correction capabilities

Top Pro

Great noise reduction capabilities

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score 6 · Answer 14

PhotoFlare

Top Pro

User friendly

An easy to use GUI, inspired by the equally great PhotoFiltre editor. Very suitable for beginners to add that special touch to photos/images. See More

Top Con

Feature maturity can be low

Some features lack polish or still require more development to make them more useful. Looks like not all features have been given the same development time. See More

SuccinctHera's Experience

Its very handy and intuitive. It really had the potential to push image and photo handling on Linux beyond where it is now. See More

Top Pro

Very fast

Starts up very quick and most editing features run at a high speed. See More

PassionateTaranis's Experience

It has been quick and useful for little edits. Usually all my edits can be completed before GIMP even starts up. See More

Top Pro

RAW support

This program can open most RAW formats produced by high quality DSLR cameras. Great feature to have if you own a high end Nikon or Canon camera. (other brands supported too) See More

Top Pro

Open Source

Offers a Community Edition which is free and the full code is available on Github. See More

Top Pro

Cross Platform

Runs on all major platforms such as Windows, Linux and Mac. See More

See All

score 2 · Answer 15

PhotoScape X

Top Pro

Free version

RickZeeland's Experience

User friendly photo editor and collage maker. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Mac

Top Pro

Collages

Top Pro

Easy to use

See All

score 5 · Answer 16

Corel AfterShot Pro

Top Pro

3x faster than Lightroom

Top Con

Limited Plugin Support

Specs

Platforms:Windows OSX Linux

Tethered capture:No

Top Pro

Prize

Top Pro

Superior Color automatic adjustment

Top Pro

Works on Linux

Top Pro

Built-in HDR support

Can merge multiple shots into one in order to expand dynamic range. See More

See All

score 5 · Answer 17

ACDSee

Top Pro

leaves no additional files in the folders

Top Con

still in beta test

Leather Pig's Experience

NOT A PHOTO EDITOR. This is complete nonsense. You can even ask ACDSee if they think they are a photo editor--they are not. See More

Top Pro

can open Apple Photo archive

Top Pro

FAST

very fast to browse folders See More

See All

score 1 · Answer 18

Photoshop Express

Top Pro

Autofix feature

With one touch, adjust contrast, exposure, and white balance.   See More

Specs

Platforms:Android, iOS

Top Pro

Supports multi touch gestures

Multi touch gestures include rotating images, or swiping to flip the image See More

Top Pro

Great for editing portraits

This app includes blemish removal and easy red eye removal See More

See All

score 3 · Answer 19

PaintShop Pro

Top Pro

Includes content-aware tools

PaintShop includes content-aware tools such as content-aware move, branded Magic Move, that can move objects in a scene and the software will synthesize the background area behind the object based on what surrounds it. See More

Top Con

Non-cohesive interface

The various parts of the interface do not fit together well. You are jumping between windows that have different looks and layouts with different intended workflows and the interface has rows of toolbars that can make the interface feel cluttered. Overall, it lacks polish. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows

Tethered capture:No

See All

score 2 · Answer 20

Corel Draw

34 Options Considered

My Recommendation for Krita

My Recommendation for Krita

Free and open source

WIP touch interface

Constantly updated

Documentation is lacking

Multi platform

Working with text is not that pleasant

Very customizable

New features are not tested thoroughly

Easy editing in a tiled view

Lots of good brushes out of the box

Intuitive, Photoshop-like interface

Easy to use layout

Amazing support for displaying brushes

Tileable drawing feature

Versatile

My Recommendation for Gimp

My Recommendation for Gimp

Free and open source

Less features than other programs

Cross-platform

Unintuitive interface

Powerful

Poor performance

Script-Fu

Mediocre usability overall

Lightweight

Lacks adjustment layers

Feature rich

Osx uses it on a X11 server

Free, open source and cross-platform

Beginner-friendly

A portable version is available

Modular & single-window interface options

Full channel support

Content-aware tools with a plugin

Tons of online tutorials

My Recommendation for Photoshop

My Recommendation for Photoshop

Industry standard

Expensive

Trove of plugins that extend functionality are available

Latest versions of Photoshop are subscription-only

Lots of tutorials

Learning it can take some time

A cheaper, standalone version called Photoshop Elements is available

Very slow

Includes powerful content-aware tools

Stop paying, it vaporises

Packs a staggering amount of functionality

Affinity Photo is just as good at a fraciton of the price

Integrates with Creative Cloud

Not good enough to be so expensive

Creative Cloud Photography subscription includes Lightroom

Batch editing of images is not straightforward

Mobile companion apps available

Asset management capabilities are lacking

My Recommendation for Affinity Photo

My Recommendation for Affinity Photo

Lifetime updates

Limited selection of plugins

Interface will be familiar to those coming from Photoshop

Can not import gimp or krita files

Compatible with Photoshop PSD files

Great performance

Supports layer styles

Personas allow separation of concerns

Powerful effects

Non-destructive adjustment layers

Everything is well organized

Runs faster than Photoshop's old code

Lots and lots of undo

The easiest, even easier than photoshop

The perfect combination of Photoshop and Lightroom - all in one

Supports Photoshop brushes, shapes, etc.

Many tutorials

Very, very cheap for such an app

Has an iPad app