Free analogues of Adobe Photoshop for Mac OS X. How to choose a drawing program on your Mac Standard graphic editor mac os

For many of us, Adobe's Photoshop is our default graphics editor. However, the versatility of a tool does not mean that it is advisable to use it in specific situations: an ax is also suitable for chopping nuts, but wouldn’t it be easier to use pliers?

We present to you ten image processing programs that provide a worthy alternative to the leading products in this niche.

Pixlr

A free online photo editor for iOS and Android, which is positioned as the best in the world and includes more than 600 effects, overlays, frames. The application allows you to crop, resize, combat red-eye, and even whiten the teeth captured in the photo.

Serif PhotoPlus X7

One of Photoshop's direct competitors, but with a lower price: $99.99. PhotoPlus X7 is compatible with Windows XP, Vista, 7 and 8. Beginner users run the risk of experiencing some difficulties when working with the program; its interface may not seem very friendly. However, in the right hands, PhotoPlus X7 can surprise.

Aperture

Perhaps, best solution for photographers using Mac. In comparison with Adobe products, Aperture seems more lightweight, but no less functional: for example, with its help you can automatically correct white balance and perform auto gain in just one click. There is also a set of brushes and professional photo effects. Price: $79.99.

Acorn

Released in 2007, the Acorn graphic editor for Mac has already fallen in love with a considerable number of artists, including for its affordable price: $29.99. The latest fourth version of the program has an improved interface and a non-destructive filter function has been added. You can save and change custom filters after closing the program.

Affinity Photo

Contrary to popular belief, this is not a clone of the famous vector editor Affinity Designer for Mac, but an independent product. While the former was billed as the Illustrator killer, Affinity Photo aims to be a complete alternative to Photoshop. The program was announced in 2015 and so far only a beta version is available, but it is free.

By the way, another product from Affinity is a vector and raster graphics tool that can easily compete with two products from Adobe: Photoshop and Illustrator.

DxO Optics Pro 10

The main task of OpticsPro 10 is RAW conversion, and I must say, the program copes with it more than well. In addition, it automatically corrects distortions and chromatic aberrations, allows you to view images and apply a default or custom preset to each of them. Cost: $129, for Mac and Windows owners.

PaintShop Pro X7

A photo editor for Windows that supports Photoshop brushes and allows you to create collections, including by specific date, and also share images with friends in social networks for £59.99. There are opportunities to work with vector graphics and the basic functions required within image processing.

Camera+

An alternative to the Camera application, which is the default for iOS devices. Prices range from $1.99 to $4.99. Includes settings for the camera and separately for the photo editor. Among other things, it allows you to import pictures into Lightbox.

If you ask me about the best photo editor for mobile devices, without a doubt I will say VSCO Cam. A selection of wonderful filters for every taste and for reasonable money, an abundance of tools for image editing, a local library of files and successfully implemented export, as well as the ability to publish your photos and be inspired by other people's works - all this is about him. The secret of success turned out to be simple: behind the application and service there is a team of real professionals in various fields, including photography.

Visual Supply Company employees have worked for Apple, MTV, Audi, Levi's, Adobe, Sony, UnderArmour, Xbox, Webex, Getty Images, Nintendo, T-Mobile and Adidas. As a result mobile application free of common problems of numerous photo editors in App Store And Google Play, which programmers work on primarily. Even if they are not devoid of a sense of beauty, but are accustomed to thinking in formulas and algorithms. To make the best photo application, it turned out that something completely different was needed - professional photographers, designers, representatives of other creative professions and people familiar with the visual art industry from the inside.

VSCO Cam App for a long time was only available for iPhone, but is now available to owners of iPads and Android devices. Similar to Instagram, developers are gradually taking over more and more platforms, allowing mobile photographers to publish even better photos through the use of numerous editing tools and stylish color filters developed by professional photographers. Portrait, landscape, city, nature, macro photography - you can hardly find a genre of mobile photography for which VSCO Cam does not have a suitable set of filters. But this is all about smartphones and tablets.

Unfortunately, Visual Supply Company does not have a product for connecting an amateur camera and a computer. The only desktop solution is a set of VSCO Film presets for Photoshop and Lightroom. The problem is that seven sets cost $119 each, with only the “zero” trial set available for free. The high cost, combined with the need to pay a subscription to Adobe products, makes the barrier to entry into computer photo processing very high. In addition, we are not talking about one-click photo editing like on a smartphone, but a professional product for photographers who need to manually correct a large number of parameters.

It turns out that the niche of high-quality products for retouching photographs from amateur and semi-professional cameras on computers is not occupied. Users have to either download “heavy” editors with an excessive number of settings, or be content with mostly second-rate products. So far, only a product designer with the nickname Suganth has a solution to this problem, who thoroughly took on the development of the concept of VSCO Suite for Mac and spoke about his work on the Medium platform. Of course, we are talking only about a fictional application, but this is the rare case when the fictional program turned out exactly as the real one could have been - without dubious attempts to reinvent the wheel in matters of design and usability or add unimaginable functions.

On the one hand, this concept can be dismissed under the pretext that there is no point in Visual Supply Company developing a desktop application in the presence of VSCO Film, but if you think about it, this may turn out to be the right step. On the one hand, the company could earn more through microtransactions and the purchase of filter sets than by selling expensive presets for Photoshop and Lightroom. At the same time, it could become a transitional application for amateur photographers to professional image processing, and would also allow exporting mobile photos for even more convenient processing on the big screen. Ultimately, we hope that the people at Visual Supply Company not only notice this concept, but decide to conquer desktop operating systems with the VSCO application.

If you use a Mac on a daily basis and want an ubiquitous photo editor that can replace Photoshop, then Pixelmator is the best alternative.

This application has been around for a long time, it is lighter than Photoshop, works much faster and, in general, the optimization on macOS is pleasing. Basic functions such as retouching, working with layers and presets are made more convenient and simpler than the same functions in the interface of Adobe products.

Today the company rolled out information about the upcoming update, and I'm looking forward to this application.

What did they add?

Pixelmator Pro has been redesigned appearance and added many new tools, including smarter photo retouching, creating vector graphics, digital painting and layout design. Pixelmator Pro, of course, will not do everything that a full-fledged Photoshop can do, but for me its simplicity and practicality are precisely the fundamental factors when choosing a photo editor. I don't use most of Photoshop's features, but Pixelmator's features are sufficient. What’s more important is the speed and clarity with which the program works at all resolutions, up to 5K.

Who is the application for?

Until recently, Pixelmator could be considered a lightweight version of Photoshop, specifically created for Mac, but with the advent Pro versions the developers claim that this is a completely worthy alternative to the Adobe package.

On my own behalf, I can add that Pixelmator has an excellent cloud storage system for projects, and also has mobile version programs. Pixelmator, for both Mac and iOS, is seamlessly integrated with iCloud. Adobe also has a cloud, but it works as strange and slow as Microsoft's cloud file storage in their Office. Everything flies in Pixelmator. I never need to save a file, the program saves everything in real time to iCloud. Even if you have an emergency computer shutdown, all your creative efforts will be saved in iCloud.

The most important updates

The application interface has been completely redesigned according to Apple guidelines. Now all actions are optimized and their operation requires fewer body movements. Separate layouts have been developed for Touch Bar at MacBook Pro, and the program has learned to work in multitasking mode with splitting the screen into two parts.

And most importantly... self-education

Pixelmator Pro uses Apple's latest Core ML API. The application learns itself on the go and allows you to perform some functions better and better each time. Changes in work can be seen literally immediately. Here's an example: tool quick selection more intelligently determines the boundaries of an object, the algorithm automatically marks different layers based on their content, and the Repair tool is very cool and fast at removing unnecessary objects in a photo. Now retouching is a real pleasure. Here's how this function works in a real example.

About the price

The full version of the application will cost only $30. Bought once and forever, but starter pack Adobe will cost you $10 per month.

Editors for working with raster images. This section presents free analogues of Adobe Photoshop.

Below you will find free programs, distributed under licenses

Gimp

official website December 20, 2016 GNU General Public License Raster graphics editors 9

Gimp is an excellent free analogue of paid raster editors, even such Adobe Photoshop. The application has full functionality for working with images: support for transparency, layers, a large number of formats, various filters for image processing. The program interface is quite standard for raster editors, but it can be customized to suit your needs.

Pinta

Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X official website December 14, 2016 Free software - license for personal and commercial use Raster graphics editors 2

Pinta is a free cross-platform raster graphics editor. The program is easy to use and has a multilingual interface, supporting over 55 languages. The software can be used for both drawing and editing ready-made images. A wide range of effects and a set of tools for working with images will help you create, edit and process files. Pinta allows you to open and save images in the following formats: ORA, BMP, PNG, JPG, TGA, TIFF, ICO. Images in GIF format can only be opened (imported) by the editor, while for animated GIFs only the first frame is opened. Saving to GIF is not supported.

Krita

Windows, Linux, Mac OS X official website 06 February 2016 GNU General Public License - license for personal and commercial use Raster graphics editors 23

Krita is a free raster editor that is more suitable for drawing than editing. The application has a standard interface for programs of this type. Krita includes a large number of brushes, as well as a brush editor. There are various filters for post-processing. In addition, Krita supports layers and various color schemes: RGBA, Gray, CMYKA, Law, YCbCr, XYZ.

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One of the most common Apple users Macintosh were artists. Intuitive interface operating system is one of the reasons Adobe and other artist-focused companies adapted early. MacPaint was in the very first Macintosh sold, and subsequently, many other painting programs came to the Mac. Which program is best for you? We'll show you available options that will suit your needs. Read on!

Steps

For children

Record and playback drawing videos

Simple but effective

Artsy fun

Professional Applications

GIMP . Free is good, right? Yes! GIMP is software open source, in other words, the program is free and open to anyone who wants to add or change elements of it. While the program has a lot of Photoshop-like buttons, the interface isn't straightforward, so you'll have to get used to it. With affordable features and editing capabilities, the program is a favorite for those who don't want to pay for Photoshop or don't want to follow the crowd.

Painter . Painter is great app with tools that are similar to real objects: paper and sketch, brushes, palettes, pencils, crayons, oils, acrylics and more. For artists who like to work with digital analogues of traditional tools, this program is the best. At RUB 10,000, it's not the cheapest option, but for serious artists, the program is worth every penny.

Photoshop. If you are into graphics, then you know about Photoshop. Photoshop, as many say, is the ancestor of all drawing applications. It has grown from a small editing program into a huge platform that is so famous that the name is used as a verb. This program has the most comprehensive set of tools, and still has one of the cleanest and most intuitive interfaces. The program costs 25 thousand rubles.

Photoshop Elements . If Photoshop is too expensive, you can get powerful software at an inexpensive price by purchasing Adobe Elements. The program is a photo editor that is ideal for cleaning up photos taken with your digital camera. Includes tools such as cropping, cleaning, polishing and sharing your photos online. The program costs 3,800 rubles, so if you take a lot of photos, then Elements will be an excellent choice.

• Before downloading the program, check system requirements. To find out information about your Mac, click on the Apple icon and click on "About this Mac".
• Not required, but recommended for artists with graphics tablets. Wacom is a well-established tablet device, with options ranging from small tablets to large monitors with on-screen drawing capabilities (priced to match!).
• If the application does not start, try restarting your computer.