RawTherapee is a free RAW photo editor for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It provides high-quality images with high dynamic range and uses state-of-the-art demosaicing algorithms. Although it’s open-source software, RawTherapee supports most common RAW file formats, including those from Pentax and Sony. Fotor Photo Editor for Mac is also amongst the list of best free photo editing software for MAC. It can be used to edit photos on MAC, create collage, and perform batch actions. Fotor is optimized for retina displays to view the images in full resolution. Here you can choose the option to rotate images, zoom, crop, and perform several other.
Download: RawTherapee (Free) 5. If you're primarily looking for a free RAW viewer rather than an editor, then take a look at Picktorial. The app is exclusive to Mac, and comes with some powerful and useful image management features. In the free version you can use Picktorial to open, view, and export your RAW images. Top 11 Best Photo Editing Apps for Mac. Affinity Photo – Many unique features. Luminar - Perfect for color correction. Pixelmator Pro - Allows working with RAW files. Photoshop Elements – The best choice for professionals. Fotor - Seamless design. Photolemur - Easy-to-use application. Sep 15, 2021 How to edit RAW images? Picking a professional RAW photo editor is the answer. Let’s have a look at the 6 best RAW photo editors, both free and paid. 4 Free RAW Photo Editors #Darktable. Darktable is an open-source, free RAW photo editor available for Linux, Mac, Windows, and more.
Do you still use a high-end DSLR for clicking pictures and capturing mesmerizing moments? Well with the advancements of smartphones, now everyone can be a photographer. But in the curiosity to get that one perfect click will end up taking hundreds of shots.
In addition to the high-end camera of our smartphones, we still need a good photo editing software to edit and polish our dull shots, and make then Instagram suitable. Mac photo editing apps help you to fix and organize your pictures according to your taste and liking.
If you are looking for a professional photo editing tool to add meaning to your dull pictures and make them aesthetically pleasing then refer to our list of best mac photo editing apps. Learn How to Edit Photos on Your Mac to improve the overall quality and look of your picture.
Fortunately, the market is filled with an ocean of options but to help you pick the best tool in the lot, here we have compiled a well-researched list of some of the best photo editing apps and software for mac. Read ahead to find out the best option according to your needs.
12 Best Photo Editors For Mac in 2020:
1. Adobe Photoshop
By far the best photo editing apps for Mac and Windows devices. It is undeniably the most loved tool in the market and commonly known as a synonym to photo editing software.
Loaded with an ocean of features and high-end benefits it is highly popular amongst the fraternity of artists, photographers, designers, and illustrators. In addition to beginners, it is specifically built to suit the high-end requirements of professionals. The key features of this amazing tool listed below, you name it and Adobe Photoshop will have it.
- It comes with incredible retouching capabilities and cloning.
- It can polish your dull images in seconds including the large size images.
- It includes a great list of selection and masking tools.
- Adobe Photoshop can support images of multiple formats including PNG, JPG, GIF, and many more.
- With this incredible tool, you get access to almost 360 editing tools and map support for HEIF files.
- It uses a non-destructive editing mechanism to enhance the overall appearance and look of your images.
Read More: 15 Best Duplicate Photo Finder & Cleaner Software for Windows
2. Skylum Luminar 4
Known for its array of best filters and HDR, Skylum luminar 4 deserves a spot on our list of best batch photo editing apps. With its affordable pricing structure and image editing capabilities it has gained massive popularity in the last few years.
It is a perfect amalgamation of the features of both Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom. Some of the key features of this Mac photo editing tool are:
- For better user experience it offers 24/7 sales and technical support.
- It is powered with fast editing tools and functionalities.
- Loaded with an array of adjustment masks and layers.
- With its clever editing shortcuts and capabilities, you can effortlessly manage your photographs.
- It comes with multiple viewing options including a single image view, filmstrip view, and gallery view.
- Sun rays, AI-powered sky enhancers, and accidental AI are few of its other offerings.
3. Adobe Lightroom
If you are looking for an online Mac photo editing app, then Adobe Lightroom can be a good pick to start with. With its cutting edge technology and photo editing abilities, it enjoys great popularity in the world of photo editing software. It is a cloud-based tool.
It comes with easy to use yet high-end editing features. In addition to this, its interface is quite user-friendly and simple to use.
- Lightroom can easily sync with several devices.
- It comes with customizable sliders along with brush adjustment tools and gradients.
- You also get access to multiple preset filters and professional filters with it.
- Fixing tools, lens-based correction capabilities, and blurring tools are few of its other offerings.
- Manage your photo gallery more efficiently with its face detection feature.
4. Skylum Aurora HDR
Next on our list of image editing software for mac is Skylum Aurora HDR. It works well with Windows devices as well and can easily be integrated as an Apple photo extension. With its AI-based neural network, you can create HDR images within seconds.
- It is loaded with an array of 20+ editing tools to create HDR images.
- It offers a great way to polish your raw images and leverage their appearance with its 80 unique presets.
- Enhance the clarity and optimize the contrast of your images with its HDR clarity feature.
- It can add depth and details to your photo and can also clean noise.
5. Canva
If your search for the best apps for mac photo editing is still going on then Canva can help you. It is a great tool for designing photo templates for both business and personal use. It comes with a clean interface and easy to use editing tools and graphics.
Use it to add various fonts and graphics to your dull images and make them Instagram ready.
- Works well on both computer system and smartphones,
- It comes with image cropping, image straightening features along with a speech bubble maker.
- It is packed with a massive library of graphic designs and images and also supports cloud storage.
- With Canva you get access to over 8000+ photo templates, icons, photos and pre-designed cards to create visually stunning content.
Read More: 10 Best Photo/Image Viewers for Windows 10 in 2020
6. Vsco
Next on our list of Mac photo editing apps is Vsco. Its advanced effects and stylish photo editing abilities make it highly popular amongst the fraternity of professional photographers.
Add life to your dull images with the help of its preset filters. Highlights, white balance, exposure are few of its editing tools with which you can adjust the color, exposure, and sharpness of your images.
7. DesignWizard
Are you still wondering what is the best photo editor for Mac users, then try DesignWizard. This feature-rich tool is packed with advanced controls and is well known for its high-end image design templates.
Robux generator no verification no offers. In addition to this, it also comes with a massive range of images, graphics, illustrations, and high-quality videos. Along with this you also get access to various marketing tools like sale posters, Linkedin Ads, Facebook Ads campaigns, and much more.
It comes with a clean and convenient interface and works seamlessly well with iOS devices.
8. Capture One
If you have been using Adobe Lightroom, then try Capture One now to enjoy a lot of other unique features. With this incredible photo editing software, you can polish your images within seconds.
Use it ‘s advanced color editing features and masking capabilities to add life to your images.
9. ON1 Photo Raw
Experience a completely new taste of photo editing with our next pick of Best Mac Photo Editing Apps, ON1 Photo Raw. Its cutting edge capabilities allow you to convert your raw clicks into stunning images without spending too much time and effort.
With its dual-mode feature, you can not only edit but also browse various images. Enjoy live adjustments and preview with this power-packer photo editor software.
Best Mac Photo Editing Software
Read More: 11 Best Free PDF Editors For Mac in 2020
10. GIMP
Also known as the GNU Image Manipulation Program. GIMP is an open-source mac photo editor app.
Best Photo Editor For Mac Free Download
Use it to retouch your dull images and create stunning pieces of the original artwork. Apart from this it also allows you to create pro-level graphic design elements. It is a free application and comes loaded with several pre-level editing features.
11. Adobe Photoshop Elements
If you are new to the world of photography and image editing. Choose Adobe Photoshop Elements . It comes with a clean interface and easy to use features.
It is powered with an advanced AI- capability. Use its Guided Edit feature to create memes, part-image sketches, and multi-photo texts.
12. PortraitPro
If you love portrait photography, then Portraitpro is a blessing for you. The software is loaded with all the essential features that you need to create stunning portrait pieces.
Use its Advanced makeup tool to efficiently transform dull faces. You can also try its wrinkle removing and skin smoothing features.
Apple Photo Editor
Wrapping Up
Dive in the world of photography with photo editing apps and software. Each Mac photo editing tool mentioned above has a unique feature to offer alongside the basic features.
Refer to our list and pick the best-suited tool for yourself depending on your need, photography skills, budget, and preferences.
Whether you’re a professional photographer or just need to occasionally crop or add some text to an image, it’s important to choose the best photo editing apps for your mac.
Good image editing software will make it quick and easy for you to adjust the look of your photos and create simple graphics for your website and social media.
For simple photo editing, there are plenty of free apps to choose from. If you’re really into your photography or graphic design, you might want to pay for more professional software to access premium features.
Either way, we’ve rounded up some of the best photo editing apps for Mac in 2021 to help you choose.
1. Apple Photos & Preview (Best Free Apps for Quick Edits and Photo Management)
We’ll start with the easiest and most obvious tool, as it’s free and comes pre-installed with MacOS.
Photos is more of an image management tool, but you can use it to make simple edits to your photos (including RAW files) such as resizing, cropping, rotating, adjusting colors and contrast, and applying pre-set filters.
You can also use the one-click enhancer to automatically adjust and improve your photos.
All users get access to 5GB of free cloud storage and you can upgrade for more for a small monthly fee. The app will also sync across multiple devices. This makes Photos a useful tool for backup as well as editing.
Apart from the Photos app, another useful free app that comes pre-installed on Macs is Preview.
The editing function of Preview isn’t too obvious so many users don’t know it’s there. But it’s a very handy way to make quick changes to your photos such as resizing, adjusting colors, and adding text and simple shapes.
Price: Free
More info:
2. Adobe Photoshop & Lightroom (Best Pro Image Editing Tools for Photographers)
We’ve bundled these tools together because they’re now available together under a monthly subscription plan. Although you can pay for them separately, it’s not any cheaper.
Photoshop has been the undisputed king of photo editing apps since the ‘90s, and no professional digital artist or designer would be without it.
Whatever you want to do with your images or whatever kind of graphic you want to create, you can do it with Photoshop.
In fact, this app is so powerful and well known that “Photoshop” has become a verb. We no longer talk about “editing” photos to remove a blemish from a selfie or replace a dull background with a more appealing one. Instead we “Photoshop” them.
However, the tool is not without its downsides. The software is resource-intensive and can run slowly on older macs or those that don’t have a lot of memory. Opening up Photoshop is overkill if you just want to make a quick edit.
It’s also not exactly the cheapest option but for many people who are serious about image manipulation, it’s the only choice.
While Photoshop is the ultimate app for image manipulation, most photographers prefer working in Lightroom for more subtle edits. It’s not the tool for advanced photo retouching down to the pixel, but it’s perfect for adjusting the overall color balance, tone, and contrast of your images.
In Lightroom, you can record a series of edits, called a preset, and batch-apply this preset to several images to speed up your workflow.
This app is also one of the best choices for organizing your photos, and if you’re using the Cloud based version it’s a useful tool for backup too.
Pricing
Adobe moved from a traditional software model a few years back and Photoshop is now only available as a “Creative Cloud” subscription. You can still use Lightroom as the “Classic” non-cloud version but need to pay a monthly subscription to access it regardless.
A Creative Cloud subscription starts from $9.99 a month, which includes Photoshop for desktop and iPad, the cloud and Classic versions of Lightroom, and 20GB of cloud storage.
For Lightroom only, you can opt for a plan that includes 1TB of cloud storage for $9.99 a month.
There’s also a Photoshop-only subscription for $20.99 a month, which includes 100GB of cloud storage and a drawing and painting app called Adobe Fresco.
For those who like Photoshop but don’t need the full suite of editing tools, Photoshop Elements is an alternative to consider. This software costs $99.99 as a one-off payment with no monthly subscription needed.
More info and download:
- Creative Cloud Photoshop Lightroom
3. Affinity Photo (Best Budget Alternative to Photoshop)
Affinity Photo is a great budget alternative to Photoshop and has become more popular since Adobe changed to a subscription-only pricing model.
As well as all the editing features you’d expect, Affinity includes professional tools such as HDR merge, panorama stitch, and 360-degree image editing. You can also edit PSD files with full layer integrity, plugin support, and smart object import.
Affinity Photo is a cross-platform application that has full file format compatibility so you can work across multiple devices including Mac, Windows, and iPad.
Like Photoshop, there’s a learning curve to making full use of the app and it may be too advanced for those just wanting to do basic edits. But for anyone looking for a cheaper alternative for working with existing PSD files, it’s an excellent choice.
Pricing: $24.99 for the Mac version. The iPad app is an additional $9.99.
4. GIMP (Free Alternative to Photoshop)
GIMP is often described as the open-source version of Photoshop, and its suite of advanced editing tools is certainly more than what you’d expect from free software. Screen capture on mac keyboard windows.
Best Raw Image Editor
As it’s open-source, there are also a lot of third-party plugins available to extend its functionality and provide filters and tools for speeding up your workflow.
However, while GIMP may be powerful, it’s not the most user-friendly app on this list. There are also very few tutorials (official and user-created) compared to other software.
This app also has its own scripting language that you can use to automatically run a series of edits on a batch of photos, much like Lightroom actions. But the process of setting this up is pretty intimidating if you don’t have any coding experience.
GIMP is definitely a tool for the technically inclined. If you don’t mind spending the time to learn and the unappealing user interface, you can do a lot with it. But it’s not as advanced as Photoshop and lacks a mobile version for on-the-go edits.
Pricing: Free
5. Pixelmator (Good Budget All-Rounder)
Pixelmator is a very popular and easy-to-use image editing app for Mac that’s also very affordable.
This app comes in two versions: Classic and Pro. Classic is still available and includes all the tools you’d expect from an image editor including making selections, adjusting colors, retouching, adding effects, and adding your own text, vector shapes, and freehand painting. This version is no longer being actively developed.
The Pixelmator team is now concentrating on the Pro tool, which includes additional and enhanced features such as non-destructive workflow, a new painting engine with dual-texture brushes and advanced blending, and enhancements for fast performance.
Pricing: Pixelmator Classic is currently available for $4.99, while Pixelmator Pro is normally $39.99 but is on sale for $19.99 at the time of writing
6. Luminar (Best AI Tool for One-click Image Enhancement)
Luminar is an AI-powered editing tool that can help to improve your photography by making automatic tweaks guided by its internal algorithms. This means that it’s very easy for beginners to use to improve their photos without needing to learn how to make advanced photo edits.
You can also use Luminar to carry out more sophisticated changes such as replacing the sky in landscapes and adding effects like sunrays and digital fog, and perfecting skin and features in portrait photography.
Luminar is a great choice for anyone who wants to make their photos look more impressive at the click of a button. But while it has all the basic editing options, it’s probably not the best choice if you dislike auto-edits and filters and prefer to have more fine control over edits.
Side note: The popular free AI-powered photo-editing app Photolemur is no longer available and is now part of Luminar AI.
Pricing: From $73.70 for a single computer license for Luminar 4. Luminar AI costs an additional $108.90, which includes a license for two computers.
7. Fotor (Free Basic Editor with Upgrade Option)
If you’re looking for a free photo-editing app with basic functionality, you might want to give Fotor a try. This app is the perfect antidote to complicated software with dozens of options. You can also install it on multiple devices.
Fotor includes all the basic photo editing tools you need to adjust the color, contrast, sharpness, and saturation of your images. You can also apply photo effect filters in a single click and use the portrait retouching tools to enhance your pictures of people.
There’s also a suite of design tools so you can easily add borders, stickers, and text to create photo collages, graphics, posters, flyers, and more. The app includes thousands of pre-designed templates that you can edit as needed.
Pricing: Fotor Basic is free to download and use. Fotor Pro is also available from $8.99 a month. This version includes advanced editing tools and more photo effects, layouts, and templates.
8. PhotoScape X (Simple Free Image Editor & GIF Creator)
PhotoScape X is another free image editing tool that makes it easy for you to adjust and enhance your photos.
The software comes with a number of filters and photo effects to create artistic looks with your photography. There are also hundreds of frames and patterns to create graphics, and a collage and cut out tool.
Best Free Raw Photo Editor Mac Free
You can edit your RAW images with this app, and it also includes a handy GIF creator.
Price: Free
9. Movavi Picverse (Best for Photo Restoration)
Movavi Picverse Photo Editor is an easy-to-use image editing app. It’s designed to meet the needs of beginners and professional photographers alike.
Its AI-powered tools make it quick and easy to enhance your photos, remove or replace image backgrounds, remove objects from images, and restore scratches, stains, and noise from scans of old photos.
You can apply one of hundreds of filters to change the look and effect of your photos instantly.
There’s also a suite of advanced photo retouching tools for improving portraits including removing blemishes, applying makeup, and enhancing smiles.
Pricing: $59.95
What is the Best Photo Editing App for Mac?
So, how to decide on the best photo editing software for you? You must first consider how much you’re willing to pay for it.
The free Photos tool that comes pre-installed on your Mac will do just fine for basic edits, or you can use a free app like PhotoScapeX or Fotor for more filters and options.
When you want to get into serious photo manipulations, you’ll need a tool that has a more advanced suite of editing tools.
If you have a spare $10 a month, check out the Photoshop/Lightroom combo. There’s no doubt this will help your images look amazing. If you’re making money from your photography, it’s worth the investment.
For those on a more modest budget, try Affinity Photo or Pixelmator Pro. They’re both impressively powerful for a very low one-off cost.
Artificial intelligence technology has made it possible to instantly improve your photos in a single click. You can also achieve tasks such as removing unwanted objects or people from your photos in a fraction of the time it would take you to do manually. If you want an AI-powered image editing app, take a look at Luminar or Movavi Picverse.
Do you take a lot of photos on your phone and post them directly to social media? Or prefer working on the go from your iPad? If so, it makes sense to choose an app that has cross-platform support. Photoshop, Affinity Photos, and Pixelmator all include cloud syncing tools. This means you can access your images and edit on mobile devices.
You might also want to take a look at our list of web-based photo editing tools. You can use these services to make quick edits on most devices.