Free Photo

Editors 2021
 Photoshop alternatives
(Image credit: RawPixel.com / Shutterstock)
We've rounded up the best free photo editors so you can transform your pictures – correcting

colors, erasing blemishes and much more – so they're ready to print or share online.

The best free photo editor is GIMP – a powerful and feature-packed open source program that's

the closest thing you'll get to a free version of Photoshop. It o ers more tools than some paid-for

photo editors, supports layers, masks and plugins, and even lets you work with Photoshop PSD

documents.

However, GIMP may be overkill for simple tasks like cropping or straightening a photo. That's

why we've rounded up a range of other excellent free photo editors, so you can pick exactly the

right tool for the job and your level of experience.

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If you need some resources for your projects, take a look at our guide to the best free stock

photos.

The best free photo editors at a glance

2. Ashampoo Photo Optimizer

3. Canva

4. Fotor

5. Photo Pos Pro

6. Paint.NET

7. PhotoScape

8. Pixlr X

9. Adobe Photoshop Express Editor

10. PiZap

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The best photo editor overall is: Adobe Photoshop

If you're serious about photo editing, or are thinking about turning your hobby into a job, you

can't beat industry standard software Adobe Photoshop. It's certainly not free like the photo

editors below, but it's surprisingly good value with an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription. Every

Individual and Professional Photo Editing Services Company use Adobe Photoshop for editing

photos.

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 (Image credit: Shutterstock; GIMP)

1. GIMP
The best free photo editor for advanced image editing
Specifications

Platform: Windows, macOS, Linux

Layers: Yes

Export formats: 40+

Reasons to buy

+Advanced editing tools+Cross-platform support+No ads

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Reasons to avoid

-Steep learning curve

GIMP (the GNU Image Manipulation Program) is the best free photo editor around. It's packed

with the kind of image-enhancing tools you'd ind in premium software, and more are being

added every day. 

The photo editing toolkit is breathtaking, and features layers, masks, curves, and levels. You can

eliminate aws easily with the excellent clone stamp and healing tools, create custom brushes,

apply perspective changes, and apply changes to isolated areas with smart selection tools.

GIMP is an open source free photo editor, and its community of users and developers have

created a huge collection of plugins to extend its utility even further. Many of these come pre-

installed, and you can download more from the of icial glossary. If that's not enough, you can

even install Photoshop plugins.

Read our full review: GIMP

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 (Image credit: Shutterstock; Ashampoo; Unsplash)

2. Ashampoo Photo Optimizer

Platform: Windows

Layers: No

Export formats: JPG, PNG, BMP, TIF

Reasons to buy

+One-click optimization+Fine manual controls+Clean interface

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Reasons to avoid

-Auto optimization is hit-and-miss

If you've got a lot of photos that you need to edit in a hurry, Ashampoo Photo Optimizer could be

the tool for you. Its interface is clean and uncluttered, and utterly devoid of ads (although you'll

need to submit an email address before you can start using it).

Importing pictures is a breeze, and once they've been added to the pool, you can select several at

once to rotate or mirror, saving you valuable time. You can also choose individual photos to

enhance with the software's one-click optimization tool. In our tests this worked particularly

well on landscapes, but wasn't always great for other subjects.

If you want to make manual color corrections, exposure correction there are half a dozen sliders

to let you do exactly that. It's a shame you can't also apply the same color changes to a whole set

of pictures at once, but this is otherwise a brilliant free photo editor for making quick

corrections.

For more advanced editing, check out Ashampoo Photo Optimizer 7 – the premium version of

the software with enhanced optimization tools.

Read our full review: Ashampoo Photo Optimizer

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 (Image credit: Shutterstock; Canva; Unsplash)

3. Canva
Professional-level photo editing and templates in your browser
Specifications

Platform: Windows, macOS, Linux (in browser); Android, iOS, iPadOS (mobile app)

Layers: No

Export formats: JPG, PNG, PDF

Reasons to buy

+Great selection of templates+Includes free cloud storage+Mobile app available

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Reasons to avoid

-No ine manual editing tools

Canva is a photo editor that runs in your web browser, and is ideal for turning your favorite

snaps into cards, posters, invitations and social media posts. If you're interested in maintaining

a polished online presence, it's the perfect tool for you.

Canva has two tiers, free and paid, but the free level is perfect for home users. Just sign up with

your email address and you'll get 1GB free cloud storage for your snaps and designs, 8,000

templates to use and edit, and two folders to keep your work organized.

You won't ind advanced tools like clone brushes and smart selectors here, but there's a set of

handy sliders for applying tints, vignette e ects, sharpening, adjusting brightness, saturation

and contrast, and much more. The text editing tools are intuitive, and there's a great selection of

backgrounds and other graphics to complete your designs.

Read our full review: Canva

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 (Image credit: Fotor; Shutterstock; Unsplash)

4. Fotor
One-click enhancements to make your photos shine in seconds
Specifications

Platform: Windows, macOS, Linux (in browser)

Layers: No

Export formats: JPG, PNG, PDF

Reasons to buy

+Premium-level ilters+Batch image processing+High-res export options

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Reasons to avoid

-No plugin support

Fotor is a free photo editor that's ideal for giving your pictures a boost quickly. If there's speci ic

area of retouching you need doing with, say, the clone brush or healing tool, you're out of luck.

However, if your needs are simple, its stack of high-end ilters really shine.

There's a foolproof tilt-shift tool, for example, and a raft of vintage and vibrant colour tweaks, all

easily accessed through Fotor's clever menu system. You can manually alter your own curves

and levels, too, but without the complexity of high-end tools.

Fotor's standout function, and one that's sorely lacking in many free photo editors, is its batch

processing tool – feed it a pile of pics and it'll ilter the lot of them in one go, perfect if you have a

memory card full of holiday snaps and need to cover up the results of a dodgy camera or shaky

hand.

Read our full review: Fotor

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 (Image credit: Shutterstock; Softonic; Unsplash)

5. Photo Pos Pro

Platform: Windows

Layers: Yes

Export formats: 15+

Reasons to buy

+Smart interface+Beginner and advanced modes

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Reasons to avoid

-Limited ile export resolution-Not cross-platform

Photo Pos Pro isn't as well known as Paint.net and GIMP, but it's another top-quality free photo

editor that's packed with advanced image-enhancing tools. 

This free photo editor's interface is smarter and more accessible than GIMP's array of menus

and toolbars, with everything arranged in a logical and consistent way. If it's still too

intimidating, there's also an optional 'novice' layout that resembles Fotor's ilter-based

approach. The choice is yours.

The 'expert' layout o ers both layers and layer masks for sophisticated editing, as well as tools

for adjusting curves and levels manually. You can still access the one-click ilters via the main

menu, but the focus is much more on ine editing.

It's a shame that the free version of Photo Pos Pro only allows you to export at a maximum of

1,024 x 1,024 pixels. If you're preparing images to share online this might not be a problem, but it

limits the software's usefulness if you want to print you work.

Read our full review: Photo Pos Pro

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 (Image credit: Shutterstock; Paint.NET)

6. Paint.NET
Looking a little dated, but still a dependable all-rounder
Specifications

Platform: Windows

Layers: Yes

Export formats: 10+

Reasons to buy

+Layers and ilters+Plugin support

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Reasons to avoid

-Fewer options than GIMP-For Windows only

More is not, believe it or not, always better. Paint.NET's simplicity is one of its main selling

points; it's a quick, easy to operate free photo editor that's ideal for trivial tasks that don't

necessarily justify the sheer power of tools like GIMP.

Don't let the name fool  you, though. This isn't just a cheap copy of Microsoft's ultra-basic Paint –

even if it was originally meant to replace it. It's a proper photo editor, just one that lands on the

basic side of the curve.

Paint.NET’s interface will remind you of its namesake, but over the years, they’ve added

advanced editing tools like layers, an undo history, a ton of ilters, myriad community-created

plugins, and a brilliant 3D rotate/zoom function that's handy for recomposing images.

Read our full review: Paint.NET

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 (Image credit: Shutterstock; MOOII Tech; Unsplash)

7. PhotoScape
Raw image conversion, batch processing and much more
Specifications

Platform: Windows

Layers: No

Export formats: JPG, PNG, TIF, BMP, GIF

Reasons to buy

+Raw ile conversion+Great selection of ilters

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Reasons to avoid

-Unusual interface-Bundled with Google Drive app

PhotoScape might look like a rather simple free photo editor, but take a look at its main menu

and you'll ind a wealth of features: raw conversion, photo splitting and merging, animated GIF

creation, and even a rather odd (but useful) function with which you can print lined, graph or

sheet music paper.

The meat, of course, is in the photo editing. PhotoScape's interface is among the most esoteric of

all the apps we've looked at here, with tools grouped into pages in odd con igurations. It

certainly doesn't attempt to ape Photoshop, and includes fewer features.

We'd de initely point this towards the beginner, but that doesn't mean you can't get some solid

results. PhotoScape's ilters are pretty advanced, so it's if good choice if you need to quickly level,

sharpen or add mild iltering to pictures in a snap.

Read our full review: Photoscape

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 (Image credit: Shutterstock; Pixlr; Unsplash)

8. Pixlr X
A comprehensive browser-based photo editor for quick results
Specifications

Platform: Windows, macOS, Linux (in browser)

Layers: No

Export formats: JPG, PNG

Reasons to buy

+Uses HTML5 rather than Flash+Stylish design

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Reasons to avoid

-Less powerful than Pixlr Editor-Max image size 3,840 pixels

Pixlr X is the successor to Pixlr Editor, which was one of our favorite free online photo editors

for many years.

Pixlr X makes several improvements on its predecessor. For starters, it's based on HTML5 rather

than Flash, which means it can run in any modern browser. It's also slick and well designed, with

an interface that's reminiscent of Photoshop Express, and a choice of dark or light color

schemes.

With Pixlr X, you can make ine changes to colors and saturation, sharpen and blur images,

apply vignette e ects and frames, and combine multiple images. There's also support for layers,

which you won't ind in many free online photo editors, and an array of tools for painting and

drawing. A great choice for even advanced tasks.

Read our full review: Pixlr X

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 (Image credit: Shutterstock; Adobe; Unsplash)

9. Adobe Photoshop Express Editor

Platform: Windows, macOS, Linux (in browser)

Layers: No

Export formats: JPG only

Reasons to buy

+Advanced ilters+Stylish design

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Reasons to avoid

-Requires Flash-Only supports JPG format

As its name suggests, Adobe Photoshop Express Editor is a trimmed-down, browser-based

version of the company's world-leading photo editing software. Perhaps surprisingly, it features

a more extensive toolkit than the downloadable Photoshop Express app, but it only supports

images in JPG format that are below 16MB.

Again, this is a Flash-based tool, but Adobe provides handy mobile apps for all platforms so you

won’t miss out if you’re using a smartphone or tablet.

This free online photo editor has all the panache you’d expect from Adobe, and although it

doesn’t boast quite as many tools as some of its rivals, everything that’s there is polished to

perfection. Adobe Photoshop Express Editor is a pleasure to use. Its only drawbacks are the

limits on uploaded ile size and types, and lack of support for layers.

Read our full review: Adobe Photoshop Express Editor

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 (Image credit: Shutterstock; PiZap; Unsplash)

10. PiZap
A fun photo editor for preparing your pictures for social media
Specifications

Platform: Windows, macOS, Linux (in browser)

Layers: No

Export formats: JPG, PNG

Reasons to buy

+Provides stock images+Templates for social media

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Reasons to avoid

-Some tools behind a paywall-Max resolution 1,310 x 737 pixels

Free online photo editor PiZap is available in both HTML5 and Flash editions, making it suitable

for any device. You can choose to work with a photo from your hard drive, Facebook, Google

Photos, Google Drive, Google Search, or a catalog of stock images. This is an impressive choice,

though some of the stock images are only available to premium subscribers, and you'll need to

watch out for copyright issues if you use a pic straight from Google Images.

piZap’s editing interface has a dark, modern design that makes heavy use of sliders for quick

adjustments – a system that works much better than tricky icons and drop-down menus if you’re

using a touchscreen device. 

When you’re done, you can share your creation on all the biggest social media networks, as well

as piZap’s own servers, Dropbox and Google Drive. Alternatively, you can save it to your hard

drive, send it via email, or grab an embed code. You can only export your work in high quality if

you’ve opened your wallet for the premium editor, but for silly social sharing that’s unlikely to be

a problem.

Read our full review: PiZap

Other free photo editors to consider

A free alternative to Adobe Lightroom, this free software allows you to edit and organize your

photos, with one-click ilters for correcting batches of images.

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IrfanView

Another potential replacement for Lightroom, IrfanView is a simple but e ective tool for editing

photos in batches, tagging and organizing them.

What to look for in a free photo editor

and experience. If you simply want to make a few adjustments (removing blemishes and

improving colors, for example) then a simple online tool might be perfect, doing the job well

without overwhelming you with options.

If, on the other hand, you're interested in more advanced editing then you'll want to focus on

desktop software that o ers tools such as layers and masks, giving you full control over the

process.

Desktop software is also a good choice if you have several photos to edit, and some free photo

editors can even edit photos in batches, which can save you an enormous amount of time.

It's also worth considering what you'll be using the exported photos for. Online photo editors can

often only export images in JPG format, and only at relatively low resolutions. That might be ine

for images you want to display online (and many such photo editors include tools for sending

images directly to Facebook or Twitter) but if you want to print your work then you'll be better o

with a tool like GIMP or Paint.NET that will let you export in just about any format, in high

resolutions.

Get your videos YouTube-ready with the best

video editing software

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