Touted as the most popular digital imaging & graphic designing software in the world, Photoshop is an industry standard. Which means everybody wants a slice, except at a hefty price of subscription and/ or monthly payment.
When planning to migrate from Adobe Photoshop to alternative software, make sure they are free and worth. But what if users could buy an alternative option for, hold your horses, free? With photo edits, logo generation and professional graphic designing all available on our system, without burning a hole in the pocket, here are ten powerful free alternative to Adobe Photoshop which are free to use for home and commercial purpose.
Quick Overivew
10 Free Photoshop Alternatives
GIMP
Released in 1996, GNU image manipulation program is a multi platform supported, free, open source image machinator that is used for art creation, animation, image editing and enhancement with features like layers, filters, gradients amongst others. It is the most popular free substitute of Photoshop.
FILE SUPPORT: GIMP supports the following file formats in both readable and writable forms: PNG, GIF, JPEG, XPM, TIFF, BMP, SUNRAS. XWD, XBM, , MIFF, XCF, PIX,TGA, FLI, CEL ,SGI, PS, PNM, FITS, , AVI and PCXHRZ.
PROS:
- VERSATILE: Since the program is open source, coders can modify it to suit their requirements, making it highly versatile.
- FLEXIBLE: GIMP offers downloadable free internal plug-ins and allows external plug-ins to operate thereby giving more room for utility flexibility.
- TUTORIALS: Offers extensive tutorials from program basics to photo editing, painting and even
- EASY TO USE: Less complex tools.
- LESSER BUGS: Due to the open source nature of this program its active community constantly spots and fixes errors, thereby reducing the number and time taken to fix the bugs.
- LIGHTWEIGHT: Occupies lesser storage space than Photoshop.
CONS:
- SLOW FEATURE DEVELOPMENT: by-product of being a community program.
- LIMITED CLIENTELE: Useful for beginners and small scale businesses, rather than professional photographers, graphic designers and illustrators.
- NO MOBILE VERSION: As opposed to Photoshop, GIMP is not available for iPhone or android users although an adapted version XGIMP is available on both their app stores.
PLATFORM: Windows, MacOS, Linux, Solaris and BDS.
PRICE: Free
PIXLR
Developed by Autodesk, PIXLR is a free cloud based image editing software which boasts of photo sharing, filters, retouch option, advanced photo editing, manual image adjustments, screen grabber extension and paint from scratch.
FILE SUPPORT: JPEG, PNG,GIF, PSD and BMP.
PROS:
- NO MEMORY SPACE USAGE: There is no need for installing it on the system since it runs solely via a browser thereby occupying zero storage space on the hardware.
- MOBILE VERSION AVAILABLE: On both Google play and apple store with more than 130 million
- SIMPLER, FASTER, MULTILINGUAL INTERFACE.
CONS:
- NO TUTORIALS: Just a help button which incidentally is not of much support.
- LIMITED FILE SUPPORT: As opposed to GIMP, Pixlr offers much fewer file formats.
- LIMITED FEATURES: Suitable for low to medium level editing.
- CONSTRAINTS: Pop up ads and Pre-installation of flash 10 or above required.
- ADJUST IMAGE SIZE TOOL: Gives a blurry image.
PLATFORM: Any OS with a browser.
PRICE: Free.
GETPAINT.NET
An open source advance paint application, this raster graphic files editor has a seamless logical user interface as its biggest USP. This software is more like MS Paint, has more features and easy to use. It comes with several plugins that can enhance the features.
FILE SUPPORT: PDN, BMP, GIF, JPG, PNG, TIFF, TGA and DDS.
PROS:
- MULTILINGUAL: Available in 25 languages.
- PLUGIN & HELP: Due to its active online community, tutorials and plug-ins are easily accessible.
- UNLIMITED HISTORY RECORD
- COHERENT INTERFACE
CONS:
- LIMITED FUNCTIONS & TOOLS: no Dodge & Burn tool as well as limited Brushing functions.
- Text cannot be edited post application
- Limited filters in comparison to Photoshop
- Requires .NET Framework as a prerequisite.
- Needs at least 200 MB of memory space
PLATFORM: Windows 7 to 10.
PRICE: Free with an option of donation.
KRITA
Released in 2005, Krita is an open source digital art software used essentially for illustration, painting and drawing from scratch. It comes with advance tools like Mirroring, Layer Management, Layer Masks, Color Management and mnay more. The best part is it support PSD files, that means any Photoshop saved file can be edited in Krita software.
FILE SUPPORT:JPEG, PNG, TIFF, JP2, JPEG, ORA , XCF, PPM, GIF, EXR, HEIF, PDF and RAW amongst others.
PROS:
- VARIETY: of brush engines available since it is primarily for digital painting.
- TUTORIALS: Easily accessible training materials.
- SIMPLE LAYOUT: with toolbars homogenous to Photoshop.
- CUSTOMIZABLE: Since it is open source.
- UPDATES &NEW ADD-ONS: Bugs are fixed and new features are added in a hotfoot.
CONS:
- Cannot edit pre existing images.
- No text support for Photoshop PSD files although it can open some of them.
PLATFORM: MacOS, Windows, Linux and Graphic Tablets.
PRICE: Free with an option of donation.
SUMO PAINT
Built in 2008, Sumo paint is an image editing and painting software that works both as an illustrator and Photoshop and is available on cloud as well as for installation on system.
FILE SUPPORT: JPEG, PNG, GIF & SUMO formats.
PROS:
- VAST ART COMMUNITY: of over 4 million members.
- PIXEL EDITING AVAILABLE.
- LAYERING & MASKING FEATURE: for professional level image editing.
CONS:
- No third party plug ins.
- Flash support
PLATFORM: Browser, Desktop, iOS, Android and iPad.
PRICE: Free with an option to upgrade to Pro or Pro Plus at a premium.
FOTOR
Fotor is a coherent, powerful and easy to use photo processing software for graphic designing and image editing. This software canbe use to put wide range of effects. Additionally, Fotor allow to adjust color, size, ligt, and many more, which is very much similar to Irfanview software.
FILE SUPPORT: GIF, JPEG, PNG, RAW, BMP and TIFF.
PROS:
- VARIETY: Design templates, stickers, effects available.
- COLLAGE option available.
- SIMPLE, INTUITIVE & QUICK to use
- BATCH PROCESSING
CONS:
- Not for professional photographers
- RESOLUTION BREAKOUT: post image sharing and editing
PLATFORM: MacOS, Windows & Web based.
PRICE: Free basic version with advanced option for monthly fee.
Try Fotor online
PHOTO POS PRO
Enriched with filters, layers, masks, adjustment, enhancement & drawing tools, Photos Pos Pro is a Pixel based graphic designer and artwork application.
FILE SUPPORT: JPEG, TIFF, JPEG, GIF, RAW and its own format FPOS.
PROS:
- COHESIVE: arrangement of toolbar and menu array
- NOVICE & ADVANCE LAYOUT available
- CUSTOMIZABLE INTERFACE
- PLUGINS AVAILABLE
CONS:
- LIMITED EXPORTED FILE SIZE
- LACK of KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
- INTERFACE: looks outdated
- NO DODGE AND BURN OPTION
PLATFORM: MacOS, Windows, Linux, IOS, Android.
PRICE: Freemium
ADOBE PHOTOSHOP EXPRESS
Developed by Adobe Corporation, Adobe Photoshop express is a sleek browser based flash requiring image editing and collage developing application with the ability to connect to social media platforms.
FILE SUPPORT: JPEG, PNG, TIFF, RAW
PROS:
- DIVERSE: Can be easily supported on systems with weaker specifications.
- INTER- ADOBE INTERACTIVITY: Quite interactive with other adobe products.
CONS:
- Not for professional image retouch
- maximum image resolution of 16mp
- The Mobile version is less intensive than the desktop version.
PLATFORM: Android, iOS & Windows phone & tablets along with Windows desktop and Chromebooks.
PRICE: Freemium
MyPaint
Created in 2004, MyPaint is an open source comprehensive painting software with a gamut of brush configurations and versatility that even uses charcoals, ink, paint and pencil. It does not support image processing.
FILE SUPPORT: ORA, JPEG, and PNG
PROS:
- LIMITLESS CANVAS
- STABLE VERSION FOR LINUX
- LARGE COMMUNITY: of users available on Tumblr and DeviantArt
- EASY TO USE & CLUTTERFREE INTERFACE
CONS:
- NO HELP: Offline tutorials unavailable
- NO PERIODIC DEVELOPMENT
- NO STABLE VERSION: for Windows and Mac users.
PLATFORM: MacOS, Windows, Linux, Browser and Wacom Graphic tablets.
PRICE: Free
PINTA
Released in 2011 with the first stable version, Pinta is a simple open source raster graphics editor inspired by Paint.NET.
FILE SUPPORT: BMP, ICO, ORA, TIFF, JPEG/JPG, TGA and PNG
PROS:
- LIMITLESS UNDO/REDO OPTION
- MULTILINGUAL SUPPORT: 55 languages
- MULTILAYER SUPPORT.
CONS:
- NO BLENDING MODE
- SYSTEM CONSTRAINT: Mono or GTK to be downloaded as prerequisite for Pinta to run
PLATFORM: Linux, Windows, Mac OS
PRICE: Free
So these are the opensource and free similar software to Adobe Photoshop. If you are using any other application to edit images, then let us know by leaving your valueable comment below.
