Top 10 Free Alternatives to Photoshop for Photo Editing

Are you looking for a free photo editor similar to Photoshop to edit and correct colors? Many professional photographers choose Photoshop for photo and video editing and design. But what if you don't have the budget for this expensive program? What are your free alternatives? In this article, I'll go into more detail about 10 Photoshop-like photo editors.

1. GIMP - Advanced Tools

GIMP is a great open-source alternative to Photoshop. It's perfect for those who need professional image editing capabilities but can't afford to pay for the software. If you have GIMP, you won't need to look for other free programs like Photoshop.

Its interface is similar to Photoshop, which can be helpful if you're familiar with that program. It has a wide range of features that allow for fairly complex operations.

This free photo editor, similar to Photoshop, offers layers and masks, as well as the ability to adjust colors as you see fit. It also allows users to customize the interface to their liking. Another similarity GIMP shares with Photoshop is its extensive library of external plugins, which greatly expand its core feature set.

2. Fotor - For batch processing

If you decide to explore more free Photoshop alternatives, you'll definitely come across this photo editor. Fotor is a tool for quick image editing. Its features include photo retouching, collage making, and standard drawing design. You can use Fotor in a browser or download it for free.

The interface is very intuitive, so you shouldn't have any difficulty using it. Unfortunately, the photo editor doesn't offer any local adjustment tools, such as a clone brush or healing tool. However, it does provide manual adjustments – you can tweak levels and curves, control contrast, sharpness, saturation, and brightness.

What sets Fotor apart from other photo editors is its batch-processing feature. It's also praised for its stunning advanced filters.

3. Photo Pos Pro - for color correction

This image displays the interface of the software "Photo POS Pro."

Photo Pos Pro is an excellent photo editor for beginners, akin to Photoshop. It offers a wide and user-friendly array of tools for editing, manipulating, and creating images. The software also supports RAW file formats. Whether you want to remove unwanted elements from your shots, enhance damaged photos, or change backgrounds, this photo editor can handle the task.

The selection of plugins and add-ons is constantly growing, leaving users with plenty of room for creativity. All in all, Photo Pos Pro stands as one of the best free photo editors on the market as a worthy alternative to Photoshop.

4. Paint.NET – For Touching Up

For Windows users searching for a free photo editor similar to Photoshop, Paint.NET will certainly be appreciated. Initially intended to replace the MS Paint program that comes bundled with the Windows operating system, Paint.NET has now evolved into a simple image editing tool.

It can produce great sharpening, blurring, embossing, distortion, and red-eye removal effects in minutes. Its feature and toolset may not be exhaustive, but you can import free plugins to make the program more versatile. Paint.NET is such a popular photo editor that you'll find plenty of helpful tutorial forums online.

5. Pixlr X - Offers layer support

Pixlr X is available in a browser. It has a stylish design and an interface similar to Photoshop Express. Users can choose between a light or dark color scheme.

A photo editor that lets you modify colors, adjust saturation and sharpness, add blurs, vignettes, borders, and filters, and combine multiple images. It's also famous for supporting layers, something often missing from similar programs, and has a rich set of painting and drawing tools. Pixlr X can handle complex tasks with ease.

6. Seashore – Intuitive interface

Seashore is a great photo editing tool for Mac users that bears some similarity to Photoshop. Although it doesn't offer the full range of features found in Adobe's software, it does provide a good selection of image manipulation options, including gradients, layers, and transparency.

Moreover, this open source photo editor provides a wide array of tools to zoom, crop, clone, draw, select, blur, and create standard shapes in your pictures to your heart's content. Seashore supports the JPG, PNG, TIFF, and XCF file formats.

Its main goal is to provide a user-friendly interface that allows everyone to take full advantage of the image editing process. If you are completely new to this field and need ease of use, then Seashore is a good choice.

7. Ashampoo Photo Optimizer – A Tool for Automatic Enhancements

(Img description: Ashampoo company logo, 420 pixels in height, 700 pixels in width)

If you need to edit a large number of photos quickly, Ashampoo Photo Optimizer is one of the best choices out there. It's praised for its clean and uncluttered interface and the complete absence of ads.

Photos will be imported within a minute, and users can select, rotate or flip all of them at once – a real time-saver! The app's special optimization features automatically detect underexposure, color temperature issues, or bad exposure, and corrects all flaws immediately! With numerous sliders, you can manually adjust exposure and colors, too.

8. RAW Studio - For editing RAW files

This image depicts the logo for "RAW Studio," with a height of 515 pixels and a width of 700 pixels.

Any photographer will tell you how difficult it is to handle RAW image formats, especially when there are many such files. That's where RAW Studio comes in. This free photo editor, similar to Photoshop, has been developed specifically for the purpose of modifying RAW images.

With it, users can edit images according to their intent with precision, without losing precious image quality. An important part of RAW Studio is its formatting, which provides an efficient tool for viewing multiple pictures in RAW format at once.

The developers' original aim was to create an image editor that supported the RAW image formats of virtually all digital camera manufacturers.

9. PhotoScape X – A Suite of Comprehensive Features

This is an image named "Photo Scape" with a height of 441 pixels and a width of 700 pixels.

What makes PhotoScape X stand out is its support for batch image editing, screen capture, animated GIFs, RAW image post-processing, and photo combination. Additionally, the photo editor lets you handle text and graphics and offers numerous tools and brushes similar to those in Photoshop.

The interface is clean and straightforward, with clear labels and no over-designed elements. While the suite of tools in PhotoScape X is aimed at pros, I'd recommend it to beginners, too.

10. Inkscape – For Graphic Design

Inkscape is a software designed for graphic design, particularly for handling vector graphics. However, it can also perform basic image editing operations like copying, cutting, and cropping. The program is lauded for its efficient suite of editing tools that allow for stunning artwork creations. Some people even use it to convert images into vector graphics.

Inkscape supports multiple languages, features intelligent drawing tools, and allows for the import and export of various file types. Thanks to its extensive toolset and user-friendly interface, Inkscape serves as a suitable photo editor for beginners. Don't forget to check out more free Adobe software alternatives for your creative projects.