When it comes to apps, the world still seems obsessed with iPad apps, although Android apps have gained a lot of ground, especially across Europe and Asia. But as creatives, many of us still spend most of our time on our Macs. So it's worth catching up on the best OS X apps that can boost our creativity and make our work easier.
There's a lot of creative software out there, though; so if you have a favourite Mac app we've missed, please tell us about it on Facebook or Twitter.
Best of all, most of this software is extremely affordable (or even free), so dive in and find an app that's a good fit for your personal workflow. Prev Page 1 of 21 Next Prev Page 1 of 21 Next 1. While Adobe charges a fee to use its main Photoshop software, the company does offer free image editing tools in the form of the Photoshop Express application. Available for Android, iOS and Windows tablets and phones, this surprisingly capable app allows you to enhance and tweak your photos in a number of ways.
01. Tayasui Sketches
- In fact, it’s best used in tandem with another app that offers greater editing features, such as Adobe Photoshop Elements. Apple Photos Best Free Editor for Mac Users.
- The 6 Best Photoshop Alternatives for Mac OS (2018) Adobe Photoshop has moved to a newer model, subscription model, with its Photoshop CC. Because of this.
- In fact, it’s best used in tandem with another app that offers greater editing features, such as Adobe Photoshop Elements. Apple Photos Best Free Editor for Mac Users.
Free
Sketches has long been a popular drawing tool for creating art on the iPad, iPhone and Android tablets. So we were excited to see makers Tayasui extending its with the release of Sketches for Mac.
Taking on the likes of ArtRage in providing a realistic drawing experience on the Mac, Tayasui Sketches comes with built-in stylus support, as well as full interconnectivity with its companion iOS and Android apps, enabling you to work on a drawing across all your different devices.
Available to download for free from the Mac App store, Tayasui Sketches comes with a range of preset canvas sizes, and you can also customise your own, with textures including Plain, Fine Grain, Small Grain, Watercolor, Le Grand Bloc, Torchon and Canvas.
Featured tools include pens, an eraser, a smart ruler, a colour eyedropper, cutter and smudge tools, and a range of dry and wet brushes. You can work with layers and there's infinite undoes. See Tayasui Sketches in action in the video above.
02. RightFont
$49.95
Do you have a ton of fonts scattered across your Mac and other devices? Do you waste a lot of your time sifting through long lists of fonts, trying to remember which ones you prefer for different uses? Then you might find this Mac app will save you a lot of pain and frustration, by organising and visualising your fonts in a more practical, intuitive way.
RightFont is a lightweight font manager that helps you preview, sync, and organise fonts stored in any location without installing them.
You can quickly browse through all installed fonts to see how they look at all available weights, filter fonts by classification (sans serif, serif, script), width or weight, as well as setting up custom font lists for particular tasks.
RightFont works as a standalone app, and can also integrate with Sketch and Adobe's Creative Cloud software. See RightFont in action in the video above.
03. WordPress Mac app
Free
WordPress, one of the world's biggest publishing platforms, has been around for some years now, but its maker Automattic has continued to work towards greater ease of use. And to that end, it launched this Mac app.
The new desktop app, which also comes in Linux and Windows flavours, was released in November 2015 to accompany a big revamp of WordPress.com, with its beautifully clean interface. The Mac app is more or less that new website in a wrapper, or as Automattic puts it, 'a desktop app that gives WordPress a permanent home in your dock'.
By bundling the entire site as a local copy, you basically get a faster, more streamlined experience, although some features do pull you back to the browser, for example to view your admin panel.
But in general, if you spend a lot of time working on your WordPress sites on the Mac, this free app is a no-brainer to download.
04. Quitter
Free
Marco Arment is the co-founder of Tumblr and creator of Instapaper and Overcast, so anything he works on is always worth a look. And this Mac app from Arment, which offers a way to cut out distractions and focus on creativity, definitely fits into that category.
Quitter does one thing and does it well: it auto-quits your most distracting apps after a period of inactivity. For instance, if updates from your Twitter client tend to drag you away from productive work (and let's face it, whose doesn't?), you can ask Quitter to quit or hide the app after a specified length of time, which is set to 10 minutes by default.
Of course, Quitter is not the first ever app to offer this kind of service. But it's free, easy to use, and from such a respected source that it's already been a big hit within the Mac-using community. See it in action in the video above.
05. Lingo
Once you've got your fonts organised thanks to RightFont, maybe you'll want to address the mess of assets cluttering up your Mac? That's where Mac app Lingo comes in, offering you an easy way to organise photos, illustrations, icons, colours and any other visual assets. Best audiophile music player for mac.
Lingo enables you to drag and drop (or copy and paste) any asset from Photoshop, Sketch, Illustrator or Slack directly into it, for saving and retrieving later. You can tag assets to enable easy keyword search, and it's easy to share assets with the rest of your team too.
Again, this is not the first Mac app to offer asset management. But it comes with a great pedigree, being a child of the icon aggregation website Noun Project.
And it's had thumbs-up reviews from the teams at Airbnb, Dollar Shave Club and Snapchat, where it's quickly become part of their regular workflow. You can see Lingo in action in the video above.
06. Sparkle
From free
Now on version 2.2 with touchbar support, Sparkle is certainly a solid visual web design app. And one way it scores big is by making it easy for you to incorporate third-party fonts into your site.
So if you need to build a quick website and typography is important to you, it's worth giving the free trial a go. This free version gives you one site with up to three pages, with a larger site available for a one-off payment of £38.99 or an unlimited number of sites costing £74.99.
See Sparkle in action in the video above.
07. Adobe XD
An all-in-one tool for UX designers, Adobe XD (short for experience design) has been making big waves since its release last March. The company's response to the rise of Sketch, Adobe XD is currently free to use for Creative Cloud customers, but doesn't actually feel much like a normal CC app.
Like its rival, XD has a very stripped down, minimal interface (its toolbar has just seven buttons), which makes it easy to pick up and run with.
Far from the learning curve involved with the likes of Photoshop and Illustrator, then, you can start churning out wireframes and functional prototypes in minutes. You can see Adobe XD in action in the video above.
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There are dozens of free photo editors out there, so we've hand-picked the very best so you can make your pictures look amazing without paying a penny.
We've spent hours putting a huge range of photo editors to the test, and picked out the best ones for any level of skill and experience. From powerful software packed with features that give Photoshop a run for its money to simple tools that give your pictures a whole new look with a couple of clicks, there's something for everyone.
Many free photo editors only offer a very limited selection of tools unless you pay for a subscription, or place a watermark on exported images, but none of the tools here carry any such restrictions. Whichever one you choose, you can be sure that there are no hidden tricks to catch you out.
1. GIMP
The best free photo editor for advanced image editing
No ads or limitations
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 find 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 flaws 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 official glossary. If that's not enough, you can even install Photoshop plugins.
2. Ashampoo Photo Optimizer 2019
Fuss-free photo editing with automatic optimization tools
Fine manual controls
If you've got a lot of photos that you need to edit in a hurry, Ashampoo Photo Optimizer 2019 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 and exposure corrections, 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.
3. Canva
Professional-level photo editing and templates in your browser
Includes free cloud storage
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 find advanced tools like clone brushes and smart selectors here, but there's a set of handy sliders for applying tints, vignette effects, 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.
4. Fotor
One-click enhancements to make your photos shine in seconds
Batch image processing
Fotor is a free photo editor that's ideal for giving your pictures a boost quickly. If there's specific 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 filters 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 filter 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.
5. Photo Pos Pro
Advanced photo editing tools packaged in a simple interface
Beginner and advanced modes
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. https://valeschool.weebly.com/blog/best-cheapest-external-hard-drive-for-mac.
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 filter-based approach. The choice is yours. https://valeschool.weebly.com/blog/best-logo-creator-for-mac.
The 'expert' layout offers 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 filters via the main menu, but the focus is much more on fine editing.
6. Paint.NET
Looking a little dated, but still a dependable all-rounder
Plugin support
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.
Best Free Photoshop Apps For Mac
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 filters, myriad community-created plugins, and a brilliant 3D rotate/zoom function that's handy for recomposing images.
7. PhotoScape
Raw image conversion, batch processing and much more
Great selection of filters
PhotoScape might look like a rather simple free photo editor, but take a look at its main menu and you'll find 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 configurations. It certainly doesn't attempt to ape Photoshop, and includes fewer features.
We'd definitely point this towards the beginner, but that doesn't mean you can't get some solid results. PhotoScape's filters are pretty advanced, so it's if good choice if you need to quickly level, sharpen or add mild filtering to pictures in a snap.
8. Pixlr X
A comprehensive browser-based photo editor for quick results
Stylish design
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.
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With Pixlr X, you can make fine changes to colors and saturation, sharpen and blur images, apply vignette effects and frames, and combine multiple images. There's also support for layers, which you won't find in many free online photo editors, and an array of tools for painting and drawing. A great choice for even advanced tasks.
9. Adobe Photoshop Express Editor
A convenient way to correct lighting and exposure problems
Stylish design
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 file size and types, and lack of support for layers.
10. PiZap
A fun photo editor for preparing your pictures for social media
Templates for social media
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.
Best Photoshop Software For Mac
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