Adobe Photoshop. Best Overall Photo Editor for Mac and PC. Adobe Photoshop deserves a special. Adobe Photoshop Express. Best for: Mobile photo editing. For the longest time, people tried to find a. Gimp is a cross-platform image editing software or tool available for Windows, Linux, macOS, and more operating systems. It is open-source and free software, so you can change its source code and distribute modified software.
Image editing is considered a creative, artistic act. Image editing is done for removing unwanted elements such as dust specks and scratches, adjusting the geometry of the image like rotating and cropping, correcting for lens aberrations, sharpening or softening the image, making color changes or adding special effects to the image.
Image manipulation is when images are enhanced or manipulated in a way that's pleasing to our eyes or to obtain a certain effect for certain reasons/goal objective we have in mind. It's usually conducted through the famous Adobe Photoshop, or Illustrator and the like. The benefits are limitless, as these programs are excellent tools to greatly enhance an image’s appearance.
Gimp is a cross-platform image editing software or tool available for Windows, Linux, macOS, and more operating systems. It is open-source and free software, so you can change its source code and distribute modified software. It does not care what you are if you are a graphic designer, video editor, photographer, illustrator, or scientist GIMP provided you sophisticated tools to get your job done.
High-Quality Photo Manipulation
To do high-quality photo manipulations, GIMP provides you all tools you needed. It works beyond your imagination.
Original Artwork Creation
It provides you flexibility and artistic power so that you can transform images into a truly unique and advance creation.
Graphic Design ElementsMaking
It is wisely used for producing or creating graphical icons, graphical design elements, and user interface components.
GIMP is an excellent open-source photo editing program
It has a list of tools for the user to edit their photos. It has plenty of brushes (all of them are customizable), filters, auto image-enhancement tools, and compatibility for a wide range of pre-installed plugins, as well as more available for download. It also allows you to add filters. Gimp was built in Python, making it so flexible to use. They built it very adaptable because most of the users want to build their own photo editor. With this, you can add or remove any wanted and unwanted tool. All of this within the user-interface.
How to Use GIMP
GIMP is a package that works a lot more than Adobe Photoshop. But the main difference is, it is 100% free!
Step1: Installing GIMP
Download the latest version of the GNU image manipulation program. Open the downloaded file and select your preferred language. Run the installer, if you want to install it in the default folder then click on install. To change any install setting select customize and wait until the installation process gets finished.
Step2: Starting GIMP
Now open the installed program. At the start, it will load some necessary data files. When it finishes loading, several windows will appear on your screen. To start the blank page, click the file menu at the center and open a new file. Then, create a new image window will open, will ask you what size you will prefer, you can enter it manually or select preformatted sizes from the dropdown. Click ok when you have done selecting an image.
Step3: Cropping Image
Open an image you wish to crop, right-click on the image, and select a tool to transform tools then crop. You can also adjust the crop box by pixel, use the tool option at the bottom of the toolbox. Once all the adjustments have been made, click the center of the image to crop the image. It will automatically delete all unnecessary elements.
Step4: Flipping and Rotating Image
For flipping, select the image, then in tool option you can check the checkbox option you can choose between flip-type (horizontal or verticle). To perform rotation right click on image select tool->transform tools-> rotate. Then select whether you desire to rotate 90° clockwise, counterclockwise, or 180°.
Step5: Mastering Other Basics
Change the size of the image: Right-click on the image. Select an image from the menu, then click on scale image. The Scale Image window will open, and you can alter the size of the image. Enter value for the height or width and the image will adjust accordingly.
Draw straight line: Pick a drawing tool, such as Pencil or Airbrush. Click on the image to create a starting point for your line. Hold the Shift key and pass your mouse to where you want your endpoint.
Add text to an image: Press “T” on your keyboard and click where you want to insert text. This will open the text toolbox you can start typing immediately.
What is great about GIMP?
It has a wide range of features, in a lot of ways you can touch up your photos. Features like color adjustment tools, gradients, layer masks, filters, customizable brushes, Bezier curves plus an animation package. You can also use channel mixer to create professional-quality black and white photographs. The retouching features are very useful to edit photographs professionally.
There is another special reason why GIMP is very popular. Because it provides an open-source code. It is available to everyone so, anyone can create their version of GIMP. You can create a better-advanced version of the GNU image manipulation program but yes! off-course it needs codding skills.
GIMP was initially developed for Linux but developers have expanded programs for use on Mac and Windows. For windows, you need Windows 7 or newer.
How does GIMP compare with other photo editors?
There are other different software you could compare GIMP to, including DxO Optics Pro, Corel PaintShop Pro, Capture One, and Adobe Photoshop. Although Adobe Photoshop is best like gold and GIMP deserves to compare it with the best. Adobe has a few different editors you can work with. There is not only the famous ‘Adobe Photoshop’ but also Adobe Photoshop Elements, and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.
The simple answer is if you want to go with the premium version then adobe is best for you. And if you are searching for free with the same quality then GIMP is the best option for you.
How would you summarize GNU Image Manipulation Program?
It is free to download and use. It has excellent functionality and a habitual user interface. From pre-installed plugins to color adjustment tools, retouching photos, and layer masks, you can do most of the things with this free version. If you don’t like anything about it you can change it.
Is downloading GIMP safe?
It is a free open-source graphics editing program and is not inherently unsafe. If you found any warning by your system at the time of installation then you should uninstall it immediately and download it from another source.
Do professionals use Gimp?
Yes, professionals use GIMP as it provides the same quality features as adobe Photoshop does.
How to remove background in GIMP?
The work of this tool is the same as the magic wand tool of photoshop. There are some simple steps you need to follow:
At first, you need to open your image.
Go to the layer of the image, right-click on it and select Add Alpha channel. If you choose this channel after removing the background, you will get a transparent background.
Then, select the Fuzzy Selection Tool and simply click on the background and hit delete.
How to make a gif in GIMP?
Creating a GIF with GIMP photo editing is a straightforward and quick process.
Create a new file in your GNU Image Manipulation Program with selecting height and width.
Open each frame of animation as a new layer. Hold shift while selecting multiple image frames. Click open when you finish selecting.
Add frame rates in milliseconds to each layer of the image frame, by the default frame rate of 10 frames (100ms) per second.
How to install brushes in GIMP?
Installing brushes is as simple as finding your favourite Brushes online and paste them into brushes folder.
STEP1: Find the brush pack online and download it. To begin to find a brush pack like this Powder Explosion pack.
STEP2: locate the brushes folder and drag brush kit into Program files->GIMP->Share->Gimp->2.0->Brushes folder.
STEP3: Refresh your brushes in your GNU Image Manipulation program.
How to install fonts in gimp?
Installing new fonts to your GIMP photo editing tool is a straightforward process. Especially when you are using a windows machine:
Find the font you want to install from the Web.
Download and extract the font
Double click on OTF file and install fonts.
Find + Use your new fonts in GIMP.
What is a layer in GIMP?
Layers are features which are used in advance image editing software like GIMP. Layers are like a stack of images, one on top of the another.
You can open an image, and add another image on top of it, move it around, resize/transform it, erase parts of it, add layer masks, etc.
What is the best way to mastering GIMP?
To master GIMP, there are several MOOC sites which you can try. Some MOOC sites offer free courses, or some offer both free and paid internships. For Video Tutorials, you can try UDEMY and Alison.com.
Else, you can go through the official GNU Image Manipulation tutorials step by step to becoming master of GIMP photo editing tool.
February 10, 2020
32 min to read
Modern digital photography goes hand in hand with post-processing software. Although today the photo editing software market offers an unlimited number of options for photographers of all levels, most of the community sticks to tried-and-true Adobe Photoshop. It indeed is a universal app equipped with tools that a professional photographer would wish for, but it’s time to make way for the new.
For the past decades, a lot of new and worthy photo editors entered the market bringing revolutionary technologies into the mundane editing process making even the most complex editing tasks doable for novices and streamlined for pros. Here we listed some of the best photo editing apps on the market including both old and new for photographers of different needs and skill levels.
1. Luminar 4
Completely revamped Luminar 4 is finally here to shake up the world of photo-editing software. Improved to be even more intuitive, Luminar 4 also brings a ton of brand-new AI editing tools designed to speed up the photo editing workflow.
- AI Sky Replacement automatically changes the sky and relights and recolors the entire photo to match the new sky.
- AI Skin Enhancer & Portrait Enhancer do all the retouching for you with just one click.
- AI Enhance automatically enhances your photo by making numerous adjustments of different complexity.
- AI Structure brings details up or down depending on your needs.
- Sunrays adds realistic sun rays to your photo that you’re free to tweak as you please.
- Smart Contrast was improved to produce a more detailed and textured image.
Luminar 4 can not only be used as a stand-alone app but also as a plug-in for Adobe’s Photoshop and Lightroom to make the best of your tools.
✅ Pros:
Non-destructive editing
Intuitive interface
Improved performance
In-depth customization
Available as a plug-in as well
✖️ Cons:
Mediocre library functions
Limited exporting options
2. Adobe Lightroom
Adobe Lightroom has been the app of choice for professional and amateur photographers alike for many years now. It offers a well-thought-out set of features for managing, organizing, processing, and exporting your photos. With the advanced library features, like labels, keywords, collections, and search filters, the app makes it easy for you to keep track of large numbers of photos. Lightroom comes with a good selection of RAW profiles to define colors in your photos for more precise editing. Tweak your photos to perfection with adjustment sliders, perspective and lens correction tools, retouching tools, filters, profiles, and presets to speed up your workflow.
✅ Pros:
Built-in file management system
Face detection and tagging
Color and luminosity masking
Plug-in support
✖️ Cons:
Not the best choice for beginners
A bit too taxing for Windows
No auto-tagging
Comparatively slow importing
❓ What photo editing software do you use and why? Let us know in the comments, we’d be very interested to know!
3. ACDSee PHOTO STUDIO ULTIMATE 2020
Photo Studio Ultimate 2020 is a one-stop photo management and post-processing tool for Windows. It comes with everything you need to handle your files, like categories, keywords, face detection, ratings, color labels, metadata, geolocation, and more. It’s quite powerful when it comes to photo editing, too, offering a broad set of tools for a variety of different purposes. It allows you to process your RAW, JPEG and other types of files in a non-destructive way in Develop Mode and perfect them in Edit Mode by adjusting color and lighting, bringing out details, removing flaws, and adding final touches. The user interface is completely customizable to suit your preferences.
✅ Pros:
Excellent built-in file management system
Powerful post-processing features
Fully customizable interface
✖️ Cons:
Available only for Windows
Too overwhelming for beginners
Subscription-based online storage gallery
4. GIMP
GIMP is a free and open-source photo-editing tool that has been around for more than 20 years. It boasts a limitless number of state-of-the-art features that you wouldn’t expect to see in a free photo-editing app. The interface has been recently updated to be easier to use, however it still can be quite confusing for novices. GIMP offers a broad set of tools suitable not only for basic but for advanced editing, too. Here you can enhance colors, adjust hue and saturation, fix composition, adjust sharpness, reduce graininess, remove unwanted objects, work with masks, layers, and more.
✅ Pros:
100% free
Open access to the source code
Has a broad selection of tools for different purposes
Plug-in support
Available for the main operating systems
✖️ Cons:
Non-intuitive workflow
Difficult to get the hang of
Lack of HDR support
5. Aurora HDR
Aurora HDR is a powerful HDR tool that brings innovation and simplicity together. The most recent update introduced a new Quantum HDR engine with AI-powered tone mapping technology which allows for more intelligent photo merging to produce vivid yet natural-looking photos. Whether you’re creating an HDR photo from bracketed shots or a single image, the app’s neural network enhances the photo and makes sure that no halos or ghosting spoils the final result. The brand-new Smart HDR Structure feature boosts details and sharpness without creating undesired artifacts that can make a photo look unrealistic. With over 80 distinctive Looks, you can make your photo look stunning in just one click.
✅ Pros:
One of the best HDR photo editors
Swift performance
Corrects badly taken single shots
Doesn’t create artifacts, halos, or noise
Available as a stand-alone app and plug-in
Plug-in support
✖️ Cons:
None worth mentioning
6. Adobe Photoshop Elements
Developed for beginner and hobbyist photographers, Photoshop Elements’ functions are naturally more limited than Photoshop’s but it has all the essentials for achieving astonishing results. It offers three editing modes:
The Quick mode includes the simplest tools for straightening and cropping photos, removing unwanted objects, enhancing portraits, and applying filters.
The Guided mode uses step-by-step wizards to take you through more complex edits like removing objects, replacing the background, merging multiple photos, creating double exposures, and more.
The Expert mode gives you access to more complex Photoshop-like features including layers, masks, and filters.
✅ Pros:
Excellent for entry-level photographers
Simple and straightforward interface
One-time purchase
A bunch of Photoshop-like features simplified for nonprofessionals
Dozens of clear guides
✖️ Cons:
Too limited functionality
Are you a Lightroom, Luminar, or Photoshop user? Then you'd probably want to see our collection of the best free and paid presets for them.
❓
Exposure X5 looks like a refined version of Lightroom that inherited only the features that photographers liked and used the most. Some of the most hated features were eliminated or improved. Thus, there’s no time-consuming import process in Exposure X5 - you can get straight to editing by adding a folder with your photos in a few clicks. The interface is very well-organized and can be customized to suit your editing purposes. Besides non-destructive layer-based editing and cutting-edge tools that are crucial for the professional photo-manipulating process, Exposure X5 offers a mind-blowing collection of over 500 presets that you can customize to your liking.
✅ Pros:
Beginner-friendly
Well-organized and customizable interface
No power-draining import process
Non-destructive layer-based editing
A broad selection of free presets
No subscription
✖️ Cons:
The interface design looks a bit outdated
Lack of panorama and HDR tools
8. Capture One Pro
Capture One Pro is a full-fledged pro photo editor created for experienced photographers and serious hobbyists. Originally designed for tethered shooting, Capture One Pro is the fastest and most flexible tethering tool for photographers of all genres. It also offers top-notch RAW photo-editing functionality, smart photo organization tools, layer support, powerful adjustment tools, and plenty of other features you’re looking for in professional-grade photo software.
Even though Affinity Photo can’t boast any organization or management tools, it’s well-packed with all kinds of editing features for photographers of all levels. The workflow includes several Personas, or modes, focused on different editing stages. Develop Persona focuses on RAW file processing, Photo Persona is used for boosting your photos using layers, lighting and color adjustments, curves, LUTs, etc. Tone Mapping Persona is for HDR editing, Liquify Persona for bending photos, and Export Persona for exporting finished photos.
One of the most powerful online photo tools, Pixlr has become a popular choice when it comes to making quick photo corrections. Since it’s a web app, it doesn’t take up any room on your computer and is compatible with all operational systems. Pixlr features a clean and intuitive interface with many tools for cropping, selecting, transforming, removing objects, retouching and adjusting your photos using numerous sliders for brightness, contrast, vibrance, saturation, shadows, and more. It also offers a vast collection of filters and effects that will enhance your photos in a snap!
✅ Pros:
Beginner-friendly
Great for quick editing
Online
100% free
Has a clean interface
Offers a nice collection of filters and effects
Mobile version available
✖️ Cons:
Limited functionality
Advertising can be annoying
Can be laggy sometimes
11. Paint.NET
Developed to replace the iconic Microsoft Paint, Paint.NET has grown into a full-featured yet simple photo-editing tool for WIndows. The app offers a user-friendly interface that’s very easy to navigate. Paint.NET is packed with a nice set of tools for making your photos look beautiful in the most effortless way. Here you can play around with various adjustments, such as levels, curves, contrast, brightness, saturation, and more, selecting and removing objects, resize and crop your photos, and so much more!
✅ Pros:
100% free
Unlimited history
Layer-based editing
Tons of creative filters and effects
Suitable for beginner and intermediate users
User-friendly interface
Plug-in support
✖️ Cons:
Only for Windows
Interface design looks a bit outdated
Limited functionality
❓ Do you agree with our opinion in this article? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
FAQ:
Q: Which one is the best photo editing software?
A: Luminar 4 is the best photo editing software because it offers the most powerful collection of features and tools for different editing needs.
Q: What is the easiest free photo editing software?
A: Paint.NET is the easiest free photo editing software, however, it has a very limited number of features suitable only for basic editing.
Q: Which photo editing software is the best for HDR photo editing?
A: Aurora HDR is the best HDR photo editing software with a broad set of tools for creating and correcting HDR images. Chakravakam telugu serial characters.
Q: How can I edit pictures on my computer for free?
A: GIMP free photo editor is the best way to edit pictures on your computer for free. It’s well-packed with features and is suitable for beginners and pros alike.
Q: Which photo editing software can be used as a plug-in for Photoshop/ Lightroom?
A: Luminar 4 is the best Photoshop/ Lightroom plug-in that allows you to use its unique features in your go-to photo editor.
Whether you take photos for fun or business, it’s not an easy task to find a photo editing software that can best fit your photo editing needs with so many different options on the market. We believe that it’s easier to find something when you know what you’re looking for, so we came up with three criteria that you should take into account when looking for your one and only photo app. So, we recommend you to make your choice based on the features you want your app to have, the platform you’re going to use it on, and the price that you’re ready (or not) to pay for it. This will help you to filter out the irrelevant options and narrow your choices down to a few most suitable ones.
What Is Image Manipulation Software
Features
We believe that all photo editing apps can be divided into several categories based on what they have to offer to users of different levels and needs. These categories are:
Photo editing software for beginners. If you’re just starting out in photography or need to apply quick corrections to your photos once in a while, you should opt for a beginner-friendly photo editor like Paint.NET or Pixlr. Such editors usually have a clean and straightforward interface without too many tabs and icons, and a decent set of tools for applying basic corrections.
Professional photo editing apps are designed for professional photographers and advanced hobbyists and give more control over photo processing and editing. Their use requires more specialized knowledge of photography and high photo-editing skill. Pro-grade photo editors like Adobe Lightroom or Capture One Pro often come with an in-build photo management system, provide support for RAW files, tethered shooting, and presets.
Software for creating and editing vector graphics. As you probably know, there are two types of graphics: raster and vector. Raster graphics represent images as a pixel grid, while vector graphics use lines and curves. Vector software can’t change pixels and thus is ineffective for photo correction. However, you can use vector software to add graphics to your photo such as text, shapes, lines. Many raster photo editors include a handful of vector tools, like GIMP or Photoshop.
AI photo software uses AI-based technology that allows reducing manual photo editing to a minimum - even the most complex editing tasks such as retouching or removing objects can be done with just a few clicks. Such apps are a popular choice among beginners and pros alike as they substantially speed up the editing process without affecting the quality. Luminar 4 is one of a few decent AI photo editing tools on the market.
Open source photo editing apps are apps for which the source code can be viewed and changed by any user, like GIMP. It means that any user can interact with the program code to correct bugs, improve the exciting features and add new ones. Open-source software is usually completely free and for this reason much beloved by users of different levels of expertise.
Platform
There is another thing you should take into account when looking for your perfect photo-editing app - the platform you’re going to use it on. If you’re a Mac or Windows user, you’ve got a wider choice of options unlike, for example, Chrome OS users, who have a much more limited choice. Let’s take a closer look at what we have here.
Windows is the most compatible with most of the photo software you're going to want to use. If you’re a Windows user, you have a great number of options to choose from including most widely-used apps like GIMP, Luminar 4, Lightroom, Paint.NET, and more.
As Mac is the second most popular operating system, you won’t have any troubles finding a photo app compatible with it. Here you still have a vast number of options including Lightroom, Aurora HDR, Luminar 4, etc. The popular GIMP, however, isn’t compatible with Mac.
If you’re a Chromebook user, your choice is limited to Google Play apps. Those, however, include a pretty good number of options, such as GIMP, Photoshop, Lightroom, and others. If you have strong programming skills, you could try installing external apps as well.
It doesn’t matter what platform you’re using if you choose to work in an online photo editor. It runs in a browser and doesn’t need installing.
If you’re looking for an app for your Android or iOS device, you should check what your app store has to offer. Some web and desktop apps, like Pixlr or Lightroom, however, have mobile versions.
Price
No matter how good the software is, its price can be a real dealbreaker. Luckily, not all photo editing software is paid for. There are such apps as GIMP and Paint.NET that are completely free. Paid options include subscription-based (Photo Studio Ultimate 2020, Lightroom) and one-time-fee (Luminar 4, Photoshop Elements, Affinity Photo) software. Some paid apps though have free trial versions, so you can test an app for free for several days to see if it’s worth the money.