You don’t have to use Adobe Photoshop on your Mac to edit images like a pro. There are plenty of Photoshop alternatives for Mac that you can download or use in-browser to create just the right images and graphics for your projects. And some of them are completely free!
None of these are necessarily one-size-fits-all solutions. Each tool tends to serve a specific purpose; Do you want to edit online or on a desktop? Are you editing photos or multiple file types? Is all the work for web or will images get printed?
Here’s a list of the best Photoshop alternatives for Mac in 2020, but not in any particular order. Have a read through to find the one that’s right for you.
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1. Affinity Photo
Affinity Photo is a past Apple Mac App of the Year Winner and the professional tool has everything you’d expect in a premium photo-editing product.
Use it to edit and retouch images as well as create multi-layer pieces. The professional corrections and adjustments tools rival any other app out there and it has a great noise-reduction filter. Retouching options include the usual dodge, burn, clone, patch, blemish, and red eye tools, but there’s also an inpainting brush and liquify feature.
Other key features:
- Dedicated camera RAW workspace
- HDR merge
- Panorama stitching
- Bath processing
- 360-degree image editing
Cost: $49.99
Try it:From the App Store
2. Sketch
Sketch isn’t a photo-editing app per se, but you can editing images within the Mac prototyping tool.
The best part of editing in Sketch is that all edits are nondestructive, meaning that any of your changes take effect without overwriting the original image file. (So you can always go back to the original if you want.)
Sketch allows for basic image editing including inverting images, cropping and color fill. It can be described as a basic bitmap editor and for many simple projects is enough.
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Other key features:
- Color adjustment capability – hue, saturation, brightness and contrast
- Reduce image/file size
- Replace and change images in projects with one click (Since you are using the same tool)
- Ability to work in layers
- Also includes ability to edit vector elements
Cost: $99/year
Try it:From Sketch
3. GIMP
GIMP offers powerful photo manipulation and editing capability in a free, open source package. (You can also download the source code and make changes as you see fit and add more functionality with third-party plugins.)
GIMP is designed for high-quality photo manipulation including retouching images and photo restorations. Users can also use it to create original artwork, a feature that many other non-Photoshop editors don’t provide (or have but it can be difficult to use).
Other key features:
- Ability to create icons and other elements
- Use for scripted image manipulation (C, C++, Perl, Python, Scheme and more)
- Color management tools included with Scribus, Inkscape and SwatchBooker
- Large number of usable file formats and a customizable workspace
- Extensive tutorial library on the website so you can learn the tool easily
Cost: Free
Try it:From GIMP
4. Pixelmator Pro
Pixelmator Pro is a nondestructive editor that allows you to make changes to images and draw in the app. It also includes a nifty machine learning auto color adjustments tool to help make color changes a breeze.
One of the best features of Pixelmator Pro is that you can even export images for the web – hello, optimization – so you don’t have to use multiple tools to edit and then shrink image for top website quality production. Pixelmator Pro also includes some workflow tools to help you work more efficiently.
Other key features:
- Works with Mac’s Touch Bar
- Live preview option so you can see how changes will look before committing
- Text editing capabilities
- SVG editing and export
- Painting tools so you can draw anything by hand
Cost: $59.99
Try it: From the App Store or try the free demo
5. Pixlr Pro
Pixlr Pro is an in-browser image editing app that’s packed with photo, vector and text editing capability. You can edit like a pro with tools that include layer masks, multiple brush options, curve and level adjustments, color and blend modes, effects and filters, and transform and wrap tools.
What’s different about Pixlr Pro, which also has a free version, is that you don’t have to download anything to use it. All the tools are right in your browser (and it has strong browser compatibility). It also includes a lot of other goodies to help jumpstart projects, such as templates and fonts.
Other key features:
- Includes access to 1 million royalty-free stock images
- Comes with more than 10,000 photo templates
- Works with PSD and Sketch image files
- Smart healing tools for photo correction
- Refine edge tool make it easy to mask complex objects
Cost: $5/month
Try it:From Pixlr
6. PicMonkey
PicMonkey is a well-known online photo editor and retoucher. It has the most complicated structure of features of all the tools in this list with free, basic and pro pricing plans with different levels of features and tools.
If you plan to use any of the advanced features – save and export, advanced retouching, effects and overlays, fonts – then you are probably looking at the pro level plan. Free plans include ads; paid plans do not. PicMonkey is a pretty straightforward tool that is popular with users creating images for social media and online-only use with a simple photo editor and design tools.
Other key features:
- Add-ons include filters, overlays and text tools
- Touch up photos to add more visual interest
- Watermark and other templates to make projects quick
- Ability to create a photo collage
- Simple interface with ready to use buttons in-browser or using the desktop app
Cost: Starting at $5.99/month
Try it: From PicMonkey
7. Fotor
The tool that the BBC called “Photoshop lite” is simple and easy to use. Edit images, add effects and text or tough up portraits like a pro with Fotor.
The photo editor has all the tools you’d expect for everyday editing with shape and aspect ratio cropping, color, saturation and white balance options and ability to straighten and rotate images. You can also create a custom college in the app.
Other key features:
- Bath processing option
- Tilt-shirt tools adds focus and blurring for a professional look
- 13 1-tap photo enhancement options
- Use popular file formats such as RAW, PNG, JPG, BMP, GIF and TIFF
- Optimize images for retina displays
Cost: Free
Try it:From the App Store
8. Acorn
Acorn is another nondestructive piece of Mac photo editing software that has a robust set of tools. The company claims that it has “everything you need in an image editor” with the ability to add layer masks and selections to touch up images or make something entirely new. You can also remove backgrounds, combine images, perform color corrections, resize, transform, crop and more.
While Acorn is billed as an image editor, it also includes vector tools as well and a text on a path feature.
Other key features:
- 100+ photo effects — vignette, drop shadow, gradients, sharpening, color correction, distortions, blurs
- Web export and scaling
- Smart layer export
- Camera RAW image import and editing
- Ability to import Photoshop brushes
Cost: $29.99
Try it:From The Flying Meat store (other addons also available)
9. SumoPaint
SumoPaint has free and paid version with different options. One key difference is whether you want to edit image on- or off-line (paid only).
SumoPaint is billed as an image manipulator with plenty of options, not all of which are designed for working with photos. The native Sumo file format also provides a nondestructive save option. The tool includes plenty of brushes, shapes and colors and gradients to jumpstart any project. It also allows for use of layers and comes with plenty of filters.
Other key features:
- Lighting, reflection and mosaic tools
- Animated and 3D brush options
- Auto-smoothing feature
- Text tool
- Ability to adjust curves and levels with ease
Cost: $4/month
Try it:From SumoPaint
10. DxO PhotoLab
DxO PhotoLab is the go-to for RAW photo editing. It’s packed with features – you might even mistake the dashboard for Photoshop at a glance – and doesn’t get bogged down when working with large files and detailed images.
The tools include the ability to editing using control points to work on just the parts of a photo you want to edit, there are plenty of brushes for precise work, a graduated filter makes landscape photos look great and the auto repair mode can remove unwanted elements from images.
Other key features:
- Smooth transitions between elements that preserve textures and shadows
- Fast processing
- Auto lighting optimization tool
- ClearView filter removes atmospheric haze from landscape photos
- 40,000 camera and lens combinations
Cost: $99.99 (Essential Edition)
Try it:From DxO
Anyone who has been working with digital images has had to convert them to a particular format at a certain point. You’ve either shot your images in RAW and now need to change them to a more commonly-used format or perhaps you need to compile a PDF document from multiple pictures or you’re simply required to send or upload images in a specific format.
No matter the reason, you can easily accomplish your tasks with the aid of picture converter software. There are several tools that are particularly designed to serve conversion purposes and make the process as simple and fast as possible, by enabling batch processing.
To make your research easier we’ve compiled a list of 10 image converters for Mac, really useful when you need to switch from one format to another:
BatchPhoto
BatchPhoto is a batch image converter that has the capacity to read and convert to more than 170 image formats. This Mac app is designed to support RAW images from the majority of DSLR cameras and ensure conversion in bulk to more popular formats like JPEG or TIFF in a single operation. Moreover, it can create PDF from multiple pictures of various formats like JPEG, TIFF, PNG or BMP so that you’ll easily share your resulting files.
Besides being able to convert multiple images at once, BatchPhoto can also resize, watermark, crop, date stamp or retouch photos in the same session. The app comes equipped with numerous features for optimizing and improving the overall appearance of your photos and it’s got the advantage of being quite intuitive. You’ll have no problems in easily finding what you need.
To help you boost productivity, BatchPhoto allows you to save your settings as Profiles and easily retrieve them later. You can save your newly-edited pictures on a local folder, upload them to Facebook, Flickr or FTP or send them via email.
GraphicConverter
GraphicConverter is one of the oldest software on the market, with its first release dating back from 1992. Throughout the years it has undergone several changes, but it has maintained its ability to efficiently convert photos. The tool can read approximately 200 types of formats and can export to around 80 different graphic formats, basically covering every need when it comes to converting.
Though the name would make you think it limits itself to image converting, GraphicConverter does more than that. It also allows you to apply various edits to optimize your pictures, like cropping, resizing or lens correction and also to get creative using a wide range of filters and effects.
EasyBatchPhoto
EasyBatchPhoto is another alternative to consider if you’re handling a large collection of photos which you want to convert. It doesn’t provide a RAW support as extensive as the previous tools, but it can read common formats like JPEG, PNG, TIFF or PSD and can write JPEG, PNG and TIFF.
In addition to image converting, the app also allows you to perform other optimization related operations, such as resizing, watermarking, cropping and rotating. The downside is that the software hasn’t received a substantial update in a couple of years.
Pixillion Image Converter
Pixillion Image Converter is an intuitive tool created to support plenty of formats, including RAW ones. It is easy to use, can read and write the most commonly-used formats, quickly process them and this is basically the app’s strong point.
Pixilion does other things as well, but in comparison to BatchPhoto and GraphicConverter it’s quite limited. You can resize, watermark or rotate your photos, but you can’t crop them, can’t perform standard image editing like adjusting the brightness, contrast or saturation and you can’t apply special effects.
Contenta RAW Converter
Contenta RAW Converter was created to help Mac users easily and quickly make the transition from RAW formats to more common ones. This app lets you convert multiple RAW photos at once, rename them, reduce their size, boost the saturation, contrast and brightness or apply artistic effects. You can also protect or brand your pictures by applying text or logo watermarks.
Contenta RAW Converter gives you the opportunity to save your current configuration for later use. This way you won’t have to go through the same converting or resizing steps and hence gain valuable time. The app also allows you to upload your photos on its server (there’s a limit of 300 images at a time) and easily share them online.
IMT Image Converter
IMT Image Converter is another proposal for converting images on Mac. The app is quite simple and does exactly what’s expected of it, that is efficiently change picture format images in bulk. In addition to converting, it can also create PDF files from multiple photos and perform basic operations like resizing, renaming and adding text and/or logo watermarks to pictures. You can also enhance your pictures by wrapping various frames and borders around them.
PhotoConvert 4
PhotoConvert 4 is an interesting Mac utility designed to ensure a simple and fast image conversion between multiple formats, including RAW ones. The process of converting images in bulk is pretty simple: add your pictures, select your preferred export options and destination folder and export them.
With PhotoConvert 4 you can perform other useful operations, such as renaming, resizing or time stamping pictures. The app has also the ability to improve the overall aspect of your images, by automatically adjusting the color level, white balance, highlights, shadows and more.
AppleMacSoft Graphic Converter
Graphic Converter by AppleMacSoft provides support for more than 50 graphic formats. These include widely-used formats like JPG, PNG or TIFF and certain RAW files from popular digital cameras.
The app is designed to be quite easy to use and to carry out the image conversion process in three simple steps. All you have to do is add your files or folder, choose the destination folder and output format and just click on the Convert button. You can’t perform other operations to optimize and improve the aspect of your images other than resizing.
iWinSoft Image Converter
iWinSoft Image Converter is a simple app that allows you to batch convert images and that’s it. There are no other editing options available if you wish to further optimize your pictures. The app supports all popular formats, as well as RAW files from almost all DSLR manufactures, and it’s simple to use: in the main window just drag your images, select the output format and export folder and let the program process them.
Batch Image Converter
Best Free Raw App For Mac Download
Batch Image Converter is our last proposal for converting pictures on a Mac. This is a pretty basic app that enables you to make the transition to standard image formats, like JPG, PNG or TIFF. Besides basic image converting, there’s also an option available to reduce the size of your files.
Best Free Raw App For Mac Computer
This is our list of image converters for Mac users. Which app do you use to convert images from one format to another? You can let us know in the comments below.