Photo Editing Programs For Mac

With programs like Affinity and Pixelmator Pro, it's no longer the case that Photoshop is king when it comes to image editing software. We take a look at the best Mac photo editors for creative. However, you have to spend quite some time and effort on it, if you want to become a Photoshop Pro. With a various range of photo editing tools and presets, Photoshop remains one of the best photo editing software for Windows and Mac. This was our top 10 photo editing software programs, suitable both for beginners and professional use. All your photos on all your devices. ICloud Photos gives you access to your entire Mac photo and video library from all your devices. If you shoot a snapshot, slo-mo, or selfie on your iPhone, it’s automatically added to iCloud Photos — so it appears on your Mac, iOS.

  1. Photo Editing Programs For Mac Free Download
  2. Photo Editing Programs For Macbook Pro
  3. Good Picture Editing Programs For Mac
  4. Photo Editing App For Macbook Air Free

In the world of professional photo editing, having the right editing software determines who has the most outstanding performance. To remain dominant, you must rely on more than one photo editing software to keep the stiff competition at bay. On this regard, we have taken a keen interest to identify the most efficient and best photo editing software for Mac users. We have composed a list of top 10 best photo editing software for Mac, and discussed the pros & cons of each in this article.

The Criteria We Considered in Reviewing Each Best Mac Photo Editing App is:

  1. If the app portrays an excellent degree of ease of use: Includes the installation and general usage of the app for photo editing.
  2. Photo editing presetting and versatility: The programmed automatic editing functions and the number of editing features offered.
  3. File formats and device support: The types of file formats the Mac photo editor can access, and save the editing tasks.
  4. Creativity and Fun: The amount of editing features the application can achieve in editing particular images.
  5. The app price: The amount of money required to obtain a genuine copy of the Mac photo editor application desired.
  6. Developer’s Customer guidance and service: The service and support offered by the developer of the photo editing applications for Mac.
1. Skylum Luminar
2. Adobe Photoshop Elements
3. ACDSee Photo Studio for Mac
4. Affinity Photo
5. Pixelmator
6. Fotor Photo Editor
7. JixiPix Impresso Pro
8. GIMP
9. Pixlr
10. Preview

1. Skylum Luminar

Luminar is the Entry Level Best Photo Editing Software for Mac

Luminar is one of the best mac photo editing programs that any professional photo editor must have in their arsenal. This app relies on artificial intelligence to achieve the fastest editing rates in the market. The interface is attractive and intuitive with a before/after slider dividing your photo into two halves for easy editing comparisons.

Luminar has eight workspaces with the pre-sets and filters customized for different types of photo. You can have all the settings and filters available by selecting the professional workspace. This mac photo editor app lets you can have your custom design workspace that suits your designing style and type of photos. You can access all the steps taken in editing the picture through the history button and apply the edits to another photo instantly. This photo editing app supports Mac OS version 10.10 – 10.13, with an Intel 64-bit Core 2 Duo processor, or better.

Excels:

  • Best photo editor for illustrious one-click editing pre-sets and filters on Mac;
  • Customizable and intuitive user interface;
  • Responsive editing tools.

Fails:

  • No file browser;
  • Noise reduction is inferior to other Mac photo editors;
  • Image magnifier is a bit clumsy.

Price: $69 (Buy Luminar at $59 or Upgrade at $49 using promo code “MACLIBS” to save $10 when check out.)

Also read our detailed review of Skylum Luminar to learn more features about it.

2. Adobe Photoshop Elements

Photoshop Elements – The Most Advanced and Best Photo Editing Software for Mac Professionals

Adobe Photoshop Element is one of the best photo editing software for Mac professionals, as one part of the Adobe Elements bundle. The app is available for Mac 64-bit OS with a powerful experience of artificial intelligence (AI), and “content intelligence” through Adobe-speak, to achieve lovely image and video editing. This best photo editing software for Mac features new AI-based tools that perform several previously tedious image and video editing tasks with ease.

Adobe Elements remains one of the most user-friendly and best photo editor for mac image editing available. This property gets achieved while incorporating advanced features borrowed from Adobe Photoshop CC in the Expert mode of Photoshop Elements.

Excels:

  • Packs lots of powerful image-manipulation tools;
  • Excellent output options;
  • Best Mac photo editor with Auto-tagging and strong search feature;
  • Strong face and geo-tagging resources;
  • And, helpful guidance feature for advanced techniques.

Fails:

  • Large HDD/SSD footprint;
  • Minimal social sharing outputs;
  • And, lacks a local help system.

Price: $99.99 or Get Bundle at $149.99 Or Buy from Amazon.

3. ACDSee Photo Studio for Mac

ACDSee Photo Studio; Best Mac Photo Editor with Numerous Editing and Painting Tools

ACDSee Photo Studio for Mac is amongst the best photo editing apps that feature unparalleled support for RAW images for over 450 professional cameras. This extreme Mac photo editor includes customizable batch presets and the new’ drag and drop’ searching function.

ACDSee is one of the best photo editor for Mac as it suits entry level to professional photographers because of its strong digital asset management elements, and the revamped full toolkit flooded with non-destructive adjustments and features.

The 2018 version achieves more flexibility and control for instant, import-free access photos, professional processing enhancements. The best Mac photo editor, Photo Studio, delivers sufficient organizational tools to accommodate even the most rigorous workflow.

Those dull, blurry, and crooked photos get easily corrected with ACDSee Photo Studio. The new and reliable Straighten function flawlessly corrects orientation ensuring all images look perfectly shot. The sharpening tool of ACDSee photo editor preserves edge detail and achieves perfect definition to images making them crisp and sharper.

Excels:

  • Excellent Organizational Tools;
  • Mobile Companion App;
  • Blends lots of Photoshop & Lightroom features and functions into it.

Fails:

  • User Interface needs more work;
  • The Cloud Service costs more;
  • And slow cataloguing experience.

Price: Easter Offer $69.95 (Full Price $99.99)

4. Affinity Photo App for Mac

Photo Editing Programs For Mac Free Download

Affinity Photo Editor Resembles Photoshop; Best Mac Photo Editor with Support for Various Languages

Affinity Photo runs on Mac OS X 0.7 or later with a minimum of 2GB RAM recommended. For those who bought an older version, the latest one is among the best Mac photo editing software and is free to update. Furthermore, the newest version features plenty of improvements and more compatibility for latest camera raw files. Installing this photo editing app for Mac is as simple as using it and is available in English, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, French, Spanish, Russian, Simplified Chinese and, and German.

The workspace of Affinity Photo resembles that of the best Mac photo editor -Photoshop in design, so those familiar to Photoshop will find it very easy to use. The standard grey background is also default, with a vertical toolbar on the left side of the window, plus the control panels on the right. The tools you instinctively use in Photoshop get positioned almost in the same spots in Affinity Photo.

Excels:

  • RAW editing;
  • Quick response;
  • No subscription;
  • Many tools and features;
  • Live edits;
  • Best Mac photo editor with excellent value for money;
  • Easy to use

Fails:

    • No file management system

Price: $49.99, free upgrades

5. Pixelmator

Pixelmator – The Best Photo Editor for Mac Beginners and Intermediates

Pixelmator keeps the workspace simpler than most of the best Mac photo editing apps, which makes it popular among amateur and intermittent editors. Most of the critical tools proven useful with years of experience using the photo editing software for mac are all available. The interface looks stunning and fits the Mac OS aesthetic.

The Mac OS’s CoreImage and OpenGL technologies get both infused into its engine, meaning you get instantaneous results making it the best photo editor on Mac for heavy edits. The filter tools don’t offer many options for each “beyond a slider” to control the strength of the effect. This setting is nearly often all you need, though aside from those moments when you’re looking for that little extra creative freedom.

Excels:

  • Machine learning makes it the best Mac photo editing software for critical operations;
  • Flexible raw editing features;
  • Quick Repair and Selection tools work flawlessly;
  • And Apple’s Core ML framework enables machine-learning features

Fails:

  • Dark, monochrome interface with light type can mar brightness;
  • Some inflexible features;
  • Limited file export options

Price: $14.99 / Pixelmator Pro $29.99 $37.99

6. Fotor Photo Editor

Photo Editing Programs For Mac

Fotor Photo Editor – One of the Best Free Online Photo Editing Apps Available for Mac

Fotor Photo Editor is an excellent online tool for you if you have some photos on your Mac that you want to have on canvas and hang on your wall. Featuring powerful one-click filters and tools for editing photo collections, it’s one of the best photo editing app for Mac. The interface features easy functionality for making photos look their best.

Fotor editing software for mac packs several image-enhancing tools and filters for your pictures to look their best. It supports the standard image formats and even provides RAW file processing, an exclusive feature for premium and best Mac photo editing apps.

Fotor is the best free online photo editor for getting the fastest results as it features thirteen different one-click pre-sets that you can use to edit all your images instantaneously. The new version allows you to create collages with a custom aspect ratio. It also features a more advanced tilt-shift algorithm with better support for more formats of RAW files and runs on 10.7 Mac OS or later with a 2GB minimum RAM.

Photo Editing Programs For Macbook Pro

Excels:

  • Best free photo editor for smart filters and effects available for Mac;
  • Easy image collage tool;
  • Features RAW file converter.

Fails:

  • Not feature-packed;
  • Not suitable for designing artwork from scratch;
  • Some features only available in Pro version.

Price: Free, Subscription of Fotor Pro: $ 4.99/month, $ 19.99/year

7. JixiPix Impresso Pro

JixiPix Impresso – Best Photo Editing Software for Mac Users to Turn Pictures into Paintings

JixiPix Impresso Pro design targets professionals who fancy creative or artistic control. They will utilize smart Layers and brushes for combining multiple paint styles. Jixipix features a rich collection of edges that beautifully blend on the canvas, and a new background Paint effect that creates distances on photos. There’s also a Soft Paint effect that makes Jixipix the best photo editing software for Mac to enrich foreground elements.

The Aged Paint effect adds craquelure to paintings, and an ultra-realistic effect called Tache that covers pictures with broken brush effect strokes to mimic painted pictures. Impresso Pro has all the essential features any professional photo editor could need for creating gallery-style portraits with enough detail even for super large prints. The Pro Version Includes:

  • Smart Layers
  • Painted Edges
  • Brushes
  • 6 Paint Styles (Tache, Soft Paint, En Plein Air, Background Paint, Alla Prima, and Aged Paint )

The standalone product system requirements for this photo editing software for Mac includes: Mac OS X 10.7 or newer, and a 64-bit processor environment. The Mac App Store version has no plugins. It can also run on the iPad iOS 9.2 or later in a 64-bit environment.

Excels:

  • Support for high-resolution images and rendering;
  • Superior customer service;
  • Randomize button;
  • Multiple undo;
  • Customizable styles

Fails:

  • A bit complex for beginner editors

Price: $49.99

8. GIMP

GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) – Best Free Photo Editor for Universal Expandability on Mac

The best photo editing software for Mac you can obtain for free that’s closest to Photoshop is GIMP. This open source best Mac photo editing software features an extensive set of filters, tools, and options for advanced editing of complex tasks. GIMP also is compatible with third-party plugins including Adobe Photoshop’s features unparalleled expandability with broad system compatibility parameters.

Whether you’re an illustrator, photographer or want an application that will let you experiment with your images, GIMP is up to the task. GIMP can fix lens distortion as well as selective colorization and other complicated fixes. GIMP is a beautiful open source photo editor for mac, but like other powerful apps, it has a reasonably steep learning process.

Excels:

  • Best free photo editor for expandability on Mac;
  • Opens the vastest variety image file types;
  • Packed with several features and tools.

Fails:

  • Cluttered Interface.

Price: Free

9. Pixlr

Pixlr is the Best Mac Photo Editing app for Mac OS Based Entirely Online

Pixlr is an online photo editing app with fast and simple functionality and has enough features to make it a viable option for low- to mid-level photo editing tasks. Create new images using Pixlr, and upload, or grab a photo directly from a website or URL location. It’s compatible with a variety of Mac OS as it runs on the browser.

Editors familiar with Photoshop will find it the best photo editing software for mac as the menu options are similar, regarding the layout and how the various feature work. You’ll need to have necessary knowhow around image editors and how their various tools work, such as the “fill,” “blur,” “crop,” and “smudge” to effectively use Pixlr.

There is a diverse assortment of editing and drawing tools, paint and filters options. Professional photo editors will take pleasure using familiar tools such as the Gaussian Blur, Night Vision, and Heat Map. The companion web app, Pixlr-o-Matic, offers excellent creativity options for photo filters.

This app is among the best photo editing software that was once available as a downloadable app for Mac but was recently shifted by the developers of this free photo editor into an online-only platform.

Excels:

  • A Customizable interface;
  • Best Mac photo editor for layers and masks support;
  • Opens photos from desktop or URLs

Fails:

  • Requires Flash;
  • Contains some ads.

Price: Free

10. Preview

Preview Photo Viewer – Best Photo Editor Pre-installed App on Mac OS

Preview is a photo viewing, and editing app for mac provided as part of Mac OS and has proved itself as a worthy tool for tweaking your photos and images. Overlooking best photo editing apps for mac you already have is easy, like Preview viewer: The Tool’s menu offers options for adjusting colors and sizes. You can also export your editing tasks in multiple file formats.

Apple’s Photos app contains some handy tools too. You can experiment with automatic enhancement features which apply the best optimization settings for your image. Red-eye removal and minor blemishes get easily removed. You can also use special effects filters easily and adjust the color parameters, as well as rotating and cropping images.

In Mac OS High Sierra, Apple improves its photo editing software in several important manners. As it is with the rest of the OS, it’s not a complete overhaul, but slightly tweaked up features and additional tools that make the app more powerful and usable. New tools and functions applicable to Live Photos from other iOS devices are among the new elements. The pre-installed app offers some exceptional sharing and organization capabilities.

Excels:

  • Free;
  • Slick interface;
  • Plug-in support;
  • Cool features for iOS Live Photos;
  • Intuitive; Good sharing options;
  • Best Mac photo editor for face recognition;
  • Capable auto-correction.

Fails:

  • Auto-albums aren’t editable;
  • Filters not adjustable.

Price: Free

Conclusion

Professional photo editors in the digital era have come to rely on multitudes of software for completing various editing tasks. Choosing the best photo editing software on your Mac for the job at hand defines the success rate of the particular work. However, no specific software singularly performs all the photo editing tasks. As such, using a combination of more than one of these apps makes working more efficient and fruitful.

Photos comes with every Mac and provides powerful, easy-to-use editing tools along with photo organization and sharing features. Use Photos to perfect your images, and don't be afraid to explore all of the tools — if you don't like a change you made, you can go back to the original photo any time.

Before you begin

  • Update the software on your Mac to make sure that you're using the latest version of macOS.
  • To ensure that all of your photos are available for editing, turn on iCloud Photos on your Mac and your other devices.

iCloud Photos keeps your photos organized and up to date everywhere that you use it. So any edits that you make on your Mac appear on your other devices too.

Get started

To open a photo in Edit view, double-click a photo in your library, then click Edit in the toolbar. You can also select a photo and pressCommand-Return to open a photo in Edit view. Click a tab in the middle of the toolbar to select from the three groups of editing tools: Adjust, Filters, and Crop.

The toolbar also has buttons for editing with extensions and quickly rotating or enhancing your photo.

While you edit, you can use the slider on the toolbar's left side to zoom in on your photo for greater detail. When you finish making your adjustments, click Done.

Adjust


Use the powerful tools in Adjust to fine-tune your photo's light, color, sharpness, and more. Use sliders or the Auto button to easily adjust your photo — or dive deeper with detailed controls.

Click the triangle next to each Adjust tool's name to show its controls. Some tools allow even more detailed adjustments; click the triangle next to Options to see everything the tool offers.

You can toggle individual adjustments on and off by clicking the blue circle that appears next to each tool when it's expanded or when hover your pointer over it.

If you want to apply the adjustments you make from one photo to another, just copy and paste them. Open the photo that has the adjustments that you want, click Edit, and choose Image > Copy Adjustments. Then open the photo you want to apply the edits to, click Edit, and choose Image > Paste Adjustments.

Filters


The nine filters in Photos emulate three classic photography styles — vivid, dramatic, and black and white — and are optimized to enhance your image while keeping skin tones natural.

Choose Vivid, Vivid Warm, or Vivid Cool to enhance the vibrancy of your images; Dramatic, Dramatic Warm, or Dramatic Cool to add contrast; or Mono, Silvertone, or Noir for a classic black and white.

Crop


Straighten your photo, improve its composition, or get rid of parts that you don't want.

Drag the selection rectangle by its edges or corners. When you let go of the selection rectangle, your cropped photo appears. Use the numbered dial to the right of your photo to straighten it. As you move the dial, a grid appears on your photo to help you with alignment.


Aspect
Choose from a range of ratios — like square or 5:7 — or leave it as freeform.

Flip
Horizontally flip your photo, or option-click to flip it vertically.

Photos can also automatically straighten and crop your photo — just click the Auto button. Or click Reset to undo all cropping and rotation and restore your photo to its original dimensions.

Edit with third-party apps

Good Picture Editing Programs For Mac

You can edit images from your Photos library with third-party apps, such as Photoshop and Pixelmator, right from the Photos app. Select an image, then choose Image > Edit With and choose the editing app that you’d like to use.

When you’re finished editing in the app, save your work or use the Command-S keyboard shortcut. Any edits you make are saved in Photos as a non-destructive change, so you can always revert your image to its original state.

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Photo Editing App For Macbook Air Free

More editing tools

Extensions
Third-party extensions expand your editing options in Photos. You can apply edits from multiple extensions to one photo, or use any combination of extensions plus the editing tools built into Photos. Learn more about editing with third-party extensions.

You can also use the Markup tool in the Extensions menu to add drawings, shapes, and text to your photos.

Rotate
Turn your photo 90 degrees counterclockwise. If you want to rotate the other direction, hold down the Option key.

Enhance
Improve your photo with just one click. Automatically adjust your photo's color, light, and contrast.

Learn more