4 Free Photoshop Alternatives That Are Actually Worth Your Time
Well, inquisitive reader, sometimes you’ll need to take your image editing to the next level, beyond what Duda can reasonably provide inside its already powerful editor. But there’s no need to break the bank to do so because these free photoshop alternatives will do you well!
Actually, we have updates and found 4 (more) cheap (or free) Photoshop Alternatives tool, Read The Latest Post Here.
The default industry tool for editing images is Adobe’s Photoshop. And while it’s an amazing tool for power-users, the price tag and the feature set can be a bit overwhelming. A quick Google search will show you a slew of free Photoshop alternatives, but I’ve taken the time to narrow the search down for you.
Here are the top four best (and free) alternatives to Photoshop, that you would actually want to use.
GIMP
You may have already heard of GIMP, the free open-source image editor that rivals Photoshop in both power and complexity. Using GIMP, you can accomplish almost anything you’re looking to do in Photoshop, there may just be more steps involved or a few custom plugins to download.
There are a couple off-shoots of GIMP, including GimpShop and GimpPhoto, which both try to make the user interface more similar to Photoshop. However, these aren’t as actively developed, so I recommend sticking with the original. The newest version of GIMP, now loads and processes images faster, and has a cleaner layout. If you want something truly comparable to Photoshop, for absolutely zero cost, GIMP is the best you will find.
Paint.NET
Paint.NET isn’t quite as advanced as Photoshop and GIMP. It’s more of a mid-level editor that focuses on being super easy to use, but has many of the essential intermediate features that would normally require Photoshop, like layers, history, an action manager, and a whole host of effects that will make most image tweakers and amateur designers happy.
I’ve personally used Paint.NET for years to create great-looking graphics for websites, video games, online videos and more. It has everything you need to take your image editing to the next level, and will serve you well. Not bad for a program that doesn’t cost anything, right?
Unfortunately, Paint.NET is Windows only (Windows users, you don’t have to read the rest of the article- this is what you’re looking for). Pinta is an attempt to create a tool like Paint.NET for Mac, but in my experience it was unreliable.
Pixlr Editor
Do you need to edit an image right now? No time to wait to download software? Then Pixlr is your answer.
Pixlr is a mid-level image editor, with a feature set similar to Paint.NET, that works right in your web browser. It’s fully cross-platform, so you can use it on WIndows, Mac, Linux, etc. and is surprisingly easy to use.
Since it runs entirely in the browser, Pixlr is handy if you need to edit an image while you’re on someone else’s computer and don’t want to install software, or working on an underpowered computer like a netbook.
Personally, Pixlr has filled the void Paint.NET left in my heart when I switched to Mac. Give it a try; I think you’ll be impressed.
Photoshop CS2
I know what you’re thinking. “Cody, I thought we were looking for Photoshop alternatives?” Well, if you don’t mind using an old version of Photoshop, you can get the entire Adobe Creative Suite CS2 for free!
Adobe has publicly announced that they are no longer supporting CS2, are no longer maintaining an activation server for it, and Adobe provides a download and activation code for anyone with an Adobe ID.
Photoshop CS2 definitely looks older, as newer versions of the creative suite have an updated interface and new features (most notably all the “content aware” features), but CS2 will give you all of the core features that made Photoshop the standard that it is today.
Technically, Adobe isn’t giving it away though, and in order to legally use the software, you must have owned it in the past.
While there are many choices for a free image editor out there, I think these four stand out above the rest, and are actually worth a try. But now I’d like to ask you, did I miss any? What are your favorite free image editing programs? Let me know in the comments below.