Hunterbackup307

Using a photo editor app can help you edit your photos with ease and allow you to create high-quality small size images to share on the web.

• Movie Editor Free Mac
• Free Picture Editor App
• Free Picture Editor App Download
• Free Photo Editor Macbook Air
• Free Picture Editor For Mac

Picture editor free download - VideoPad Free Video Editor for Mac, Plain Text Editor, Macsome Audio Editor, and many more programs. PhotoScape X is an all-in-one photo editing software which provides photo-related features such as Photo Viewer, Editor, Cut Out, Batch, Collage, Combine, Create.

Here we will consider the list of the top 15 best free photo editing apps in 2020 to get a perfect job done:

Read on for the detailed analysis of each app.

Top 15 Best Free Photo Editor Apps

You're convinced that you want to get a photo editor software, but not sure where to start. There are many free online photo editor programs to choose from. We've narrowed down the best free photo editor that you can use without paying a hefty price.

1. Adobe Photoshop Express Editor

Best Photo Editing Software Overall

Although Photoshop can be a bit intimidating, its sister product Adobe Photoshop Express Editor is an altogether different animal. All the tools are readily accessible and easy to use.

Adobe Photoshop Express Editor is a free photo editor. It is jam-packed with features that will allow you to make your images pop. You will be able to remove red-eye, resize images, make color corrections, and more.

It works right from your browser or mobile app. Editing photos is a snap with tools to balance color, resize, crop, change lighting, rotate, and more. The interface is appealing yet user-friendly. Our only gripes are that it was designed in Flash and not HTML5, and image formats can be somewhat limited.

👆 Special Features:

• Crop
• Rotate
• Remove Red and pet-eye
• Auto-Fix
• Text Tool
• Blemish Removal
• Corrections
• Customization
• Perspective Correction
• Pop-Color Tool
• Image Resize
• Watermark Images
• JPEG Quality Output
• Looks
• Borders

✅ PROS:

• Simple and complex customization
• Easy to use
• Compatible with other Adobe Products
• Gives you the edits you need to improve photos significantly

⛔️ CONS:

• Some features require creative cloud membership that has a fee
• The photo organizer tool is a separate app

2. Canva

Best Photo Editing App for Social Media

Canva is an easy to use photo editor app that allows users to create graphics and edit photos by merely dragging and dropping. It takes no time at all to build a design from scratch, and you don't have to be a pro to learn how to use this free photo editing software. It has tons of features that will help you create the ultimate design or touch up your pre-existing photos.

One of the best features of Canva is its extensive library of templates. Within minutes you can drop your photos into a preset layout and then style it using dozens of fonts, illustrations, graphics, colors, and design elements. With Canva, you can create stunning pieces quickly that you can share, print, or export. This online photo editor also comes complete with built-in support using search, tabs, and articles to find help with any issue.

👆 Special Features:

• Photo Straightener
• Image Cropper
• The Ability to Add Text
• Speech Bubble Maker
• Transparency Tool
• Photo Enhancer
• Photo Blur
• Photo Vignette
• Design Grids
• Free Icons
• Photo Frames
• Web Wireframe
• Stickers
• Badges
• Add Texture

✅ PROS:

• Great for marketing photos on social media
• Make and design ebooks
• Excellent for web presentations
• Tons of great features for free
• Saves project history

⛔️ CONS:

• Unable to remove an image’s background
• Needs to increase font size

3. Resizing.app

Best Photo Resizer

One of our favorites is an online image resizer, called Resizing.app. The company has a straightforward website and process to resize images online within seconds. One of the coolest features is the ability to export your newly sized image into a different format.

Resizing.app couldn’t be easier to use. You simply drag and drop your images into the box on the home page. Then you select how you want to resize your image (by width, by height, custom size, by percentage, or by the largest side of the image). You can choose to compress your image for quality assurance and then just pick your new file format (jpg, png or webp). Once you hit the save button, your new image is saved to your computer. Voila’ all done. No frills but also no hassles.

Unfortunately, this online service does not have any additional photo editing capabilities to go along with resizing. But hey! It’s free, and we like free and simple.

If you resize your images and photos regularly, we highly recommend you to add the Resizing extension to your Google Chrome; it is also entirely free.

👆 Special Features:

• Resizing by width, by height, custom size, by percentage, and by the largest side of the image.
• Compress a photo
• Crop an image
• Convert an image to JPEG, PNG, WEBP
• Optimize a picture

✅ PROS:

• Free
• Easy to use
• Online
• Convert TIFF and HEIC files into JPEG, PNG or WEBP
• Has extention for Google Chrome

⛔️ CONS:

• Doesn't have any additional photo editing capabilities

4. inPixio

Another app we tested looking for the best free photo editor was inPixio. In reviews, inPixio earns high marks for usability, features, support, speed, and pricing. It has some fantastic tools to fix perspective (straighten buildings), image correction, dehaze, and you can even edit metadata right within the app to add headlines, captions, and copyright details.

inPixio also offers a free tool to remove the background from an image. It works pretty well if the photo has a clear color distinction between what you want to remove and what you want to keep. inPixio is fun to use, although it may not rank as the best free photo editor on the block, it is worth checking out.

To purchase the full program, you will need to select either the inPixio Photo Studio 10 for $49.99 or inPixio Photo Studio Professional version for $59.99. The price is for the full software you can install and use on your Mac or Windows PC.

👆 Special Features:

• Eraser
• Correction Patch
• Cloning stamp
• Cutter
• Retouching and Correction
• Perspective correction
• Film grain module

✅ PROS:

• Tools for retouching photos, resizing, removing backgrounds, cropping, fixing sharpness, trimming, and adding filters.
• Share images within the app.
• Erase objects easily from photos.
• No ads.
• It doesn’t “push” you to upgrade.
• Special effects to enhance your images.

⛔️ CONS:

• The background removal tool doesn’t always yield perfect results.
• Some users complain that it does not work as advertised.
• Puts watermarks on images with the free version.
• Cannot batch edit.
• Works by installing multiple modules.

5. Instasize

If you are in the market for the best free photo editing app, you will want to check out Instasize. The app was designed for social media and influencers who want to create eye-catching, creative photos, and videos for their social feeds. The software includes dozens of visually stunning filters, color editing tools, and you can even edit your videos with it.

Instasize has a broad fan base of more than 500,000 users. The plethora of editing tools also include photo retouching features, fonts, and text editing. The free version is limited, but if you are willing to pay $4.99/month, the Premium version is loaded with goodies.

👆 Special Features:

• Collage maker
• Naturally enhancing filters
• Advanced editing adjustments
• Borders
• Beauty tools: edit blemishes, whiten teeth, remove redness, etc.
• Social media formats
• Pro fonts and text editor
• Video editing

✅ PROS:

• Geared toward creating engaging content for social media.
• Dozens of useful features, including backgrounds, beauty enhancements, borders, and filters, to make content creation easy.
• Create collages in a snap.
• Automatic resizing for social media formats.
• Fast and easy to use.

⛔️ CONS:

• The free version is stripped down and includes ads.
• Some users complain about the ads and some glitches.
• Only works on mobile devices, no app for PC or Mac.

6. Adobe Photoshop Lightroom

A well-known name in the photo game is Adobe, which makes dozens of photo enhancement and editing products. One such app is the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom app. This product is a cloud-based product where you can upload batches of images and edit them together. It wouldn’t be from Adobe without excellent photo editing tools built-in, and if you run into trouble, they have online tutorials to walk you through it all.

You can edit photos easily with all the expected features, share photos, take pictures from inside the app and sync them across all your devices. The Premium version cost is $9.99/month, which may be more than most users want to pay. If you want access to all the creative cloud apps, that figure balloons to $52.99/month.

👆 Special Features:

• Preset creation
• Split Toning
• Tone Curve
• Batch editing on desktop
• Camera
• Healing Brushes
• RAW Editing
• Cloud Storage
• Sync Presets & Profiles

✅ PROS:

• Runs on Mac, Windows, Android, and iOS.
• Easy to use, clean interface.
• Create albums to organize all your photos.
• Built-in presets to make editing easy.

⛔️ CONS:

• Costly to use cloud storage.
• May be too much for some users.

7. Fotor

Best Free Photo Editing App Online

Fotor is a photo editor software that allows you to utilize its photo editing suite to create top-notch photos. In just a few clicks you can adjust the color, size, lighting and more. It also has an HDR effect for your advanced editing needs.

The magic of Fotor is its extensive library of one-click filters to enhance and liven up any photo. Although Fotor is not as powerful as Photoshop and not as feature-rich as GIMP, it holds its own with a solid set of skills such as RAW file processing, borders, frames, color enhancement, and lighting adjustments. If you like Fotor, there is also a Pro version you can purchase. However, it only works on the Windows platform.

👆 Special Features:

• Image Shape
• Fonts
• Stickers
• Align
• Drop Shadow
• Transparency
• CLone
• Color Picker
• Photo Collage
• Filters
• HDR
• Beauty Retouching

✅ PROS:

• Has web, mobile and desktop version
• Smart filters and effects
• Collage maker
• Raw file converter
• Has a social network

⛔️ CONS:

• Lots of ads
• Inability to edit photos at a deeper level
• Incompatible with creating images from scratch

8. VSCO

VSCO is another contender in our line-up of the best free picture editing apps. VSCO is a minimalistic app with a simple interface and powerful features. Its best feature is the vast library of filters to enhance your images and make them share-worthy.

You can do so within the VSCO social media channel. Yes, they have their own social network but you aren’t limited to just that one. VSCO also offers some other photo editing tools such as adjusting color, balance, highlights, cropping, and spot healing. The free version is limited to only ten filters, which isn’t very many compared to the 200+ you get with the paid version. A VSCO premium membership costs $19.99/year.

👆 Special Features:

• Filters
• Clarity
• Tint
• Fade
• X-Skew
• Y-Skew
• Skin Tone
• Highlights Tint
• Shadows Tint

✅ PROS:

• Includes its own social network to share images.
• Easy to use interface.
• Excellent editing tools with the paid version.
• Powerful camera features like ISO, exposure, white balance, and focus.
• Save images in RAW format.
• Video editing.
• Create montages easily.
• The ability to share from within the app.

⛔️ CONS:

• Requires a paid subscription for the best features.
• Only works on mobile devices, no app for PC or Mac.
• Not as good for social media image creation.
• Pushes upgrading.
• No option to take selfies with the app.
• No zoom features.

9. BeFunky

BeFunky is much more than just a free photo editor. With easy to use features, this photo editor app provides high-quality results whenever you use it to edit photos or make collages. You’ll have fun using this software for years to come.

Using the myriad of free collage layouts and design elements, you can quickly create a new Facebook banner or other social media image. The program is an online photo editor but also supports a handy mobile app. Integrations allow you to save your masterpiece to Dropbox or Google Drive and share it on Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter. BeFunky’s drag-and-drop functionality makes it a breeze to use.

👆 Special Features:

• Collage
• Crop
• Resize
• Digital Art
• Cartoonizer
• Enhance DLX
• Font Pairing
• Create Wallpapers for Your Device
• Edit and Replace Colors
• Batch Processing

✅ PROS:

• Complete control of your work
• Easier than most programs to use
• Privacy
• Editing tools have variety

⛔️ CONS:

• No eraser tool
• Additional content has a cost

10. Pixlr

You can’t beat the convenience factor of a powerful photo editor that runs in your browser, and Pixlr delivers. Pixlr is a great way to have a convenient photo editor at your fingertips that is user-friendly and can provide the professional-looking images you imagined.

Pixlr is a Photoshop clone that offers a generous treasure trove of image-editing features along with the ability to import photos from Facebook. Pixlr has also been compared to GIMP in terms of functionality and user interface. Although it may be overkill for some, it’s just the right balance of form and functionality for others.

👆 Special Features:

• Edit Photos Using Dropbox
• Layers
• Filters
• Adjustments
• Texts
• Fonts
• Magic Wand
• Lasso
• Brushes
• Eraser
• Object Transform
• Color Replace
• Digital Painting
• Image Retouching
• Digital Inking
• Photo Collage
• Effects

✅ PROS:

• Available on desktop and mobile
• Supports layers and masks
• Customize the interface

⛔️ CONS:

• Some ads

11. Snapseed for Android and iOS

Best Photo Editing App for Professional Photographers

Snapseed is a free online photo editor designed for the serious photographer who wants to enhance their photos professionally. Its primary focus is on providing filters that will change the effects. You can also share your creations with its export tool.

The software uses stacks/layers of edits so you can remove, arrange, or apply them at will. These stacks can be saved as a “look,” meaning a style which you can then use to apply to other photos. Compared to other apps, Snapseed shines with an impressive array of filters, brushes, and nondestructive editing tools that will delight any serious photo editing buff.

👆 Special Features:

• Pre-Made Filters
• Looks
• Tools
• Export

✅ PROS:

• Nondestructive editing
• Selective edit brushes
• Photographic filters

⛔️ CONS:

• More suitable for experienced users
• No auto-save

12. PhotoScape

PhotoScape was designed for the beginner, but don’t let that fool you; it is a powerhouse of features and functionality. Although the layout of PhotoScape is a bit clunky, the tools are solid, and along with retouching features, you can easily add filters to your images, create animated GIFs, batch edit photos, create slideshows and more using dozens of free templates. The list of accolades is impressive for a free photo editor app.

PhotoScape gives you the ability to create stunning images with access to multiple tools. Enhancing your photos becomes more convenient, and you aren't disappointed by a system that doesn't deliver. It has your basic features and more advanced ones such as Batch Processing, Font pairing, and Digital Art.

👆 Special Features:

• Viewer
• Editor
• Batch Editor
• Page
• Combine
• Animated GIF
• Print
• Splitter
• Screen Capture
• Color Picker
• Rename
• Raw Converter
• Paper Print
• Face Search

✅ PROS:

• Plenty of Features
• Effects Preview

⛔️ CONS:

• Redundant Interface

13. Paint.NET

Paint.Net started as a built-in program on the Windows platform and evolved into its own standalone photo editing software with an innovative user interface that supports many features. This photo editor can be extended through plug-ins to give a wide variety to what the photo editor app can do.

While it provides a clean layout and powerful tools, this program is not for beginners. It boasts of a main working window with the tools corralled into their own movable windows. The program uses layers to keep everything organized. A design aficionado will be disappointed with the lack of some features, but for most users, it’s a great solution.

👆 Special Features:

• Layers
• Unlimited Undo
• Special Effects
• Powerful Tools
• Unlimited History

✅ PROS:

• Innovative Interface
• Keyboard Shortcuts for Tools and Menu Items
• Font Previews

⛔️ CONS:

• Little Control Over Text
• Minimal Layer Effects
• Few Brush Options

14. GIMP

Best Open-source Photo Editor

GIMP is open-source software and a favorite among many graphic designers. GIMP has often been compared to Photoshop. While it shares many of the same features and functionality of the popular photo editing software, GIMP is free.

Some of the highlights are a plethora of brushes to choose from, filters, and even plugins to make the software more desirable. GIMP also supports animation. Because of all this, GIMP is by far our pick for the best free photo editor.

👆 Special Features:

• Color Correction
• Skin Retouching
• Eyes Brightening
• Customizable Interface
• Graphic Design Elements
• Original Artwork
• Photo Enhancement
• Inkscape
• Swatch booker

✅ PROS:

• Compatible With Many File Types
• Developer Support
• User-Friendly Interface
• Open Source Code

⛔️ CONS:

• Functionality

15. Photo Pos Pro

Photo Pos Pro is excellent for creating computer graphic designs and text that will pop. It is a powerful software that can be mastered by advanced and beginner photo editors. The system has a program that offers assistance for beginners who need step by step instructions.

With Photo Pos Pro, you get the best of both worlds, the choice of a beginner or expert interface. Photographers will love the support for RAW files, the many filters, and retouching tools. Both the novice and pro interfaces are a bit confusing and cluttered. It’s a very personal preference when picking the best free photo editor for you.

👆 Special Features:

• Filters
• Layers
• Masks
• Curves
• Scripts
• Effects
• Brushes
• Frames and Collages
• Text Effects
• RAW Files Support
• Remove, Erase, and Replace Backgrounds

✅ PROS:

• Great For Any Level of Experience
• Superb Help and Tutorials
• Manual Editing and Automatic One-Click Editing Balance

⛔️ CONS:

• Large Learning Curve
• Software Glitches

How to Choose The Best Free Photo Editor?

When it comes to choosing the best photo editor software, there are many things to take into account. The top features to look at are the file formats, organizing tools, photo sharing, and standard editing tools. These items are significant for those who're interested in doing photo editing whether it is for pleasure or career.

• File Formats
  File formats like jpg, gif, and png are essential to have if you're uploading your photos to the Internet. These formats allow you to compress the file size of the images to publish them on the web.

• Organizing Tools
  Having a free online photo editor should come with tools to help keep you organized. It is essential to have features that will keep track of your photos by using thumbnail previews, search, and naming schemes.

• Standard Editing Tools
  Having the basics is vital to being successful at photo editing and utilizing the photo editor software of your choice. Some of the typical tools you'll need are adjusting brightness and contrast in your photos, crop, resize, and rotating the images. They should be easy to catch onto and fast to use.

Searching for how to resize images without losing quality? Follow our step-by-step guide on how to do it at no time.

• Photo Sharing
  We all know how eager we get to post our work and personal photos online. With the right program, it will reduce the time it'll take to upload the image online. That will decrease the need to have a photo editor software that has blogging tools to get your photos posted.

If you want to edit your photos like a PRO, check out the following presets of ours. Alternatively, you can leave it to professionals; FixThePhoto is one of the best photo editing companies to assign your photo retouching tasks.

Finding the best free photo editor is what will set you apart with your photography whether it's a hobby or your career. Choose from these free online photo editor apps to enhance your photos with a few simple clicks. The best part about photo editor online software is that you don't have to break the bank with these free, high-quality programs and can do it from any device, because they are web-based.

Related Articles:

• 5 Free Image Resizer Apps for You in 2020
• Top 3 Best Free Photo Editors for Windows in 2020
• Top 3 Best Mac Photo Editors in 2020
• Upgrade Your Photos with the 3 Best Online Photo Editors
• 5 Tips on How to Optimize Images for Web

Launchberg editors pick and review products independently. We may earn affiliate commissions when you purchase an item via our links—it helps support our testing.

• January 02, 2020
• 28 min to read

A comprehensive review of the best RAW photo editors on the market

There are many RAW photo editors available, and they get better every year. It can be hard and time-consuming to try all of them, so we’ve tried them for you and come up with a list of the best RAW photo editors you should consider right now.

Professional photographers shoot in RAW to preserve as much detail as possible. They want high-resolution images with a wide dynamic range, natural-looking colors, and sharp details. RAW files are large files that need powerful editors. A good RAW photo editor is able to edit RAW files while preserving image quality and color accuracy.

Movie Editor Free Mac

The first criterion in choosing a RAW photo editor is how good the RAW processor is and how well it renders the RAW data. But there are also other criteria to consider, such as support for batch processing, digital asset management, preset libraries, layers and masks, and local editing tools. Practicality is also important. Consider system requirements, processing speed, the user interface and workflow, and, of course, the price.

Because RAW editors are sophisticated software that require a long time to develop, you’ll hardly find free RAW photo editors. The only free editors on our list are darktable and RawTherapee, cross-platform image processing programs with enthusiastic communities around them. Nevertheless, all paid RAW photo editors on this list offer free trials that allow you to test them before buying.

The best RAW photo editors on the market

1. Luminar 4

Released at the end of 2019, Luminar 4 is a RAW photo editor that includes AI-based technology. Yes, it provides support for most RAW file formats and all the basic adjustments you need, but it also provides content-aware automatic adjustments. Its smart features and friendly interface have already convinced many professional photographers to become Skylum Ambassadors.

Luminar’s AI-based features analyze your images and make decisions based on their contents. Luminar 4 recognizes objects and people and applies custom adjustments for different types of pictures. It includes AI-based features for sky replacement, skin and portrait enhancement, structure enhancement, general image enhancement, and adding sun rays.

Moreover, Luminar 4 comes with more than 70 built-in presets, called Looks, that provide easy access to the most popular artistic styles. You can also create your own presets and download Signature Looks designed by renowned photographers from the Luminar Marketplace.

Luminar 4 allows you to fine-tune every aspect of an image, which is great because in RAW editing, every detail counts. Luminar works with layers and masks and provides easy tools for controlling opacity and blending modes. The workflow is fluid and easy to learn, and you’ll find features such as batch processing, adjustment synchronization, digital asset management, and image rating and labeling.

Luminar 4 works as standalone software, a plugin for Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, and an extension for Apple Photos. It’s available for Mac and Windows and costs $89.

2. Aurora HDR

Aurora HDR was the first Skylum solution for RAW photo editing and is one of the most appreciated HDR photo editors. It’s the perfect choice if you want to create images with a wide dynamic range. Aurora provides tools for bracket merging that create high-quality images without halos, chromatic aberrations, or artifacts. It also includes basic tools such as color toning, a polarizer filter, detail enhancer, and LUT mapping.

Like Luminar 4, Aurora HDR makes use of AI technology to separate noise from detail and deliver exquisite denoising and detail enhancing tools. As Aurora is a RAW photo editor, its support for layers and masks is especially useful. Also useful are the presets designed in collaboration with professional photographers, which deliver amazing effects in seconds.

In terms of practical features, Aurora HDR offers batch processing, support for most popular cameras, and the ability to run as standalone software or a plugin for Adobe and Apple products. Aurora HDR is available for Windows and Mac and costs $110.

3. Adobe Lightroom

Due to its prestigious producer, Adobe Lightroom has been the standard in RAW photo editing for a long time. But it has lost many fans since Adobe introduced the monthly subscription plan. Yes, Lightroom is a RAW photo editor that gives you access to cloud space and synchronizes your edits across all your devices. But it’s expensive, and people have started to look for cheaper alternatives. Adobe Lightroom costs $9.99 per month, which means almost $120 per year. That’s more than other software costs for a lifetime license.

For this money, Adobe Lightroom offers endless sharing capabilities, image synchronization, exquisite image management tools, and easy-to-use image editing tools. It also has many presets, and you can find more in the large Adobe community, which also offers books, tutorials, and video materials.

Adobe Lightroom is available for Windows and Mac, but check the system requirements before you buy it because it requires relatively new operating system versions.

4. ACDSee Photo Studio

ACDsee is known for its image organizing software, but its latest products show that it has become a powerful competitor on the photo editor market. Photo Studio is a complete editing solution that includes RAW processing, image editing tools, and the amazing ACDSee digital asset management.

ACDSee Photo Studio Professional 2020 supports more than 500 camera models and offers RAW editing tools such as LUTs, non-destructive color grading, lens corrections, noise and haze removal, contrast and brightness adjustments, layers and masks, selection tools, and local adjustments. It’s fast and supports many file formats, offers batch processing, and has a lot of tools for zooming, previewing, and reviewing images. In terms of the interface and image management, it’s one of the best RAW photo editors.

ACDSee Photo Studio Professional 2020 is available only for Windows. There’s also a separate ACDSee Photo Studio for Mac 6. You can choose between a monthly subscription at $8.90 and a lifetime license for $99.95.

5. PhotoDirector Ultra

With PhotoDirector Ultra, Cyberlink aims to deliver a photo editor that accumulates the functionalities of Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom at a better price. PhotoDirector Ultra supports many RAW file formats and provides AI-based tools for image retouching, layer editing, and presets.

This software is aimed at a wide variety of users, from professional photographers to the general public. It mixes powerful content-aware image adjustments with tools for making videos out of images, frame templates, and 360-degree photo editing. Delivering a wide variety of features isn’t always the best idea, however. Professional photographers are more interested in color accuracy, noise reduction, and detail preservation than in applying brushstrokes that simulate painting styles.

But despite the features unrelated to RAW editing, PhotoDirector Ultra is very good at recovering blurred images, eliminating haze and fog, and retouching portraits. It also provides image management tools, cloud storage, and additional products such as special effects and dedicated plugins.

PhotoDirector Ultra is available for Windows and Mac and costs $74.99.

6. Capture One Pro 2020

Free Picture Editor App

Capture One develops a RAW photo editor that supports many RAW file formats and has dedicated versions for Fuji and Sony camera users. Capture One Pro 2020 is a complete photo editing solution for all cameras, and it provides tools for image editing and management.

While Capture One Pro 2020 isn’t very easy to learn and use, once you get to know it, you’ll have full control over every aspect of your images. This software’s features range from tools for basic image adjustments (fixing exposure, color, and contrast) to HDR tools, advanced color adjustments, and presets. Essential for a RAW editor, Capture One Pro 2020 works with layers and masks and provides non-destructive editing.

Capture One Pro 2020 is a powerful photo editor even if its workflow isn’t for beginners. It provides lens and camera profiles, lens correction, high color accuracy, and tools for printing and creative artwork. All these features come with a price, however: Capture One Pro 2020 costs $27 per month. It’s available for Windows and Mac.

7. DxO PhotoLab

Like Capture One Pro, DxO PhotoLab is a complex RAW photo editor for professional photographers. It focuses on color accuracy and camera compatibility. DxO PhotoLab matches the rendering of over 60 camera models and provides optical corrections and custom lens profiles.

Among its best features are exquisite color tools such as ICC profiles, Moiré removal, and the new HSL tool, more than 40 presets, haze removal based on colorimetric component analysis, noise removal that’s been optimized to process RAW files at high speed, and local adjustments. DxO PhotoLab is an editor for color perfectionists and aims to satisfy the most demanding professionals.

DxO PhotoLab provides digital asset management with all you need for organizing images in a neat interface. It’s available for Windows and Mac and costs $140.

8. PaintShop Pro

PaintShop Pro is one of Corel’s solutions for photo editing that includes RAW functionalities. Keeping to Corel’s long tradition in graphic design, PaintShop Pro provides not only photo editing tools but also graphic design tools. So if you want tools for creating artistic compositions, drawing, and painting onto images, PaintShop Pro is the best editor for you.

In terms of RAW photo editing, PaintShop Pro offers a powerful RAW processor, lens correction, HDR editing, geometric transformations, basic adjustments for image retouching, and layers and masks. It doesn’t have too many filters and presets, but it offers support for third-party plugins such as the NiK Collection from DxO and Topaz Labs plugins. This may cover the need for extra features, but these plugins come with an additional cost.

In terms of useful functionalities, PaintShop Pro doesn’t have digital asset management, but it does provide batch processing and support for many file formats. PaintShop Pro is easy to learn and has a customizable workspace. But if you don’t need graphic design tools, they’ll only slow you down.

PaintShop Pro is available only for Windows and costs $79.

9. AfterShot Pro

Another RAW photo editing solution from Corel is AfterShot Pro. Designed to compete with Adobe Lightroom, AfterShot Pro focuses on increasing processing speed while delivering high-quality images.

Unlike PaintShop Pro, however, AfterShot Pro is dedicated to photography. This means is has RAW camera profiles, lens corrections, a large library of presets, and highlight recovery for images with a wide dynamic range. It also provides efficient digital asset management and integrates with other editors. In exchange, it doesn’t have graphic design tools.

In terms of RAW photo editing, we’re more interested in color accuracy, noise reduction, and HDR tools than in drawing tools. Still, the advanced selection tools provided by Corel’s programs are always welcome for local adjustments and subtle image retouching.

AfterShot Pro is a better option than PaintShop Pro for RAW editing. It’s also more expensive, as it costs $99.99. But if you compare it with Adobe Lightroom, you’ll see that it’s worth the money.

10. Darktable

Darktable is an open-source, free RAW photo editor available for Linux, Mac / macports, BSD, Windows, and Solaris 11 / GNOME. It’s designed to be a virtual darkroom and allows you to view negatives through a zoomable lighttable.

Aiming to be more than a RAW convertor, darktable provides tools for image enhancement, batch processing, and tethered shooting. It also allows you to develop your own image processing modules and add them to the program.

Free Picture Editor App Download

For a free editor, darktable offers exquisite tools, from an optimized RAW processor that can manage large files to non-destructive edits and professional color management. It has ICC profiles, several demosaicing methods, base and tone curves, lens corrections, and tools for dithering, haze, fringing, noise removal, color, contrast, and white balance adjustments. It also offers a few filters for creative effects.

However, darktable has minimal image organizing functionalities. It does allow you to search for images by tags, stars, and labels, and it works with metadata.

11. RAW Power

Free Photo Editor Macbook Air

Gentlemen Coders offers a RAW photo editor for Mac and iOS called RAW Power that can run as standalone software or a Photos extension.

RAW Power uses Apple’s RAW decoder to provide high-quality images. Among its best features are support for hundreds of camera models, precise curve adjustments, white balance recovery, lots of presets, and perspective and chromatic aberration corrections.

RAW Power also provides digital asset management, batch processing, synchronization between devices via iCloud Photo Library, multiple editing windows, and batch export. It comes as an extension to Apple Photos and costs $29.99

12. RawTherapee

RawTherapee is a free RAW photo editor for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It provides high-quality images with high dynamic range and uses state-of-the-art demosaicing algorithms. Although it’s open-source software, RawTherapee supports most common RAW file formats, including those from Pentax and Sony.

Among its best features are RAW histograms, adjustments for fixing exposure, contrast, detail, and color, color profiles, and advanced controls. RawTherapee also lets you save your current editing profile for later use or batch editing. Unfortunately, it doesn’t support layers, and you have to apply all adjustments to the same layer, which may be confusing.

RawTherapee has a neat workspace that allows you to find all you need in seconds. It’s intuitive, well-labeled, and has shortcuts for everything. It also provides file browsing, ratings, and color labeling, and it supports metadata. For those who want to see how printed images will look, RawTherapee runs a simulation with a specific printer profile.

13. Affinity Photo

Affinity Photo provides powerful photo editing and graphic design tools. Alongside RAW editing, it provides HDR editing and focus stacking, panorama stitching, support for editing Adobe Photoshop files, and painting tools.

In terms of RAW photo editing, Affinity Photo’s big advantage is its ability to process very large files (more than 100 Megapixels) and to offer smooth zoom at 60 frames per second. It gives you full control over the smallest details of your images and provides editing tools such as levels, curves, HSL, and exposure and white balance adjustments. All edits are non-destructive because Affinity Photo works with layers and masks. You can perform local adjustments using advanced selection tools, analyze histograms, and edit EXIF information.

Free Picture Editor For Mac

Affinity Photo provides lens corrections, noise reduction, and hot pixel removal, which is essential for RAW editing. It also provides presets and effects, including brush libraries and text and vector tools. It’s one of the best RAW photo editors for creating artistic compositions and collages.

Affinity Photo is available for Windows, Mac, and iPad and costs $49.99 respectively $19.99.

In conclusion

We’ve tested the most powerful RAW photo editors on the market, but the final decision is yours. Choose the best editor for your needs. Consider your budget, frequency of use, skills, and artistic preferences. For example, you shouldn’t buy an editor with graphic design functionalities if you don’t do abstract photography and strong editing. If you work with large amounts of similar images, batch processing is a must. So is digital asset management when you have lots of albums and catalogs. Keep in mind that trying before buying is the wisest thing you can do.