GIMP (the GNU Image Manipulation Program) is the best free photo editor around. It's packed with the kind of image-enhancing tools you'd find in premium software, and more are being added every day. Their editor has the Cartoonizer, oil painting, and pop art effects plus extra flair you can add to your photos like hats, hand-drawn graphics, beards, jewelry, and photo frames. It’s Simple: BeFunky is basically Photoshop for everyday people. You don’t need any technical or graphic design experience to use it. That’s good for us.

• Best Free Fun Photo Effects
• Photo Special Effects Software

These free photo editors are the best of the best and will get you just as good results as the expensive Adobe Photoshop.

The free photo editors below have tons of features and tools that you let you change or enhance your photos in just about any way you can imagine. You can also customize the interface of many of the programs so you can get the perfect working environment for you.

This list includes free photo editors that you have probably heard of as well as some hidden gems that for sure are worth checking out.

If you're looking for more options for free photo editors, maybe a free online photo editor will have what you need; you can use one in your web browser without having to download the software. To edit photos on your phone or tablet, a free photo editing app is what you need. If you only want to resize some photos, there are resources for that, too.

GIMP

What We Like

• Similar to Photoshop in interface and capabilities.

• Add-ons, including those created for Photoshop, add great functionality.

• Generate files in all common image formats.

What We Don't Like

• Interface not as sleek or pleasing as Photoshop.

• Can be a bit buggy.

• Lacks layer grouping, adjustment layers, and some other common Photoshop elements.

GIMP is likely the most popular free photo editor program. It's full of professional features and provides a very friendly and flexible interface.

The toolbox, layers, and brushes panes of GIMP are separated from the main canvas so you can truly adjust how you want to work without losing any of the features you need access to.

Various input devices are supported, add-ons can be installed to extend GIMP's functionality, and file formats like TIFF, PSD, PNG, JPEG, and GIF are supported.

There are tutorials on the GIMP website if you need help along the way. You can learn about layer masks, asset folders, brushes, and more.

GIMP works with Windows (10 down through 7), Linux, and Mac operating systems.

Paint.NET

What We Like

• Lots of plug-ins available.

• Clean, easy-to-use interface.

• Good choice for intermediate users.

What We Don't Like

• Windows only.

• Lacks some advanced and commonly used features, such as burn and dodge.

Similar to GIMP, Paint.NET provides the ability to move its window panes around to customize the interface to your liking. Paint.NET also provides plug-ins to support new file formats and add new effects.

Included are layers, effects, and a whole host of basic and advanced things like a clone stamp, pencil, text maker, and paintbrush tool.

Several image file formats like BMP, JPEG, TGA, and DDS are supported.

Inkscape

What We Like

• Cross-platform compatibility.

• Large, active community; lots of help and tutorials available.

• Excels at detailed drawing and line-specific editing.

What We Don't Like

• No PMS or CMYK color support.

• Sizeable learning curve.

• Rendering can take a while.

Inkscape is a vector graphics editor, more akin to Illustrator as opposed to a photo manipulation package, but still has a lot of useful features.

The interface can be a bit cluttered but that's only evidence of the vast number of tools it includes. Nearly all the tools you'll be using often are planted along both sides of Inkscape for easy access.

Circles, arcs, 3D boxes, ellipses, stars, spirals, and polygons can be created using Inkscape. You can also draw straight or freehand lines.

Tons of file types are supported both when opening and saving. Among many other useful features, you can work with layers, apply a huge number of filters to a picture, and use spell check along with the text tool.

Like most photo editing programs, Inkscape supports extensions.

Inkscape works with Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems. Windows users can also download a portable version that's perfect for editing straight from a flash drive.

Adobe Photoshop Express

What We Like

• Familiar interface for Photoshop users.

• Control intensity of tool effects.

What We Don't Like

• Limited format support.

• Flash-based web access only.

Adobe has the free Photoshop Express program that you can use as a Photoshop alternative if you don't want to pay for their full software. Of course, it is missing some of Photoshop's features, so it's not as functional, but it still does a lot.

When you first open the Photoshop Express image editor, you can load an image from your computer or take a new one directly from your webcam. Once a photo is open in Photoshop Express, the menus on the left make it really easy to access all the one-click options like filters, crop tools, image corrections, the red eye remover tool, and more.

This photo editor also has borders, a spot healing brush for one-click touch-ups, effects like grain and fade, and a noise reducer. There's also a button you can click to quickly see the original photo for comparison with your edits.

Something really great about this image editor that you won't find in some similar programs is that with nearly every tool, you have full control over the intensity. This means you can slide a bar left or right to decrease or increase a tool's effect to get it just right.

Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Android, and iOS users can install Photoshop Express.

Krita Desktop

What We Like

• Quick access to full-screen mode.

• Particularly well-suited for comics and manga.

• Lots of well-designed tools and brushes.

What We Don't Like

• Cluttered interface.

• Tool settings not easily accessible.

• Lacks some features of other programs.

Krita Desktop is really easy to work with and is certainly an advanced image editor. Like some of these other programs, you can work with layers in addition to many other tools located in a floating toolbox off to the side of the program.

There are plenty of other features available as well, such as brushes and blending modes, advanced selection, and masking tools, drawing aids, filters, symmetry tools, and effects.

One thing worth mentioning is that, with the press of the Tab key, you can maximize the canvas to fit your entire screen, getting rid of all the menus and tools so you can have a huge space for working without any distractions.

Krita Desktop works with Windows (7 and newer), Linux, and Mac (10.12 and newer). There's also a portable version for Windows.

InPixio Photo Editor

What We Like

• Broad format compatibility.

• User-friendly interface.

What We Don't Like

• Trial version applies watermarks to images.

• Windows only.

This free photo editor from InPixio is designed for simplicity, but that doesn't mean it's void of helpful features. The program itself is easy to understand and navigate, and you can do everything from add frames and designs to crop, change the brightness, and more.

With the one-click presets and frames, a before and after view, and easy-to-access editing tools, you can finish editing in no time and even share your picture directly on Facebook or Flickr from the Share menu.

If you like how you've edited something and want to apply those same edits to another photo, it's as easy as making a custom preset.

Lots of image file types can be opened in this program, and if saving to your computer, you can pick from JPG, PNG, TIFF, JXR, and WDP.

If you need help using this photo editor, you can refer to their online tutorials.

Some features are only available in the premium version; those are marked off in the program with a large 'Premium' banner.

InPixio Photo Editor runs on Windows computers, iPhone, and iPad.

Pixia

What We Like

• Compatibile with common file formats.

• Open files directly from clipboard, camera, and scanner.

• Rich enough in features to satisfy advanced artists.

What We Don't Like

• Interface is outdated.

• Windows only.

Pixia has an outdated and unappealing interface, but the functions and tools aren't at all undesirable for a free photo editor.

Layers and layer masks are supported, as well as creating shapes, selecting objects, and common photo editing tasks like changing the color adjustment and tone balance, color filling, and selecting from different paint brushes.

All the standard image file formats can be opened with Pixia including those with Photoshop's PSD extension. Images can even be opened directly from the clipboard, a camera, or a scanner.

Artweaver Free

What We Like

• Full-featured and easy to use.

• Supports layers.

• Good variety of brushes and effects.

What We Don't Like

• Photoshop plugins and screen playback work only with premium version.

• No Mac version.

Artweaver manages to include tons of useful image editing tools in an easy to use program. It has a tabbed interface to avoid clutter, supports using pen tablets, and works with some of the most popular image file formats, such as JPEG and PSD.

Standard editing tools like a crop, text, paint bucket, and gradient tool, among others, are included, but Artweaver also lets you save and replay events, use brushes, create and work with layers, customize the layout of the palettes, and import images directly from a scanner or camera, among other things.

The screen mode can be changed from regular to fullscreen to have even more room to edit images.

PhotoScape

What We Like

• Easy to use.

• Compatible with both Windows and macOS.

What We Don't Like

• Lacks functionality typical of other programs.

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• Can be slow.

• Only PhotoScape X still gets updated.

PhotoScape has several sections at the top of the program where you can open different tools to perform different actions. Viewer, Editor, Combine and Animated GIF are just some of PhotoScape's sections.

The editing feature has dozens of frames to choose from, each with the option to round the corners and adjust the margin and frame line settings of the frame.

You can also add objects and text and crop an image freely or use one of several presets (e.g., 16:9, Legal Ratio, and US business card ratio).

Some more tools included in PhotoScape is a red-eye remover, clone stamp tool, spot remover, paintbrush, and, among others, an effect brush (like grayscale, blur, darken, and brighten).

With each tool you select, a description of what it does and how to use it is displayed to the right, which is very helpful and not usually a feature included in programs like this.

PhotoScape is available for Windows 8–XP while PhotoScape X is for Windows 10 and macOS.

Unfortunately, another program attempts to install during setup, but you can easily skip this by deselecting it.

CinePaint

What We Like

Best Free Fun Photo Effects

• Very powerful, despite being free.

• Works with images and videos.

What We Don't Like

• No Mac version.

• Infrequently updated.

CinePaint's interface is very mundane, colorless, and boring, but that doesn't mean the tools aren't useful because they are.

Layers are supported so you can overlay images on each other, change their blend mode, and edit their opacity. You also get a selection tool with CinePaint, among many other common tools.

The first thing you'll notice when you use CinePaint is that when you're opening a photo to edit, you're unable to preview it to know that you're selecting the correct one, which is too bad.

Choosing the best photo editor is something most people occasionally have to do because we live in a digitally and technologically advanced age where people are constantly sharing digital images and using them for other purposes such as blogging.

With so many photo editing applications out there, it is very important to compare different options and features in order to ensure you end up with the best photo editor for your needs.

Best Overall- Movavi Photo Editor

Movavi photo editor is a full-featured photo editing tool which not only allows you to easily remove unwanted objects or tourists from images, but also enables you to replace image background, add watermarks and captions etc. What’s more, with Movavi photo editor, you can enjoy 1-click photo quality enhancing with its Magic Enhance tool. Cropping, resizing, rotating, straightening tools will help you get more aesthetically pleasing composition. Movavi Photo Editor delivers much more than everyday photo editing apps – try the awesome object and background removal features!

Below is a list of the top 15 best free photo editor software 2018. The list is divided into three categories to make your selection easier.

1. SOFTWARE

a) PhotoScape

PhotoScape is a package deal kind of software. It includes all the major features you need to edit your pictures. Some of PhotoScape’s capabilities include: blooming, red-eye removal, filters, cropping drawing pictures, text, balloons, frames, backlight correction, white balance adjustment, brightness, color, resizing, raw converter, rename, color picker, screen capture, splitter, print, animated GIF, page combine, batch editor and viewer.

• Beginner friendly
• Easy to use
• It has numerous features and capabilities
• Fast
• Flexible operation
• There are explanations for everything in order to make it easy for a beginner to understand what they are doing.

• It still needs some additional features such as background changing ability. Other than this, this software does not have any other disadvantage.

b) GIMP

GIMP is a free software suitable for photo editing tasks like image authorizing, photo retouching and image composition. GIMP is a very powerful software with features and capabilities you might not find in other similar software. GIMP can be used as a professional photo retouching program, a simple paint software, an image renderer, an image format converter or an online batch processing system among others. This software is extensible, expandable and modular. GIMP was designed to include extensions and plugins that make it possible for you to do almost everything with the software. This software also has a scripted interface that enables you to achieve anything from the simplest task to the most complicated task.

• Great alternative to Photoshop
• It is free
• Easy to use
• IT has numerous features
• Beginner friendly

c) Paint.NET

Paint.Net is one of the best full-featured photo editing software. It has a streamlined and intuitive interface and provides you with all the tools you need to edit your photos. This software supports layers, special effects and unlimited undo among others. It also has a growing active online community that is very friendly and provides plugins, tutorials and any other help you might need. It is perfect for beginners and expert photo editors.

• Fast download
• Small footprint
• Great for basic image manipulation

• Requires some additional features in order for a user to be able to do advanced photo editing.

d) Picasa

Picasa is a great software. You can use it to share, print, organize, find and transfer images. This software organizes all your pictures in one album so as to save you the hassle of going through your files to locate an image you want to edit. Picasa works with PSD, BMP, GIF, movie files and JPEG. Picasa is compatible with most digital cameras and it is able to detect your USB driver to import images into the software. The editing tools included in this software include: color switch to black and white, color enhancing, red-eye removal, custom and standard cropping among others.

• Easy file sharing
• Image import saves you the hassle of going through your files to get images
• Easy to use
• Fast download
• User-friendly interface

• Google no longer supports this software. This means there will not be any more updates for the software.

e) Photo! Editor

Photo! Editor is a basic photo editing tool that you can use to optimize and fix your digital images in just a few clicks. This photo editing software has basic tools such as clearing skin imperfections and wrinkles, red-eye removal and retouching tools such as color optimization. The software also features a cropping utility, lighting effects and a caricature tool that enables you to add hilarious effects to your pictures. Another great thing about Photo! Editor is the fact that it gives you an option to compare your original image with the edited image. This enables you to know whether or not you are moving in the right direction. This software is perfect for beginners and professional photo editors.

• Easy to use
• Numerous features
• Fast download
• Comparison feature enables you to compare your original image with the edited image
• User-friendly interface
• Beginner friendly

• It experiences crashes when used for a long period of time.

f) Raw Therapee

Raw Therapee is a software that is specialized for processing photos in their raw format. This software is more complex compared to other similar programs. Some of the features of this program include: retouching, adjusting exposure, shadows, highlights, white balance, color panels, perspective, sharpness, cropping, resizing, batch editing, raw file editing and filters among others. This software is perfect for hobbyists, professional photographers and anyone who needs a high quality editing software.

• Easy to use
• Has many features and tools
• Can be used for advanced editing
• Batch editing
• Raw file support

• Complex interface
• No pre-set filters
• Harder to learn compared to other photo editing software

2. FREE ONLINE IMAGE EDITORS

a) Pixlr

Pixlr is an online photo editing tool with numerous professional features such as brushes and layering. This photo editing tool has very advanced features that make it a major rival for desktop photo editors. Therefore, if you are looking for an online photo editing tool that would offer you the same service as a desktop photo editor, Pixlr would be a perfect tool. This software is perfect for beginners as well as professional photo editors.

• Easy to use
• Advanced features
• Numerous tools
• Free
• User-friendly

• Pixlr gets very slow at times especially when you are using editing tools like smudge tool. This is caused by the complexity of the editing tool.

b) PicMonkey

PicMonkey has all the basic features you need to edit your photos like brushes, effects and filters. Apart from this PicMonkey includes a number of design features like whole themes, textures and overlays among others. If you are looking for a photo editing tool that you can use to do basic enhancements and add text to your images, PicMonkey is the best software for you.

• It is free
• It has numerous features
• Can be used for basic photo enhancement
• User-friendly interface
• Easy to use

• It cannot be used for very advanced photo editing.

Photo Special Effects Software

c) Fotor

Fotor is a powerful online photo editing tool with great usability. With Fotor, you can achieve very good photo editing results in a very short time. This photo editing tool has a variety of functionality tools that you can use to edit your photos. These include: brushes, layering, rendering for HDR and automatic enhancement algorithms among others. Fotor also has an easy design functionality that enables you to complete editing tasks quickly. This photo editing tool can be used for both basic and professional photo editing.

• Beginner friendly
• User-friendly interface
• Easy to use
• Numerous editing features and tools
• Can be used for both advanced and basic photo editing

d) BeFunky

BeFunky is probably the easiest online photo editor you can use. This online photo editing tool has a very intuitive and simple interface which makes it perfect for beginners who might not have any experience in editing. It has all the basic features you need to perfect your pictures. Some of these features include: layering, brushes and preset filters among others. Apart from this, BeFunky also gives you the option of adding graphics, texts and overlays to your pictures.

• It is very easy to use
• Intuitive interface
• Numerous features
• Fast
• Beginner friendly

• BeFunky can only be used for basic photo editing. This is is because it lacks advanced features which are required for professional photo editing. Therefore, if you are looking for a professional photo editor, BeFunky is not the photo editor for you.

e) Adobe PhotoShop Express

Adobe Photoshop Express is an online photo editing tool offered by Adobe. The funny thing about this online photo editing tool is the fact that it looks nothing like PhotoShop. This is odd considering that both editors are offered by Adobe. Nonetheless, Adobe PhotoShop Express has a very intuitive interface and covers all the basics very well. One of the best features of this online editing tool is the film strip view that is provided at the bottom of the editor page when you are using a number of adjustment tools. Instead of using a slider to adjust the white balance, saturation and other subjective tweaks, this photo editing tool displays the changes incrementally allowing you to choose your favorite from the different options provided. Adobe PhotoShop Express also has advanced tools like distortion, sketching and tinting.

• Free
• Great for advanced and basic editing
• Easy to use
• Great PhotoShop alternative
• Numerous tools and features

• You have to create an account to use this online editing tool.

3. MOBILE

a) Adobe PhotoShop Mix ( Available on Android and iOS)

Adobe PhotoShop Mix is perfect for cutting out, combining and seamlessly blending different pictures to create high-end multi-layered images. This application has numerous features and tools that you can use to transform your basic images to look like professional images. Adobe PhotoShop Mix is only compatible with android, iPhones and iPads and it is free.

• This app can be downloaded for free
• It is very easy to use
• Fast
• Numerous tools and features
• Can be used for basic and advanced photo editing.
• Great PhotoShop alternative

b) AirBrush Easy Photo Editor(Available on both Android & iOS)

Airbrush Easy Photo Editor is the best application if you want to make your pictures perfect. This app has all the features you need to achieve perfect results. Some of the features include: blemish and pimple remover, perfect skin, teeth whitening, eye brightening, retouching effects, photo lengthening, real-time editing and radiant filters among others. With this application, you can transform a very basic and dull picture to look like a professional picture. It is free and it is compatible with both android and iOS.

• Very easy to use
• Constantly being updated
• Numerous features
• Free
• Compatible with both android and iOS
• Saves edited images in separate folders

c) Cupslice (Android only)

Cupslice is among the most trending apps on social media. This app has numerous powerful features that enable you to transform your pictures. This app features numerous filters that you can use to tweak your photos to make them appear brighter and unique. The best thing about the filters is the fact that they leave your picture looking very natural. This way, it is very hard to tell that you have edited your picture. The app is very easy to use and it is only available for Android phones.

• Easy to use
• Free
• Powerful features
• Natural filters
• Doesn’t take up too much space

d) Fotor Photo Editor (Available on Android and iOS)

Fotor Photo Editor is a one stop app for editing, sharing and selling pictures. Fotor has evolved from being one of the most user-friendly photo editing applications to a growing photography community platform. Apart from editing pictures on this app, you get the opportunity to connect with numerous photographers around the world. This enables you to get inspiration, make new friends and learn new photography skills. It is a great platform for photography enthusiasts, hobbyists and professional photographers. This application provides you with all the photo editing tools you need to transform your pictures. Whether you want to edit your picture to post on social media or use it for professional projects, Fotor will work very well for you.

• It is free
• Photography community platform
• User-friendly
• Fun
• Numerous editing tools
• Perfect for beginners and professionals

• It does not have a delete option for pictures. This leads to a lot of memory use up which is not great if you have a limited amount of space on your phone.

Conclusion

In conclusion, if you love sharing pictures on social media or you are a professional photographer, you will really benefit from these photo editing tools. They are easy to use and you can find one for all your devices. Test them out to find out which one works best for you.

You may also like:

How to Use Pixlr Photo Editor
How to Remove Unwanted Objects from Photos
Top 10 Professional Photo Editors for Pro-photographers
10 Best iPhone Photo Printers Review

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