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Let's finally address one of the most requested topics on Le Alternative and which for one reason or another we have never managed to create. Mainly because the topic is very complex and long and it certainly won't be easy! We still went in search of alternatives to PhotoshopLet's see what we found.
Photoshop is probably known by everyone by now, it has also entered common parlance as the quintessential photo editing program. In Italian and English it has also become a verb: photoshop And photoshopping.
As you can imagine, we do not find it correct to advertise for private companies free of charge in our language. Just as we prefer to say "search on the internet" and not "google“, we prefer to say “retouched images" and not "photoshopped“. Apart from the horrible sound these words have in Italian, we find it really wrong to use them as a principle.
Look for alternatives to the Adobe suite
Among Adobe's various problems, one of the things that pushed us to speed up the creation of this article is Adobe's latest innovation or the need to pay to use the Pantone library 1.
An article by is scheduled for tomorrow on this topic Cassandra here on Le Alternative (but if you're curious you can already find it here).
Obviously this is not the only thing problem by Adobe. Using dark patterns (Twitter And Nitter), the security problems also encountered in the recent past 2 and its monopoly on professional tools of this type certainly doesn't make it attractive in our eyes. We are sure that if you have come to these parts it is because you are looking for an ethical alternative to Photoshop, possibly free and Open source.
Photoshop and its proprietary format: .PSD
Adobe Photoshop It is also used for saving images with layers, ICC profiles, transparencies and texts proprietary format .PSD.
In this article we will do something that probably not everyone will agree with: given the incredible widespread diffusion of Photoshop we will give priority to software that can manage .PSD files. This isn't because a program that doesn't read .PSDs is worse. However, we want to facilitate the transition from Photoshop to other programs.
Since .PSD is not an open format, unfortunately this is not so obvious and if you have worked (even just in an amateur way) on many .PSD files you cannot abandon them from one day to the next and non-compatibility could be a problem . This being an article about alternatives to Photoshop it seems appropriate to point out the compatibility with the proprietary .PSD format as a positive fact.
Just as we have done other articles, such as for example Alternatives to Microsoft Office, we will give priority to free software but we will also talk about proprietary software. We will also try to give priority to software that offers free services or one-off payments, thus avoiding the so-called lock-in like those of Adobe where a registration is required (complete with dark pattern to get out of it (Nitter link)) to be able to be used.
One last curiosity that we would like to add and that perhaps not everyone knows, is that according to the DuckDuckGo Trackers Radar of 2020 Adobe's was the third tracer most present on the web with a percentage of 21.8%. More than Amazon! Unfortunately we have no more recent news so we don't know if this is still the case or not.
Alternatives to Photoshop
Let's see together what we found, if you know other alternatives do not hesitate to contact us on Telegram, Matrix, Lemmy or for e-mail.
GIMP
Open source
reads .PSD files with some limitations
We couldn't help but start this list with GNU THEmage Manipulation Program (yes, that's an acronym). GIMP has been around almost forever (since 1995) and is constantly updated and improved. For many people, however, GIMP remains with a high learning curve and not entirely intuitive, especially if you are coming from Adobe's product. However, it remains the most important alternative in the panorama and is available for any desktop operating system.
• •PhotoGIMP
Open source
reads .PSD files with some limitations
If you are coming from Photoshop you may be interested in this version of GIMP created especially for you. It is in fact a package of settings for GIMP to make it as similar as possible to Adobe Photoshop.
•Photopea
reads .PSD files
usable only away Browsers
We will probably make some people turn their noses up but Photopea is truly an exceptional alternative for those coming from Adobe Photoshop. It can be used exclusively online, it is totally free but you can pay around 3$ per month to mainly eliminate advertising and have more histories of your operations. It is not Open source (their GitHub is just for tracking issues) but we put it this high on the list because if you're coming from Photoshop you'll realize how incredibly similar it is in use. We repeat it so as not to be misunderstood: it is not particularly privacy-friendly (it makes connections to Google and dozens of other sites), it is free and it is not Open source. The reason why we include it is because it is the only one that really resembles Adobe Photoshop in every way and can be used almost anywhere since it works on any Browsers.
Pixlr
reads .PSD files
usable away Browsers
smartphone apps
Another application similar to Photopea and that it can compete with Adobe Photoshop especially because of its ease of use. We like the fact that it can be easily used on the go Browsers and that there are two versions: one simplified and one more complex. This too, like Photopea, is free but full of advertising. Alternatively you can buy the paid version, which starts from €5 per month, to eliminate it.
• •Krita
Open source
reads .PSD files with some limitations
It's not quite a program comparable to Adobe Photoshop because it is more designed for freehand drawings. However it is Open source, it can read .PSD files and has many settings that can come in handy so it can be a great choice.
It is available for Windows, macOS and Linux.
• •FireAlpaca
reads .PSD files
Less known application than the others but we tried it and it seemed to be very well made as well as being extremely fast even on an older computer. The development is Japanese, we tell you because you might stumble across some kanji here and there within the program. Don't worry though: the program is entirely translated into English.
It is a very particular software because it is completely free but it is not Open source and it doesn't even contain advertising. From what we could understand, not understanding Japanese, it is developed by a company called PGN who develops other paid software and then earns money from them.
It is available for Windows And macOS.
•Affinity Photo
reads .PSD files
We particularly like the Affinity suite because, unlike other software, it does not require a monthly or annual subscription to work but only requires a one-off payment. The cost of Affinity Photo is €54.99 and it is a very well made professional software. It looks a lot like Photoshop and sadly it isn't Open source and It only exists for macOS and Windows.
As was pointed out to us 3 if you decide to use this (or other) proprietary programs, always take into account the fact that even in this case the files with the layers are saved by default with their own proprietary format (.afphoto) which is effectively unreadable except on Affinity Photo.
You can try it for 20 days in a free trial version.
•Sumo
Open source
does not support .PSD natively
usable away Browsers
smartphone apps
Another interesting project, developed by a private company founded in Helsinski in 2008. Its applications are paid but can be used online for free with some limitations. Their privacy policy is decent and can definitely become a great alternative to Photoshop at an affordable price (89$ per year).
•paint.net
does not support .PSD natively
This exclusive program for Windows is decidedly less professional than the others but has a very low cost (€7.99) and can help you with photo editing. You can open .PSD files using a external plugin. As mentioned, it is certainly not a professional program but for small home or amateur touch-ups it can certainly be useful.
• •Fotor
does not support .PSD
usable away Browsers
smartphone apps
app for iPhone
Always for the photo retouching category via Browsers Fotor also seemed like a very interesting software. Again, advertising everywhere which can be deactivated by purchasing the application (which we didn't understand how much it costs). We liked it compared to many others because it really allows for so many changes and also has a part dedicated to photo collages.
It is available via Browsers, for Windows, for macOS and for Android and Apple smartphones.
• • • •Corel PHOTO-PAINT
reads .PSD files but with different limitations
Corel's is a suite that has existed for many years (it has existed since 1989!). CorelDRAW, like Photoshop, is also a professional suite with its own proprietary files (.CDR). We encountered some difficulties in using .PSD files but the program is generally simple and accessible to many. However, it is a decidedly very expensive program: 30€ per month, 369€ per year or on a one-off basis 779€.
It is only available for Windows and macOS.
•Alternatives to Photoshop: and on smartphones?
We will dedicate an article dedicated to smartphone alternatives later. In the meantime you can take a look at these free applications:
- Pocket Paint, available on F-Droid It will help you do some photo editing. It's not particularly powerful but it is Open source and has several interesting features.
- PhotoAffix BETA, available on F-Droid only thanks to Repositories Of IzzyOnDroid. It is mainly used to put two photos together.
- Litrate, this is also available on F-Droid thanks to IzzyOnDroid. It will allow you to add filters to your images.
- PrivacyBlur, to which we have already dedicated an entire article, allows you to easily obscure faces before publishing them online.
And the proprietary ones:
- Adobe Photoshop Express, is the free version of Photoshop for Android. It allows you to do many things, including adding cute filters and much more. To use it you need to have an Adobe ID which you can create using alternatives such as AnonAddy.
- Snapseed, great application and incredibly versatile. Too bad it's owned by Google.
Alternatives to Adobe Lightroom
We are not sure we have enough material to create an ad hoc article for them alternatives to Adobe Lightroom therefore it seems interesting to us to offer you some alternatives that allow you to modify and manage the raw files of your photographs.
- darktable 4, good application that allows you excellent management of raw files. Those who use it say that unfortunately it is quite complex to understand but at the same time it is also very powerful. One was made Fork more intuitive it's called Ansel.
- Ansel 5, free application and Open source very complete and with excellent community behind. Totally free, it allows you to manage and edit raw files. It is available for Windows and Linux. It's a Fork by darktable.
- RawTherapee 6, another excellent application for managing raw files of your photographs. It is multiplatform and available for Linux, Windows and macOS.
- digiKam 7, this is also an excellent application for managing photographs. Available for Linux, Windows and macOS.
- You're Going To Have To Pay To Use Some Fancy Colors In Photoshop Now[↩]
- Adobe exposed nearly 7.5 million Creative Cloud accounts to the public And Adobe hack: At least 38 million accounts breached (2013)[↩]
- Report on Telegram[↩]
- darktable on GitHub[↩]
- Ansel on GitHub[↩]
- source code by RawTherapee[↩]
- source code by digiKam[↩]
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