In 1987, brothers Thomas and John Kroll began developing image editing software, which was later acquired and released by Adobe Systems. Initially, Photoshop was exclusive to the Macintosh, but after some time it spread to other platforms, becoming almost the most popular graphics editor in the world.
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Most users are probably familiar with Photoshop or at least heard of it, but 20 years after the release of the first version of the program, the situation has changed significantly. In recent years, software has increasingly been criticized – from high cost to reduced PC performance due to high consumption of processor resources.
In 2013, Adobe Systems announced that it was moving to a new business model that included subscriptions to its line of Photoshop applications. This move caused a negative reaction from users, many of whom began to look for a replacement for the graphics editor.
Photoshop is still the king of imaging applications, however, there are quite a few great alternatives for macOS today. Nine of them are presented below.
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Apple’s Photos app
While the Photos app built into macOS won’t be a full replacement for Photoshop, it has a number of advantages. First of all, you don’t have to pay to buy it. Photos has a set of standard features, such as rotating elements, cropping, filters, editing and retouching an image. There is the possibility of working with third-party photo editing extensions.
With the release of macOS Sierra (review), the Photos app has a section called “Memories”which allows you to quickly create and edit slideshows of automatically or manually selected pictures with the ability to add a soundtrack.
It is also worth noting the presence of a “smart” search for objects in photographs. The application will be able to find pictures in the library that include, for example, a cat or a sunset.
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Pixelmator and Pixelmator Pro
The graphic editor Pixelmator, released in 2007 by brothers Saulius and Aidas Dailide, quickly gained popularity among Mac users. The project was developed on the basis of open source software and macOS technologies and is characterized by high performance. Pixelmator has extensive features that allow you to work with raster and vector graphics, as well as draw. In addition, the application is equipped with a simple and intuitive interface that any user can understand.
The basic version of Pixelmator costs 2,790 rubles (3,790 rubles for Pixelmator Pro).
By the way, we do all the work with images on our website in Pixelmator.
Download Pixelmator for macOS (Mac App Store)
Download Pixelmator Pro for macOS (Mac App Store)
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GIMP
The GNU Image Manipulation Program, or GIMP, is a free, open source image editor that has a significant amount of Photoshop power. Developed in 1995 by UC Berkeley students Spencer Kimball and Peter Matisse, the interface of the application is heavily inspired by Photoshop. In addition, it can be customized. GIMP has support for Mac, Windows, and Linux.
Download GIMP for Mac (developer site)
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Acorn 7
“Picture editor for people” – this slogan captures the essence of the Acorn 7 application, developed by Gus Muller, also known as Flying Meat. This graphics editor is really easy to use – both beginners and professionals can work with it.
Download Acorn 7 for macOS (developer site)
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Affinity Photo
Affinity Photo is a powerful graphics package for professionals. The program works with RAW files and supports all common color spaces – RGB, CMYK, LAB and Greyscale. The application uses exclusive macOS technologies – OpenGL, Grand Central Dispatch, Core Graphics, etc., and its speed inspires respect. The bundle is priced at $55 on the Mac App Store.
Download Affinity Photo for macOS (developer site)
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Lightroom
Another product from Adobe that has some Photoshop features. Lightroom is a photo manager that offers tons of editing options. The application is designed to accompany the entire photo-technical process – from importing an image to exporting a finished photo to the library. The cost of the package is 600 rubles per month.
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Polarr
The application, which is a qualitative analogue of Lightroom for Mac, has the ability to adjust HSL, support for auto-detection of faces, numerous settings for image parameters (color, lighting, perspective, clarity, saturation, etc.), a filter library, the ability to work with JPEG and PNG, as well as most RAW- formats and more.
The application allows you to create your own filter presets.
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Corel AfterShot Pro
Corel AfterShot Pro is a competitor to Photoshop that combines tools for RAW file processing, photo organization and management, editing and bulk image processing.
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Seashore
The Seashore Graphic Editor is the brainchild of developer Mark Pazolli, based on GIMP but with a simpler design. This application cannot be called a full-fledged alternative to Photoshop. The program includes a standard set of photo editing tools and is perfect for non-professionals.
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