Introduction to Adobe Photoshop Alternatives
Photoshop is the first thing that appears in our mind when we think of image editing. Be it professionals or students in the creative field, everyone is aware of the features and benefits it brings to the table. The only problem is the huge cost required to purchase and use it in your system. For those who are looking for similar software for editing and manipulating images, we have listed below those applications that don’t cost much and can be a powerful design tool for your needs. Affinity Photo, Sketch, Pixlr, GIMP, Inkscape, SumoPaint, Canva, Paint.net, Krita are some of the alternatives for Photoshop which you could consider. Choose one appropriately based on your requirements after going through this adobe photoshop alternative article. Some of these tools are as powerful and easy to use as Photoshop.
What is Photoshop?
Adobe Photoshop is the industry-standard software when it comes to image editing and manipulation. It is a raster-based graphics application developed by Adobe Inc. and first released in 1988. It runs on both Windows and Mac operating systems. Photoshop is a favorite tool for creative professionals around the globe that makes their work a lot easier and effective. The work area of Photoshop has three parts where you can access the various tools and settings. The tools are located on the left side, options on the top side, and the panels on the right.
List of Adobe Photoshop Alternatives
Below is the Image editing option that can be Alternatives to Adobe Photoshop:
1. Affinity Photo
Affinity Photo is compatible with many file formats including Photoshop. It can be made and use by designers and photographs alike as it offers professional features and quality matching with that of Photoshop. Affinity Photo is also very cheap making it one of the best alternatives to Photoshop. It boasts of superior speeds, stable functioning, limitless undos, however, most of these features depends on your system hardware. It is recommended to at least have a quad-core one. You can use Affinity in Windows and Mac.
2. Sketch
Sketch is a flexible vector graphics application made particularly for designers offering them a flexible tool. It is good at working with multiple resolutions with vector shapes and infinite zoom features. For your designing needs, there are tools like primitive shapes, pencil, etc. The interface of Sketch is user-friendly and resembles with that of Adobe’s Photoshop and Illustrator. It features layers, gradient option, style presets and much more. In addition, there are plenty of plugins available online for you to use in your project.
3. Pixlr
The USP of Pixlr is that it has 600 effects, overlays, and borders. It is a good image editor with all the basic features you would expect. You can crop, resize, and manipulate color and so on. If one is familiar with Photoshop, it is easy to learn Pixlr. This free to use application can be used as a web app or in the Android and iOS platforms.
4. GIMP
Similar to Photoshop, GIMP has a wide range of presets for professional image manipulation. It is a powerful graphics tool available to use free of cost. The UI is different from that of Photoshop, but there is a GIMP version that resembles Adobe’s interface for those migrating from Photoshop. GIMP was released in the year 1995, it soon became a popular photo editing application loved by millions of users.
5. Inkscape
Another free graphics tool on the list is Inkscape. The interesting thing about Inkscape is its intelligent drawing features. It is a well-built application for professional uses and supports importing/exporting multiple files, customizable, and supports multiple languages.
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6. SumoPaint
A browser-based software, SumoPaint is a highly capable photo editor. It is a light tool which is quick to load. It has both paid and free versions for use. The interface includes shapes, brushes, pencils, text, cloning, etc. They are available in the toolbar. You can work on your saved files in the hard drive. Therefore, SumoPaint is a good alternative to Photoshop.
7. Canva
Canva is also a browser-based design application for professionals. It has a huge collection of fonts, filters, icons, photos, etc for making your design work easier. Just drag and drop the images you need to edit into the Canva box and start your job. Canva has a user base of over 10 million people.
8. Paint.net
Paint.net is free to use open-source software with support for user-created plugins and tools. It was developed as a rival for MS Paint. Today it has evolved into a useful image editor. Paint.net comes with auto filters and editing tools. Users can mask, work with layers, manipulate images and much more. The interface is also simple for anyone to learn. You can work with multiple photos on Paint.net. You can pull photos from multiple tabs for easier working. It also displays thumbnails to represent images. Paint.net is an effective alternative to Photoshop, but better than that, it runs smoothly in low configured computers. You can save any number of images locally.
9. Krita
Krita is aimed at concept artists; it is a digital sketching program that allows users to create artwork from scratch. There are plenty of features in the store that will help you. Krita offers learning resources for its users. Hence, you can easily learn the new program. Krita supports PSD files as well. So if you are someone who has many fascinating ideas and is looking for a way to bring it into reality, then Krita is the tool for you.
Conclusion
Design Software doesn’t have to cost much photoshop is a useful design software from Adobe that has an unrivaled presence in the creative industry. However, it is not available to free of cost and one needs to pay a subscription amount for its license. If you do not want to pay for Photoshop, you can consider using alternative applications that offer similar features and an effective user interface. These design programs are also available free of cost or in economical packages. Affinity Photo, Sketch, Pixlr, GIMP, Inkscape, SumoPaint, Canva, Paint.net, Krita are all good design tools that can offer the features of Photoshop. You can use the above-mentioned software to design logos, edit, resize, crop images, and so on.
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