Free Alternatives to Photoshop

[prophet]

To help some of you who don't currently own Photoshop or are looking for a lightweight alternative, I've conducted a list of softwares that can be used to achieve similar things.
*These are in no particular order, any suggestions can be added in the future and this is still a WIP*

1) GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP)

Price: Free
Description: GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed program for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It has many capabilities. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter, etc. GIMP is expandable and extensible. It is designed to be augmented with plug-ins and extensions to do just about anything. The advanced scripting interface allows everything from the simplest task to the most complex image manipulation procedures to be easily scripted.
Features: Painting, Advanced Manipulation, Animation, much, much more!
Personal Experience: I personally used GIMP before purchasing Photoshop. It has similar attributes and was extremely lightweight and didn't use much of my computers memory at the time. It's definitely at the top of my list in terms of alternatives to Photoshop.

Link: https://www.gimp.org/downloads/

2) Photoshop Express

Price: Free
Description: Photoshop Express gives you everything you need to quickly edit and transform images so they stand out on social and everywhere else. And with the option to add premium features, you can make advanced edits in a snap.
Features: Basic image editing, extremely lightweight, web based, free to use while giving you a taste of Photoshop, no need to register to use.
Personal Experience: I've used Photoshop Express to edit images for social media but that's about it. I have to reason to use it as I have the full Photoshop package, but it can give you a taste of what Photoshop has to offer.

Link: https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop-express.html

3) Canva

Price: Free, web based, also a paid version available @ $119.99 when paid annually or $12.99 paid monthly.
Description: Launched in 2013, Canva is an online design and visual communication platform with a mission to empower everyone in the world to design anything and publish anywhere.
Features: Curved text generator, photo effects, Image enhancer, add frames to photos, add text to photos, online video recorder, video trimmer, convert videos to MP4
Personal Experience: I've personally only used Canva twice and only recently heard of it a few weeks ago. It's definitely a powerful application packed into a browser. It's great to see things that are easily accessible nowadays. I've heard great things and it's definitely something you should try out with the numerous amounts of templates available to you.

Link: https://www.canva.com/

4) Paint.NET

Price: Free
Description: The application has been extensively rebuilt to improve functionality and ease of use while packing numerous new features into the now familiar user interface (UI). paint.net 5 works exclusively on the Windows operating system, requiring Windows 10 as a minimum.
Features: Open & edit multiple images, layers, unlimited history, support for many popular file formats, extensions
Personal Experience: I've used Paint.NET in the past but always found myself going back to GIMP whenever needed. I also used a Mac back in the day and just felt more comfortable in GIMP since paint.NET wasn't available on apple products. Still a great and free alternative to Photoshop though.

Link: https://getpaint.net/download.html

5) Inkscape

Price: Free
Description: Inkscape is a free and open source vector graphics editor for GNU/Linux, Windows and macOS. It offers a rich set of features and is widely used for both artistic and technical illustrations such as cartoons, clip art, logos, typography, diagramming and flowcharting. It uses vector graphics to allow for sharp printouts and renderings at unlimited resolution and is not bound to a fixed number of pixels like raster graphics.
Features: Object creation, object manipulation, fill and stroke, operations on paths, text support, rendering, tons of file formats.
Personal Experience: I don't think I've ever used Inkscape before but I've seen it used. It's not extremely popular but it is open source. Also, it provides elements that are not seen in some of the previous ones listed.

Link: https://inkscape.org/release/inkscape-1.2.2...i/?redirected=1

 

[Kyng]

I use GIMP myself... it has pretty much everything I need .

 

[Heatman]

It was even at last that I started making use of Photoshop for some of my graphics design projects. It have always been Canva and GIMP for me. They both were very satisfactory for me in everything I needed to work on.

 

[evarain]

Another good program that still allows new users to use the free trial feature is called, Affinity Photo 2. I switched over to that program since photoshop makes you sign up with that subscription plan. ;____; And with Affinity, you're able to just pay for it once and that's that.

 

[prophet]

Another good program that still allows new users to use the free trial feature is called, Affinity Photo 2. I switched over to that program since photoshop makes you sign up with that subscription plan. ;____; And with Affinity, you're able to just pay for it once and that's that.

I'll check it out and add it to the list. I've been using Photoshop for such a long time, I just pay for the photography subscription which is $10 a month.

 

[Heatman]

Another good program that still allows new users to use the free trial feature is called, Affinity Photo 2. I switched over to that program since photoshop makes you sign up with that subscription plan. ;____; And with Affinity, you're able to just pay for it once and that's that.

I'm definitely going to check out this Affinity Photo 2. Whenever there's always a possibility of a program giving me something good which can help me with my work, I wouldn't pass up that chance easily. Thanks for the recommendation mate.

 

[Shortie]

I remember when I first started out creating graphics, I started with Photoshop but I always used the free trials when I used that and after a while, that became and issue so I looked into free options and that was when I found out about GIMP.

GIMP is one I use mostly now to create graphics but I had a friend that I know in the content creation world who told me about Canva as well, now I also use Canva from time to time too.

 

[Heatman]

I remember when I first started out creating graphics, I started with Photoshop but I always used the free trials when I used that and after a while, that became and issue so I looked into free options and that was when I found out about GIMP.

GIMP is one I use mostly now to create graphics but I had a friend that I know in the content creation world who told me about Canva as well, now I also use Canva from time to time too.

It was at my previous workplace 4 years ago that I was introduced to using Canva by boss. I wasn't into graphics design that much back then but that's when I began exploring the software so much and started enjoying it.

 

[evarain]

I'll check it out and add it to the list. I've been using Photoshop for such a long time, I just pay for the photography subscription which is $10 a month.

I hope if you do try out the program, that you'll enjoy using it. It's a really neat program and also has something like Adobe's Illustrator and InDesign.

I forgot what I was paying for my subscription plan. ;_____; I think I mainly had photoshop and the stock image plan. But man, it does add up when you have other bills/necessitates to pay for.

I'm definitely going to check out this Affinity Photo 2. Whenever there's always a possibility of a program giving me something good which can help me with my work, I wouldn't pass up that chance easily. Thanks for the recommendation mate.

That's awesome! I hope that you too will be able to enjoy the program as well. And no problem. Anything for the graphic community. And saving money is always a plus. ٩(｡•́‿•̀｡)۶

 

[Heatman]

And saving money is always a plus. ٩(｡•́‿•̀｡)۶

This right here is the real icing on the cake. Nothing beats saving money on something whenever you can. Nice one mate.