Photo Editor Recommendations. Photo Editor. Photo Editing. What is the best photo editor for beginner? Update Cancel. What is the best product roadmap tool? Build brilliant roadmaps in minutes. Trusted by over 200,000 users worldwide. Start a free 30-day trial. Free Trial at aha.io. We’ve picked the best paid-for mainstream photo editing programs that will work on both Mac and PC, and we’re looking for ease of use, quality of results, versatility or pixel-crunching power.
Depending on what you want to do with your photographs, there’s a slew of photo-editing programs and apps from which to choose. To help you select the best software, we tested six popular photo-editing programs, all either free or under $100: Apple Photos, Corel PaintShop Pro, GIMP, Google Photos, Adobe Photoshop Elements and Serif Affinity Photo. Our Recommendations remains our top pick for its robust yet accessible editing tools. Available for PCs and Macs, it also has a gentle learning curve for novices, as well as tons of features to make the most of your photos.
While it doesn’t offer much in the way of editing tools, Google Photos is the best at aggregating and organizing all of your photos, no matter which device they’re on. And, it’s free. How We Tested We considered the following criteria when evaluating these programs:. Organizing, syncing and accessing your photo library. Photo editing versatility and depth.
Ease of use. Power. Sharing options.
Device and file format support. Creative freedom.
Fun Each of the programs we tested didn't try to be the end-all, be-all for everyone. Therefore, we gave the various criteria different weights in our final ratings, depending on what the program's objective was and the kind of photographer to whom it would appeal.
The key decision behind using any imaging application lies with what the requirements are for the task at hand. You need to closely research the product and get really clear on both the product's strengths and its weaknesses. Also, take the time to look at the work others have created with the product. For example, if you are looking to create simple graphics or to touch up family photos, then an application without a serious number of filters and effects may just fit the bill.
On the other hand, if you want to do compositing and add effects then a limited feature set may not be ideal for your needs.