Best Free Photoshop Alternatives - Digital Graphic design Software
69Free Alternatives to Photoshop
People love creating graphics and logos or just messing around with the design features of Photoshop. Due to Adobe's high prices for their Creative Suites (CS), I set out to find the best alternatives to their incredible software. People allover the internet say that Photoshop is the best, and if you cant afford it, just download a torrent and crack the software. Torrents are illegal and we do not recommend using them, even if it does save you a couple hundred dollars on a software. In this hub, I will list my top 7 alternatives to Photoshop, all of which are 100% free! I only chose 7 because the more I provide, the harder it will be for you to decide on an alternative. For the website to where the program/application is available, click on the title hyperlink of the name of the software.
Starting with my number 7 pick, moving into my number 1 pick:
7. Splashup
Splashup is a basic photo editor that is web-based. It provides a look and feel like Photoshop, which even provides layer creations and grouping. It is integrated with many photosharing websites, but not as impressive and useful as other editors.
6. Paint.Net
Paint.Net is a free open source program that is available only for windows computers. It has many similar features to photoshop, but it is more like an advanced Paint software. In was designed in 2004 as a student project, which was made to be an improved version of Microsoft Paint. After the first release of it being only an image editor, Paint.Net slowly gained features that made it more usable for graphic design. Over the years, it has become one of the top Photoshop alternatives.
5. Pixia
Pixia was first designed in Japanese, but has recently been released in English. Pixia was created specifically for Anime creation, but packs similar features that Photoshop offers. Pixia is available for Windows and Macs. It offers smooth shape creators, a great color editor, and many filters. Pixia is also a popular software that has hundreds of tutorials for. The overall look and feel of Pixia could be improved however, it looks fairly basic, but can provide essential graphics tools.
4. Pixen
Pixen was designed for pixel art creation. A true graphic designer can produce impressive graphics by using only pixels, not by using the hi-tech filters and tools. Pixen has been integrated for more than just pixel creation, it has filters and design tools packed in aswell. Pixen is known for its great abilities with creation animations, similar to Adobe's Flash. Unfortunately, Pixen is only available for Mac OS X 10.4 and up.
3. Picnik
Picnik is a web-based photo editor, which means no download is necessary. Picnik is designed more for editing pictures than creating graphics, but its capabilities are pretty impressive, especially since everything is done online! Picnik has taken off recently, due to its partnership with Flickr. It also has features similar to "layers" in Photoshop and other editing softwares. Since Picnik is used through your browser, it is cross platform, which means you can use it on any Operating System.
Gimp is one of the oldest and one of the best known alternatives to Photoshop. Gimp packs many of the same features that Photoshop does, but not quite all of them. The features are not as smooth and useful as Photoshops, but it gets the job done. There is an alternative to Gimp, called GimpShop, which is the same exact program as Gimp, but it has the look and feel of Photoshop. Gimp makes an easy transition from Photoshop if you have used the demo or full version of Photoshop.
1. Aviary
Aviary is my favorite alternative to Photoshop because it is not only web-based, but it features other amazing tools to help with different types of creations. Aviary has a color Scheme organizer/selector that helps you choose perfect color schemes. Aviary also provides an online vector graphics editor/creator, as well as an image editor/creator. Other tools that Aviary provides includes a music mixer and audio editor, all of which are included free when you create an account. Aviary's website has an amazing look and feel, and provides a network for users to share their creations, allowing other artists to use/edit another artists creations. If you don't want anyone else to use or see your creations, Aviary provides a feature that allows you to hide your art from other people on the internet. You can import images by uploading them or entering a URL. Aviary's graphics editor is very similar to how Photoshop goes about creating graphics. In my opinion, Aviary is the closest and next best thing to Photoshop. You can use layers/filters, as well as custom patterns and brushes. I advise checking Aviary out!
