This Instructable is the Mac answer to' fabulous, but Windows-centric Quick and Great Photo Editing with Picasa. To be fair, we will just import a picture, straighten it, color correct it, crop it and resize it in under a minute. Best pro photo editors for Mac 2018 It's no longer the case that Adobe is king when it comes to image editing and manipulation. We take a look at the best Mac photo editors for creative professionals.

It doesn’t matter what you do, but everyone out of three people has a desire to become a photographer. This desire comes from editing an image on mobile or seeing professional landscapes on Facebook and Twitter timeline. However, if you really want to be a photographer or you want to give your raw images a professional touch, do check out these best photo editor apps for Mac. As macOS is a very stable operating system, you would be able to use these tools without any problem. Some of them are free, but you may have to purchase some tools if you have a strong wish to be a professional photographer.

Best Photo Editor Apps for Mac

1] Photoshop CC

It doesn’t matter what kind of editing you want to do or whether you are a professional photographer or a newbie who wants to start photo editing, you can certainly use Photoshop, which has proved to be the best photo editing software for Mac. Although this is a paid software, the vast majority of people use this tool because of available features, accessibility, ease of use, affordable price and so on. You just need to spend $9.99/month to get the best photo editing tool for Mac. Alongside the image editor, you will get 20GB free storage to store all your files. The best thing is you can create 3D images, which is almost unavailable in most of the tools available for Mac. From basic editing like color correction to advanced editing, you can perform everything in this tool. Landscape, portrait, everything can be edited with the help of Photoshop CC.

2] Adobe Photoshop Elements

Photoshop Elements is another product by Adobe, which is one of the best alternatives to Adobe Photoshop CC. This particular tool would be useful when you have a lot of landscapes, and you need to edit them quickly. Instead of using Photoshop, you can try this Photoshop Elements tool, which is easier to use and it performs tasks quicker. From adding a special effect to change the color adjustment, you can do almost everything with the help of Photo Elements. Talking about price, it costs around $99.99. It has mainly four tabs called eLive, Quick, Guided, and Expert. The eLive tab will show various news related to Adobe. On the other hand, the Expert tab will let you edit the image within moments.

3] Pixelmator Pro

As the name suggests, Pixelmator Pro is a paid image editing software for Mac, which costs around $59.99. This is probably the most good looking and comes with the top-notch user interface with loads of functionalities to give your raw image a professional touch. All the options are just basic things, but they can do magic within moments. However, you may have to spend some time to understand all the features of this tool. Talking about features, you will get touch bar support, auto color adjustment, SVG support, color range selection tool, live previews and so on. You can share an adjustment after saving it in this tool, which is unavailable in other tools. As machine learning is integrated into this tool, you will definitely get a better and quicker result out of this software.

4] Corel AfterShot Pro

Corel AfterShot Pro is yet another awesome photo editor for Mac, which is available for macOS 10.9 or later version. It does support most of the RAW formats such as ARW, CR2, CRW, DCR, DNG, MRW, NEF, NRW, ORF, PEF, RAW, RW2, RWL, SR2, etc. Therefore, if you have a DSLR camera and you capture a RAW image, you can use this tool to enhance your photographs. Regarding other functionalities, you will get comprehensive watermarking, highlight recovery, blemish remover, image preset library, lens correction development kit, modular camera profiles, powerful adjustments, multi-version editing, precise control with selective editing, local contrast, high dynamic range tools (HDR), noise reduction, red-eye removal and more other options. You can customize the workspace according to your needs and hence, you can increase your productivity while using this tool. This awesome tools costs around $79.99.

5] GIMP

GIMP is available for various platforms including Windows, Mac, Linux, etc. If you do not want to spend money on paid tools, and you just need basic editing with some professional –looking options, you can try GIMP, which is a free image editing software for Mac. According to some professionals, GIMP is a mini-Photoshop since it has a lot of similarities with that tool. From options to the user interface, you might find them similar right after opening this tool. On your right-hand side, you can find all the layers and adjustments. On your left-hand side, you would get all the options, tools, and more. Like Photoshop, it has a top navigation panel, where you can find all the options like File, Edit, View, Select, Image, Layer, Tools, Filters, Windows, and more. From color correction to make an adjustment layer, you can do everything with the help of this free tool.

6] Krita

Easiest Photo Editor For Mac

Again, if you do not want to spend money on a basic touch, you can opt for Krita that is a free and open-source image editing tool for Mac. More specifically, Krita is a painting tool more and less image editing tool. Being said that, if you want to draw a comic or comic character or something like that, you should install Krita, which will make it easier to do things. It offers some useful options like drawing assistant, mirroring tools, layer management, selections, layer masks, full-color management, HDR support, transform tools, color palette and more. The best thing is it has PSD support. That means if you have created a file in Photoshop and wanted to do rest of the editing in Krita, you can do so without any problem. Talking about compatibility, you should have macOS 10.11 or later version to install this free tool.

There are more other tools available in this category. However, these aforementioned apps are probably the best since they come with a wide range of support, they are feature-rich, and you can use them even when you do not have much knowledge.

You have a lot of factors to consider when deciding which is the best photo editor for macOS X, and the importance of the various elements will vary from user to user. Because of that, picking a single application must involve compromises as what is right for one user may be too basic, too complicated, or too expensive for another.

Best High-End Photo Editors

If you have a completely open budget, then your best purchase is Adobe Photoshop. It was the original image editor and has been around since the old Apple Mac operating system. It's the industry-standard image editor and with good reason.

It's a hugely useful application with a comprehensive and well-considered feature set. Photoshop is equally well suited for home editing photos and producing creative and artistic raster images. Its development, especially since the introduction of the Creative Suite versions, has been evolutionary, rather than revolutionary. Each release sees it become an even more rounded and robust application that runs natively on OS X.

Other photo editors have drawn inspiration from Photoshop. However, few can match the feature set that allows for the flexibility of non-destructive adjustments, easily applied layer styles, and the powerful camera and lens-specific image corrections.

More Affordable Options for Photo Editing

If you have a limited budget, then you can't find cheaper than free, and that is what GIMP is. GIMP is a free and open-source alternative to Photoshop, though the developers deliberately discount this.

GIMP is a powerful and flexible image editor that you can expand with free plugins. However, it isn't able to match Photoshop in several ways, including the lack of adjustment layers to make non-destructive edits to images and the flexibility of layer styles. Nonetheless, many users swear by GIMP and in the right hands, it can produce creative results that can match work produced by Photoshop. Sometimes GIMP can offer tools not available elsewhere. For example, the Resynthesizer plugin gave GIMP users a powerful, content-aware fill tool long before such a feature appeared in Photoshop CS5.

If you don't mind spending a little bit of money, though, you might also want to consider Pixelmator. It's a stylish and well-featured native photo editor for OS X.

Adobe Photoshop Elements is also a good, affordable alternative to the mainline product. It offers most of the features of Photoshop at a fraction of the price. It's certainly worth considering for home users, hobbyists, and even some professional work where advanced features are not needed.

Photo Editors for the Home User

OS X comes with the Preview application pre-installed, and for many users, this will offer enough tools and features to make simple adjustments to digital photos. However, if you're looking for a little more functionality without the steep learning curve of GIMP or Photoshop, Seashore would be well worth a look. And like GIMP, it's available for free.

This attractive photo editor has a clear and intuitive interface and a user guide that will take new users with little knowledge through the concept of layers and image effects. It would be a good stepping stone for a move onto a more powerful photo editor, though it's likely to offer more than enough functionality for a large number of users.

So Which is the Best Photo Editor for Mac OS X?

Free Photo Editor For Macbook

Trying to decide which is the best photo editor of OS X is a matter of determining which one does the best job of reaching various compromises.

Free Photo Editing For Mac

All in all, we have to conclude that GIMP offers the best overall compromise. The fact that it is free means that absolutely anyone with an internet connection can use it. While it isn't the most powerful or best-featured app, it is near the top. Despite that, though, novice users can also use GIMP for simple jobs, without having to embark on the steep learning curve to make full use of every feature. Finally, with the ability to install plugins, it is possible that if GIMP doesn't do what you want it to, someone else may have already produced a plugin that will take care of it.