Offered as both a free online app and a premium desktop program, SumoPaint isn't exactly overladen with features when compared to Photoshop, but it still grapples well above its weight as a freebie. While Pos earns bonus points for having a help function that goes above and beyond to acclimate new users, we're deducting some for the irritating size limit on saved files (1024 x 1024). And that first impression couldn't be more wrong with Photo Pos Pro, a top-notch Photoshop alternative that caters (via a unique UI switching function) to novice and advanced users.Īll of the usual creature comforts are here, including color refinement, batch editing, scripts, decent masking and layering systems, not to mention some expert-level healing and cloning tools. Providing your work doesn't require you to shuffle tons of layers or create complex text effects, this $39.99 USD proposition is more than capable for most folks.Ĭall us a slave to rude acronyms, but whenever we see “pos” in the name of a product we make an assumption.
In terms of price you're looking at a one-off payment of $129 USD for Sketch, and you can have a snoop through a free version before you commit.Īnother one for the Mac folk, Pixelmator Pro offers an expansive collection of tools for creating graphic designs, editing and retouching photos, applying a wide array of effects, or just drawing vector masterpieces.Īdmittedly, the handling of layers could be a bit more powerful (in particular the inability to create a layer adjustment that affects all underlying ones) but there's no denying that Pixelmator Pro feels less bloated and just as effective as King Photoshop. While bitmaps and brushes are out, we loved that Sketch offers multiple preset templates/artboard templates and a unique Symbols feature that lets you intelligently change and insta-reuse assets. UI-wise you're looking at a nice blend of Photoshop and Illustrator with a host of powerful features and an extensive plugin ecosystem.
If you own a Mac and are into professional grade vector graphics, wireframes or app design, Sketch is well worth an import into your life. After hours of use, however, we'll be the first to admit that you can use the magic wand to quick-select and color us impressed. In fact, our time with it proved to be faster, smoother and with fewer bugs as we engaged in RAW/PSD editing, HDR merging, batch processing, panorama stitching, multi-layer composing, image retouching and just about every other thing we do in Photoshop.
Perhaps you need to look into Affinity Photo, a program which (after a one-off payment of roughly $50 USD) delivers a surprisingly comparable image editing experience. Sick of paying your monthly rent to Adobe for access to its Creative Cloud? We don't blame you. Premium single-user account is $20 USD for 90 day use Affinity Photo It's worth noting that if you buy a modestly priced Premium account the ad panes on the site convert to useable workspace. Why should you choose Photopea over Gimp, though? First of all there are features here that are in it not present in the latter, like Quick Selection, Spot Healing brush, Liquify filter and the Refine Edge tool.Īlso because Photopea can natively load and save in more formats, such as Sketch, PDF, PSD, SVG and, cheekily, even Gimp files, too. Be that as it may, there's no arguing with that nonexistent price point and a budding community of plugin providing fans who are constantly evolving this product.Ĭost: Free Now here's an impressive image editing suite, especially considering it's in browser application form and can be freely used. For example, for all the par-for-the-Photoshop parity that Gimp offers, it falls short in terms of text layer overlaying, working natively in CMYK and a few other areas that'll irritate print designers. You should only bring out the Gimp to use it for digital photography.