Best Photo Editor Windows 7
There are dozens of free photo editors out there, so we've hand-picked the very best so you can make your pictures look amazing without paying a penny.
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Of course, if you're able to wait until Black Friday and Cyber Monday, you'll almost certainly be able to find a great deal on a premium photo editor like Adobe Photoshop, but there's plenty of choice out there if you can't wait that long.
We've spent hours putting a huge range of photo editors to the test, and picked out the best ones for any level of skill and experience. From powerful software packed with features that give Photoshop a run for its money to simple tools that give your pictures a whole new look with a couple of clicks, there's something for everyone.
Many free photo editors only offer a very limited selection of tools unless you pay for a subscription, or place a watermark on exported images, but none of the tools here carry any such restrictions. Whichever one you choose, you can be sure that there are no hidden tricks to catch you out.
Best free photo editors 2019 at a glance:
- GIMP
- Ashampoo Photo Optimizer 2019
- Canva
- Fotor
- Photo Pos Pro
- Paint.NET
- PhotoScape
- Pixlr X
- Adobe Photoshop Express Editor
- PiZap
1. GIMP
The best free photo editor for advanced image editing
GIMP (the GNU Image Manipulation Program) is the best free photo editor around. It's packed with the kind of image-enhancing tools you'd find in premium software, and more are being added every day.
The photo editing toolkit is breathtaking, and features layers, masks, curves, and levels. You can eliminate flaws easily with the excellent clone stamp and healing tools, create custom brushes, apply perspective changes, and apply changes to isolated areas with smart selection tools.
GIMP is an open source free photo editor, and its community of users and developers have created a huge collection of plugins to extend its utility even further. Many of these come pre-installed, and you can download more from the official glossary. If that's not enough, you can even install Photoshop plugins.
2. Ashampoo Photo Optimizer 2019
Fuss-free photo editing with automatic optimization tools
If you've got a lot of photos that you need to edit in a hurry, Ashampoo Photo Optimizer 2019 could be the tool for you. Its interface is clean and uncluttered, and utterly devoid of ads (although you'll need to submit an email address before you can start using it).
Importing pictures is a breeze, and once they've been added to the pool, you can select several at once to rotate or mirror, saving you valuable time. You can also choose individual photos to enhance with the software's one-click optimization tool. In our tests this worked particularly well on landscapes, but wasn't always great for other subjects.
If you want to make manual color and exposure corrections, there are half a dozen sliders to let you do exactly that. It's a shame you can't also apply the same color changes to a whole set of pictures at once, but this is otherwise a brilliant free photo editor for making quick corrections.
For more advanced editing, check out Ashampoo Photo Optimizer 7 – the premium version of the software with enhanced optimization tools.
3. Canva
Professional-level photo editing and templates in your browser
Canva is a photo editor that runs in your web browser, and is ideal for turning your favorite snaps into cards, posters, invitations and social media posts. If you're interested in maintaining a polished online presence, it's the perfect tool for you.
Canva has two tiers, free and paid, but the free level is perfect for home users. Just sign up with your email address and you'll get 1GB free cloud storage for your snaps and designs, 8,000 templates to use and edit, and two folders to keep your work organized.
You won't find advanced tools like clone brushes and smart selectors here, but there's a set of handy sliders for applying tints, vignette effects, sharpening, adjusting brightness, saturation and contrast, and much more. The text editing tools are intuitive, and there's a great selection of backgrounds and other graphics to complete your designs.
4. Fotor
One-click enhancements to make your photos shine in seconds
Fotor is a free photo editor that's ideal for giving your pictures a boost quickly. If there's specific area of retouching you need doing with, say, the clone brush or healing tool, you're out of luck. However, if your needs are simple, its stack of high-end filters really shine.
There's a foolproof tilt-shift tool, for example, and a raft of vintage and vibrant colour tweaks, all easily accessed through Fotor's clever menu system. You can manually alter your own curves and levels, too, but without the complexity of high-end tools.
Fotor's standout function, and one that's sorely lacking in many free photo editors, is its batch processing tool – feed it a pile of pics and it'll filter the lot of them in one go, perfect if you have a memory card full of holiday snaps and need to cover up the results of a dodgy camera or shaky hand.
5. Photo Pos Pro
Advanced photo editing tools packaged in a simple interface
Photo Pos Pro isn't as well known as Paint.net and GIMP, but it's another top-quality free photo editor that's packed with advanced image-enhancing tools.
Click on 'Downloads' or press 'Ctrl-J' to view your recent downloads. Click on the downloaded file you wish to access or type a keyword into the Search Downloads box to find the download you want. You can also click 'Open Downloads Folder' to access the Windows Downloads folder. Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the downloaded file, and choose Open Containing Folder (Windows) or Show in Finder (Mac OS). Safari (Mac OS): Choose Window Downloads or press Option+Command+L. To access this folder, users should open a Windows Explorer window and, in the pane on the left-hand side, click once on the Downloads folder. Users can also find this folder by typing in the file location C:UsersUsernameDownloads, but replace 'Username' with the unique username they have given their computer accounts. Dec 03, 2017 There are a couple of ways to access the Downloads folder from desktop as well as File Explorer. Either type its name in the Start menu or taskbar search box and press enter key, or open File Explorer (Windows Explorer) and then click Downloads folder located in the navigation pane, or type Downloads in the address bar followed by Enter key. Double-click the 'Downloads' folder in the Folders section. Depending on your File Explorer settings, the folders may display as large or small icons, or as a list. Video of the Day View in Details mode to easily sort and find the files you have downloaded in the Downloads folder.
This free photo editor's interface is smarter and more accessible than GIMP's array of menus and toolbars, with everything arranged in a logical and consistent way. If it's still too intimidating, there's also an optional 'novice' layout that resembles Fotor's filter-based approach. The choice is yours.
The 'expert' layout offers both layers and layer masks for sophisticated editing, as well as tools for adjusting curves and levels manually. You can still access the one-click filters via the main menu, but the focus is much more on fine editing.
6. Paint.NET
Looking a little dated, but still a dependable all-rounder
More is not, believe it or not, always better. Paint.NET's simplicity is one of its main selling points; it's a quick, easy to operate free photo editor that's ideal for trivial tasks that don't necessarily justify the sheer power of tools like GIMP.
Don't let the name fool you, though. This isn't just a cheap copy of Microsoft's ultra-basic Paint – even if it was originally meant to replace it. It's a proper photo editor, just one that lands on the basic side of the curve.
Paint.NET’s interface will remind you of its namesake, but over the years, they’ve added advanced editing tools like layers, an undo history, a ton of filters, myriad community-created plugins, and a brilliant 3D rotate/zoom function that's handy for recomposing images.
7. PhotoScape
Raw image conversion, batch processing and much more
PhotoScape might look like a rather simple free photo editor, but take a look at its main menu and you'll find a wealth of features: raw conversion, photo splitting and merging, animated GIF creation, and even a rather odd (but useful) function with which you can print lined, graph or sheet music paper.
The meat, of course, is in the photo editing. PhotoScape's interface is among the most esoteric of all the apps we've looked at here, with tools grouped into pages in odd configurations. It certainly doesn't attempt to ape Photoshop, and includes fewer features.
We'd definitely point this towards the beginner, but that doesn't mean you can't get some solid results. PhotoScape's filters are pretty advanced, so it's if good choice if you need to quickly level, sharpen or add mild filtering to pictures in a snap.
8. Pixlr X
A comprehensive browser-based photo editor for quick results
Pixlr X is the successor to Pixlr Editor, which was one of our favorite free online photo editors for many years.
Pixlr X makes several improvements on its predecessor. For starters, it's based on HTML5 rather than Flash, which means it can run in any modern browser. It's also slick and well designed, with an interface that's reminiscent of Photoshop Express, and a choice of dark or light color schemes.
With Pixlr X, you can make fine changes to colors and saturation, sharpen and blur images, apply vignette effects and frames, and combine multiple images. There's also support for layers, which you won't find in many free online photo editors, and an array of tools for painting and drawing. A great choice for even advanced tasks.
9. Adobe Photoshop Express Editor
A convenient way to correct lighting and exposure problems
As its name suggests, Adobe Photoshop Express Editor is a trimmed-down, browser-based version of the company's world-leading photo editing software. Perhaps surprisingly, it features a more extensive toolkit than the downloadable Photoshop Express app, but it only supports images in JPG format that are below 16MB.
Again, this is a Flash-based tool, but Adobe provides handy mobile apps for all platforms so you won’t miss out if you’re using a smartphone or tablet.
This free online photo editor has all the panache you’d expect from Adobe, and although it doesn’t boast quite as many tools as some of its rivals, everything that’s there is polished to perfection. Adobe Photoshop Express Editor is a pleasure to use. Its only drawbacks are the limits on uploaded file size and types, and lack of support for layers.
10. PiZap
A fun photo editor for preparing your pictures for social media
Free online photo editor PiZap is available in both HTML5 and Flash editions, making it suitable for any device. You can choose to work with a photo from your hard drive, Facebook, Google Photos, Google Drive, Google Search, or a catalog of stock images. This is an impressive choice, though some of the stock images are only available to premium subscribers, and you'll need to watch out for copyright issues if you use a pic straight from Google Images.
piZap’s editing interface has a dark, modern design that makes heavy use of sliders for quick adjustments – a system that works much better than tricky icons and drop-down menus if you’re using a touchscreen device.
When you’re done, you can share your creation on all the biggest social media networks, as well as piZap’s own servers, Dropbox and Google Drive. Alternatively, you can save it to your hard drive, send it via email, or grab an embed code. You can only export your work in high quality if you’ve opened your wallet for the premium editor, but for silly social sharing that’s unlikely to be a problem.
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Like all other creative endeavors, the advent of PCs well and truly revolutionized the process of photo editing. It did not take long for Photoshop to become king of the hill, through programs like GIMP and Paint.NET have also been a fan favorite over the decades.
The arrival of Windows 8, and then Windows 10, paved the way for the next breed of such software.
And although other mobile platforms are seeing more action when it comes to photo enhancers these days, many such apps are also available for Windows 10.
These, combined with the regular photo editors that desktop users have had access to for years now, make the latest version of the OS the best bet for photo editing.
That said, image editing is only a fun and rewarding experience if you have the right tools. Here are 10 of the best photo editors for Windows 10 that are perfect for the job.
Photo Editor | Best for | Pros | Cons | Rating |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Photoshop CC | Professional graphic designers | Expert feature set, unmated tools, regular updates | Expensive for casual use, monthly subscription required |
2 | PaintShop Pro X9 | Amateur photographers, web designers | Professional package, with features suited both for print and web | Requires a purchase, paid templates |
3 | PicsArt | Everyday use, creating social images | Overwhelming variety of predesigned art, vibrant community | Limited toolset for manual image editing |
4 | Photos Pos Pro | General use, students, web designers | A wealth of features and options, short learning curve | Limited resolution in the free version, performance could be better |
5 | Fotor | Everyday use, automatic image enhancements | Solid all-round photo editing, sleek user interface, excellent filters | Not as good when it comes to manual editing |
6 | Fhotoroom | When you need to quickly edit photos from your camera | Snappy performance, plenty of tools, social integration | Lacks creative image enhancement options |
7 | PhotoScape Editor | Almost perfect for home and general use | Overwhelming number of features, solid toolset | User interface all over the place |
8 | Photo Editor | Easy and automatic photo touchups | Lightweight, straightforward UI | Could do with more tools, very limited text input |
9 | The Nik Collection | Photographers, photo editors | Powerful suite of plugins, free, easy to pick up | Requires a host application, clunky UI, no update |
10 | Photoshop Express | Quick image enhancements | All basic filters and effects are included | Very limited options, UI could use some polish |
1. Photoshop CC
Much has been said about this flagship Adobe product, and much will be. But Photoshop CC remains an industry leader for a reason — multiple reasons, actually.
This beast of a photo editing program is loaded with an advanced feature that no other software comes close to matching. Advanced features that are refreshed and reimagined every year.
There are things you can do in Photoshop that simply can’t be done in other photo editors.
And that’s what sets it apart.
This de facto industry standard in raster graphics editing saw daylight in 1998, and each successive version has picked up a new set of tools and features.
From the spot, healing brushes to handle common photographic problems to the use of smart objects, 3D rendering, and advanced compositing to content aware tools, you get the best of the best for whatever photo editing or image creation task you need.
All this, of course, comes at a cost. The price is almost as high as its learning curve, which means that Photoshop CC is best suited for professionals and experienced designers.
Or those that are willing to put in the time and commitment to learn its various intricacies.
2. PaintShop Pro X9
Before the next generation of photo editors took charge, PaintShop held firm as the alternative to Photoshop.
It really is one of the better and more polished programs that you can get your hands on these days, for a fraction of the cost of Photoshop, and without the hassle of a subscription.
Originally published by Jasc Software, Corel acquired the program when it purchased the company in 2004. Since then, this powerful little piece of software has been snowballing into strength.
The program has a similar look and feels to other photo editors on the market — which is to say a polished and professional user interface that both novices and experienced image editors will feel right at home with.
And the best thing is even though PaintShop Pro offers a lot of advanced tools, it also balances things out with several quick and easy fixes that beginners are sure to appreciate.
You get one-click adjustments along with precise selections and layer capabilities, an array of pens and brushes to go with content aware editing tools.
X9, the latest version, packs in the comprehensive photo and image editing abilities with a selection of features that help with the creative graphic design.
Plenty of templates and text presets round up the versatility of this very capable program that offers a bit of everything for web, print and photo projects.
Add in plugins support, and you are playing with power. Excellent choice.
3. PicsArt
PicsArt is another one of those solutions that started life as a mobile app, but over the years has become an established platform and creative community.
One of the most popular image editing applications that the Windows Store houses, PicsArt brings along an eclectic array of tools and effects with it.
The developers boast of more than a 1,000 editing features, and every one of them is fun, engaging and easy to use. In need of photo effects? A collage maker? Drawing and painting tools? Filters? Clipart? Frames? Backgrounds? Even stickers? PicsArt has got you covered.
An impressive amount of customizability is also on offer, and this extends to both the drawing and painting feature sets.
Speaking of the latter, the photo editor in this freemium app packs in all manner of enhancements like support for layers, brush filters, masks, shapes, and whatnot.
PicsArt is a software that excels at what it aims to deliver, and that is easy and creative editing capabilities in an increasingly social world.
4. Photos Pos Pro
Photos Pos Pro may not be as widely known as Photoshop, Paint.NET, and GIMP, but when it comes to software that packs in advanced imaging tools, this program is one of the first names on the list.
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Its user interface is more refined and accessible than the latter two choices listed above, and its feature set rivals Photoshop in some aspects.
Photos Pos Pro offers two user interfaces — a regular one with all the options stacked, and one for beginners with a filter based approach.
The expert layout, as you may expect, is where all the action happens. You get sophisticated tools for photo editing, ranging from layers and masks to curves and levels adjustments.
A clone brush is also available for those detailed touch-ups, as is support for scripts and batch editing.
If there is a drawback in the free version of Photos Pos Pro, it’s that images can only be saved at a maximum resolution of 1024 x 2014, which means you probably will find the final output too small if you plan on printing it out.
Luckily, Photos Pos Pro Premium is available at a reasonable price of $39.90, for those that are ready to upgrade to the full functionality of this capable and very efficient image editor.
5. Fotor
Fotor landed on the Windows Store fairly early in the life of Microsoft’s modern platform. And though it is now also available as a standalone desktop program, it remains one of the best photo editing apps for Windows 10, giving you nearly everything you need to make your images look their best.
An all-in-one solution tailored towards image editing, Fotor comes with all the basic editing tools and visual effects that you expect from a professionally designed app like this.
A large selection of frames is also included, created with input from experienced designers and photographers, and the collage maker comes with a large variety of layout options to create the look you want.
Fotor also packs one brilliant trick up its proverbial sleeves — a batch processing tool. This is something that many image editing programs lack, and the inclusion of this feature allows you to add a bunch of photos at once and have Fotor do its magic on all of them at once.
An intuitive program that is very easy to use, with a UI that is right up there with the best, Fotor incorporates several tops of the line features that make photo editing a rewarding experience. Well worth a day.
6. Fhotoroom
Another popular Windows Store Entry, another creative name. Fhotoroom is billed as one of the most advanced non-destructive image editors around, with obligatory social features bundled in for modern Windows users.
Things start with some highly capable photo editing capabilities, including full support for things like GPS Metadata, EXIF, and all the popular formats. Tools range from resizing and rotation, color, exposure, and lens correction, and filter options include denoise, grain, and HDR.
In short, all bases covered.
Notable mention for the included presets and frames, as well as a sharing community and the ability to upload photos to social networking websites.
Fhotoroom is very easy to use, with a neatly designed interface that only adds to the allure of the popular and highly usable application. Recommended.
7. PhotoScape Editor
The only thing that drags PhotoScape Editor down is its rather unusual interface. Look beyond it, and you will find an image editing suite that is rich in features, and puts an impressive array of tools at your disposal, including, surprisingly, file management functionalities, as well.
Unlike some other programs in this list, PhotoScape is a photo editor through and through.
That’s its primary function.
But remarkably, this program offers a lot more than basic retouching.
It also serves as an image viewer, a batch editor, a screen capture tool, and a solution with a cornucopia of filters and effects that you can use to quickly liven up an image.
And that’s not all — you can stitch together multiple images into panoramas, create animated GIFs, deal with RAW files, create slideshows, and even print photos.
A peculiar looking circular menu greets you when you first up the program, and it provides access to all these various tools. The rest of the interface is as cluttered, to be brutally honest.
Ultimately, even if you don’t use this free program for all these additional functionalities, its prowess when it comes to photo editing is right up there at the top.
PhotoScape Editor is an accomplished image editor that has the potential to become truly next level with a UI uplift.
Worth a mention that the company also sells PhotoScape X Pro on the Windows Store, a somewhat expensive app at $29.99 that has a few tricks of its own. You might want to download a trial version and see whether it is for you.
8. Photo Editor
With a vanilla name like this, this photo editing program by Aviary shares a lot with Photoshop Express. In that, it is a powerful editor that lets you touch up your photos without any confusion. The UI shares similarities, as do the included filters and effects.
Which is certainly not a bad deal, considering the fact that this free app packages all the right tools you need to edit your photos straight from the camera.
Inside you’ll find all the basic photo editing tools like filters and effects, brightness and contrast options, along with support for several of the most popular file formats, including PNG.
Its text input is not as streamlined as other applications, which perhaps comes as no surprise for an app that deals with sliders and buttons to do the editing. A fully featured graphic design software, this is not.
It’s a good app — just don’t expect it to compete with some of the other big wigs out there.
9. The Nik Collection
Google acquired the developers of the Nik Collection in 2012, in what many felt was a rather surprising move. Since then, the search engine giant lowered its price before ultimately making this powerful suite of applications absolutely free for users to download and use.
Which was an enormous move, in of itself?
That’s because the Nik Collection brings along several advanced capabilities into the mix, from effects that simulate the feel of classic film cameras to HDR photography.
The included sharpening tool works well to bring out details in photos, while the selective color module does a great job adjusting the tone of your images.
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All these features are flanked by a comprehensive set of filters that help with color correction, photo retouching, and creative effects.
Although Google has stopped updating this very powerful image editing suite going forward, it still works nicely with the latest versions of Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom or Aperture — its designated selection of host applications — and remains one of the most capable photo editing solutions for remarkable the price of free.
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10. Photoshop Express
When a company like Adobe is behind something, you automatically have a certain level of expectation.
The world’s leading developer of design software may have the market cornered with Photoshop CC, but it also offers Photoshop Express, a sleek and streamlined version for Windows 10 devices.
Good thing, then, that Photoshop Express delivers.
The quick and easy way to apply filters and effects that Photoshop Express brings to the table makes it an easy recommendation if your sole purpose is to beautify your photos and make them remarkable.
The various filters and effects included in this program are easy to get started with and deliver excellent results overall.
It does miss out on a lot of manual editing tools and fine capabilities that other apps on this list offer. But that does not matter because, at the end of the day, Photoshop Express is best suited to transform everyday photos and your captured moments stand out — it’s the only way it rolls.