Do you own an older version of Photoshop, but not want to buy a subscription to use current versions of Adobe Photoshop? If so, here are some alternative image editors that are affordable and well reviewed. While many people find Apple’s Photos application adequate for their photo storage and editing needs, Photos is not sufficient for everybody. Adobe’s Photoshop and Photoshop Elements are two well-known alternatives but Photoshop has always been expensive and difficult to learn. If your needs exceed Photos but do not warrant Photoshop, you might find that Acorn, Pixelmator Pro, Graphic Converter or Affinity Photos meets your needs.
As of mid-2019, all of these applications can be purchased outright and cost between $30-$50. Additionally, trial versions are available.
- Acorn – originally released in 2007
- Pixelmator Pro– originally released in 2007
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Graphic Converter – originally released in the early 1990’s. At one time a trial version used to be bundled with every new Mac. I’ve used this application over the years, for my very humble needs and find it easy to use. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a very capable, feature-rich application that can meet the news of both amateurs and professionals.
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Affinity Photo – Affinity Photo is just one of three applications made by Serif Europe. The other two applications, Designer and Publisher are considered by some to be viable alternatives to Adobe’s Illustrator and InDesign, respectively. Affinity’s first Mac application was Designer, which was released in 2014. Photo was released in 2015 and Publisher was later added. They also make iOS versions of all of these applications.