You don’t have to use Adobe Photoshop on your Mac to edit images like a pro. There are plenty of Photoshop alternatives for Mac that you can download or use in-browser to create just the right images and graphics for your projects. And some of them are completely free!
None of these are necessarily one-size-fits-all solutions. Each tool tends to serve a specific purpose; Do you want to edit online or on a desktop? Are you editing photos or multiple file types? Is all the work for web or will images get printed?
Inkscape is an excellent Photoshop CS2 Mac alternative, meant for creating artistic and technical illustrations. The tools let you retouch shots, create logos or banners, use different brushes. The program is suitable for performing any vector graphics tasks as well. Everybody knows what Adobe Photoshop is, but Adobe Photoshop 7.0 is the last version that could run under Mac OS 9. Since Adobe Photoshop 7 was carbonized, it was also ready to run under Mac OS X. Download Adobe Photoshop 7.0 & 7.0.1 for Mac. Ps7.0.1Updater.sit (11.17 MiB / 11.71 MB). Adobe photoshop 7 free download - Adobe Photoshop CC, Adobe Photoshop Elements, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC, and many more programs. 2014- Mac Pro Tests: Lightroom, Photoshop, Aperture, and More. 2014-01-17 PhaseOne CaptureOne Pro: GPUs are 3X Faster than CPU on 2013 Mac Pro. 2014- Mac Pro for Photography: How Fast is It? 2014-01-08 In Stock at B&H: 6-core Mac Pro. 2013-12-24 Worth Converting to a New Mac Pro? Office Suite 2020 Microsoft Word 2019 2016 2013 2010 2007 365 Compatible Software CD Powered by Apache OpenOfficeTM for PC Windows 10 8.1 8 7 Vista XP 32 64 Bit & Mac OS X - No Yearly Subscription! By PixelClassics.
Here’s a list of the best Photoshop alternatives for Mac in 2020, but not in any particular order. Have a read through to find the one that’s right for you.
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1. Affinity Photo
Affinity Photo is a past Apple Mac App of the Year Winner and the professional tool has everything you’d expect in a premium photo-editing product.
Use it to edit and retouch images as well as create multi-layer pieces. The professional corrections and adjustments tools rival any other app out there and it has a great noise-reduction filter. Retouching options include the usual dodge, burn, clone, patch, blemish, and red eye tools, but there’s also an inpainting brush and liquify feature.
Other key features:
- Dedicated camera RAW workspace
- HDR merge
- Panorama stitching
- Bath processing
- 360-degree image editing
Cost: $49.99
Try it:From the App Store
Try it:From the App Store
2. Sketch
Sketch isn’t a photo-editing app per se, but you can editing images within the Mac prototyping tool.
The best part of editing in Sketch is that all edits are nondestructive, meaning that any of your changes take effect without overwriting the original image file. (So you can always go back to the original if you want.)
Sketch allows for basic image editing including inverting images, cropping and color fill. It can be described as a basic bitmap editor and for many simple projects is enough.
Other key features:
- Color adjustment capability – hue, saturation, brightness and contrast
- Reduce image/file size
- Replace and change images in projects with one click (Since you are using the same tool)
- Ability to work in layers
- Also includes ability to edit vector elements
Cost: $99/year
Try it:From Sketch
3. GIMP
GIMP offers powerful photo manipulation and editing capability in a free, open source package. (You can also download the source code and make changes as you see fit and add more functionality with third-party plugins.)
GIMP is designed for high-quality photo manipulation including retouching images and photo restorations. Users can also use it to create original artwork, a feature that many other non-Photoshop editors don’t provide (or have but it can be difficult to use).
Other key features:
- Ability to create icons and other elements
- Use for scripted image manipulation (C, C++, Perl, Python, Scheme and more)
- Color management tools included with Scribus, Inkscape and SwatchBooker
- Large number of usable file formats and a customizable workspace
- Extensive tutorial library on the website so you can learn the tool easily
Cost: Free
Try it:From GIMP
Try it:From GIMP
4. Pixelmator Pro
Pixelmator Pro is a nondestructive editor that allows you to make changes to images and draw in the app. It also includes a nifty machine learning auto color adjustments tool to help make color changes a breeze.
One of the best features of Pixelmator Pro is that you can even export images for the web – hello, optimization – so you don’t have to use multiple tools to edit and then shrink image for top website quality production. Pixelmator Pro also includes some workflow tools to help you work more efficiently.
Other key features:
- Works with Mac’s Touch Bar
- Live preview option so you can see how changes will look before committing
- Text editing capabilities
- SVG editing and export
- Painting tools so you can draw anything by hand
Cost: $59.99
Try it: From the App Store or try the free demo
Try it: From the App Store or try the free demo
5. Pixlr Pro
Pixlr Pro is an in-browser image editing app that’s packed with photo, vector and text editing capability. You can edit like a pro with tools that include layer masks, multiple brush options, curve and level adjustments, color and blend modes, effects and filters, and transform and wrap tools.
What’s different about Pixlr Pro, which also has a free version, is that you don’t have to download anything to use it. All the tools are right in your browser (and it has strong browser compatibility). It also includes a lot of other goodies to help jumpstart projects, such as templates and fonts.
Other key features:
- Includes access to 1 million royalty-free stock images
- Comes with more than 10,000 photo templates
- Works with PSD and Sketch image files
- Smart healing tools for photo correction
- Refine edge tool make it easy to mask complex objects
Cost: $5/month
Try it:From Pixlr
Try it:From Pixlr
6. PicMonkey
PicMonkey is a well-known online photo editor and retoucher. It has the most complicated structure of features of all the tools in this list with free, basic and pro pricing plans with different levels of features and tools.
If you plan to use any of the advanced features – save and export, advanced retouching, effects and overlays, fonts – then you are probably looking at the pro level plan. Free plans include ads; paid plans do not. PicMonkey is a pretty straightforward tool that is popular with users creating images for social media and online-only use with a simple photo editor and design tools.
Other key features:
- Add-ons include filters, overlays and text tools
- Touch up photos to add more visual interest
- Watermark and other templates to make projects quick
- Ability to create a photo collage
- Simple interface with ready to use buttons in-browser or using the desktop app
Cost: Starting at $5.99/month
Try it: From PicMonkey
Try it: From PicMonkey
7. Fotor
The tool that the BBC called “Photoshop lite” is simple and easy to use. Edit images, add effects and text or tough up portraits like a pro with Fotor.
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The photo editor has all the tools you’d expect for everyday editing with shape and aspect ratio cropping, color, saturation and white balance options and ability to straighten and rotate images. You can also create a custom college in the app.
Other key features:
- Bath processing option
- Tilt-shirt tools adds focus and blurring for a professional look
- 13 1-tap photo enhancement options
- Use popular file formats such as RAW, PNG, JPG, BMP, GIF and TIFF
- Optimize images for retina displays
Cost: Free
Try it:From the App Store
Try it:From the App Store
8. Acorn
Acorn is another nondestructive piece of Mac photo editing software that has a robust set of tools. The company claims that it has “everything you need in an image editor” with the ability to add layer masks and selections to touch up images or make something entirely new. You can also remove backgrounds, combine images, perform color corrections, resize, transform, crop and more.
While Acorn is billed as an image editor, it also includes vector tools as well and a text on a path feature.
Other key features:
- 100+ photo effects — vignette, drop shadow, gradients, sharpening, color correction, distortions, blurs
- Web export and scaling
- Smart layer export
- Camera RAW image import and editing
- Ability to import Photoshop brushes
Cost: $29.99
Try it:From The Flying Meat store (other addons also available)
Try it:From The Flying Meat store (other addons also available)
9. SumoPaint
SumoPaint has free and paid version with different options. One key difference is whether you want to edit image on- or off-line (paid only).
SumoPaint is billed as an image manipulator with plenty of options, not all of which are designed for working with photos. The native Sumo file format also provides a nondestructive save option. The tool includes plenty of brushes, shapes and colors and gradients to jumpstart any project. It also allows for use of layers and comes with plenty of filters.
Other key features:
- Lighting, reflection and mosaic tools
- Animated and 3D brush options
- Auto-smoothing feature
- Text tool
- Ability to adjust curves and levels with ease
Cost: $4/month
Try it:From SumoPaint
Try it:From SumoPaint
10. DxO PhotoLab
DxO PhotoLab is the go-to for RAW photo editing. It’s packed with features – you might even mistake the dashboard for Photoshop at a glance – and doesn’t get bogged down when working with large files and detailed images.
The tools include the ability to editing using control points to work on just the parts of a photo you want to edit, there are plenty of brushes for precise work, a graduated filter makes landscape photos look great and the auto repair mode can remove unwanted elements from images.
Other key features:
- Smooth transitions between elements that preserve textures and shadows
- Fast processing
- Auto lighting optimization tool
- ClearView filter removes atmospheric haze from landscape photos
- 40,000 camera and lens combinations
Cost: $99.99 (Essential Edition)
Try it:From DxO
Try it:From DxO
Adobe Photoshop does not need any introduction. It has been the professional image-editing standard for decades, and we use it as a verb for photo manipulation. In addition, countless amateur users have searched for a free Photoshop download. While there are several alternative applications, on this guide we will download Photoshop legally and for free from Adobe.
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Table of Contents
- How can a free Photoshop download be legal?
How can a free Photoshop download be legal?
As you probably know, Adobe Photoshop is a commercial program, the price of which used to be quite high. The last standalone version, CS6, started at $699. The extended CS6 edition could go all the way up to $2,599.
Since 2013, Adobe changed its pricing model, turning Photoshop into a pay-as-you-go service. The latest Creative Cloud (CC) versions are only available as Adobe subscriptions.
Adobe Photoshop For Mac
If we want to use Photoshop for a single month, it will cost us $29.99. We can get discounted options for a monthly commitment of one year, or if we prepay for the whole year.
It's certainly more cost effective than buying the CS6 version. However, if we are not earning money from our work with Photoshop, it's hard to justify the cost just for the occasional crop, resize, or filter.
So, how is it possible to download Photoshop for free from Adobe?
![Mac Mac](/uploads/1/2/6/5/126543488/879313475.jpg)
How we got a free Photoshop download
The key to this whole deal is that Adobe allows a free Photoshop download only for an old version of the app. Namely Photoshop CS2, which was released in May 2005.
CS2 was one of the first versions of the Photoshop, if not the very first, with Internet activation. It needed to communicate with an Adobe server to activate the program.
Around 2013, Adobe had to disable the activation server for CS2 products, 'because of a technical issue.' The company has not provided any additional information on the nature of this problem.
Since there is no server to activate the program anymore, this posed a problem for Adobe clients who had bought Photoshop CS2. The company had to provide an alternative method for activation.
The 'technical issue' would suggest that this would be a temporary solution. However, it has proven to be anything but. Since it is an old version of Photoshop, Adobe hasn't bothered to re-launch the CS2 activation server and probably doesn't plan to do so.
As a result, it is possible even today to download Photoshop CS2 from the Adobe website. CS2 might be more than a decade old, but it sure beats risking any illegal method for Photoshop download, especially for occasional users.
After all, how many casual, non-professional users use even a 10% of Photoshop's functions? And how many need the latest version instead of CS2?
How to download Photoshop for free
To download Photoshop CS2, we'll first need to create an Adobe ID account or sign in if we already have one.
If you have to sign up, make sure you type the password right, because the sign-up process won't ask for confirmation.
Having completed our Adobe registration, we can download Photoshop for free at https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-suite/kb/cs2-product-downloads.html?promoid=19SCDRQK
We scroll down the page and select the language of our choice.
We will find several different CS2 products that we can download for free. For this guide, we will only download Photoshop. Of course, you are free to download whichever applications you want.
The English version of the Photoshop CS2 installer is 340MB. It should download in less than five minutes with an average ADSL line.
For a faster download experience, we can use a download accelerator, such as BitComet.
Even though there is a version for Mac, Photoshop CS2 only works on PowerPC Macs, the only version of Mac that existed in 2005. We can not install it on current models with Intel CPUs. So, it's only possible to download Photoshop CS2 for Windows.
Coincidentally, 2005 was the year that Steve Jobs announced the transition for Macintosh computer to Intel CPUs, and the first Intel-based models went for sale in January 2006. So, if CS2 had come out a year later, there would probably be compatibility with Intel Macs.
Free Photoshop Software For Mac
How to install Photoshop for free
After we have downloaded the installer, we locate it in our downloads folder and run it.
The installation is simple. At the serial number prompt, we copy and paste the following:
The most observant among you have noticed that is is the serial number Adobe provides at the download page. Apparently, it's a special serial number that does not require an internet activation.
Soon afterwards, the installation is complete.
When we start Photoshop, we will get a 'Registration' screen, which we can safely ignore. However, no matter if we select 'Register Later' or 'Do Not Register,' we will keep getting it every time we start Photoshop.
And this is it. The environment where many graphic designers, photographers, architects, engineers, artists had worked for hours each day in 2005 and the following years.
Photoshop CS2 is fully functional at the latest version of Windows 10, which is Creators Update, as of this writing.
Shortly after launching, Adobe Updater will open. Since there is nothing to update, we can clear the checkbox. As opposed to the registration prompt, the updater won't bother us again.
Can I use this free Photoshop in my business?
As you probably know, many countries have a much stricter policy on pirated software when it is for commercial use than for personal home use.
Even though we downloaded Photoshop from Adobe, and didn't use any illegitimate ways to activate it, we don't own a CS2 license. Adobe makes it abundantly clear that the particular website is for CS2 license owners.
Therefore, if you have a business, we urge you to consult your lawyer on whether it is lawful to download Photoshop CS2 and use it for free.
With other free image editing applications like GIMP, which is quite easy to make it look and work like Photoshop, there is no question of legitimacy for professional use.
Will Adobe provide free Photoshop download options for other versions?
Based on Adobe's explanation on why they allowed the CS2 Photoshop download in the first place, it seems highly unlikely that we will get the chance to download Photoshop CS3, CS4, CS5, or CS6 in the future.
There is also no guarantee that it will be possible to download Photoshop for free with this method in six months, a year, or in the distant future. Adobe had removed the links once in the past, and they might do it again.
However, if you download the installation file, you can use Adobe's serial number to install Photoshop for free as many times as you like.
Lastly, we tested the Photoshop download and installation in the newest Creators Update version of Windows 10. It is possible that it will not work on a future Windows 10 versions. After all, Photoshop CS2 was designed to operate on Windows XP.
Did you have any problems downloading Photoshop for free?
Anything in the guide did not work as we described? Did you have any trouble downloading Photoshop? Did everything go swimmingly? Let us know in the comments below.
See more ways to download Adobe Photoshop CC for free without torrents, cracks, and Keygen.
![For For](/uploads/1/2/6/5/126543488/515171968.png)
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