Photo Editors
1. GIMP
GIMP is a free, open-source alternative to Photoshop that's been around for donkey's years, GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program. Today it's available in versions for Linux, Windows, and Mac. GIMP offers a wide toolset, similar to Photoshop in many ways, and is a great alternative if you're looking for a no-cost image editor. The interface differs somewhat from Photoshop, but a version of GIMP is available that mimics Adobe's look and feel, making it easier to migrate over if you're ditching Photoshop. Overall, this is a great option whether you've either got a limited budget, or want to move away from Photoshop for other reasons.
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Platform: Linux, Windows, Mac
2. Pixlr
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Pixlr comes with more than 600 effects. Pixlr claims to be "the most popular online photo editor in the world", which may have something to do with the fact that it's free. But it also boasts more than 600 effects, overlays, and borders and lets you do all the main things you'd expect from a photo editor, from cropping and re-sizing to removing red-eye and whitening teeth. And if you're used to using Photoshop, then you'll find Pixlr's user interface easy to pick up quickly, as it's very similar. This free app is available in both iOS and Android varieties.
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Platform: iOS, Android
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3. Paint.net
For photo editing, free Windows tool Paint.net is an excellent alternative to Photoshop. Paint.net is a Windows-based alternative to the Paint editor that Microsoft shipped with versions of Windows. Don't let that put you off, though, as it's a surprisingly capable and useful tool, available completely free of charge. The software started out life as a Microsoft-sponsored undergraduate project, and has become an open source project maintained by some of the alumni.
The focus is on ease of use, and there's a definite tendency towards photo editing rather than artistic creation. That said, there are a range of special effects available, allowing you to easily create fake perspective, blend and push pixels around the canvas, tile and repeat selections, and so on. A good range of selection tools, support for layers, and adjustments such as curves and brightness/contrast mean that Paint.net is a great alternative to Photoshop for photo editing, especially if you can do without some of the more recent additions to Photoshop's tool set.
4. Seashore
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If you are based on Mac and are feeling left out, don’t worry, Seashore is an open-source image editing tool based on Mac’s Cocoa framework. This tool makes use of the same native file formatting as GIMP does and that makes the case for this tools offerings of similar features as offered on GIMP. Although not quite powerful as Photoshop or GIMP, this tool offers major editing features like brush strokes, gradients, multiple layers and much of all the good stuff. Simple to use and an easy-on-the-eye interface is all the Seashore image editing tool is all about.
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Supported Platforms: Mac OS X
5. PicMonkey
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PicMonkey is another image editing tool, which lets you edit your images, right off your browser. The tool offers some great Instagram-like image editing filters and some other nifty tools like blemish removal, wrinkle removers and such, which may tarnish your image for the worse, if overdid. You can add more flair to your images with sticky overlays as in funny moustaches and party hats. Although not quite well off the ground, the free version of PicMonkey has only much to offer.
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Supported Platforms: Web-Based
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Key Features: Shapes, textures, text, effects, filters and overlays, etc.
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Supported File Formats: BMP, JPEG, GIF, TIFF, PNG.
