Open Source Moom Alternatives For Mac

Deciding on an alternative for Photoshop depends a lot on what you use Photoshop for. There are five apps that I'll give you some information about that are trying to compete head-to-head with Photoshop. If you have more targeted image creation needs there are some apps that may even be a better option than Photoshop.

Apache OpenOffice is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It is available in many languages and works on all common computers. Most of the open source software (leave the first one, its an operating system) listed here comes with cross-platform support, that means you can install it an run in multiple platforms such as — Windows, Mac, Linux. Best open source alternatives for expensive applications: Start here — Use Linux distro instead of Windows.

1. GIMP: A Great Photoshop Alternative and It's Open Source

Gimp has a strong user community that supports its product and a large feature set, though it has a different interface and way of doing things than Photoshop.

For those used to doing things in Photoshop, but who are interested in checking out this free software, look into Gimpshop. It's a modification of Gimp that is similar to Photoshop's user interface.

Download Gimp
Download Gimpshop

2. Pixelmator: Young Application Though Growing Strong

Wow, their website is beautiful. Visual studio code tfs. You shouldn't buy software based solely on its brand design, but let's face it, it sure does help. Pixelmator is a young application, but has a growing set of features. For example, in their 1.1 release version, code named kitten, they've just added tablet-based pressure sensitivity support. They have active forums, a downloadable manual for their product, and some juice moving them forward fast. Watch out for this app.

Download Pixelmator Trial.

3. PhotoLine: Lots of Features but Lacks that Mac-Like Feel

Photoline is positioned as a Photoshop alternative. It is a commercial app with a large feature set. Its fast, powerful, and stable. But a few issues would make me hesitate before investing any time into the software: their website lacks that professional feel that makes you feel confident about the software your buying, their forums don't appear to be very active. Macapper does, however, give them high ratings and there is a Photoline Review there. Photoline has a few features where it may edge out Photoshop that are pointed out in this review, so it's worth a read.

Download Photoline Trial.

4. Pixel Image Editor - Lone Developer Application

Pavel Kanzelsberger has been developing Pixel Image Editor in his spare time for the last eight years,
and as we know from the popular Textmate, sometimes these lone developer apps can be great. Pixel looks like it'll deliver the goods too. There is a wide range of tools, lots of layers, effects, and workspace options. I tried to follow a link to the Wiki and Forums and it went nowhere. So, no guarantee with community support on this one.

Download Pixel Trial.

Noteworthy Alternatives

A. Acorn: A Lighter Image Editor

While Acorn is not a strong competitor to Photoshop, it may be a good solution for users that have light image editing needs and are on a budget.

Download Accorn Trial.

B. Iris: Rated B as in Betaware

Iris is a single window editor. No option for floating palettes. While I often like that kind of interface, I would like more workspace options. This product has a ways to go before it will meet up to its listed launch price. Here is a link to a review over at CreativeBits that points out some nice features found in Iris.

Download Iris Beta.

Alternatives to Photoshop Based on Your Industry or Needs

There are some applications that are more refined for specific industries image needs, or may be for niche work within the industry. While Photoshop is generally seen as the leading tool for building website layouts, one major alternative for production-based work is Fireworks. About a year-and-a-half ago, Macromedia, the company behind Fireworks was acquired by Adobe, so it's hard to know what the future for this program is, but one hopes it'll continue on.

Download Fireworks Trial.

Another example of a good industry-specific tool is Cinepaint. This open source application focuses on prepping images for movies. Some top studios use it in their workflow.

Download Cinepaint.

Scaled-Back Alternatives to Photoshop

Another way to look at alternatives to Photoshop may not reside in full-blown apps. It takes time to launch Photoshop—after all it's a big app. It may be overkill for some needs. So there are a plethora of products out that cater to doing just a handful of actions really well and very fast. An example of an application like this is ImageWell. If you need to crop an image, adjust its quality, and then send it directly to Flickr, then this app was made for you.

Download ImageWell.

Adobe Has a Scaled Back Version of Photoshop as Well

Photoshop Elements is a lighter version of Photoshop for the budget-conscious. If you only need to do simple image editing in Photoshop, then check it out.

Download Photoshop Elements Trial.

Conclusion

If you can afford Photoshop, it will in most cases solve your needs. Though if you are on a budget, have a philosophical preference for open source, like trying out new software, or you have refined image-building or editing needs then there are some alternatives out there to Photoshop.

Anyone in the community that has experience with these applications, or alternatively, applications in other operating systems, let us know in the comments. We'd like to gather more resources for Photoshop alternatives for the Psdtuts+ community. A lot of the programs listed in this article are available for multiple operating systems. Let us know your experiences with alternative image editing applications in different operating systems as well.

We recently blogged about the best video editing software for YouTubers, and some of you mailed us asking for free and open source alternatives. So, here we are, with a list of open source video editors for every major platform.

Not many options. Why?

If you are coming here from Google, you might already know, there aren’t many options when you are looking for open source video editors. One reason for that is the fact that video editors are generally used commercially and need constant updates, which is why it makes sense to sell them instead of just giving it away for free. But still, there are some nuggets that we, at TechWiser, were able to find for you.

Since the tech giants are vying for our attention and there are multiple platforms to choose from, I will be sharing some video editors, open source, of course, that you can use on any device. Plus, one of them is available on all the platforms. This is to bring consistency to your work.

1. Open Source Video Editor for Windows

Let’s begin with Windows as it’s one of the most used OS in the world. Love it, hate it, you will find it everywhere. Good job, Bill Gates.

Shotcut is an open-source video editor that is available on multiple platforms like Windows, Linux, and Mac. It comes with a number of features with support for FFmpeg. FFmpeg is a suite of libraries and tools that help with audio and video editing.

Note: Here is an extensive guide on FFmpeg and how to use it. You can find more on the web.

You can work with different video formats with 4k, titles, and there is support for composition, transition. There are a number of video effects that you can choose to apply to your video. Video editing is not it’s only strength. Shotcut offers amazing audio editing tools too like filters, scopes, mixing, effects, and transitions.

Shotcut has a really nice UI which looks professional and works amazingly well for a FOSS. It can also work with HTML and MLT XML file formats. It also supports more codecs than most video editing tools out there.

Shotcut is more suitable for intermediates and experts than newbies who are looking to add simple effects on their beach holiday videos for Instagram and Facebook. There are apps available for that.

The UI is rather simple when you launch the software, and you might think it is just a player. As you begin messing around with the buttons and drop-down menus, you will realize the full potential.

Shotcut is totally free with no ads or additional third-party software.

Download Shotcut for Windows Mac Linux (Free)

2. Open Source Video Editor for Mac

Although, Shotcut is also available for macOS, I wanted to talk about another software, that can utilize the true power of your Mac.

Blender, a free and open source software (FOSS), is a crazy powerful video editor which is widely used by professional YouTubers, game makers, indie and big-name movie makers, and even engineering simulations. In fact, rumor has it that it was used in the making of Spiderman 2. This video editor has been written entirely in C++ and python.

Blender is awesome when you want to make 3D videos and animations. An open GNU licensed piece of software, it comes with tools for animation, character development, modeling and node tools.

Video Sequence Editor or VSE is the tool that will allow you to work with transformations, color gradients, and mixing among others.

Blender will take some time getting used as there a lot of features and tools to master, but once you do get the hang of it, you should be able to create something truly awesome. A video editor once told me that he could also use Blender for non-destructive (non-linear) video editing.

Download Blender for Mac Windows Linux (Free)

3. Open Source Video Editor for Linux

Again, Blender and Shotcut, both are open source and available on all 3 popular platforms. But if you are running a Linux machine, chances are that you need something less powerful and more simple. Not everyone wants to make a movie. Some of us are happy posting random vacation videos on Facebook and Snapchat.

We talked about non-linear video editing in Blender. Kdelive, another open source video editor that is available for Linux, Windows, and Mac, stands for KDE Non-linear Video Editor. It was built from the ground up to be simple and easy based on the MLT framework. It supports pretty much all the video file formats.

You will have to compile it for Mac and Windows there’s that. Kdenlive is good for editing small videos and not editing movie clips. The interface could be better than what it is currently but still professional.

Kdenlive comes with FFmpeg which means there is support for pretty much all the codecs you can think of and use. There is support for multi-tracks, special effects, and transitions. Where it shines is the user forum where you will find an active community ready to help you out.

Download Kdenlive for Linux Mac Windows

4. Open Source Video Editor for Android

I love F-Droid. They have some of the most amazing open source mobile apps ever. Video Transcoder is a FOSS, GNU General Public License, with support for a wide variety of video formats.

You can use it to trim, cut, and join videos, and also extract audio from the video. An app with support for FFmpeg got to be awesome. Using FFmpeg, you can transcode video files into different formats. It FFmpeg also means it supports quite a few codecs.

Read: Best Apps on Fdroid

There is support for different filters and effects with the ability to control speed and transitions.

Download Video Transcoder for Android

5. Open Source Video Editor for iOS

We were not able to find any open source video editor for iOS. However, iMovie is a robust video editing tool that was built by Apple itself. The app is free to download and use. It works on both iOS and macOS which is a plus.

You can add titles, some special effects, and background music on the fly. iPhones are known for their DSLR like image qualities and with that thought in mind, iMovie supports 4k. There is additional support for broadcasting, picture-in-picture, split-screen and speed control.

iMovie is not bad but surely there are other alternatives available on the App Store. These alternatives won’t be free though.

Download iMovie for iOS macOS

Wrapping Up: Open Source Video Editors

There are a few powerful open source video editors available for all platforms with a lot of having cross-platform compatibility. Which one should you use depends on your usage and project rather than a cost because they are all free. I would suggest Blender because it is really powerful and Kdenlive if you are looking for something more basic.

If you have a good internet speed, you can also try one of these online video editor. Although they are not open source, the good thing about them is that you don’t have to download any software or sign-up for anything.