Photo app without subscription

[Mary H]

I am looking for an app to replace Photoshop Elements. I use it occasionally to make photo corrections, open someone's eyes, blur out a child's face before posting online, and a few other things. For years I was happy with Photoshop Elements until earlier this year when I upgraded my ios it no longer worked. Now I see I can purchase a subscription for the app but the amt I use it does not warrant the subscription price. I can purchase a new Photoshop Elements but it only has a 3 year term and then it ceases to work. I am looking for an alternative to this. What suggestions for a photo app without a subscription are there.

I have a MacBook Pro M1 Tahoe 26.5.1

Thanks,
Mary

 

[maflynn]

Darktable is a popular open source app. Check them out

 

[Herbert123]

Great replacements for Photoshop Elements are:

- PhotoLine | 79 euro perpetual license | pl32.com
- Krita | free | krita.org (free AI plugin at github.com/Acly/krita-ai-diffusion)
- Affinity | free, subscription | www.affinity.studio/
- Photopea | free, web-based | www.photopea.com/
- GIMP | Free | www.gimp.org/

RAW photo developers:
- rawtherapee | free| rawtherapee.com/
- Darktable | free | www.darktable.org/

Pixelmator isn't included, because it is now part of Apple's software suite and paid subscription only.

Most of the image editors listed above do not have an image browser built-in like PS Elements. PhotoLine does offer that option. Rawtherapee and Darktable do have this functionality, and usually after a photo is processed in (for example) Rawtherapee the result is sent to an image editor for specific edits (if required).

 

[MacGizmo]

Affinity (free app, with a free canva account required) is superb. It's about as close to the full Adobe Photoshop experience as you can get. It's probably a LOT more than you need, but it's a fantastic app. That being said, some of the things you mention (opening eyes, etc.) are probably part of the AI aspect of most apps, and thus, will require a subscription.

 

[Herbert123]

That being said, some of the things you mention (opening eyes, etc.) are probably part of the AI aspect of most apps, and thus, will require a subscription.

If you install Krita with the free locally-run genAI extension, no subscription is required for tasks like opening eyes, changing expressions, and so forth. All free - excepting your electricity bill.

Of course, it does depend somewhat on the amount of RAM: 8GB or less may be tight for certain tasks. 16GB or more is preferred.

 

[Mary H]

Thanks everyone 🙂

 

[wonderings]

If you install Krita with the free locally-run genAI extension, no subscription is required for tasks like opening eyes, changing expressions, and so forth. All free - excepting your electricity bill.

Of course, it does depend somewhat on the amount of RAM: 8GB or less may be tight for certain tasks. 16GB or more is preferred.

Krita works a lot better if you have a dedicated GPU as well. I compared my M1 Max to my old PC build that had a RTX 2070. The PC was much much faster. I have not used it in a while but if memory serves me there is some GPU optimization that Krita has.

That being said as others have mentioned Affinity is an amazing option if you can live without AI, that is the only part that is going to cost you a subscription fee, everything but AI is part of the free software.