The Best Photo Editors for Mac in 2026

The Mac has long been the platform of choice for creative professionals and hobbyists alike. Ever since the first Mac debuted in 1984, its intuitive interface, powerful capabilities, and sleek design have made it hugely popular for tasks like photo editing. Fast forward nearly 40 years, and the Mac is still the go-to for many photographers and graphic designers looking to turn their pictures into masterpieces.

But with the huge array of photo editing software now available for macOS, finding the right app for your needs and experience level can feel overwhelming, especially if you‘re new to photo editing. Don‘t worry – we‘ve done the hard work for you. In this in-depth guide, we‘ll walk you through the best photo editors for Mac in 2023, from pro-level powerhouses to free and easy-to-use options for beginners. By the end, you‘ll have all the information you need to pick the perfect photo editor for you.

Picking Your Perfect Photo Editor for Mac

At the most basic level, photo editors take two main approaches:
• Non-destructive editing: Applies adjustments and effects on top of your original image, which you can modify or remove later without permanently changing the source file. Great for basic edits and trying different looks.
• Pixel-based/destructive editing: Directly manipulates the pixels in your image, changing the original file data. Crucial for advanced editing and creating photorealistic composites. Use layers and masks to preserve your source image and make non-destructive edits.

The best photo editors, like Photoshop, combine both approaches. But many casual users can get by with non-destructive editing alone. So before choosing a photo editor, consider your needs and skill level:

• Are you a professional photographer or graphic designer who requires the highest degree of precision and control over every aspect of your images? You‘ll want an advanced pixel-based editor with features like customizable workspaces, RAW processing, complex selection tools, and extensive layer/masking capabilities.

• Do you need to edit photos for your business or side hustle, but don‘t require every bell and whistle? Look for an editor geared towards enthusiasts and prosumers, with a good balance of power and ease of use at a more affordable price.

• Are you a hobbyist who mostly wants to touch up and enhance your photos without getting lost in a sea of complex tools? Go for a photo editor built for simplicity, with guided edits, one-click adjustments and filters, and an intuitive interface.

We‘ve selected winners in each of those categories below. But first, let‘s look at the key criteria we considered when evaluating the best photo editors for Mac:

Essential Editing Tools

All of the photo editors we recommend offer a robust toolset for perfecting your images, including:

• Making global adjustments to exposure, white balance, contrast, saturation, etc.
• Using brushes and selection tools to edit specific parts of the photo
• Working with layers to combine and merge different image elements
• Applying masks to show or hide certain areas non-destructively
• Retouching photos to remove blemishes, brighten eyes, smooth skin, etc.

Standout Features

While the fundamentals are key, the very best photo editors go above and beyond with cutting-edge features that give you more creative possibilities and save time, such as:

• AI-powered tools that intelligently select subjects, replace skies, remove objects, etc.
• Built-in presets and filters for instantly transforming your images with a click
• Non-destructive RAW processing for applying adjustments before opening files
• Focus stacking, HDR merging, and panorama stitching
• Batch processing to efficiently edit multiple photos at once

Ease of Use & Interface

Especially if you‘re new to photo editing, an intuitive, well-designed interface can make all the difference in your experience and results. We gave high marks to editors that offer:

• Helpful onboarding with welcome screens, tooltips, and tutorials
• Distinct icons and typography for easily distinguishing tools
• Customizable workspaces you can tailor to your editing style
• Touch Bar and trackpad gesture support on compatible Macs

Learning Resources & Support

Even the most user-friendly photo editor involves a learning curve. So the availability of tutorials, guides, and an active support community is a huge plus. The best photo editors for Mac provide:

• Detailed help documentation and how-to articles
• Free video courses on editing techniques and workflows
• Forums where you can ask questions and get feedback
• Responsive customer support if you run into technical issues

With those factors in mind, here are our picks for the best photo editors for Mac.

The Winners: Best Photo Editors for Mac

Best Overall for Pros: Adobe Photoshop

For over 30 years, Photoshop has been synonymous with photo editing – and for good reason. This incredibly deep and powerful program is the industry standard for everyone from photographers to digital artists to graphic designers. If you can imagine it, you can probably create it in Photoshop.

What really sets Photoshop apart is its vast feature set, combining pixel-level editing control with AI-powered tools that feel like magic:

• Comprehensive layer-based editing for making complex, non-destructive adjustments
• Best-in-class selection tools, including the intelligent Object Selection Tool
• Neural Filters for amazing one-click effects, from skin smoothing to style transfers
• Content-Aware Fill to automatically remove objects and fill in backgrounds
• Sky Replacement to instantly swap out skies while intelligently relighting your scene

While it‘s not the easiest program to learn, no other photo editor gives you as much power and flexibility as Photoshop. And with a highly customizable interface, you can create streamlined workspaces for your specific needs. Just clear away the panels you don‘t need for distraction-free editing.

Adobe has also made Photoshop far more beginner-friendly in recent versions. Hovering over tools gives you helpful descriptions of what they do. The Discover panel provides interactive tutorials right within the app. And the new Photoshop Academy teaches key techniques for free.

Of course, all of this power and depth comes at a price. Photoshop is only available via subscription, either as a standalone app or as part of Adobe‘s Creative Suite. Some users dislike the subscription model, but the upside is you always have the latest version with new features and improvements.

If you‘re a professional or serious enthusiast, Photoshop is well worth the price of admission. For those just getting started with photo editing, however, Photoshop‘s sheer scope can feel overwhelming – which brings us to our next pick.

Best Standalone Editor for Pros: Affinity Photo

For professional photographers and designers who want a deep, powerful photo editor without a subscription, Affinity Photo is a fantastic alternative to Photoshop. Available with a perpetual license for a very reasonable one-time fee, Affinity Photo goes toe-to-toe with Photoshop on features.

Some highlights include:

• Comprehensive non-destructive layer-based editing
• Advanced selection tools and refining options
• High-end retouching like frequency separation and clone stamping
• Focus merge, HDR merge, and stitching for achieving perfect exposures
• 32-bit unbounded RGB color space for the highest quality, widest gamut images
• Batch processing to quickly apply the same adjustments to multiple photos
• Dedicated Liquify persona for warping and reshaping areas of your image

As a newer program built from the ground up to leverage technologies like Metal, Core Graphics, and its own memory management, Affinity Photo flies on modern Macs. Whether you‘re working with ultra-high-res photos, applying complex filters, or stitching massive panoramas, it never misses a beat.

The interface is also thoughtfully designed to balance power and approachability. Auto-hiding panels keep the workspace clutter-free. The Assistant tool pops up helpful tips as you‘re working. Hovering over adjustment options gives you a live preview of the effect. And customizable keyboard shortcuts speed up your workflow.

While Affinity Photo may lack some of Photoshop‘s most advanced features, like AI-powered neural filters, for most photo editing tasks it‘s more than capable. And the one-time purchase price makes it a far better value for cost-conscious pros. If you‘ve been looking to ditch your Photoshop subscription without compromising on capability, Affinity Photo is the way to go.

Best for Home Users: Pixelmator Pro

Pixelmator Pro is hands-down the best photo editor for casual photographers who want an easy-to-use yet powerful app without the complexity or cost of Photoshop. Designed exclusively for macOS, it takes full advantage of Apple technologies like Metal, Core ML, and ProRAW for blazingly fast performance.

With a clean single-window interface, Pixelmator Pro keeps things simple while still providing a robust set of tools for editing your photos to perfection. Clever AI-powered features let you make big improvements with minimal fuss:

• ML Enhance automatically adjusts exposure, color, and detail with a click
• ML Super Resolution intelligently enlarges low-res photos up to 3x
• ML Denoise magically removes image noise while preserving detail
• Subject selection tool isolates people, objects, and hair/fur with ease
• Replace Color adjusts specific color ranges without complex masks

But Pixelmator Pro‘s simplicity belies its depth. You get a full suite of pro-caliber editing tools, too:

• Wide range of color adjustment options including levels, curves, LUTs, and RAW editing
• Retouching tools like healing, cloning, smoothing, and reshaping
• Over 40 non-destructive effects, each with multiple variations
• Customizable workspaces with collapsible layers sidebar and tools/effects
• Nearly unlimited undos – go back over 100 steps
• Export presets to quickly save images in your desired format and size

In short, Pixelmator Pro gives casual Mac users everything they need to make their photos look amazing, without overwhelming them with options. With in-app video tutorials, online resources, and a 30-day free trial, it‘s an unbeatable value.

Choosing Your Mac Photo Editor

No matter your needs or skill level, one of the photo editors covered here is sure to fit the bill:

• Demanding professionals will appreciate the unmatched capabilities of Photoshop or the powerful-yet-focused workflow of Affinity Photo.

• Casual photographers and hobbyists will love Pixelmator Pro‘s blend of simplicity and power.

• Those on a tight budget can try capable free options like Apple Photos or GIMP.

Download some free trials and take your favorite photo editors for a spin. Happy editing!