Pixel-Based Image Editing and Painting Software for Macintosh

Learn about HDR Darkroom Pro, a High Dynamic range app for Mac OS X.

There are several capable photo editors for Macintosh and each of them have distinct advantages and disadvantages. Tell us what photo editor you use on your Mac and why you like it.

Pixelmator is an attractive image editor for Mac OS X. Pixelmator may not be the best option for every user, but it's powerful feature set will certainly keep many image editor users perfectly happy. This introduction will help you decide if Pixelmator is suitable for you.

Alias Sketchbook Pro is an innovative freehand drawing and painting program designed specifically for Tablet PC and graphics tablet users on Windows and Macintosh. If you've been frustrated or overwhelmed by the complexity of other artistic software, Sketchbook Pro is a great way to sketch out ideas, annotate images, and explore computer-based drawing.

When choosing a photo editor for professional or business use, you need flexibility, stability, and an intuitive interface which provides a streamlined workflow. Here are my picks for Macintosh image editors that best fit these requirements.

I've selected what I feel are the best picks for Macintosh photo editors that provide a suitable balance between flexibility and ease of use.

These products provide most of the core image editing functions at a price that is quite reasonable. In this category, prices range from free to about $100 US for Macintosh software.

ArtRage is an inexpensive, fun, and easy-to-learn program for experimenting with digital art in Windows, Tablet PC or Mac OS. The user interface is absolutely gorgeous and designed for ultimate ease of use. Children and adults alike will have a ton of fun painting and drawing with art tools that act and interact just like real-world paint, pens, pencils, crayons, and even glitter!

In addition to image editing tools, Painter includes a wide array of natural media painting tools and drawing tools that allow you to create effects that can't be achieved in other image editors.

Alias Sketchbook Pro is an innovative freehand drawing and painting program designed specifically for Tablet PC and graphics tablet users on Windows and Macintosh. If you've been frustrated or overwhelmed by the complexity of other artistic software, Sketchbook Pro is a great way to sketch out ideas, annotate images, and explore computer-based drawing.

Featured Download - Paint and photo retouching software featuring up to 8 image layers with alpha channels, a mask layer and more than 50 effects and tools. Shareware. $20 US.

Photo editing, retouching, enhancement, and special effects with features including multiple undo/redo, layers, editable text, and batch processing.

Complete image editing package for Mac that is affordable and easy to learn. Features GIF animation, image cataloging, export clipping paths, image correction, plug-in support, image mapping, and more.

"Compositor is a full featured image editing and image to art application... Compositor is programmed by an artist for artists. Or those who simply want to create and edit images. Easy enough for the newbie, advanced enough for the power user."

Simple but powerful image editing and painting tool for the Mac. Offers pressure sensitive tablet support, QuickTime 3 effects, anti-aliased text, and more.

"Easy Photo and Paint Tool for OS X - Powerful image editing and painting tools that go beyond basic photo enhancement."

Photo editor with effects and filters, mask editing, painting toools, and more.

Photoline32 offers tools and features for pixel and vector based editing, batch processing, filters, layers, transparency, pressure sensitive tablet support, and more. Shareware $69 US.

"Pixel is a RGB, CMYK and HDR image editing, photo retouching and manipulating program available for many operating systems formerly known as Pixel32. It is available for Windows, Linux, Linspire, MacOSX, BeOS, Zeta, QNX, MorphOS, FreeBSD, eComStation, OS/2, SkyOS and even old plain DOS, for both x86 and PowerPC architectures."

"ImageFolio is a comprehensive multimedia image-processing program. It enables you to process photographs, graphics, and drawings captured from scanners, VCRs, a laser discs, digital cameras, video capture boxes and any other location that the computer can capture images from."

Asking which is the best photo editor for Mac OS X may sound like a simple and straight forward question, however it is a more complex question than it may at first seem. This article discusses the strengths and weaknesses of several options and should point you in the right direction for finding the best Mac photo editor for you.