68 PCWorld JANUARY 2022REVIEWS 5 FREE PHOTOSHOP ALTERNATIVES
appeal here is that, in
addition to being free, its
interface is based directly on
the tools and menus of
Photoshop. Veterans of
Adobe software who aren’t
looking to learn an entirely
new system are served
especially well here.
Being web based,
Photopea can’t take
advantage of powerful
hardware, and long-time
Photoshop users will need to
relearn a few keyboard shortcuts. But all
things considered, it’s a remarkably effective
alternative. Free users get access to all of the
program’s tools, but a $3 per month plan
unlocks a longer history and banishes
advertisements.Photopea.GIMP.A COMPLEX BUT POWERFUL
ALTERNATIVE: GIMP
A long-time favorite of Linux users, the GIMP
image editor is now available on all platforms
(fave.co/32qlO1S). While its interface isn’t
exactly friendly to beginners—especially if
you’re used to other
programs—it’s at least
as powerful as
Photoshop for
standard image
editing tasks.
GIMP is short for
GNU Image
Manipulation
Program. GNU is
short for “GNU is not
Unix.” Unix is—you
know what, we’re
getting distracted. Just