Out with the old, in with the new: iPhoto and Aperture exist only in our memories now, but they've been replaced with a capable new option already on our Macs (the ones with, anyway). Coupled with iCloud Photo Library, (free, Mac) keeps all our high-resolution images (and videos, should you want them) in the cloud, available at all times from OS X and iOS devices.

Although it may not be as powerful as Aperture, Photos is a great deal faster and more capable than iPhoto. The only thing missing is support for plug-ins or extensions, but Apple announced that's on the way with OS X El Capitan this fall. For many readers, Photos will be all you'll ever need. Prev Page 2 of 21 Next Prev Page 2 of 21 Next 2. If you don't need the complete control (and occasional complexity) of Aperture, (free, Mac) gets the job done quite well in just a few clicks of the mouse. Although it will soon be replaced by an all-new Photos app, iPhoto's auto-enhance tool makes any photo look great in a single click, and the unified library means you can jump into Aperture to make pro corrections, then right back into iPhoto. There's also rich Facebook integration and iCloud Photo Sharing available, but those who prefer print can create some pretty awesome photo books and letterpress cards as well.

And did we mention it's absolutely free? Prev Page 3 of 21 Next Prev Page 3 of 21 Next 3.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5. (Mac) has been working overtime in recent months to become a home for orphaned Aperture users, thanks to a built-in migration tool that makes it easy to switch. Smart Previews allow users to edit low-resolution files on the go and have changes automatically applied to original images when an external drive is mounted, along with pro tools like Advanced Healing Brush, Upright, and Radial Gradient borrowed from the more expensive Photoshop.

Editing Solutions For Machine Learning Coursera

Creative Cloud members ($9.99 per month and up) can also sync Lightroom 5 images with a mobile app, putting the most-used image editing tools in the palm of your hands. Prev Page 4 of 21 Next Prev Page 4 of 21 Next 4. Photoshop Elements 13. Like iPhoto, ($99.99, Mac) is for users who want Aperture or Lightroom-style results in just a few clicks. The latest version makes it easy to create photo remixes or mashups, pick the best composition, and offers more comprehensive selection tools while offering five variants for each effect you want to apply.

Facebook junkies will love the app's profile and cover photo creation options, while Guided Edits and Slideshows have been improved and Elements Live delivers creative ideas, tips, tricks, and help without having to leave the software. Prev Page 5 of 21 Next Prev Page 5 of 21 Next 5. Pixelmator 3.3. ($29.99, Mac) delivers Photoshop-class tools in a package only a fraction of the price, including powerful, pixel-accurate selection tools, top-notch painting, drawing, and retouching options, more than 160 effects, and an elegant collection of professional-grade color correction tools. The latest version adds complete support for OS X Yosemite (including Handoff and iCloud Drive), and also works hand-in-hand with Pixelmator for iPad for seamlessly creating and editing images on the go, while retaining the option to further enhance them back on the desktop.

Best of all, there's full support for layered Photoshop PSD files, and images can even be imported from iPhoto or Aperture. Prev Page 6 of 21 Next Prev Page 6 of 21 Next 6. Snapheal 2.5.

If your photo editing needs lean more toward restoration or retouching, (Mac) provides a deliriously simple UI with the ability to remove unwanted objects like magic, or adjust shadows and highlights on dark or overexposed images. With ($39.99 or $19.99 upgrade), the application can even be run as a plug-in inside Photoshop, Lightroom, Photoshop Elements, or Aperture, adding improved image editing algorithms and a Blur brush with selective masking. Prev Page 7 of 21 Next Prev Page 7 of 21 Next 7. Capture One 7.

Sometimes, all that's needed to make a good photo great is throwing on a filter or two. Simulates the look of more than 2,000 award-winning glass filters, delivering 134 digital equivalents and more presets than you can shake a stick at. The latest version adds borders, cartoon, and colorize gradient options, curves and selective detail adjustments, the ability to add grunge effects like film dirt, hair, stains, and scratches, and subtle new Pearlescent and Satin looks created especially with modern digital camera sensors in mind. Tiffen also offers Dfx in Photo Plug-in ($149.95, for Photoshop, Elements, Lightroom, and Aperture) or Video/Film Plug-in ($499.95, for After Effects, Premiere Pro, Avid, and Final Cut Pro) versions. Prev Page 12 of 21 Next Prev Page 12 of 21 Next 12. The desktop power of Photoshop comes to smartphones and tablets with (free, iOS), a non-destructive photo enhancement app that makes it drop-dead simple to cut objects out of images and combine them with other elements.

There are also plenty of great looks on hand which can be applied to selections or entire images, and users can open Photoshop documents, individual PSD layers, or even photos from Lightroom Mobile. A free Creative Cloud membership is required to use Photoshop Mix; the latest 1.4.1 version adds smart auto crop technology for the iPad, as well as iOS 8 Touch Size support for more precise finger selections. Prev Page 14 of 21 Next Prev Page 14 of 21 Next 14. Hydra Express 3. Thanks to the arrival of iOS 8 extensions, (iOS) just became an iPhoneographer's best friend. No longer do users have to open the app and import an image to apply the awesome Clarity filter — once enabled, it's right there in the built-in Photos app, alongside all of the app's other awesome image editing options. Of course, if you don't use Apple's Camera app, this third-party solution offers a host of other improvements, including a front-facing flash mode for better selfies, touch exposure and focus, and sweet shooting modes like Stabilizer, Timer, and Burst.

The latest version also delivers a new Pro quality setting, which processes and stores image in TIFF format with lossless compression. Prev Page 16 of 21 Next Prev Page 16 of 21 Next 16. Sequels are rarely as good as the original, but (iOS) really delivers the WHAM, BAM, POW! Of classic comic books on your iPhone or iPad. There's plenty more here than just adding halftone dot patterns to your favorite photos: Creative options include captions, balloons, stamps, photo panels, page options, and even 720p HD movies, with a host of robust output formats including JPEG, PDF, comic-friendly CBZ, and MP4 video. There's even an experimental 3D anaglyph feature to create images from the bygone era of red and cyan glasses!

Prev Page 17 of 21 Next Prev Page 17 of 21 Next 17. Every Mac since the dawn of OS X has come with the Preview application. It doesn't get much attention, but it contains image-editing tools that shouldn't be ignored, especially as they come for free. It can import from cameras and scanners directly from its File menu.

Its Tools menu can find options to resize your image, rotate and flip it, and even make adjustments to exposure and color. That's just a start, but be sure to investigate Automator, too, which can do great batch-processing. Prev Page 21 of 21 Next Prev Page 21 of 21 Next.

Advertisement There are a healthy number of The best video editors for macOS cost a lot of money, but what if your budget is $0?, but what if you only need to edit audio? The selection might not be quite as hearty, but if you need to slice up a WAV or merge a couple of MP3 files then you’re in luck. Considering Apple’s media-savvy approach with free apps like iMovie, it’s surprising that there’s not a simple audio editor bundled with OS X. We’ve found a few that won’t break the bank. (free) If you’re looking for a completely free audio editor that eats uncompressed audio for breakfast, Audacity is the only open-source box of tricks you need.

The editor supports.WAV,.AIFF,.FLAC,.MP2/3 and.OGG filetypes, with an interface that loosely resembles the fondly-remembered CoolEdit. Record from external inputs, monitor volume levels, make use of and apply a whole host of effects. There’s even support for non-destructive editing, unlimited undo/redo and a spectrogram view for analysing audio. If you want to record your computer’s audio (from any playing audio source) you will need to and use. Check out the. (free for non-commercial use).

Hot on the heels of Audacity is WavePad, another highly competent audio editor that’s free provided you’re only using it at home and non-commercially. If you want to use WavePad in commercial projects or for music you intend to eventually sell, you’ll need to cough up the $70 for a standard license. That non-commercial five finger discount provides home users with a great piece of software at no costs, with support for.WAV,.MP3,.M4A,.WMA,.FLAC and.AAC among many others.

The interface allows you to work on multiple files at the same time, and you can even batch process thousands of files at once. WavePad supports audio bookmarking, the usual range of effects and some text-to-speech and vocal manipulation tools to boot. (free) Thanks to an anonymous MakeUseOf reader for pointing this one out in the comments. A completely free and feature-packed cross-platform audio editor from Brazil, OcenAudio is another option for the budget sound engineer.

The app supports a huge number of filetypes including.MP3,.WAV,.FLAC and.WMA. It also supports videos formats like.WMV and the.MKV container, and raw sound files in the form of.PCM among others. OcenAudio also has one rather unique feature you won’t find in other sound editors – a multi-selection tool, which (using CMD+click) allows you to select multiple portions of the waveform at once.

There’s also Virtual Studio Technology makes music production easier than ever, and these free VST plugins are the best of the best., a range of effects, a fully featured spectogram and the ability to edit very large files without kissing goodbye to all of your Mac’s memory. ($19.99) Three down and we’re already out of free options, but at least TwistedWave Lite is fairly inexpensive at only $20.

This lightweight version of ($80) is only available through the Mac App Store and withholds advanced functions such as automatic silence detection, time stretching, pitch shifting and support for more obscure formats like.FLAC,.OGG,.WMA and video files. That said there’s still a big visual waveform to play with, effects like amplify and normalize to apply and the ability to record from Apple’s own Audio Unit plugins. ($20/month) I know what you’re thinking – no Adobe products are cheap! That may be true, but Audition is arguably the best in class here, and under the new Creative Cloud pricing model you can have access to Audition for just $20 for a month’s usage, or $29 as part of a package. That makes it ideal for temporary projects where you need the best tool for the job, without making a longterm investment.

Adobe Audition is the spiritual successor to CoolEdit Pro, the aforementioned king of audio editors that existed in the day before Adobe dominated the entire media software market. There’s very little it can’t do and very few filetypes it doesn’t support. Adobe has even produced a to get you up and running straight away – in terms of functionality, it doesn’t get much better than this. (free trial, $32) Fission is an audio editor that focuses on fast, lossless editing in a neat and stylish package. Developers Rogue Amoeba are also responsible for MakeUseOf musical favourite AirFoil, and that means quality isn’t an issue. The app comes with a decent free trial which provides unhindered access to all functions, except for one thing: audio files saved result in degraded audio. The app has a long list of features including batch editing, multiple windows for editing more than one file at once, simple waveform editing, support for FLAC and WAV (among others) and the lossless editing of already-compressed MP3 and AAC files. You can find the full feature list on.

Looking For More? Five editors is hardly a crowd, but in terms of cheap and free solutions for OS X it’s about as good as it gets.

Windows users have There's nothing wrong with Audacity, and we recommend giving it a try if you haven't yet. But alternatives do exist - here are some of the best ones we've found., and Linux has powerful music production apps for beginners and professionals alike. Here's all you need for Linux music production! – but for simple Mac audio editing, these are the cream of the crop. I had little joy getting or working at all, so you can give them a miss. Personally I’d recommend sticking with Audacity or, if you’re only editing for non-commercial purposes, WavePad. If the task is particularly demanding and you’d like some advanced tools, maybe a month of Adobe Audition will suit you.

If you need a permium tool with polish and support, go for Rogue Amoeba’s Fission. If you love free software don’t forget to check out Adobe Illustrator might be the gold standard when it comes to vector software for the Mac, but you don't always have to spend a fortune on design software. Explore more about:,.