Professional Photo Printing Software
Michael Muchmore The Best Photo Editing Software for 2019 Whether you're a casual smartphone shooter or a pro using a DSLR, you need software to get the most out of your images. We show you how to pick the best photo editing software for your needs.What Kind of Photo Editing Software Do You Need?Whether you merely shoot with your smartphone or you're a professional photographer with a studio, you need software to organize and edit your photos. We all know that camera technology is improving at a tremendous rate.
Today's smartphones are more powerful than the point-and-shoots of just a few years ago. The same can be said for photo editing software. 'Photoshopping' pictures is no longer the exclusive province of art directors and professional photographers. Whether you're shooting from an or a, if you really care how your photos look, you'll want to import them into your PC to organize them, pick the best ones, perfect them, and print or share them online.
Here we present the best choices in photo editing software to suit every photographer, from the casual to the professional. Of course, novice shooters will want different software from those shooting with a $50,000 in a studio. We've included all levels of PC software here, however, and reading the linked reviews will make it clear which is for you.
Nothing says that pros can't occasionally use an entry-level application or that a prosumer won't be running Photoshop, the most powerful image editor around. The issue is that, in general, users at each of these levels will be most comfortable with the products that are intended for them.Note that in the table above, it's not a case of 'more checks mean the program is better.'
Rather, it's designed to give you the quick overview of the products. A product with everything checked doesn't necessarily have the best implementation of those features, and one with fewer checks still may be very capable, and whether you even need the checked feature depends on your photo workflow. For example, DxO Photolab may not have face recognition or keyword tagging, but it has the finest noise reduction in the land and some of the best camera- and lens-based profile corrections. Free Photo Editing OptionsSo you've graduated from smartphone photography tools like those offered by Instagram and Facebook. Does that mean you have to pay a ton for high-end software?
Absolutely not. Up-to-date desktop operating systems include photo software at no extra cost. The app included with Windows 10 may surprise some users with its capabilities. In a touch-friendly interface, it offers a good level of image correction, autotagging, blemish removal, face recognition, and raw camera file support.
It can even automatically create editable albums based on photos' dates and locations.does those things too, though its automatic albums aren't as editable. Both programs also sync with: iCloud for Apple and OneDrive for Microsoft.
With Apple Photos, you can search based on detected object types, like 'tree' or 'cat' in the application (Microsoft Photos now offers this feature, too). Apple Photos also can integrate with plugins like the excellent, appeasing power users who lament the company's discontinuation of the prosumer-level Aperture program.Ubuntu Linux users are also covered when it comes to free, included photo software: They can use the capable-enough Shotwell app. And no discussion of free photo editing software would be complete without mentioning the venerable GIMP, which is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It offers a ton of photoshop-style plugins and editing capabilities, but very little in the way of creature comforts or usability. Other lightweight, low-cost options include. How to Edit Your Photos Online.
In this roundup, we've only included installable computer software, but entry-level photo shooters may be adequately served by online photo-editing options. These are mostly free, and they're often tied to online photo storage and sharing services. (with its integrated photo editor) and are the biggest names here, and both can spiff up your uploaded pictures and do a lot to help you organize them. They even approach the two entry-level installed programs here, but they lack many tools found in the pro and enthusiast products.
The latest version of Lightroom CC includes a good deal of photo-editing capabilties in its included website, too. Other notable names in web-based photo editing include BeFunky, Fotor, and PicMonkey. Image Editing for Enthusiasts and ProsumersMost of the products in this roundup fall into this category, which includes people who genuinely love working with digital photographs. These are not free applications, and they require a few hundred megabytes of your disk space. Several, such as Lightroom and CyberLink PhotoDirector, are strong when it comes to workflow—importing, organizing, editing, and outputting the photos from a DSLR. Such apps offer nondestructive editing, meaning the original photo files aren't touched.
Instead, a database of edits you apply is maintained, and they appear in photos that you export from the application. These apps also offer strong organization tools, including keyword tagging, color-coding, geo-tagging with maps, and in some cases face recognition to organize photos by what people appear in them.At the back end of workflow is output. Capable software like Lightroom Classic offers powerful printing options such as soft-proofing, which shows you whether the printer you use can produce the colors in your photo or not. (Strangely, the new version of Lightroom CC—non-Classic—offers no printing capability at all.) Lightroom Classic can directly share photos to sites like Flickr and SmugMug. In fact, all really good software at this level offers strong printing and sharing, and some, like ACDSee and Lightroom, offer their own online photo hosting.The programs at the enthusiast level and the professional level can import and edit raw files from your digital camera.
These are files that include every bit of data from the camera's image sensor. Each camera manufacturer uses its own format and file extension for these. For example, Canon DSLRs use CR2 files and Nikon uses NEF. ( Raw here simply means what it sounds like, a file with the raw sensor data; it's not an acronym or file extension, so there's no reason to capitalize it.)Working with raw files provides some big advantages when it comes to correcting (often termed adjusting) photos. Since the photo you see on screen is just one interpretation of what's in the raw file, the software can dig into that data to recover more detail in a bright sky, or it can fully fix an improperly rendered white balance. If you set your camera to shoot with JPGs, you're losing those capabilities. Enthusiasts want to do more than just import, organize and render their photos: They want to do fun stuff, too!
Editors' Choice Adobe Photoshop Elements includes Guided Edits, which make special effects like motion blur or color splash (where only one color shows on an otherwise black-and-white photo) a simple step-by-step process. Content-aware tools in some of these products let you do things like move objects around while maintaining a consistent background, or remove objects entirely—say you want to remove a couple of strangers from a serene beach scene—and have the app fill in the background. These edits don't involve simple filters like you get in Instagram. Rather, they produce highly customized, one-off images. Another good example is CyberLink PhotoDirector's Multiple Exposure effect, which lets you create an image with ten versions of Johnny jumping that curb on his skateboard, for example.Most of these products can produce HDR effects and panoramas after you feed them multiple shots, and local edit brushes let you paint adjustments onto only specific areas of an image.
Capture One and Lightroom have even more precise tools for local selections in recent versions, such as the ability to select everything in a photo within a precise color range and to refine selection of difficult content such as a model's hair or trees on the horizon. Professional Photo Editing SoftwareAt the very top end of image editing is Photoshop, which has no real rival. Its layered editing, drawing, text, and 3D-imaging tools are the industry standard for a reason.
Of course, pros need more than this one application, and many use workflow programs like Lightroom, AfterShot Pro, or Photo Mechanic for workflow functions like import and organization. In addition to its workflow prowess, Lightroom offers so that photographers on the run can get some work done before they even get back to their PC. Those who need tethered shooting (taking pictures in the software from the computer while it's attached to the camera) may want Capture One, which is offers lots of tools for that along with its top-notch raw-file conversion.Photoshop offers all and more of the image editing capabilities in anything mentioned above, though it doesn't always make producing those effects as simple, and it doesn't offer a nondestructive workflow, as Lightroom and some others do.
Of course, some users with less-intensive needs can get all the Photoshop-type features they need from other products in this roundup, such as Corel PaintShop Pro. DxO OpticPro is another tool pros may want in their kit, because of its excellent lens-profile based corrections and unmatched DxO Prime noise reduction.Photoshop is also where you find Adobe's latest and greatest imaging technology, such as Content-Aware Crop, Camera Shake Reduction, Perspective Warp, and Detail Enhancement. The program has the most tools for professionals in the imaging industry, including Artboards, Design Spaces, and realistic, customizable brushes. Some users have taken umbrage at Adobe's move to a subscription-only option for Photoshop, but at $9.99 per month, it hardly seems exorbitant for any serious image professional, and it includes a copy of Lightroom, online services like Adobe Stock, and multiple mobile apps. It definitely makes the app more affordable for prosumer users, too, when you consider that a full copy of Photoshop used to cost a cool $999.If you're an absolute beginner in digital photography, your first step is to make sure you've got good hardware to shoot with, otherwise you're sunk before you start. Consider our roundups of the and the for equipment that can fit any budget. Once you've got your hardware sorted, make sure to educate yourself with our and our, too.
That done, you'll be ready to shoot great pictures that you can make better with the software featured in this story. Click the links below for to read the full reviews. Pros: Multitude of photo correction and manipulation tools. Slick interface with lots of help. Tools for mobile and web design. Rich set of drawing and typography tools. 3D design capability.
Synced Libraries.Cons: No perpetual-license option. Premium assets aren't cheap. Interface can be overwhelming at times. Lacks support for HEIC.Bottom Line: Adobe continues to improve the world's leading photo editing software. The 2018 edition adds a new auto-select tool, raw camera profiles, loads of font and drawing capabilities, and support for the Microsoft Surface Dial. Pros: Excellent photo management and organization.
Camera and lens-based corrections. Brush and gradient adjustments with color and luminance masking. Face detection and tagging. Connected mobile apps.Cons: Although improved, import is still slow. Initial raw conversion is slightly more detailed in some competing products.Bottom Line: Adobe's Photoshop Lightroom remains the gold standard in pro photo workflow software.
It's a complete package, with top-notch organization tools, state of-the-art adjustments, and all the output and printing options you'd want. Pros: Many powerful image-manipulation tools. Strong face- and geo-tagging capabilities. Excellent output options. Auto-tagging and powerful search options. Helpful guidance for advanced techniques.Cons: Large disk footprint. No HEIF support on Windows.
No chromatic aberration correction or lens geometry profiles. Lacks many social sharing outputs. No local help system.Bottom Line: Adobe Photoshop Elements, our favorite consumer-level photo editor and organizer, adds AI-powered auto-curation, an open closed eyes tool, and new Guided Edits.
Pros: Friendly yet powerful interface. Effective noise reduction. Cool multiple-exposure and faux HDR effects. Body shaper and other powerful editing tools. Layer support. Cool AI styles.
Tethered shooting support.Cons: Not enough lens-profile corrections. Inadequate chromatic aberration correction. No geotag maps.Bottom Line: Photo workflow and editing program CyberLink PhotoDirector offers a smooth interface and powerful capabilities. New in this version are multiple-exposure effects, more layer options, and a video-to-photo tool. Pros: Full set of image editing tools.
Good performance. Lens-profile-based geometry correction. Face recognition and geotagging. Good skin-improvement tools. Responsive performance. Cloud storage integration.Cons: Interface not as polished as others. Lens-profile-based image correction tools less effective than the competition's.
Weak noise and chromatic aberration tools.Bottom Line: ACDSee's pro-level tool offers many powerful photo organizing and editing tools, but it falls short of competitors in raw camera file conversion and usability. Pros: Pleasing interface.
Good automatic photo fixes. Lots of filters. Local adjustments with brush and gradients. Multiple workspaces and catalogs.Cons: Some speed and reliability issues on Windows. No Library search.
Some standard controls are buried. No face recognition or keyword tagging.Bottom Line: Skylum Luminar offers effective automatic photo enhancement, a modern interface, and some unique filters and adjustment tools.
Free Photo Printing Software
Its organization capabilities, however, fall short of the competition's.
Photoshop may be the professional standard for high quality photo prints, but that doesn’t mean you have to pay hundreds of dollars for printing software. Freeware program Google Picasa can create excellent quality photo prints that’ll only cost you a download.Picasa and other freeware graphics programs are hardly news to savvy geeks, although with a little patience, they can produce quality prints few could tell apart from thousand dollar graphics suites. Stay tuned for links to various graphics programs, and a simple how-to on getting the perfect print settings for your photos. Downloading Free SoftwareThere are a number of programs available that will print photos, some varying in quality. Printing is actually a fairly basic thing, as your operating system and printer driver already do most of the work.
Here’s a short list of various graphic programs that are good for a bit of light printing.While any of these pieces of freeware will open, edit, and print images, Google Picasa is one of the most feature rich and easy to use. Let’s take a look at how to print quality photographs in Picasa.Editing & Printing with PicasaPicasa’s basic photo editing tools make it ideal for adjusting the colors of your images, cropping, and doing basic fixes for red eye, brightness, and contrast. Combined with its photo library management, Picasa is a fine alternative to programs like Photoshop Elements, which usually retails for about $100 dollars.In addition to these features, Picasa is a solid program for printing photographs. This is the print window, as opposed to the edit window in the previous screenshot.will bring up this print window, where you can print multiple copies of your selected photographs, with settings for the basic sizes illustrated above, like Wallet prints, 3.5”x5”, 4”x6”, 5”x7”, standard photo print (8″x10″), and full 8.5”x11” page.
You can also chose to crop or shrink your image to fit it to your print size, as well as choose multiple copies per image with this menu.Click the to bring up your printer options once you’ve brought up your print window.While your screen may not look exactly like this, what you will get is your printer driver’s dialog box. Here, you’re given the choice to adjust the various settings used to vastly change the end quality of photo prints. Accepting the default settings, we’ll print this image on standard typing paper with ordinary settings.The button will send your image to your printer with the default settings.
Let’s take a look.Here’s a color unedited shot of an actual print of this image on regular typing paper. The colors are slightly more saturated in your web browser, but the result is still fairly good.Still, multiple attempts with higher quality paper stocks and different settings can improve a photo print exponentially, even with basic photo printing solutions like Picasa. Let’s return to our printer settings and try again with a generic glossy photo paper for inkjets.This driver dialog box has several presets for various kinds of prints, including basic photo prints. Above and on the right, there are settings that calibrate the ink nozzles for printing on various kinds of photo paper.
This printer, being an HP machine, has built in presets for HP papers. Setting it to “Other” photo papers, we can make some other minor adjustments to improve quality.Keep in mind, as you print, that your printer dialog may not be set up exactly like this one. You’ll have similar options, even though they may not be as obvious. You’ll want to do a check of the following before you print:. Paper stock: Are you using regular typing paper or photo paper?.
Photo paper style: Are you using Glossy, Matte, Lustre, Semigloss, etc?. Print quality: The speed and resolution of the quality of your print. Usually broken into settings like “Economy, Normal, Best.”. Paper Size: Most commonly 8.5”x11”, 8”x10”, and 4”x6” sizes.
Professional Photo Printing Software
Orientation: Whether your print is turned horizontally (Landscape) or vertically (Portrait).With proper photo settings and photo paper, our sample image comes out a success. This is another color unedited photograph of an actual photo print of this sample image, printed from Picasa. With the right papers, right photos, and right settings, rich details and colors are possible even with freeware photo software.Here’s an color unedited comparison of the two photo prints. The left is printed on regular typing paper, with the right printed on glossy photo stock. This is a solid example of the difference in quality of Keep in mind, a little patience, trial, and error can give you the proper settings and great prints, even with software that won’t cost you anything at all.Image Credit: in public domain.