Photoscape includes just about everything you need to view, optimize, edit, print and have fun with your photos. In fact, it's so complete that many would call it a free Photoshop alternative. Sure, it's not quite up to the level of Photoshop, but it's truly a great alternative to Adobe's big shot - and it makes photo editing a lot more fun!

One of the first striking elements in Photoscape is its uncommon interface design. From the program's main window you can choose what you want to do: view pictures, optimize those that didn't come out so well, print several photos on a single page collage-style or perhaps add any of the dozens of filters and special effects included in the program.

Other extra tools featured in Photoscape are a file renamer, a color picker, a screen capture tool and even a RAW converter.

There's really nothing negative to say about Photoscape. Just download it, test it, love it and keep it forever. It's free!

Download Photoscape 3.6.2 in Softonic

Probably the most notable new feature is the Content Aware tool which makes editing Photoshop more "intelligent" plus there's a new design and a streamlined interface. In addition, basic video editing functions have been added for the first time.

When you first open Adobe Photoshop CS6, the most eye-catching thing is the revamped colorful user interface. However, if you don't like the new look, you can revert to the old grey interface via Preferences - Interface. Beyond this however, there are some useful new features.

Content Aware

Content Aware intelligently moves selected objects and adjusts them accordingly with the background or surrounding objects. This enables you to simply drag and drop objects in Photoshop much more easily without having to readjust the background. Don't like the position of a person in an image? Just move them to another position instantly and the background automatically adjusts.

Video Editing

Adobe Photoshop CS6 brings video editing to Photoshop for the first time. Its integrated with all of Photoshop's traditional tools which makes it very powerful when it comes to retouching scenes, adjusting colors and filter sets etc. It also allows you to add audio tracks although it's not very advanced otherwise.

Bridge file browser and Mini Bridge

Adobe Photoshop CS6 features a more powerful file browser which allows you to sort and manage pictures according to specific metadata. The fully integrated file browser with thumbnail previews photos quickly and opens them instantly for easier library management.

Adobe Photoshop CS6 brings some interesting new features to this powerful photo editing software. Particularly interesting is the Content Aware function which makes retouching and manipulating photos incredibly easy.

Download Adobe Photoshop CS6 Extended 13.0 in Softonic

You’ll find a complete set of tools in CorelDRAW Graphics Suite: CorelDRAW, an intuitive vector-based illustration tool; Corel PHOTO-PAINT, a powerful image editor for all sorts of graphics; Corel PowerTRACE, a bitmap-to-vector converter; Corel CAPTURE, a simple, one-click screen capturing tool; and finally Corel CONNECT, a file browser especially designed to help you manage all your media in the Corel suite, the computer or the local network.

All the apps in the CorelDRAW Graphics Suite are designed with ease of use in mind. Not only do they feature clear, intuitive interfaces, but they are also thoroughly documented. Though created for professionals, advanced amateurs can also benefit from CorelDRAW Graphics Suite and all its features: clean workspace, customizable menus, and lots of filters and effects.

The only thing we missed in CorelDRAW Graphics Suite was better integration between all the apps included in the suite.

These days professional designers and photographers seem to choose Adobe products over Corel ones. But CorelDRAW Graphics Suite is undoubtedly a great pack of designing and editing tools that’s well worth a try.

CorelDRAW Graphics Suite is a excellent collection of apps for professional design, vector illustration and page layout.

Download CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X5 in Softonic

Just like the original program, Photoscape Portable is an excellent photo editing tool that includes just about everything you need to view, optimize, edit, print, and have fun with your photos. Its free and runs from your USB stick without having to install anything, and without leaving any trace.

Photoscape Portable catches the eye from the outset with its unusual interface design, where a round-shaped menu gives you access to all the tools included in the program. You may want to browse photos, optimize those that didn't come out so well, print several photos on a single page collage-style or perhaps add any of the dozens of filters and special effects included in the program.

Other extra tools featured in Photoscape Portable are a file renamer, a color picker, a screen capture tool, a RAW converter and even a tool to create animated GIFs.

We really have nothing negative to say about Photoscape Portable. Just download it, test it, love it and keep it forever!

Download PhotoScape Portable 3.5 in Softonic

With Microsoft Publisher you can create, edit, customize and share all sorts of marketing material with ease of use and professional results. From simple greeting cards to more elaborate newsletters, Microsoft Publisher includes everything you need for your work.

One of the most outstanding elements in Microsoft Publisher is the amount of templates it includes to get you started; you’ll find one for almost anything: brochures, business cards, calendars, labels, flyers, award certificates and more. Besides this material, Microsoft Publisher also lets you work with images, clipart and predefined shapes.

The text and image tools included in Microsoft Publisher make document layout easier and more creative. You can see results in real time as you change text fonts and apply new colors. And once the document is finished, Microsoft Publisher gives you a wide range of options to save or export it, such as PDF or JPG. On the downside, the program still lacks support for InDesign and QuarkXpress documents.

Microsoft Publisher is Office’s application for designing, customizing and sharing all sorts of publications in an easy way.

Download Microsoft Publisher 2010 in Softonic

There are a lot of desktop painting programs out there available to download. Some even come as standard when you buy a new Windows PC.

PowerPaint's developers post that PowerPaint is "the best tool to replace Windows Paint." By all accounts, it certainly boasts more features than its stripped down counterpart. Even in the "Image" drop-down menu alone, you can turn your drawing or photograph gray, halftone, invert the blacks and whites within the picture, adjust the brightness and contrast and much more. PowerPaint also comes with a bunch of pre-made basic shapes, lines, arrows, stars and banners. These are just simple examples of clipart, but it's certainly convenient to have them already installed.

In addition, PowerPaint has different types of texture brushes to add special effects to your images. You can fill in the background with a specific color and even insert an additional photograph into the image you're already working with.

It's no substitute for the more powerful programs like Paint Shop Pro or Adobe Photoshop, but PowerPaint is a pretty handy and free image editing alternative.

Download PowerPaint 2.50 in Softonic

The new Adobe Illustrator CS6 uses the same interface style as the rest of applications in the Adobe suite: a clean, almost minimalist window with reduced toolbars, nested windows and support for tabbed documents – which makes it easier for you to work on several projects simultaneously.

Adobe Illustrator is the perfect tool for all kinds of design. Whether you’re a professional web designer or you just want to create a poster and some invites for a friend’s party, your creativity will be boosted with Adobe Illustrator's impressive set of drawing tools, brushes, color processing tools and gradient effects – not to mention the wide array of filters and special effects with which you can add the final touch to your drawing.

As with any other vector drawing tool, Adobe Illustrator feels really complex for first-time users: toolbars full of strange icons, many new functions and features to learn... Luckily the program includes a bunch of templates to get you started, as well as a thorough help section where you'll find the answer to all your doubts and problems.

Adobe Illustrator is seamlessly integrated with other Adobe tools (such as Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Dreamweaver), something that makes your work more powerful if you're already used to working with Adobe apps.

Adobe Illustrator is the reference when it comes to vector designing and drawing. It features an impressive set of tools, filters and effects and is perfectly integrated with other Adobe apps.

Download Adobe Illustrator CS6 16.0 in Softonic

GIMP has been around for over two decades and development has been stable over the years. The newest update for GIMP gives a slew of new features and a glimpse into the future for this incredible open source image editor.

Features

All the features of GIMP are still present. You can create your own images with tools for airbrushing, penciling, cloning, and creating gradients. Power users can create their own brushes and patterns to use later. GIMP also allows users to manipulate images imported into the program. You can crop, add text, resize, and create nested layers. There is even a way to animate your creations.

New additions

GIMP has now been updated with many user interface tweaks to make the application accessible to newbies. The biggest interface addition is the ability to edit in a single-window. GIMP versions of the past drew criticism for their confusing interfaces, but the developers are addressing many of these issues in this newest version. While single-window mode is great, it is also disappointing that there is no way to view multiple projects side by side.

Other updated features include easier text editing, nested layer groups, and a shift to using the Generic Graphics Library (GEGL), which is a more sophisticated image processing framework. GEGL was introduced a couple of years back in a developer version and has now made its way into the sable, consumer version. GIMP developers hope to move entirely to GEGL by version 2.10. One of the major advantages of GIMP using GEGL is the ability for non-destructive editing and high bit-depth images.

GIMP now only saves to its own XCF format to retain layers and other file manipulation information. Users can still choose to save in formats like JPEG and PNG but will have to "export" the project instead of saving. This follows in the footsteps of Adobe Photoshop.

The latest GIMP is better than ever. Its developers are taking the user experience into serious consideration and are speeding up development for this already great photo editor.

Download GIMP 2.8 in Softonic

If you've ever wished you could spice up some of your photography or digital artwork, you'll want to take a look at a paint program to do it.

PaintTool SAI is one of your options, and it's a good one in many respects. The program has a simple interface that's easy to navigate. PaintTool SAI also contains the basic tools you'd expect to find in a paint program, such as airbrushes, a paintbrush, watercolors, pencils and an eraser. In addition, PaintTool SAI has more advanced features, like layers, that can really add depth and neat effects to your graphics.

While PaintTool SAI's interface is simple to navigate, learning all of the paint program's features will take some time, as with almost any graphics editing program out there. The simple interface is also quite plain, which might put off potential users who would prefer a little more panache in their paint program.

Overall, PaintTool SAI is a competent tool that lets you edit and enhance photographs and other graphic images.

Download PaintTool SAI 1.1.0 in Softonic

This nicely designed image editor features the simple interface everyone loves to have in applications, but at the same time offers a surprisingly wide array of tools and options you would only expect to find in large graphic suites.

Paint.NET lets you work on several images simultaneously, has support for layers, keeps an action history that lets you undo any changes, and includes a variety of drawing tools (brushes, geometrical shapes). You'll also find several special filters and effects that can turn your image into an oil painting or a pencil drawing in just one click.

That said, don't expect Paint.NET to be some kind of free Photoshop alternative. If you use the Adobe app to work on your images, you'll surely miss many tools in Paint.NET. For everyone else though, this is a perfect tool for daily simple image editing.

Paint.NET sits somewhere between a basic editor and a complex graphic suite, featuring a nicely designed interface and a bunch of handy tools for quick photo optimization and retouching.

Download Paint.NET 3.5.10 in Softonic

As long as you have some degree of artistic talent, it's possible to give your digital photos a creative new look by applying effects to them. DreamLight Photo Editor is a program dedicated to helping you do just that, and adding special effects is as easy as opening a photo, then viewing the preview of an effect before selecting it to apply it to your image.

There are dozens of different filters to choose from in DreamLight Photo Editor and all are clearly divided into different categories. One of the best things about DreamLight Photo Editor is the fact that you can apply as many effects to the same image as you please, giving you the ability to get very creative (though, of course, it's easy to go overboard sometimes).

Annoyingly, the Undo feature in DreamLight Photo Editor only removes the last effect you applied, so we often found ouselves having to restart if the combination of filters we added didn't look right. Despite its name, DreamLight Photo Editor doesn't actually include any image editing tools, meaning that you'll still need to use an external graphics app to process any other changes after you've added the effects.

It's much easier to use than Photoshop, but if you have the Adobe app already then you certainly won't need DreamLight Photo Editor.

Download DreamLight Photo Editor 4.2 in Softonic

With Adobe InDesign you'll be able to create all sorts of documents, from simple flyers to complete ebooks, as well as labels, brochures, presentations, certificates, newsletters and more. This new version also lets you adds interactivity to your creations by inserting video and sound, and then exporting the result as Flash (SWF) or an interactive PDF.

The latest version of Adobe InDesign includes important new features that will enhance your workflow and boost your productivity. The new simplified object selection, for example, makes it easier to control objects in your document. Also, the perfect integration of Adobe InDesign with the new Adobe CS Review (part of the new CS Live online services) helps you share your work and receive feedback from colleagues and customers in a very easy way.

Like in any other Adobe application, the learning curve in Adobe InDesign is quite a steep one, but the results are worth the effort. The program is thoroughly documented, so as long as you're willing to learn, you'll be making the most of Adobe InDesign in a relatively short period of time – especially if you're used to other Adobe apps, as Adobe InDesign makes use of the same interface style.

With Adobe InDesign CS6 you'll be able to design professional-looking layouts both for printing and digital publishing.

Download Adobe InDesign CS6 in Softonic

This impressive photo editing tool enables you to fix and enhance your photos in a couple of clicks, and also add a few original special filters and effects that can turn a dull shot into a really creative piece of photography. Plus, ArcSoft PhotoStudio works with all major formats, including RAW files from high-quality digital cameras.

If you've seen Photoshop, you'll be familiar with ArcSoft PhotoStudio. It doesn't feature as many tools and options, that's true, but if you've ever used Adobe's big shot, you'll immediately feel comfortable with ArcSoft PhotoStudio's interface, utilities and even keyboard shortcuts.

ArcSoft PhotoStudio supports layers and macros, includes a wide variety of editing and drawing tools, and even features special retouching effects that can do things such as age your photo, make close ups of faces more beautiful, add frames and modify lighting.

ArcSoft PhotoStudio makes it easy to edit your photos, while also providing access to fun masks and effects. This makes it an all-round good bet.

Download ArcSoft PhotoStudio 6.0.0.172 in Softonic

Adobe Camera Raw is a Photoshop plug-in that launches automatically every time you open a RAW file in Photoshop. It enables you to work on the original image with plenty of tools, all conveniently organized in several tabs: basic adjustments, tone curve, grayscales, split toning, lens corrections, camera calibration and more.

While using Adobe Camera Raw, you'll be able to see the results of your adjustments in real time in the preview pane, and also take several snapshots along the editing process, and save custom presets for later use.

Adobe Camera Raw is very easy to install. Simply unzip the archive and copy the 8bi file into the Program Files/Common Files/Adobe/Plug-Ins/CS4/File Formats folder. The only con is that it's only compatible with Photoshop CS4.

Adobe Camera Raw is a handy plug-in that lets you view and edit RAW images in Adobe Photoshop.

Download Adobe Camera Raw 6.6 in Softonic

Paint Shop Pro X3 makes it easy to create professional-looking photos. You can import, edit and share your images—all in one place. The new organizer helps you sort, rate and tag your photographs faster than ever.

You can make quick fixes in the enhanced Express Lab or use more advanced photo-editing
tools such as the new Smart Carver. Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo also allows you to publish directly to the web, create photo books and projects, or simply backup photos to disc.

Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo is divided into a set of tools: RAW Lab, which manually adjust groups of RAW photos during the loading process; Express Lab to quickly fix common photo flaws; Advanced tools, which allows you to edit with advanced features such as Smart Carver, Vibrancy etc. Meanwhile, Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo's Integrated Projects allow you to create photo books, HD slideshows, cards etc., and finally Photo sharing for email, print or send directly to Facebook, YouTube and Flickr.

Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo is a comprehensive and powerful photo editing suite.

Download Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X3 13.0 in Softonic

What's inside?

There are three main elements to Zoner Photo Studio, the Manager and the Editor. The Manager lets you find and organize the images on your PC, the Viewer lets you view them, while the editor allows you to make simple changes to your photos.

The viewer is attractive, but nothing special, but the manager is good. The interface is simple enough, with a folder tree, browser and information panel. You can email images from Zoner Photo Studio, and apply filters to make finding them easier. There isn't anything revolutionary about the Manager, but it does its job.

Image Editing

The Editor is better, offering a range of useful tools that will allow you to improve or alter photos you've taken. It's not as powerful as Photoshop, but it's much easier to use, and has the tools that most amateur or casual photographers will need. Zoner Photo Studio has a 'quick fix', which basically makes the image a bit stronger, and you can also play around with the color, levels and resize as well. There's a red eye removing tool that works well, as well as more subtle things like a clone stamp tool. In this free version, it's really only the lack of proper layer tools that are missing.

Zoner Photo Studio is a good option for basic photo retouching and editing, and has enough tools for most users.

Download Zoner Photo Studio Free 14 in Softonic

What is Lightroom?

If you're not familiar with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, it's a photo processing app that's designed to be used by professional photographers for the post-production of batches of photos, and it's often used in conjunction with Adobe's seminal app, Photoshop.

The new interface

This latest version of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom looks great. It's divided into seven sections - Library, Develop, Map, Book, Slideshow, Print and Web- which let you easily flit between different stages of management, processing and presentation. There's also some awesomely configurable options, running from how the app looks to how it acts, before and after processing. There's only one thing - the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom interface is vast, and to get the most from it, you'll need a large screen.

Photo management

The upside to using a dedicated photo processing app is the ease with which Adobe Photoshop Lightroom allows you to see, categorize and manage your photos. Adobe Photoshop Lightroom is no exception, with a great import features and options, and, new to this version, location-based organization. You'll find the tools to manage this function under Map.

Photo processing

In version 4 of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, Adobe's self-stated aim has been to "extract more detail from highlights and shadows, make a wider range of targeted adjustments, and easily share your images and video clips on social media and photo sharing sites". It certainly provides some interesting options to do this, including highlight and shadow recovery, white balance features and local noise/moire tools. This is in addition to all the usual editing tools, which are present and easy to apply.

Presentation options

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom really excels when it comes to presenting your photos and passing them on. You can email directly from this new version, as well as sharing with a variety of social networks and photo sharing sites. The Book feature is also new, allowing you to create a variety of beautiful photo books from templates. This complements Adobe Photoshop Lightroom's Slideshow option, giving you even more scope for creating en eye-catching and imaginative end product.

Video management

In this version, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom really ramps up video support, further increasing its versatility. This means that you can make even more complex edits to video clips, as well as easier video publishing.

Conclusion

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 is an exceedingly promising piece of software. It can look complicated - and even overcrowded - on first glance, but once you become more familiar with app, you'll see everything adds up to offering you one of the most comprehensive photo processing apps around.

Download Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4.0 in Softonic

Maybe this generous selection of editing tools is responsible for PaintShop Photo Pro's lengthy installation process.

It has so many different windows, palettes and toolbars that it feels a bit overwhelming. Our advice here is to spend as much time as necessary customizing it to your needs and, of course, trying out all the program’s buttons and menus.

We especially liked the Express Lab, a special tool to quickly fix common image glitches.