The Gimp is the open source reference in image manipulation. This free application will allow you to retouch, author and edit your photos thanks to a wide set of tools.

Let’s quickly go through what you can do with the Gimp. The painting function has the essential clone, airbrush or pencil tools and a powerful gradient and blend tool. You can also create and save your own brushes and patterns for later use. The program lets you manipulate your photos, adding layers, doing Bezier and polygonal selections or setting text. Load and save animations in a frame-as-layer format and batch process all your photos for quick editing. The multi-windowed interface can be moved around to fit your needs and resized according to your desktop space.

What’s more, the Gimp can be expanded with over 100 different plug-ins and extensions available on the Gimp’s website. These apply in majority for layer effects such as render, distort or blur and make a great addition to the ones already present in the program.

While the Gimp is user friendly, the installation process can result a bit hairy. Because the application works under the GTK Runtime Environment, you will have to install this kit to successfully launch the program. The process is fairly lengthy and some error messages tend to pop up, however if you persist, you will be able to install the Gimp properly on your PC

Despite this fairly hazardous installation process, the Gimp is a program we recommend. Whether you’re out of dough or are looking for a free alternative to Photoshop, the Gimp is excellent image manipulation software with all the tools you’d expect. The friendly interface and expandability make this a program of choice.

Download The GIMP 2.2.11 in Softonic

Managing files with the Finder in Mac OS X is pretty damn good in my opinion (certainly better than Windows) although that's not to say it can't be improved.

File Sheriff aims to do this by making file management easier and quicker than normal. For instance, it allows you to easily generate icon previews, rename your MP3 files based on their ID3 tags, batch-apply file attributes, edit hidden file options, amongst many other functions.

One of the simplest tasks it will help you with is renaming. File Sheriff is especially useful when it comes to renaming MP3 files that have not been labeled correctly. File Sheriff can automatically rename MP3s based on their ID3 tags (basically the name that appears in iTunes) so that the file name corresponds with the tag. In addition, it's excellent for finding and replacing files and folders which have been labeled wrongly or have gone missing (although Spotlight is as good as anything out there where this is concerned in my opinion).

In addition to all this, File Sheriff also allows you to create your own icons - you can take images and use them to represent your video, photo and other related files. The editor isn't exactly extensive but it allows basic icons to be made.

File Sheriff is an excellent tool for those Mac users who feel that Mac OS doesn't go far enough in helping them manage files.

Download File Sheriff 1.2 in Softonic

Slideshows are one of the best ways to add colour and life to a photo collection no matter what the subject matter.

Slideshow Magic is aimed at both home users and business professionals who want to impress friends or colleagues with their photo slideshow creations. Best of all, it doesn't require the viewer to have the program installed as all slideshows can be saved in any QuickTime compatible format.

The easy to use interface is somewhat like that of a video editor allowing you to add music or audio tracks either for the whole slideshow or just specific segments. You can add some impressive transitions and titles much in the same way as you do with Windows Movie Maker for example. The program also features a useful guide to help you get your photos online or burnt to DVD. However, unfortunately the program doesn't provide either it's own webspace or burner for uploading and saving photos. For uploading, you'll need an FTP client and web host and for burning, a third party burner such as Nero.

In addition, although it's a cross platform application, sharing with other platforms requires some form of network solution between clients (although this needn't be something complicated - a program like MSN Live Messenger is enough

Slideshow Magic is a relatively cheap but powerful way to get your photos either online or burnt to DVD.

Download Slideshow Magic 5.0.5 in Softonic

FoneLink is a mobile phone suite that allows you to browse through the files of a mobile phone, to transfer and convert music, photos and videos as well as to copy contacts, events and tasks, edit notes and bookmarks. A built-in ringtone editor allows you to create ringtones from any compatible music file. Finally FoneLink manages to backup the mobile phone's data and to restore single files or a comprehensive backup.

Download FoneLink 2.1.3 in Softonic

ChocoFlop is a CoreImage-based, realtime, non-destructive, high dynamic range image and photo editing application for Mac OS X. It supports a wide range of formats, offers many filters and blending modes and does with many geometry and painting tools.

Download ChocoFlop 0.87 in Softonic

PTLens is an excellent application to correct or add distortion to your pictures.

You'll be able to apply a fish eye effect, modify perspective, chromatic aberation and vignetting. PTLens also lets you correct barrel-pincushion distortion on a wide range of camera models. It doesn't seem to allow you to add new models though. Adding effects is really easy thanks to sliders and you can immediately see the changes in the preview. You can also simply disable an effect you don't want by unselecting it.

The program's interface does feel a little clunky, and you wonder why the directory is on the right, instead of next to the preview. We appreciate that plugins for Photoshop and Aperture and an external editor for Adobe Lightroom come in the installer though, so you can also use it in your favorite photo editor. The plugins will work exactly as the standalone application.

Despite the slightly unintuitive interface, PTLens is an excellent tool for correcting image distortion. Recommended for any serious photographer!

Download PTLens 1.1.1 in Softonic

A variation for Plasq's excellent comic book designer, Comic Life Magiq makes great use of Leopard technology and offers new snazzy effects to have fun with your pictures.

Just like Comic Life, Magiq is incredibly intuitive. New users will immediately feel comfortable with the interface and tools, while Comic Life users will find familiarities between both versions. Start out by selecting a template, then have fun adding photos and text bubbles to your page to makes some sort of story. The layout view is great to skim through your images. The navigator on the right lets you browse through your picture folders, while the bottom section offers a wide choice of bubbles.

Comic Life Magiq includes a renewed editor with enough tools to improve all aspects on your page like lettering, reflections, shadows and fonts. Although the interface can feel a little crowded at times, it certainly makes every feature immediately available. The best thing about Comic Life Magiq is how it makes use of Leopard technology though, notably Core Image and Core Animation.

If you love Comic Life and you're running Leopard, make sure to install Comic Life Magiq to enjoy its stylish effects and create stunning comic books out of pictures.

Download Comic Life Magiq 1.0.1 in Softonic

Do you hate having to open up Photoshop just to design an icon? Gluestick is a small graphics editor that web designers will find extremely useful to prepare interface and icon designs.

The application lets you add two types of layers, text and image, and features a complete template set of Apple icons to work with ranging from accounts to alerts or folders. Open up the inspector window to set options like position, size, color, shadow and zoom. Your layers can be resized and Gluestick lets you really zoom in onto your picture so you can edit the details.

Although Gluestick offers many editing tools, I wouldn't consider it a proper graphics editor like Pixelmator though. The inclusion of icon templates and the fact that images are handled via layers makes it really ideal for designing interfaces and icons for Mac. The fact that it renders in CoreAnimation also ensure that your images look even crisper on a Mac desktop.

Gluestick will come in handy when creating icons and interfaces for Mac.

Download Gluestick 1.0.3 in Softonic

Just as many of us would like to have a new outfit every day, wouldn’t it be great to dress your computer up differently each morning? Although the former will have to wait for the sale season, for the latter you can seek the help of Desktoptopia. This interesting application will refresh your wallpaper every specified amount of time with a beautiful new desktop background.

You will never have to bother going into the desktop settings to choose an image, as this software always downloads fresh, new creations realized by talented graphic designers. You can also see their names by simply passing above the program’s icon and rate the images on a scale of 1 to 5. What’s more, you’re able to reject the ones you really don’t like, although I don’t think there will be any so ugly to deserve this negative ruling. It is all a right-click away.

Using your left-click instead, you can choose which categories of images you would like the program to download, and also the interval of time you would like it to change the image on your desktop, specifying minutes, hours or days.

You can get everyday a new outfit, at least for your computer, with Desktoptopia. It’s easy to use and the images are rated by users and created by professional graphic editors, so you can work in style with inspiring new photos everyday.

Download Desktoptopia 1.5 in Softonic

Mixing and matching colours is safer with ColorTheory. This application will tell you in real time, which colour matches the one you choose from a gradient scale. You can see different types of match by selecting various types of formula. There are lots of combinations or better, relations between colours available, from the classic ‘Primaries’, ‘Complementary’, ‘Tertiaries’ to more complex relations like ‘Six Tone Chord CCW’ or ‘Pastels’ or ‘Clash’.

When you have chosen one, move the corners of the triangle or rectangal you find over the gradient scale of colours. This allows you, while moving the angle, to see all the possible shades with the relation of colours you have chosen before. This software works with the RYB (red, yellow and blue) model of colours which is the one used in most professional art. The RGB model is the one computers and photo-editor use, so that’s why it can be useful to have this program to see the colour combinations in the standard chromatic convention.

Whether you are a fabric designer, an artist or a web designer, see the matching colours that follow standard relations in a click with ColorTheory.

Download ColorTheory 1.6 in Softonic

After taking a picture, the next step of any digital photographer is to share it online. PictureSync lets you upload pictures from your Mac onto your web accounts.

The application works with a wide range of services, main ones being Flickr, Facebook, Zoomr or PhotoBucket. The authenticating process to these services is a little painful, as you need to open up your browser to log into them. Once set up though, uploading is seamless.

PictureSync only works with three photo applications, iPhoto, Expression Media, Aperture so if you use Lightroom or any other software you'll have to dig into your folders to get your pictures. PictureSync includes a slider window from which you can edit and check information and metadata in pictures. However you won't be able to add specific features each web service offers, like tags in Flickr.

Want to quickly share photos online? PictureSync is a good solution, if not somewhat limited in features and integration with photo software.

Download PictureSync 1.8 r15 in Softonic

Who says you absolutely need Photoshop when editing images? PhotoLine is just another example that solid alternatives photo editing tools do exist.

The application loads very fast compared to Photoshop, and offers a very similar interface, with most of your tools placed on the left. You'll get access to a wide range of layers, effects and filters from the menu bar and various viewing modes. The program also lets you easily create HDR images and offers full masking support.

Photoline includes a web tab, from which you can create animations, buttons or images. In 'web export' you'll be able to add last second touches and actions such as converting to grey or brightening shadows.

A solid image editor needs to be able to save to many formats, which PhotoLine does. You can choose from over 20 different types including Macintosh icon and AVI.

To be honest though, we'd have to say that PhotoLine compares best with Photoshop Elements, simply because it doesn't have as many features as the complete Photoshop.

In all though, PhotoLine remains an excellent image editing application with many tools and effects to get the most out of your pictures.

Download PhotoLine 32 14.51 in Softonic

JetPhoto Studio stores and organizes all your digital shots.

JetPhoto Studio will import pictures from your camera as soon as it is connected to your PC. We like how the main interface includes a calendar to let you browse photos by date. Jet Photo Studio has fairly basic editing tools, and functions like crop, sepia, black and white, image contrast, and auto enhancing, which will allow you to personalize your photos. You can also batch resize your photos and protect them with a watermark. JetPhoto Studio also allows you to rate photos by adding a star next to the ones you prefer. You can set tags to quickly identify related pictures, but annoyingly you’ll have to create new ones for each individual album.

Making screensavers, wallpapers and slide-shows is extremely easy and quick. You can also create two types of Flash movies, stand-alone or deluxe, the first being a typical slide show, and the second showing an animated thumbnail list of your selected images. The only downside is that you can’t set the types of animations and speed of transitions.

You can use JetPhoto Studio to send images, via MMS or infrared, to your friends’ mobiles, yet however exciting this sounds, the feature is not really up to standards. You’ll actually need to know your friend’s mobile brand and exact model and even if you do, there’s no telling whether the service will work in your country. We found that JetPhoto Studio did not support this feature in Spain. Another promising feature is locating photos thanks to GPS and tagging them on Google Earth.

JetPhoto Studio also allows you to quickly upload images to the online photo sharing service Flickr, and it’s very easy to order quality printed copies via PrintExpress. The JetPhoto Server tool is also a good way for anybody with some scripting knowledge to upload and edit their photo albums onto their weblog or personal website.

Jet Photo Studio lets you manipulate photos in all sorts of ways, however some of its functions are not up to standards.

Download JetPhoto Studio 3.0 in Softonic

Whether you're an amateur just looking to dip your feet a bit deeper into the world of photo editing, or more serious photographer looking for a quick and easy to use tool that can handle a large percentage of your editing needs, PhotoComplete could be for you.

PhotoComplete's intuitive photo editing interface allows you to concentrate on the job at hand, without getting in the way, yet still has the power and flexibility necessary to allow you to achieve professional quality results.

PhotoComplete's unique all-in-one-window interface lets you concentrate on achieving the look you want in a photo without having to wade through a sea of pop-up windows or a myriad of confusing options.

Choose from a selection of different actions that may be used to edit a photo. Each action remains editable at all times - if you change your mind about something at any point, just change it - no need to worry about losing any other edits you've applied before or after.

All the standard photo editing features you'd expect to find, such as crop and resize, color and contrast enhancement, and sharpening are present, along with some welcome extras like noise reduction which you'd normally only find in much more expensive applications.

PhotoComplete's easy to use features don't come at the expense of quality. All the editing operations are performed using 16-bit data (instead of the 8-bits that most editors use), and the high quality color management ensures that what you see on the screen really is what you get.

Once you've got a photo looking how you want it, save it in one of the standard formats (JPEG, TIFF or PNG) or upload it to flickr.com to share it with your family and friends.

Download PhotoComplete 1.2.2 in Softonic

Anyone knows that eBay is the best place to auction off anything you want to get rid of. Given it is in good condition and reasonably interesting, you should normally find buyers.

The eBay website itself is easy to browse, yet using iSale you can control your auctions even more easily straight from your desktop. Fitted with a simple interface, displays all the auction information including screenshot, description and specifications. You can use the research assistant to find information from the web or other programs.

iSale includes a template editor, with a wide range of templates to choose from to create your auction page. Although many of them are quite similar, you can still customize a template to your own liking.

Thanks to its simple GUI, iSales makes it easy to organize all your auctions. You can create multiple auction libraries in the same way as you'd create smart playlist in iTunes. iSale can also store auctions in different categories.

Facebook users will be glad to know that this latest outing can now inform your friends on the social network about update auctions. Anyways, information in iSale is updated in real time, as long you're connected to the web.

To be honest, the only thing that really bothered us in iSale is the price. $40 dollars may be just a little too much for anyone to pay for an auction management program. Then again, if you make good money out of your sales....

Despite being a little expensive, iSale is a good auction management program with a nice UI, smart lists and custom auction page creation.

Download iSale 5.2 in Softonic

Bling! It is essentially an image editor but aimed at improving product images. It can be useful when you want to touch up photos and make them more attractive before posting them on a site like eBay.

The program essentially works in a four step process: delete background, compose picture, add effects, and see final image. All the tools are available from the left of the interface, and all you need to do is select one to apply. A little pop up window on the right explains what every tool is. I suggest closing it though as it crowds the interface a bit. There aren't that many effects to work with but they're all easy to apply.

Don't get confused though, Bling! It won't improve the appearance of your product. It's only limited to spicing up the background. The program does a good job at outlining the existing background and removing it, however make sure you have a good new picture to work with as effects in the program are fairly limited.

Although it's fairly easy to use and outlines backgrounds well, Bling! It is a fairly limited image editor. If you're really looking to improve your product images, use a more powerful application.

Download Bling! It 1.0.5 in Softonic

The developers of Acorn are right, this is a very simple image editor. All the tools are available from a floating window while your canvas can be easily set to full screen. Acorn doesn't over complicate things and gives you the essential functions to edit images like shapes, text, drawing or gradient. Layers are really easy to add or remove thanks to the plus and the minus buttons at the bottom of the interface. Strokes in Acorn are also incredibly sensible to the pressure you apply to them.

The real drawback to Acorn is its strength. Professionals will be left frustrated by the limited number of tools and effects. However, it's obvious that this application is aimed at users looking for a simple image editor fitted with all the essentials. Thanks to a well structured interface and a good set of tools, Acorn offers all you need to edit your photos.

Download Acorn 1.0.3 in Softonic

The image editor market is pretty much dominated by Photoshop, with all the other applications battling it out behind for second place. Pixel Image Editor, trying to make itself a place behind Adobe's star app, seems to be aimed towards more advanced users, particularly photographers. The installation process was pretty lengthy and we were really surprised at all the time it took to start up (much more than Photoshop). The first time you launch Pixel you can also easily be taken aback by all the windows and options in the interface. However a quick look around will reassure you that Pixel offers everything that you need.

We liked the collections of editing tools on hand in the left side floating bar, and found an ample collection of both layers and effects to work with. Pixel also has a handy "workspaces" feature, to avoid having your window to cluttered with objects and images. Users will be glad to also find tools to optimize images for the web.

A bit too complex for some users, but Pixel is still an image editor fitted with many useful features.

Download Pixel Image Editor 1.0 Beta 7 build 699 in Softonic

This application is useful to quickly navigate and browse images which are stored in folders (such as a cd) rather than in a photo management application like iPhoto.

PixelWalker is much more productive than manually using the Finder and Preview applications, and PixelWalker provides support for integration of both of those programs, as well as any other image application on your system. Features include fast navigation, full keyboard control, PDF and Multi-Page Tiff support, external editor launching, automatic JPEG rotation, extensive zoom and pan, and more.

Download PixelWalker 0.8.1 in Softonic