The Best Free Software to Touch-up your Photos

The Best Free Software to Touch-up your Photos

Free-Software-to Touch-up

Enhance your photos in a few clicks by reworking them with the best free photo editing software for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
 Improving the rendering of your photos, touching up a defect in a portrait, or even cropping an image are common operations that you may have to perform on your computer. To get there, good news, you don't necessarily need to invest in professional photo editing software like Photoshop.

There are indeed many free tools integrating all the necessary functions that will allow the greatest number of people to retouch their photos. After having tested several, the editorial team has selected for you the best free photo editing software.


1. GIMP
GIMP is undoubtedly the best-known editing software by liberalists. This open-source utility is available on Windows as well as on macOS and Linux. It will allow you to edit photos as well as to engage in graphic creations. The program uses an interface similar to professional software like Adobe Photoshop and allows you to work on an image using a layering system allowing you to superimpose the modifications without altering the original image.

Offering a very large number of tools, GIMP is aimed at an advanced audience. However, it is possible to learn to master the main functions of the program thanks to the many tutorials published directly on the official website.


GIMP integrates classic editing tools (cropping, color balance, saturation, etc.) but also offers the use of more advanced retouching tools like the corrector tool or the cloning tool which will allow you, for example, to remove annoying elements from an image, or fix an unsightly button on a portrait.

The photos modified in GIMP can be saved as a working file which can be reopened later in the software to continue editing but can also be exported in image format to your PC.

Download GIMP for Windows (Free)
Download GIMP for macOS (Free)
Download GIMP for Linux (Free)

2. PhotoFiltre 7
Developed around the core of PhotoFiltre Studio, PhotoFiltre 7 includes all the essential functions of the software for retouching your images. Available only on Windows, it benefits from a simple interface to tame, the tools it provides are simple enough to allow you to apply basic adjustments to your images: brightness, contrast, saturation and color balance can be changed in a few clicks.

The least seasoned users will be able to let the software automatically manage the levels and contrast.

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PhotoFiltre 7 also offers a number of predefined filters whose parameters can be fine-tuned very easily. You can, for example, blur very easily an area that you want to hide, but also pass your pictures in black and white or sepia, or even apply an artistic filter radically transforming the rendering of the image.

Basic editing tools are also present, such as the cloning buffer which can be used to correct certain image defects. PhotoFiltre 7 also uses a layering system which will be useful for adding changes to the original image without damaging it.

Download PhotoFiltre 7 for Windows (Free)

3. Adobe Photoshop Express Editor
In general, when it comes to photo editing, Photoshop, Adobe’s software, is the first name that comes to mind. The photo-editing application, reserved for professionals and experienced users, is now available with a monthly subscription billed at 23.99 euros, an amount that not everyone is ready to put into software used occasionally.

Not many people know, but Adobe also offers a free, light version of its photo editing tool. To work, however, it requires the prior installation of the Flash Player module in your browser.


The Photoshop Express Editor interface is much simpler and more accessible than that of the original tool. The left column groups the various editing tools, while the main pane allows you to view your edits in real-time, cancel or reapply them, reset your image, or view yours before/after photo.