Photoshop stopped being something you own the day it became a Creative Cloud subscription: stop paying and you lose access to the tool your craft runs on, even though your files sit right there on your disk. The open source editors below carry no recurring bill and no account standing between you and your work; they run locally on hardware you own and save to formats anything can open. Just know that none of them is a drop-in clone. Photoshop is really two programs in one, a photo-retouching and compositing tool and a painting studio, and the open source world splits those jobs across different apps, so the right pick depends on which half of Photoshop you actually live in.
Upscayl enlarges and enhances low-resolution images with AI. It is built for photos and graphics that are too small or pixelated and need more detail, sharpening them without the soft, washed-out look of a plain resize. It is not a deblurring or focus-correction tool.
Krita is a free and open source digital painting application built for creating artwork from start to finish. It is aimed at professionals and serious hobbyists who want a dedicated canvas rather than a general-purpose image editor.
PixiEditor is a universal 2D editor for sprites, game art, images, and logos. It brings pixel art, painting, and vector tools together in one familiar interface so you can move between different kinds of 2D work without switching applications.
GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program, a free and open source image editor for Windows, macOS, and Linux. Photographers, designers, and illustrators use it to retouch photos, composite images, and create graphics without relying on proprietary software.
Pinta is a free, open-source painting and image editing program built with GTK. Modeled on Paint.Net 3.0, it gives you an approachable desktop editor for drawing and everyday image work on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
QualityScaler is a Windows app that enhances, upscales, and denoises photos and videos with AI. Everything runs on your own PC with local models, so no internet connection is needed and your files never leave your machine.
MyPaint is a drawing and painting program for artists who want a simple workspace focused entirely on brushwork. Built around graphics tablets, it keeps the interface out of the way so you can concentrate on the canvas.
Drawing is a simple image editor for Linux. It offers a Paint-like workflow for creating and adjusting pictures without the weight of a full graphics suite, making quick edits and sketches fast and approachable.
RealScaler is a Windows app that enhances, upscales, and denoises photos and video using Real-ESRGAN AI. All processing happens locally on your PC, so your source and output files never leave your machine and no internet connection is required.
Pixelitor is a desktop image editor for creating and editing images on Windows, macOS, and Linux. It handles layered compositions complete with layer masks and text layers, making it well suited to both photo editing and from-scratch graphics work.
Match the pick to which half of Photoshop you use most.
Closest overall replacement: GIMP GIMP is the most complete Photoshop analog here: layers and masks, customizable brushes, and a deep set of color-correction and retouching tools, on Windows, macOS, and Linux. Plug-ins and scripts automate repetitive tasks or add new capabilities, and you can reshape the interface with themes, CSS, and your own keyboard shortcuts to rebuild familiar habits.
Best for painting and illustration: Krita If you use Photoshop mainly to paint, Krita is built for it. A deep, customizable brush engine, layers, masks, and color management are aimed at comics, illustration, concept art, and texture or matte painting, taking a piece from blank canvas to finished render. It runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux and is developed within the KDE community.
Lightweight layered editor: Pixelitor Pixelitor handles layered compositions with layer masks and text layers, but leans on a built-in library of more than 110 filters and color adjustments instead of a plugin ecosystem, so a lot of retouching and effects work is there out of the box. Multiple undo lets you experiment freely, and it runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Pixel art, vectors, and animation: PixiEditor For game art and sprites that photo-oriented editors handle awkwardly, PixiEditor combines pixel art, painting, and vector tools on one canvas. A node graph drives each document, a timeline supports frame-by-frame animation, and you can export to PNG, JPG, SVG, GIF, and MP4.
Most switches stall on a false premise: that one app must do everything Photoshop does. Nothing here is that app, and chasing it wastes weeks. The faster route is to pick by which half of Photoshop you actually use. For photo retouching, compositing, and general raster editing, GIMP is the most complete option, with Pixelitor a lighter alternative built around layers, masks, and more than 110 built-in filters. For drawing and illustration, Krita and MyPaint are purpose-built painting apps. For quick everyday edits, Pinta and Drawing keep things simple, and for game sprites, PixiEditor handles pixel art, vectors, and animation. And for enlarging low-resolution photos, Upscayl, RealScaler, and QualityScaler do AI upscaling entirely on your own machine, a different job from pixel editing.
Set expectations on file fidelity before you move anything. Opening a PSD is not the same as preserving it: raster layers, basic masks, transparency, and many blend modes usually survive, while text layers, adjustment layers, smart objects, and proprietary filters rely on Photoshop behavior and often do not. Keep the original PSD untouched and migrate a copy, comparing it against a flattened reference export. Two known gaps are worth checking up front, CMYK and print color, where GIMP is RGB-centric, and pen tablets, where you should test pressure and shortcuts on real hardware rather than trusting screenshots.
Fit RAW photos into the workflow deliberately, because most of these editors are strongest after RAW development, not as the first stop. The common path is to process RAW files in a dedicated converter, export a high-bit-depth TIFF, and then retouch or composite from there, keeping the original RAW files untouched so you can reprocess later. The payoff across all of this is that your finished work lands in open formats like TIFF, PNG, and PDF that any tool can reopen, on software that keeps running whether or not a subscription cleared this month.
No single app matches all of Photoshop, and looking for one is where most switches stall. The open source world splits Photoshop's jobs: GIMP and Pixelitor handle photo editing, retouching, and layered compositing, while Krita and MyPaint are dedicated painting and illustration tools. Pick the app that covers the half of Photoshop you actually use, and accept a second tool for the other half if you need it.
Raster layers, basic masks, transparency, and many blend modes are the parts most likely to carry over. Text layers, adjustment layers, smart objects, and proprietary filters are riskier, because they depend on Photoshop behavior rather than plain pixel data. GIMP and Pixelitor both open layered files, but always compare the result against a flattened reference export, and for client work keep the original PSD and migrate a copy.
This is one of the weaker spots. GIMP is RGB-centric, so many print workflows keep editing in RGB and convert to CMYK at export or in prepress rather than editing separations directly. Ask your printer exactly what they need. If they require an editable CMYK PSD, you may need a hybrid handoff, so confirm the print requirements before committing a color-critical job to an open source editor.
Yes, and this is a strength of the painting apps. MyPaint is built around graphics tablets with extensive pressure support and a configurable brush engine, and Krita's brush engine is designed for tablet painting too. Because pen behavior also depends on your tablet driver and operating system, install the candidate on the actual hardware and test pressure, tilt, and shortcuts before trusting it for real work.
Most of these editors work best after RAW development rather than as the first RAW stop. The common approach is to process RAW files in a dedicated converter, export a high-bit-depth TIFF, then retouch or composite that in GIMP, Krita, or Pixelitor. Keep the original RAW files unchanged so you can reprocess them later with different settings.
For cropping, resizing, quick fixes, and light drawing, a full editor is overkill. Pinta offers a familiar Paint.Net-style interface with unlimited undo and previewable effects on Windows, macOS, and Linux. Drawing is an even simpler Paint-like editor for Linux. Both open common formats like PNG and JPEG and get everyday edits done without the learning curve of GIMP or Krita.
Yes. PixiEditor is a 2D editor that brings pixel art, painting, and vector tools onto one canvas, which general Photoshop-style editors handle awkwardly. A node graph drives each document, a timeline supports frame-by-frame animation, and it exports to PNG, JPG, SVG, GIF, and MP4. For sprite work and simple animation it fits better than a photo-oriented editor.
