Editors are programs specially designed to create and edit images interactively and save them in a graphic file format such as JPEG, PNG, GIF or TIFF. They offer greater and more advanced processing possibilities than viewfinders, such as working with layers, zone editing and color space management. We could distinguish a subtype of editor focused on massive editing; that is, able to edit several images simultaneously.
License: Proprietary software (trialware available).
Developer: Adobe Systems
Operating system: Windows and Mac OS.
Main features:
- Desktop application written in C++ and compatible with 32-bit and 64 bit architecture.
- Focuses on the processing and creation of graphics and digital photographs, offering multiple and full editing functions (levels, curves, layers, transformation, clone stamps, brush, focus, quick mask, among others).
- Supports the majority of graphic formats and has its own native format (PSD).
- Supports multiple metadata standards (EXIF, IPTC, TIFF, XMP, among others) and allows you to embed and edit IPTC Core fields using a XMP metadata schema.
- Originally designed to edit a single image at a time, including its possible layers; however installing the Adobe Camera RAW plugins allows you to simultaneously edit multiple RAW files and create customized batch actions, which can then be applied to a large set of images.
- Multilingual support (up to 26 languages).
License: GPL v3.
Developer: Initially developed by Spencer Kimball and Peter Mattis, students at the University of California, Berkeley, and currently maintained by the GIMP Development Team.
Operating system: Cross-platform.
Main features:
- Application written in C and GTK+
- It is the freeware alternative to programmes like Adobe Photoshop and is intended for the processing and creation of individual digital graphics and photographs. Like Photoshop, it offers multiple editing functions of the images individually (such as cropping, change of dimensions, color edition, layers, selection tools, among others) and also allows you to automate the process.
- Supports the main image formats of the market and has a native open format (XCF). It is possible to edit RAW files using several pluginsor an integration with Darktable.
- Reads EXIF, IPTC, XMP and DICOM metadata.
- Embeds and edits XMP, IPTC, DICOM and GPS/Exif.
- Great extensibility thanks to is modular architecture that allows for the integration of extensions written in multiple programing languages like C, C++, Perl, Python or Scheme.
- Multilingual support (up to 23 languages).
License: Proprietary software (trialware available).
Developer: Adobe Systems.
Operating system: Windows and Mac OS.
Main features:
- Application written in C, C++, Objective-C and Lua.
- Unlike Photoshop or Gimp (focused on the editing of individual images), Lightroom is specially designed to work with large quantities of images and to do massive non-destructive simultaneous edits.
- Offered as an integral solution that seeks to cover the entire workflow of the photographer and/or photo editor (download, editing, cataloging, output).
- Supports the most common photographic formats (JPEG, TIF, RAW, PSD), PNG and some video formats but doesn’t allow you to work with Illustrator or InDesign files.
- Is not a browser and does not allow working with folders.
- Requires an import from a device (camera, hard drive...).
- Has seven workspace modules (library, develop, map, book, slideshow, print and web). Each module offers a specific set of tools made to the different phases of the workflow (importing, adjusting…).
- Has a powerful search engine that allows boolean-based searches.
- Multilingual support (up to 12 languages).
Developer: Johannes Hanika
Operating system: Cross-platform.
Main features:
- Application written in C, C++ and GTK+
- Like Adobe Lightroom, this tool is designed to support the needs of a photographer or photo editor throughout their workflow.
- It is designed to work with images on a large scale.
- Offers great possibilities for non-destructive editing with more than 45 image adjustment plugins.
- Has 2 main modules; lighttable (import, manage the catalog, EXIF information, filtering, metadata editor and output) and darkroom (editing)
- Allows you to search by tags and rate images.
- Multilingual support (up to 26 languages).