Many professional graphic designers and photographers stick to Adobe Photoshop for their graphic and image editing needs. However, there are a couple of minor problems that may serve as dealbreakers for a sizable audience – the app will cost you a subscription fee and there is no Linux version at the time of writing. Linux is definitely an operating system for the minority but having a cross-platform image and graphics editor does make it easier if you work with multiple systems running different platforms. Once you get used to the interfaces of these apps, you may find them as worthy Photoshop alternatives too. GIMP
GIMP is by far the most popular cross-platform image editor that is free. Championed by the open-source community, GIMP has been around for quite awhile and those that tried it a couple of years back might have found the software too basic compared to Adobe Photoshop. But with recent releases like version 2.8, which launched back in 2012, GIMP can finally be treated as a full-fledged graphics editor complete with support for layer groups, PDF export, a refined interface and more. The developers behind GIMP are still active so it is exciting what other features will roll out in the future knowing that this app will stay forever free. PintaPinta is a more basic graphics editor that mainly focuses on core painting tools. The user-interface is far less intimidating than Adobe Photoshop. Each tool has a limited set of options compared to GIMP but spotting these tools is much easier. While Pinta is primarily designed for elementary editing, there are a few nifty features included like support for layering, making gradients and various image adjustments and effects. Cloud-based Editors
In a world where tech companies are focusing on mobile and the cloud, you cannot underestimate the power of a Web app these days. Pixlr Editor is a great example as it was originally a tool where you can do basic things like cropping and resizing images right from your Web browser. When Autodesk acquired the startup back in 2011, the app eventually evolved into a highly sophisticated Adobe Flash-based app that has a similar feature set to Pinta except for the fact that any other computer that can run Adobe Flash Player can use the app too. Then there are plenty of other cloud-based editors like Fotor and PicMonkey.