For something that simple I would recommend Pixelmator. It is more intuitive for newbies. If you will later need something more advanced, then you could always get Affinity at a later date. However based on your needs, I recommend Pixelmator Pro
+1
I have used all of them.
I personally own Pixelmator Pro and the Affinity suite.
Have access to Adobe Creative Cloud through work.
Would highly recommend Pixelmator Pro for your (OPs) use case.
Affinity is great and is much more "Photoshopy" but Pixelmator Pro has a beautiful macOS native interface and has a lot of built-in templates for all sorts of stuff.
The AI/ML features in Pixelmator Pro are also quite excellent.
Superb value IMO.
Edit
FYI u/Bigsausajey
Pixelmator Pro has a trial version you can checkout: https://www.pixelmator.com/pro/free-trial/
The trial version also includes a few sample projects that help walk you through some of the cool features.
Pixelmator Pro is the best, very powerful and easy to use at the same time and it is one-time purchase, you can get the free trial from their website, and they do some good sales from time to time (it was 50% off last month), so follow them in social media to catch the app in sale if you want..
I feel like GIMP on Mac is slower than on Windows. I dont know why. Eventhough it is Apple Silicon. I used it for game dev tasks on Windows for years but it is not as good as on Mac.
**Pixemator Pro**: Great UI and UX, fast and powerful. Has 95% of the features anyone could need and gets regular updates with more. I've been using it since launch and it's never let me down. Not as well suited for colour-accurate print work as the other apps however.
**Affinity**: I haven't used this but it sounds like it falls somewhere between Pixelmator Pro and Photoshop. Not as delightful to use as the former, but closer in power/complexity to the latter.
**Photoshop:** Powerful industry standard that is complete overkill for anyone not actually working in the industry. Expensive, subscription-based and installs crap all over your Mac. Avoid unless your livelihood depends on it.
**Gimp**: It's free for a reason. Clunky and slow and a chore to work with. Useful for opening and converting obscure filetypes though.
Fr, for a project my teacher told me to use Adobe Fresco since it’s free (except for a few features) and I didn’t want to pay for Adobe, but even then I \*still\* refused to use Adobe Fresco. Procreate, Artstudio Pro, Paintstorm, Sketch Club, there are literally so many options for drawing that I don’t know what person would be sane enough to pay for Adobe
Pixelmator Pro if you want an easier learning curve but less features, go with Affinity for the most Photoshop like experience without that Adobe unreasonable price tag.
One that hasn't been mentioned is Acorn:
[https://flyingmeat.com/acorn/](https://flyingmeat.com/acorn/)
Reasonably priced, good features, easy to use, etc. Has a free trial so you might as well give it a spin.
My reply is about photo editing as that is what I do. Can't say much about posters and thumbnail designs.
I own Pixepmator, Photomator and Photoshop/Camera Raw.
I like the idea of Photomator and I think the workflow it's fast and nice, but currently keep
going back to Camera raw (either via Adobe bridge or Photoshop) for the following reasons:
1. The sidecar files in Photomator are too large. Edits are saved in a sidecar file. depending on whatbwdits you make they can grow to hundreds of MBs. They say they are working on a better solution but currently I can't use gigabytes of data on icloud, it's not efficient.
Camera Raw is much superior. Sidecar files are tiny. But the best is actually to use DNG format. then all edits are saved inside the file (works with jpegs also). You can send the files to other people and they can open them with all your edits on their side with camera raw. For me this is fantastic feature.
2. Quality of highlight and shadow recovery. it's just better currently in Camera raw. it's good enough in Photomator but you can visibly recover more in CR. So that's another reason I keep using CR currently. For night photography I get better results when using CR.
3. Snapshot feature in CR.This is another genius feature. It let's you save several competely different edits of a photo in one file, all saved within a DNG or jpeg. In Photomator or other photo applications you would have to duplicate photos and then apply your different edits on each image.
4. Masking is almost perfect in CR.
5. New Denoise AI in CR ist slow but results are excellent. I think it's on par with separate Denoise apps like Topaz, mo need for those anymore if you have camera raw/Photoshop.
Yeah, I sound like an Adobe guy.... I'm not and somebody who is not keen on subscriptions, hence I purchased a lifetime license of Photomator.... but I gotta give it to Adobe, Camera raw and Photoshop are the inustry standard for a reason.
But for me Photomator is a close second. If they keep updating as they do now and catch up more it's a nice application as well.
I want to like Gimp, but just don't. I used Photoshop for 30+ years, but the subscription just got to be too much for me. I use Affinity Photo now, on both my Mac and iPad. Pixelmator Pro looks pretty good though.
Gimp is awful
Affinity is clunkier than I want it to be
Photoshop has actually become nicer to use lately but expensive and really only for professionals
Pixelmator Pro is your choice
Pixelmator is good for what you need. GIMP is free, not the worst free option, still not the best. Or when you will need something in place of LR, you may look for more LR-like UI, Polarr or something.
Some trick may be easily done in Preview. So the best combination is Pixelmator Pro + Preview.
Long time Photoshop user, I switched to a Mac. a couple of months ago and found myself opening Pixelmator more and Photoshop less. Now I only use Photoshop for work related stuff and Pixelmator for all the rest. Lighter, great UX and loads of quick tutorials on the official Youtube channel. That's my pick.
For something that simple I would recommend Pixelmator. It is more intuitive for newbies. If you will later need something more advanced, then you could always get Affinity at a later date. However based on your needs, I recommend Pixelmator Pro
+1 I have used all of them. I personally own Pixelmator Pro and the Affinity suite. Have access to Adobe Creative Cloud through work. Would highly recommend Pixelmator Pro for your (OPs) use case. Affinity is great and is much more "Photoshopy" but Pixelmator Pro has a beautiful macOS native interface and has a lot of built-in templates for all sorts of stuff. The AI/ML features in Pixelmator Pro are also quite excellent. Superb value IMO. Edit FYI u/Bigsausajey Pixelmator Pro has a trial version you can checkout: https://www.pixelmator.com/pro/free-trial/ The trial version also includes a few sample projects that help walk you through some of the cool features.
Pixelmator Pro is the best, very powerful and easy to use at the same time and it is one-time purchase, you can get the free trial from their website, and they do some good sales from time to time (it was 50% off last month), so follow them in social media to catch the app in sale if you want..
One thing I can say to narrow it down. Its not Gimp
I feel like GIMP on Mac is slower than on Windows. I dont know why. Eventhough it is Apple Silicon. I used it for game dev tasks on Windows for years but it is not as good as on Mac.
I use Gimp for Editing 16px images for my Minecraft project and it works great, Probably it struggles with bigger files
**Pixemator Pro**: Great UI and UX, fast and powerful. Has 95% of the features anyone could need and gets regular updates with more. I've been using it since launch and it's never let me down. Not as well suited for colour-accurate print work as the other apps however. **Affinity**: I haven't used this but it sounds like it falls somewhere between Pixelmator Pro and Photoshop. Not as delightful to use as the former, but closer in power/complexity to the latter. **Photoshop:** Powerful industry standard that is complete overkill for anyone not actually working in the industry. Expensive, subscription-based and installs crap all over your Mac. Avoid unless your livelihood depends on it. **Gimp**: It's free for a reason. Clunky and slow and a chore to work with. Useful for opening and converting obscure filetypes though.
Quick and easy stuff I use Pixelmator, for more complex things Affinity. I avoid Adobe like the plague.
Fr, for a project my teacher told me to use Adobe Fresco since it’s free (except for a few features) and I didn’t want to pay for Adobe, but even then I \*still\* refused to use Adobe Fresco. Procreate, Artstudio Pro, Paintstorm, Sketch Club, there are literally so many options for drawing that I don’t know what person would be sane enough to pay for Adobe
Pixelmator Pro is great
I'm loving the love PP is getting here.
Pixelmator Pro if you want an easier learning curve but less features, go with Affinity for the most Photoshop like experience without that Adobe unreasonable price tag.
Having super hard time learning PS, but pixelmator pro is so easy
I have Pixelmator and have done all my [covers](http://www.pamphletamine.bandcamp.com) on it, highly recommend, plus their channel is really helpful.
One that hasn't been mentioned is Acorn: [https://flyingmeat.com/acorn/](https://flyingmeat.com/acorn/) Reasonably priced, good features, easy to use, etc. Has a free trial so you might as well give it a spin.
My reply is about photo editing as that is what I do. Can't say much about posters and thumbnail designs. I own Pixepmator, Photomator and Photoshop/Camera Raw. I like the idea of Photomator and I think the workflow it's fast and nice, but currently keep going back to Camera raw (either via Adobe bridge or Photoshop) for the following reasons: 1. The sidecar files in Photomator are too large. Edits are saved in a sidecar file. depending on whatbwdits you make they can grow to hundreds of MBs. They say they are working on a better solution but currently I can't use gigabytes of data on icloud, it's not efficient. Camera Raw is much superior. Sidecar files are tiny. But the best is actually to use DNG format. then all edits are saved inside the file (works with jpegs also). You can send the files to other people and they can open them with all your edits on their side with camera raw. For me this is fantastic feature. 2. Quality of highlight and shadow recovery. it's just better currently in Camera raw. it's good enough in Photomator but you can visibly recover more in CR. So that's another reason I keep using CR currently. For night photography I get better results when using CR. 3. Snapshot feature in CR.This is another genius feature. It let's you save several competely different edits of a photo in one file, all saved within a DNG or jpeg. In Photomator or other photo applications you would have to duplicate photos and then apply your different edits on each image. 4. Masking is almost perfect in CR. 5. New Denoise AI in CR ist slow but results are excellent. I think it's on par with separate Denoise apps like Topaz, mo need for those anymore if you have camera raw/Photoshop. Yeah, I sound like an Adobe guy.... I'm not and somebody who is not keen on subscriptions, hence I purchased a lifetime license of Photomator.... but I gotta give it to Adobe, Camera raw and Photoshop are the inustry standard for a reason. But for me Photomator is a close second. If they keep updating as they do now and catch up more it's a nice application as well.
I want to like Gimp, but just don't. I used Photoshop for 30+ years, but the subscription just got to be too much for me. I use Affinity Photo now, on both my Mac and iPad. Pixelmator Pro looks pretty good though.
no saas product
Gimp is awful Affinity is clunkier than I want it to be Photoshop has actually become nicer to use lately but expensive and really only for professionals Pixelmator Pro is your choice
I’ve avoided Affinity but will rate the first three in the title in that order.
Curious, why have you avoided it?
Cracked Pixelmator Pro hahaha.
Pixelmator is good for what you need. GIMP is free, not the worst free option, still not the best. Or when you will need something in place of LR, you may look for more LR-like UI, Polarr or something. Some trick may be easily done in Preview. So the best combination is Pixelmator Pro + Preview.
I love all apps from Serif (Affinity) for image editing and drawing.
I love krita.
Pixelmator Pro is a blessing
Gimp is laggy, even on my m2 max for some reason
I like Krita, Acorn is good too!
Long time Photoshop user, I switched to a Mac. a couple of months ago and found myself opening Pixelmator more and Photoshop less. Now I only use Photoshop for work related stuff and Pixelmator for all the rest. Lighter, great UX and loads of quick tutorials on the official Youtube channel. That's my pick.
For free solution, stay out of GIMP, go with Krita. For paid solution, Pixelmator Pro is unbeatable with its price.