Best open-source alternatives to Adobe Photoshop

PhotoCraft is a native image-editing application aimed at users who want Photoshop-like workflows in an open-source tool. It is written in Rust and positioned as a clean-room reimplementation of Adobe Photoshop, emphasizing familiar menus, shortcuts, panels, and tools while remaining offline and self-contained. The project supports layered raster editing, adjustment layers, masks, layer styles, type, vectors, selections, filters, and real PSD round-tripping. It also exposes multiple control surfaces, including the UI, CLI, JSON control channel, and an MCP server, making it suitable both for interactive artists and for automation or agent-driven workflows.

Graphite is an open source graphics engine and editor aimed at 2D content creation. It began as a vector editor and is being developed into a broader creative toolbox that combines vector and raster workflows in a single, nondestructive system. The project is intended for artists, designers, graphics programmers, and other creative users who want a modern alternative to conventional image-editing software. Its node-graph core powers user-facing tools for compositing, generative design, and other planned capabilities such as photo editing, motion graphics, digital painting, desktop publishing, and VFX compositing.

ArtCraft is an IDE for artists focused on interactive AI image and video creation. It is designed for users who want more control than simple prompting, combining visual scene-building tools with model-driven generation workflows. The project emphasizes composing in 2D, staging in 3D, and refining outputs through tools like image editing, background removal, character posing, and asset mixing. It also supports multiple providers and model workflows, including ArtCraft’s own catalog plus Grok, Midjourney, Sora, and World Labs, making it a broad creative workspace for iterative visual production.

miniPaint is a browser-based image editor aimed at users who want a lightweight, install-free alternative for creating and editing images. It runs directly in the browser and emphasizes local editing with no server-side transfer, making it suitable for quick edits, browser-native workflows, and users who prefer not to install desktop software. The project includes a broad set of editing tools covering file import/export, layer-based composition, image adjustments, filters, and painting utilities. It also supports embedding in other websites and provides build instructions and a wiki for contributors or self-hosters who want to work with the codebase or integrate the app into their own pages.

SnapOtter is a self-hosted file-processing platform aimed at users who need a local alternative to commercial conversion and media-processing services. It combines a web UI, a REST API, and reusable pipelines to handle a broad mix of tasks across images, video, audio, PDFs, and general files. The project is designed for deployment on infrastructure the user owns, either as a single Docker container for quick start or as a production Compose stack with PostgreSQL and Redis. It emphasizes privacy by keeping files on the user's network, supports OIDC-based single sign-on, and includes local AI-powered features such as background removal, OCR, transcription, and image enhancement.

Drawpile is a cross-platform drawing application built for real-time collaboration. It allows multiple people to draw, paint, and animate together on the same canvas, and it runs on Windows, Linux, macOS, and Android. The project is aimed at artists, groups, and communities that want a shared digital canvas rather than a single-user illustration tool. Its README points users to downloadable builds, source compilation instructions, and support channels, and it also notes browser-accessible community chat options for getting help. The client depends on several shared libraries, and the build process includes pinned dependency versions and integrity checks for upstream sources.

Patchy is a cross-platform image editor aimed at people who work with layered Photoshop files and want strong PSD/PSB compatibility. It supports Windows, macOS, Linux, and a browser-based build, and it is positioned as a familiar alternative for users who rely on Photoshop-style workflows and keyboard shortcuts. The project emphasizes non-destructive editing and broad format support, including editable text, masks, layer styles, Smart Objects, adjustment layers, vector tools, PDF import/export, and a range of paint and retouch features. It also includes scripting, batch tools, and local control integrations, while remaining local-first with no image uploads or telemetry. Desktop builds add capabilities such as printing and scanner/camera import, and Linux is distributed via Flatpak while other platforms are delivered as downloadable releases.

BitMappery is a browser-based image editing application aimed at users who want a lightweight alternative to full Photoshop-style tools. It centers on a document-and-layer workflow, where each document contains layers with their own content, transformations, and filters. The README emphasizes that the project is intentionally minimal, while still leaving room for contributions related to more advanced image-editing capabilities. The application is built with Vue and Vuex and uses zCanvas for canvas rendering and bitmap blitting. It supports undo and redo through state history, and it handles rendering and interactions through dedicated renderer and service classes. BitMappery can be run locally from source with npm, or deployed as a Docker-based self-hosted version. It also mentions optional third-party storage integrations for Dropbox, Google Drive, and S3, plus an optional WebAssembly path for improved image-manipulation performance.

Imagor Studio is a self-hosted image gallery aimed at users who want a browser-based way to manage and edit large photo collections. It combines gallery browsing with built-in editing tools, making it suitable for personal libraries as well as small teams that want to organize images without relying on external cloud services. The project emphasizes speed and simplicity: it uses virtual scrolling to browse large sets of images quickly, supports drag-and-drop organization and multi-select bulk actions, and applies edits non-destructively through URL-based transformations. The quick start shows a Docker-based setup with SQLite and a mounted local image folder, and the README points users to hosted documentation for deeper configuration and usage details.