SmartDraw offers a powerful and easy-to-use solution for those looking for a Visio ® alternative on a Mac. SmartDraw offers more templates, better tools, industry-leading automation — all while being more affordable and available on any platform, Mac or Windows.Photoshop is so ubiquitous these days that, like Google, it's become a verb: 'to Photoshop' is shorthand for editing an image. This might give the impression that Adobe's got the market sewn up with its packages – but that's not actually the case. In fact, the backlash against Adobe's move to the Creative Cloud in 2013 helped spur on a wide range of alternatives to Photoshop.

Whether you're looking elsewhere because you can't afford the subscription, or you want to support smaller development houses, or you just don't need all the millions of features that come with Photoshop CC, there are a number of options open to you. Here are the best image editing software options that aren't Photoshop. Can this Photoshop alternative topple Adobe from its throne?Platform: Mac, Windows, iPad. Price: £48.99/$49.99 (one-off payment) Serif's Affinity Photo started creating a stir in the creative community almost the moment it was released, and it's perhaps the most serious Photoshop alternative we've seen to date.

Some dealings with knowledge led me to replace a piece of software with another even better got me thinking. I have spent a LOT of time finding the best software. Please see my list below and suggest alternatives. I want to run mostly portable software, but the following software are the ones I r. Group FaceTime on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Mac supports video calls up to 32 people. Let’s move on and look at a variety of great Zoom alternatives from Microsoft, Google, Cisco, Logmein.

Fully compatible with Photoshop and other file formats, it's aimed squarely at professional photographers and designers, and although Affinity Photo is hugely cheaper than Photoshop (with no subscription), its creators argue it's actually better, promising higher speeds, fewer crashes and unlimited undos. In truth, the amount of improved performance you'll get will probably depend what equipment you're using (it's been specifically designed to take advantage of the latest quad core technology). Originally Mac-only, Affinity Photo is now available on, and in summer of 2017 Serif also launched. Anyone looking for an alternative to Photoshop, Affinity Photo is definitely worth investigating.You can find out more about the features and capabilities on Affinity Photo. Sketch includes tools similar to that of Photoshop and Illustrator at a fraction of the price.

Platform: Mac. Price: $99/year or A professional vector graphics app for creatives, in recent years Sketch has created enormous buzz within the design community, and web designers in particular. With a simple UI, Sketch has many features similar to that of Photoshop and Illustrator, including layers, gradients, colour picker and style presets.Its popularity means there are also plenty of community-created you can use to extend its functionality. The development team behind Sketch has made it as flexible as possible, with it supporting infinite zooming and vector shapes that are perfect for multiple resolutions.You can build a new graphic from primitive shapes or start a new one with the Vector or Pencil tool.

GIMP is a popular, free alternative to Photoshop. Platform: Linux, Windows, Mac.Price: Free A free, open-source alternative to Photoshop that's been around for donkey's years, GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program. Today it's available in versions for Linux, Windows and Mac.

GIMP offers a wide toolset, similar to Photoshop in many ways, and is a great option if you're looking for a no-cost image editor. The interface differs somewhat from Photoshop, but a version of GIMP is available that mimics Adobe's look and feel, making it easier to migrate over if you're ditching Photoshop. The full suite of tools is available here – everything you're accustomed to is within easy reach, including painting tools, colour correction, cloning, selection, and enhancement. The team that oversees development has worked hard to ensure compatibility too, so you'll be able to work with all the popular file formats without any trouble at all. You'll also find a very capable file manager built in, along similar lines to Adobe's Bridge.Overall, this is a great option whether you've either got a limited budget, or want to move away from Photoshop for other reasons.

Mac tool Pixelmator Pro promises a faster workflow than using Photoshop. Platform: Mac. Price: $59.99 (special launch price) Pixelmator has been around for a while now, but more recently the team released the Pixelmator Pro.While the previous tool used floating windows, the Pro version has a more usable single-window UI, and offers non-destructive image editing. The team have pared back the interface, which should make it easy to pick up – and there's a 'hidden interface' option you can activate if you just want to see your image, with no distractions.

This Photoshop alternative is geared up especially for use on a Mac, and it supports features like tabs, fullscreen and split view.Platform: iOS, Android, web app. Price: Free Pixlr is a free Photoshop alternative that boasts more than 600 effects, overlays and borders. It also lets you do all the main things you'd expect from a basic photo editor, from cropping and re-sizing to removing red-eye and whitening teeth. And if you're used to using Photoshop, then you'll find Pixlr's user interface easy to pick up quickly, as it's very similar. This free app is available in both iOS and Android varieties, or use can use it as a web app. Platform: Windows.Price: $599.99 / £599.99 (entire CorelDRAW Graphics Suite) or PHOTO-PAINT is a dedicated photo editor in the CorelDRAW Graphics Suite. The suite has been updated for 2018 to offer a Corel AfterShot 3 HDR support, as well as interactive tools for straightening photos and adjusting perspective.

There's also improved stylus control, with the PHOTO-PAINT responding to different pressures, bearing tilt and rotation. The suite is geared up to work perfectly with Windows 10, offering multi-monitor viewing and support for. For photo editing, free Windows tool Paint.net is an excellent alternative to Photoshop.Platform: Windows. Price: Free Paint.net is a Windows-based alternative to the Paint editor that Microsoft shipped with versions of Windows. Don't let that put you off, though: it's a surprisingly capable and useful tool, available completely free of charge.

The software started out life as a Microsoft-sponsored undergraduate project, and has become an open source project maintained by some of the alumni.The focus is on ease of use, and there's a definite tendency towards photo editing rather than artistic creation. That said, there are a range of special effects available, allowing you to easily create fake perspective, blend and push pixels around the canvas, tile and repeat selections, and so on. A good range of selection tools, support for layers, and adjustments such as curves and brightness/contrast mean that Paint.net is a great alternative to Photoshop for photo editing, especially if you can do without some of the more recent additions to Photoshop's toolset.SumoPaint works in the browser, and requires Adobe Flash. Platform: Browser or iPad.

Price: Free (basic), $4/mo (Pro) SumoPaint is a highly capable, free browser-based image editor. All the standard features you'd expect from a desktop tool are present and correct. It's lightweight and quick to load, and the free version is very usable. There's also a paid-for Pro version and a paid-for iPad app. The standard range of tools and adjustments you'd expect are all included.Brushes, pencils, shapes, text, cloning, gradients, etc are all quickly accessed from the Photoshop-esque floating toolbar. It can also open saved documents from your hard drive, making SumoPaint a perfectly viable option for editing and reediting.

Some tools work in different ways to Photoshop, offering possibilities that would be difficult to match in Adobe's offering. Trey anastasio traveler rapidshare. There are, however, limitations that will put off some users. Acorn offers non-destructive filters. Platform: Mac OS X. Price: $29.99 Image editing software Acorn debuted back in 2007 and has provided hobbyists and artists on a budget with a great, affordable alternative to Photoshop ever since. Sunset Screen Alternatives For MacFeatures of the software include layer styles, non-destructive filters, curves and levels, blending modes and much more. The most recent edition – Acorn 6 – includes new Scale and Transform options, the ability to use the Clone tool across layers or images, and the ability to use emoji on a path (if you so wish).

Related articles.First introduced in the, Night Light was a welcome addition for those of us who struggle with the massive amounts of blue light leaking from our displays. Unfortunately, two major updates have come and gone, yet certain issues with the feature are still present to a large degree.If you find Night Light simply grayed out on the Action Center, or if it starts malfunctioning all of a sudden, then take solace in the fact that you aren’t the only one running into problems. But can you do anything about it?Fortunately, yes you can.

There are a number of fixes that can help you get Night Light back to functioning normally, so let’s take a look at them. Night Light Grayed Out A grayed out Night Light Action Center tile is quite possibly the most prevalent issue around. Not a fun experience if you just installed or and see a feature disabled for no apparent reason. And unlike problems where a simple computer restart suffice, Night Light stays that way unless you perform either one or both of the following couple of tweaks.Modify Registry Settings Windows 10’s issue with its Night Light feature mostly stems from a couple of broken registry keys.

Hence, removing these keys forces the operating system to recreate them from scratch. However, you need to briefly dive into the Registry Editor to be able to do that.Step 1: Press Windows-R to open the Run box. Now, enter regedit into the Open field and click OK. That should prompt Windows 10 to launch the Registry Editor. Note: While you aren’t going to be performing anything drastic, it’s always a good idea to back up your registry just to be on the safer side before you proceed. To do that, click File on the Registry Editor window, and then click Export. Step 2: Use the navigation pane to the left of the Registry Editor to navigate to the following folder (scroll right to left in the box below to see the full string of text): HKEYCURRENTUSER Software Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion CloudStore Store Cache DefaultAccount.Note: To delete, simply right-click a sub-folder and select Delete.

Exit the Registry Editor and restart your PC. You should see Night Light fully functional within the Action Center. If that didn't work, lets try updating your video drivers next.

Update Your Drivers Windows 10 provides immense convenience due to the fact that it performs the majority of driver updates automatically.However, there are instances where the operating system applies what it deems to be the ‘latest updates’ for your graphics card or chipset, when it’s merely just a generic display driver. To resolve the issue, you need to download and install the appropriate display drivers for your PC manually.Simply visit the NVIDIA, AMD, or Intel download portals, and then specify your graphics chipset to download the latest drivers.

If you don’t know the exact make and model of your chipset, you can use utilities such as, or to help you out in that regard. After installing your drivers, restart your PC and you likely won’t see Night Light grayed out any longer. Night Light Won’t Turn On/Off At times, the Night Light tile on the Action Center or the toggle under Display Settings appear functional, yet don't actually do anything. Either it's turned on and you can't turn it off, or vice-versa. Usually, this happens when you wake your PC from or after exiting a video game.

So, how do you fix it?Sign In and Out of Account Yes, you read that correctly. Signing in and out of your account sounds ridiculous, but it does sort of help out in ‘unfreezing’ a stuck Night Light mode. If you aren't familiar with the procedure, simply open the Start menu and click on your profile picture.

On the context menu that shows up, click Sign Out.Once you are on the lock screen, just sign back in and you should find Night Mode functioning normally. That was simple, right? Night Light Running Outside of Schedule Another problem that crops up is when Night Light keeps on staying enabled even outside the time that it's schedule to actually run. And obviously, turning it off doesn't disable it either.Signing in and out of your account usually rectifies the issue, but in case that doesn't work, just go through the following couple of fixes to get things back to normal.

Change Clock Settings Consider changing the time on your PC temporarily. Since the Night Light scheduler relies on system time to function effectively, changing the time back and forth forces it out of its infinite loop. Step 1: Right-click the clock on your system tray, and then click Adjust Date/Time on the context menu. Step 2: Click Change.If you find the button grayed out, turn the switch off under Set Time Automatically to enable it.

Step 3: Switch the time from AM to PM or vice-versa, and then click Change. Step 4: Now, simply go back and set the time correctly.Alternatively, click the toggle under Set Time Automatically to let Windows 10 do that for you automatically. Night Light should turn itself off and function according to schedule from here on out. Toggle Location Service In case changing the time didn’t help, then toggling the built-in location service might, especially if you rely on Windows 10 to automatically schedule Night Light from sunset to sunrise based on your location. Rather than using the Location tile on the Action Center, let's fully turn it off and back on via the Location Privacy Settings panel.

Step 1: On the Start menu, type Location, and then select Location Privacy Settings on the search results.Step 2: On the Location Privacy Settings panel, turn off the switch next to Location Service. Next, click Change, and then disable the switch under Location for This Device. Step 3: Restart your PC, revisit the Location Privacy Settings panel, and then re-enable both Location for This Device and Location Service. If the issue was caused by an instance of glitched out location service settings, then that should do the trick to put Night Light back on track. Couple of Alternatives Admittedly, Night Light is still pretty broken. While the fixes above should help you in ironing out the issues, it’s not fun if they keep recurring. So if you don’t mind an additional application loading at startup, then to get similar functionality instead.Let’s take a look at a couple that are a blast to use.

F.lux F.lux is an extremely popular applet and the go-to blue light filter before Night Light showed up. In fact, people still keep using it, and there's a reason why. Rather than restricting you to just one setting, F.lux offers multiple sliders for a fully customizable experience throughout the day. Having the ability to filter out varying levels of blue light at daytime, at sunset, and just before bedtime is pretty neat. And even better, the transitions in temperature are subtle and not drastic like in Night Light.

Sunsetscreen Alternatives For Mac FreeIn fact, you won't even notice them happening! There are also multiple preset profiles if you hate messing around with sliders. Cave Painting is a personal favorite, and a phenomenal filter if you prefer working late at night!

Sunset Screen Sunset Screen is another extremely versatile applet, and more suited if you want to tweak nearly every aspect of your display's color temperature. Admittedly, the options look a little cluttered, but you should be able to figure things out easily without much issue. Separate options and preset profiles for night and daytime, combined with support for color inversion and global hotkeys, really make Sunset Screen a terrific alternative to Windows 10's Night Light. Hopefully, the above fixes helped and Night Light now functions without issue.While it feels great to have such functionality included in the operating system by default, Microsoft really needs to up their game for a feature that's really nothing complex.

Com'on, F.lux and Sunset Screen have been doing it perfectly for ages! So, how did it go? Know of any other fixes? Do share in comments.

Last updated on 30 Jun, 2018.