Choosing the best picture editor for iPad is not an easy task. There are many options available, but few of them are actually worth your time. Most of them are either crammed full of ads or poor in features.
So, it’s safe to say that you spend countless hours looking for the best free photo editor for iPad. But, since you’ve landed on this article, I won’t let you down.
Pixelmator
If you don’t mind spending a little money, and really want a photo editing app that seems to truly do it all, and if you’re looking for endless editing options and creative control, then we recommend taking a peek at the highly-rated Pixelmator for your iPad. Think of it like Photoshop for your iPad.
Adobe Photoshop Express Editor
Best Photo Editing Software Overall
Although Photoshop can be a bit intimidating, its sister product Adobe Photoshop Express Editor is an altogether different animal. All the tools are readily accessible and easy to use.
Adobe Photoshop Express Editor is a free photo editor. It is jam-packed with features that will allow you to make your images pop. You will be able to remove red-eye, resize images, make color corrections, and more.
It works right from your browser or mobile app. Editing photos is a snap with tools to balance color, resize, crop, change lighting, rotate, and more. The interface is appealing yet user-friendly. Our only gripes are that it was designed in Flash and not HTML5, and image formats can be somewhat limited.
👆 Special Features:
- Crop
- Rotate
- Remove Red and pet-eye
- Auto-Fix
- Text Tool
- Blemish Removal
- Corrections
- Customization
- Perspective Correction
- Pop-Color Tool
- Image Resize
- Watermark Images
- JPEG Quality Output
- Looks
- Borders
✅ PROS:
- Simple and complex customization
- Easy to use
- Compatible with other Adobe Products
- Gives you the edits you need to improve photos significantly
⛔️ CONS:
- Some features require creative cloud membership that has a fee
- The photo organizer tool is a separate app
PicsArt
Also featured in – Best iPhone Apps
PicsArt is one of the most popular and top photo editing apps for iPhone & iPad. The app is very easy to use and will not take much time to explore all the features. You can find all the essential photo editing tools like rotate, crop, contrast, saturation, and much more.
In addition, PicsArt has plenty of effects such as sketch, blur, artistic, glitch, and so on. You also get a dedicated tool “Beautify” to make minor changes on your face like face fix, remove wrinkles, changing skin tone or hair color, etc.
Other features of PicsArt
- You can find almost any stickers you want.
- Access to royalty-free images.
- Minor features like drawing, adding lens flare, shape mask, frame, and so on.
PicsArt also has paid subscriptions known as PicsArt Gold through which you will get access to all the features like unlimited brushes, 100+ filters, video editor, tools, no ads, and many more.
Download PicsArt from App Store
A Color Story
Keep your photos on your iPad looking sharp, stylized, and vibrant with a little bit of help from A Color Story.
With A Color Story, you get access to over 100 different filters that tint and change the look and feel of your photos, adjustment tools like temperature, saturation, brightness, contrast, hue shift, exposure, sharpness, blur, curves, and more, the ability to add photo effects like lens flares, colored mists, and other edits to your photos, and so, so many more picture editing options.
A Color Story is a great photo editing app to use on your iPad because you can clearly see all the edits and fine details as you add them to your photo. Oh! And the best part? It’s free!
Canva
Best Photo Editing App for Social Media
Canva is an easy to use photo editor app that allows users to create graphics and edit photos by merely dragging and dropping. It takes no time at all to build a design from scratch, and you don’t have to be a pro to learn how to use this free photo editing software. It has tons of features that will help you create the ultimate design or touch up your pre-existing photos.
One of the best features of Canva is its extensive library of templates. Within minutes you can drop your photos into a preset layout and then style it using dozens of fonts, illustrations, graphics, colors, and design elements.
With Canva, you can create stunning pieces quickly that you can share, print, or export. This online photo editor also comes complete with built-in support using search, tabs, and articles to find help with any issue.
👆 Special Features:
- Photo Straightener
- Image Cropper
- The Ability to Add Text
- Speech Bubble Maker
- Transparency Tool
- Photo Enhancer
- Photo Blur
- Photo Vignette
- Design Grids
- Free Icons
- Photo Frames
- Web Wireframe
- Stickers
- Badges
- Add Texture
✅ PROS:
- Great for marketing photos on social media
- Make and design ebooks
- Excellent for web presentations
- Tons of great features for free
- Saves project history
⛔️ CONS:
- Unable to remove an image’s background
- Needs to increase font size
Snapseed
Snapseed is a free photo editor app for iPhone and iPad developed by Google and has many advanced features. But first, let’s talk about UI. The app interface is clean, all tools are easy to access, and comes with no ads.
As for the editing part, you get a few basic filters to enhance your photo and have tools such as crop, rotate, brush, frames, text, lens blur, and so on. Furthermore, you can also edit RAW photos and later can be saved in JPG format.https://64ab980b7b042eeabd8ac4810a28c7c4.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html
But what made me use Snapseed a lot is its healing tool. With just one tap you can remove any object, text, or watermark from the background. On most of the photo editor apps, this feature comes under the premium plan, but in Snap
YouCam Perfect
YouCam Perfect is another best app to edit photos on iPad & iPhone, and it comes with all sorts of effects like portrait, galaxy, food, scenery, and many more. I also come with an InstaFit tool through which you can fit your photo for a post on Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, and many more including the option to change the background.
The app also comes with free background remover tool, and it works just as good as Snapseed.
But what makes this app super cool is the Beautify tool. It has features like face shaper, teeth whitener, change skin tone, acne remover, and lots more which work excellently. Other common features are collage, rotate, crop, magic brush, frame, text, stickers, mosaic, etc.
Overall, YouCam Perfect is a great app for beginners and provides many features for free. You can also try their premium version, which will unlock more advanced features.
Focus
If you are still using an old iPhone with no portrait/bokeh mode or don’t have DSLR to get a blur effect, then you should seriously consider the Focus app. It uses the AI to calculate the depth of the field and adds a bokeh effect to any image.
You can also adjust the amount of blur you want to have in the background of the photo. And just like most of the photo editing apps here also you will find some common tools like brightness, contrast, saturation, HDR, and many more.
Motionleap
If you want to create a moving photo, then you should seriously consider the Motionleap app. This app can convert any pictures into an animated picture with few taps. It has these features:
- Animate: Here you can choose which part of the photo to be animated and which part to be excluded including the speed of the animations. You can also set an animation in Boomerang style, just like you have seen on Instagram.
- Sky: If your photo has a sky in the background, then you will love this feature. It has plenty of animated skies templates that you can use to change the background of the sky to cloudy, rainbow, sunset, storm, and many more.
- Effects: It has a few animated effects which you can use on the photos.
- Elements: Motionleap has a huge collection of animated elements that you can use to make your photos more lively.
There are a few other features you can use like overlays, sound effects, camera FX, and filters. Although to access all the features of the Motionleap you have to subscribe to their Pro Plan. Overall, Motionleap is the best app for creating animated images that will make your Instagram post stand out from others.
Polish
Polish a free photo editing app for iOS that comes with all the usual tools and filters. There are plenty of filters to choose from and few filters are free and some come under the pro plan.
And just like the YouCam Perfect app, Polish also comes with a fit tool to fit your photo for a post or story on Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, and so on. On top of that, you can change the background, add a border, and change the image position.
Besides that, it also has a tool to erase the background by using AI or manual methods. After that, you can use it as a sticker or customize its background along with the border.
Photo Lab
Photo Lab has a vast collection of photo effects having over 900 effects that include face montages, makeovers, GIF animations, art backgrounds, and lots more. The app is quite easy to use and is highly customizable, and most of the editing will be done by the app itself.
But before you install this app, let me inform you it comes with a watermark, and to remove it, you have to join their pro plan.
Pixlr
Pixlr is another best app for Photo Editing on iPhone & iPad and comes with a variety of tools such as crop, rotate, blur, heal, splash, and much more. Out of all tools, I first tried the Heal tool to see whether it was able to remove an object or not, and its result was way worse than other photo editing apps.
As for the photo filters, it has a wide variety of effects available along with overlays. Not only that, but you also get tons of frames and stickers to choose from.
And if you are lazy and don’t want to spend much time on photo editing, then you can also use the app’s built-in templates. Pixlr also comes with a collage maker with various customizing options like grid style, grid ratio, border size, and border color.
Bazaart
Bazaart is another best photo editor app for iPad & iPhone you should consider. The UI of the app is clean and quite easy to use. It has many cool features like text, stickers, overlays, etc. And in the app, you will find a huge collection of overlays, which also includes video overlays.
Other than that, it comes with many built-in background images to further customize the photo. And if you want, you can also use a pre-built template to save your time on editing pics
Fotor
The last app on our list is the Fotor app which features all the essential editing tools you may need like adjusting brightness, contrast, saturation, crop, rotate, and so on. If that’s not enough for you, then there are plenty of filters to please you. Furthermore, you can download more effects from the Fotor Store either for free or in-app purchases.
Also, you will find huge collections of stickers and frames and if you need more, then you can download them from the Fotor Store too. But what I liked about the Fotor app is the collage maker. It is not only limited to an old classic style collage template but also comes with a magazine design template which further enhances your photo.
What’s more, you can also download more collage templates from the store. There is no doubt it is one of the best iPhone photo editing apps and I would highly recommend you try this app once since there are plenty to free filters and tools to play around with, especially the collage maker.
Conclusion:
Well, these were the list of 10 best free photo editing apps for iPad & iPhone in 2021. If you looking for an advanced photo editor app, then I would recommend you PicsArt and YouCam Perfect. But if you want a simple and easy-to-use picture editing app, then I would suggest you Snapseed, Polish, Pixlr, and Fotor. Personally, I use PicsArt and Snapseed for editing photos. Now comment down below which app you are going to install from this list.