Recommendations for Image Editor Apps for iPad?

McGyverMcGyver Posts: 7,085

Obviously, they won't be as good as full programs for a desktop or laptop, but I'm curious which ones people have tried.

I'm not really looking for ones that are just kiddy filterfests, I'm more interested in being able to cut an image out of a background, scale and distortion capabilities, using layers... stuff similar to the most basic photoshop or gimp capabilities...

I'm definitely not interested in anything subscription.

I was looking into Affinity Photo which seems good (and $20 isn't a bad price)... but I'm interested in hearing what others may have tried already.

Thanks in advance for any recommendations.

Comments

  • nemesis10nemesis10 Posts: 3,871
    McGyver said:

    Obviously, they won't be as good as full programs for a desktop or laptop, but I'm curious which ones people have tried.

    I'm not really looking for ones that are just kiddy filterfests, I'm more interested in being able to cut an image out of a background, scale and distortion capabilities, using layers... stuff similar to the most basic photoshop or gimp capabilities...

    I'm definitely not interested in anything subscription.

    I was looking into Affinity Photo which seems good (and $20 isn't a bad price)... but I'm interested in hearing what others may have tried already.

    Thanks in advance for any recommendations.

    I am an enormous fan of Pixelmator 

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 40,399
    edited March 2020

    for animation of still images I use the free version of Enlight Pixaloop,

    initially that sounds gimmicky but hear me out.

    It uses paths to create flowing effects so I can animate smoke, water etc and I have used it on the Multiplame Cyclorama backgrounds and reimported back to my computer for composition in my renders.

    Likewise the smoke. I animated Rougey and Strangefate's smoke textures with it for the Red Crow inn in iClone which uses the mp4 files as is.

    Free only saves as mp4 but Hitfilm can render those out as image sequences for your software of choice including presumably DAZ studio with animated texture scripts (all my chosen softwares support image sequences or video textures)

    the only similar application for PC is Plotagon and definitely beyond my budget, I like free very much!

    Post edited by WendyLuvsCatz on
  • McGyverMcGyver Posts: 7,085
    edited March 2020
    nemesis10 said:
    McGyver said:

    Obviously, they won't be as good as full programs for a desktop or laptop, but I'm curious which ones people have tried.

    I'm not really looking for ones that are just kiddy filterfests, I'm more interested in being able to cut an image out of a background, scale and distortion capabilities, using layers... stuff similar to the most basic photoshop or gimp capabilities...

    I'm definitely not interested in anything subscription.

    I was looking into Affinity Photo which seems good (and $20 isn't a bad price)... but I'm interested in hearing what others may have tried already.

    Thanks in advance for any recommendations.

    I am an enormous fan of Pixelmator 

    Does it behave like a basic version of gimp or photoshop?

    How good would it be at allowing one to carefully erase areas from an image on a layer?  Does it allow you to uniformly scale? For some reason two apps I have (Sketchbook being one of them) do not seem to allow uniform scaling, and their transformation tool acts more like Photoshop's Free Transform or Distort tool.

    Also... there seems to be two versions?.. Which are you using?

    Thanks.

     

    Post edited by McGyver on
  • McGyverMcGyver Posts: 7,085

    for animation of still images I use the free version of Enlight Pixaloop...

    I don't animate, but that's actually an interesting app... seems like something I might find a use for... is it subscription for the full version?

    I hate the way the App Store uses the term "In App Purchases" as some nebulous term for pretty much any kind of payment model that's not a flat out one time purchase... It would be nice for them to require publishers to define "$9.99 monthly subscription"... "Limited use free version... $19.99 full version" or whatever... I can't stand having to read through review comments to figure out/peice together the business model.

    Thanks.

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 40,399
    edited March 2020
    McGyver said:

    for animation of still images I use the free version of Enlight Pixaloop...

    I don't animate, but that's actually an interesting app... seems like something I might find a use for... is it subscription for the full version?

    I hate the way the App Store uses the term "In App Purchases" as some nebulous term for pretty much any kind of payment model that's not a flat out one time purchase... It would be nice for them to require publishers to define "$9.99 monthly subscription"... "Limited use free version... $19.99 full version" or whatever... I can't stand having to read through review comments to figure out/peice together the business model.

    Thanks.

    sadly it is subscription and more than I would be willing to pay

    the free version is still pretty awesome 

    video of the multiplane cyclorama textures animated

    Carrara replicated foregrounds 

     

    Post edited by WendyLuvsCatz on
  • SevrinSevrin Posts: 6,313
    McGyver said:

    Obviously, they won't be as good as full programs for a desktop or laptop, but I'm curious which ones people have tried.

    I'm not really looking for ones that are just kiddy filterfests, I'm more interested in being able to cut an image out of a background, scale and distortion capabilities, using layers... stuff similar to the most basic photoshop or gimp capabilities...

    I'm definitely not interested in anything subscription.

    I was looking into Affinity Photo which seems good (and $20 isn't a bad price)... but I'm interested in hearing what others may have tried already.

    Thanks in advance for any recommendations.

    I use Affinity Photo on my Windows PC, and I like it a lot.  It just got a decent upgrade for improved PSD support.  It's very Photoshoppy generally and there are lots of learning resources available.  It handles 32-bit images, so you can use it to develop RAW photo files, EXR canvasses from iRay, create and edit HDRIs, etc.  The iPad version isn't lacking much that the desktop versions have, the major difference obviously being the interface, and it got the app of the year award from Apple a couple of years ago, if that means anything.  I've been using Serif software since the 90s and would recommend just about anything they offer.

  • nemesis10nemesis10 Posts: 3,871
    McGyver said:
    nemesis10 said:
    McGyver said:

    Obviously, they won't be as good as full programs for a desktop or laptop, but I'm curious which ones people have tried.

    I'm not really looking for ones that are just kiddy filterfests, I'm more interested in being able to cut an image out of a background, scale and distortion capabilities, using layers... stuff similar to the most basic photoshop or gimp capabilities...

    I'm definitely not interested in anything subscription.

    I was looking into Affinity Photo which seems good (and $20 isn't a bad price)... but I'm interested in hearing what others may have tried already.

    Thanks in advance for any recommendations.

    I am an enormous fan of Pixelmator 

    Does it behave like a basic version of gimp or photoshop?

    How good would it be at allowing one to carefully erase areas from an image on a layer?  Does it allow you to uniformly scale? For some reason two apps I have (Sketchbook being one of them) do not seem to allow uniform scaling, and their transformation tool acts more like Photoshop's Free Transform or Distort tool.

    Also... there seems to be two versions?.. Which are you using?

    Thanks.

     

    McGyver said:
    nemesis10 said:
    McGyver said:

    Obviously, they won't be as good as full programs for a desktop or laptop, but I'm curious which ones people have tried.

    I'm not really looking for ones that are just kiddy filterfests, I'm more interested in being able to cut an image out of a background, scale and distortion capabilities, using layers... stuff similar to the most basic photoshop or gimp capabilities...

    I'm definitely not interested in anything subscription.

    I was looking into Affinity Photo which seems good (and $20 isn't a bad price)... but I'm interested in hearing what others may have tried already.

    Thanks in advance for any recommendations.

    I am an enormous fan of Pixelmator 

    Does it behave like a basic version of gimp or photoshop?

    How good would it be at allowing one to carefully erase areas from an image on a layer?  Does it allow you to uniformly scale? For some reason two apps I have (Sketchbook being one of them) do not seem to allow uniform scaling, and their transformation tool acts more like Photoshop's Free Transform or Distort tool.

    Also... there seems to be two versions?.. Which are you using?

    Thanks.

     

    I have Pixelmator for iPad on my iPad and have both Pixelmator and Pixelmator Pro on the desktop for my computer.  I would use a stylus but it is pretty good for detail work... I haven't done any scaling so I had to check but uniform scaling is possible.  I would get both versions (which is why I have both on my desktop) since a) they are inexpensive ($5 US each) and some exciting features using machine intelligence are being worked on for Pixelmator Photo....

  • McGyverMcGyver Posts: 7,085
    nemesis10 said:
    McGyver said:
    nemesis10 said:
    McGyver said:

    Obviously, they won't be as good as full programs for a desktop or laptop, but I'm curious which ones people have tried.

    I'm not really looking for ones that are just kiddy filterfests, I'm more interested in being able to cut an image out of a background, scale and distortion capabilities, using layers... stuff similar to the most basic photoshop or gimp capabilities...

    I'm definitely not interested in anything subscription.

    I was looking into Affinity Photo which seems good (and $20 isn't a bad price)... but I'm interested in hearing what others may have tried already.

    Thanks in advance for any recommendations.

    I am an enormous fan of Pixelmator 

    Does it behave like a basic version of gimp or photoshop?

    How good would it be at allowing one to carefully erase areas from an image on a layer?  Does it allow you to uniformly scale? For some reason two apps I have (Sketchbook being one of them) do not seem to allow uniform scaling, and their transformation tool acts more like Photoshop's Free Transform or Distort tool.

    Also... there seems to be two versions?.. Which are you using?

    Thanks.

     

    McGyver said:
    nemesis10 said:
    McGyver said:

    Obviously, they won't be as good as full programs for a desktop or laptop, but I'm curious which ones people have tried.

    I'm not really looking for ones that are just kiddy filterfests, I'm more interested in being able to cut an image out of a background, scale and distortion capabilities, using layers... stuff similar to the most basic photoshop or gimp capabilities...

    I'm definitely not interested in anything subscription.

    I was looking into Affinity Photo which seems good (and $20 isn't a bad price)... but I'm interested in hearing what others may have tried already.

    Thanks in advance for any recommendations.

    I am an enormous fan of Pixelmator 

    Does it behave like a basic version of gimp or photoshop?

    How good would it be at allowing one to carefully erase areas from an image on a layer?  Does it allow you to uniformly scale? For some reason two apps I have (Sketchbook being one of them) do not seem to allow uniform scaling, and their transformation tool acts more like Photoshop's Free Transform or Distort tool.

    Also... there seems to be two versions?.. Which are you using?

    Thanks.

     

    I have Pixelmator for iPad on my iPad and have both Pixelmator and Pixelmator Pro on the desktop for my computer.  I would use a stylus but it is pretty good for detail work... I haven't done any scaling so I had to check but uniform scaling is possible.  I would get both versions (which is why I have both on my desktop) since a) they are inexpensive ($5 US each) and some exciting features using machine intelligence are being worked on for Pixelmator Photo....

    I have the Apple Pencil, so I'm guessing that will be good for detail work. Thanks for checking about the uniform scaling...

    I'll probably be getting Pixelmator... I'm not sure what the difference is between "regular" Pixelmator and Pixelmator Photo... perhaps it's more for color correction/adjustments?

    Thanks.

  • McGyverMcGyver Posts: 7,085
    Sevrin said:
    McGyver said:

    Obviously, they won't be as good as full programs for a desktop or laptop, but I'm curious which ones people have tried.

    I'm not really looking for ones that are just kiddy filterfests, I'm more interested in being able to cut an image out of a background, scale and distortion capabilities, using layers... stuff similar to the most basic photoshop or gimp capabilities...

    I'm definitely not interested in anything subscription.

    I was looking into Affinity Photo which seems good (and $20 isn't a bad price)... but I'm interested in hearing what others may have tried already.

    Thanks in advance for any recommendations.

    I use Affinity Photo on my Windows PC, and I like it a lot.  It just got a decent upgrade for improved PSD support.  It's very Photoshoppy generally and there are lots of learning resources available.  It handles 32-bit images, so you can use it to develop RAW photo files, EXR canvasses from iRay, create and edit HDRIs, etc.  The iPad version isn't lacking much that the desktop versions have, the major difference obviously being the interface, and it got the app of the year award from Apple a couple of years ago, if that means anything.  I've been using Serif software since the 90s and would recommend just about anything they offer.

    In addition to Pixelmator, I probably should get Affinity Photo... I think between the two, I'll be able to do what I need. 
    I finally found something confirming to supports the Apple Pencil (it's not stated anywhere obvious), so that's an important thing to me.

    Thanks.

  • nemesis10nemesis10 Posts: 3,871
    McGyver said:
    nemesis10 said:
    McGyver said:
    nemesis10 said:
    McGyver said:

    Obviously, they won't be as good as full programs for a desktop or laptop, but I'm curious which ones people have tried.

    I'm not really looking for ones that are just kiddy filterfests, I'm more interested in being able to cut an image out of a background, scale and distortion capabilities, using layers... stuff similar to the most basic photoshop or gimp capabilities...

    I'm definitely not interested in anything subscription.

    I was looking into Affinity Photo which seems good (and $20 isn't a bad price)... but I'm interested in hearing what others may have tried already.

    Thanks in advance for any recommendations.

    I am an enormous fan of Pixelmator 

    Does it behave like a basic version of gimp or photoshop?

    How good would it be at allowing one to carefully erase areas from an image on a layer?  Does it allow you to uniformly scale? For some reason two apps I have (Sketchbook being one of them) do not seem to allow uniform scaling, and their transformation tool acts more like Photoshop's Free Transform or Distort tool.

    Also... there seems to be two versions?.. Which are you using?

    Thanks.

     

    McGyver said:
    nemesis10 said:
    McGyver said:

    Obviously, they won't be as good as full programs for a desktop or laptop, but I'm curious which ones people have tried.

    I'm not really looking for ones that are just kiddy filterfests, I'm more interested in being able to cut an image out of a background, scale and distortion capabilities, using layers... stuff similar to the most basic photoshop or gimp capabilities...

    I'm definitely not interested in anything subscription.

    I was looking into Affinity Photo which seems good (and $20 isn't a bad price)... but I'm interested in hearing what others may have tried already.

    Thanks in advance for any recommendations.

    I am an enormous fan of Pixelmator 

    Does it behave like a basic version of gimp or photoshop?

    How good would it be at allowing one to carefully erase areas from an image on a layer?  Does it allow you to uniformly scale? For some reason two apps I have (Sketchbook being one of them) do not seem to allow uniform scaling, and their transformation tool acts more like Photoshop's Free Transform or Distort tool.

    Also... there seems to be two versions?.. Which are you using?

    Thanks.

     

    I have Pixelmator for iPad on my iPad and have both Pixelmator and Pixelmator Pro on the desktop for my computer.  I would use a stylus but it is pretty good for detail work... I haven't done any scaling so I had to check but uniform scaling is possible.  I would get both versions (which is why I have both on my desktop) since a) they are inexpensive ($5 US each) and some exciting features using machine intelligence are being worked on for Pixelmator Photo....

    I have the Apple Pencil, so I'm guessing that will be good for detail work. Thanks for checking about the uniform scaling...

    I'll probably be getting Pixelmator... I'm not sure what the difference is between "regular" Pixelmator and Pixelmator Photo... perhaps it's more for color correction/adjustments?

    Thanks.

    I'm sorry, I skipped over that.... Pixelmator for iPad is a lot like Pixelmator: a nifty Photoshop clone....  It is pretty straightforward though I never worked with layers in it.  Pixelmator Photo is a lot like Pixelmator Pro with a lot of machine learning that works really well.  For example, it is pretty stunning when you have to erase something for example...    The company is working furiously on the new cool tool that Pixelmator Pro got:  a machine learning tool that simulates an increase in resolution.  It is very exciting and Blade Runner like.   

  • SevrinSevrin Posts: 6,313

    On the product page: https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/photo/ipad/

    Edit and create brushes, with control over all dynamics supported by Apple pencil, and even import .abr brushes. Any brushes you create can be shared across desktop and iPad versions as well.

     

  • duckbombduckbomb Posts: 585

    For Photoshop-like photo editing, drawing, and painting, I used Procreate.  I'm a huge fan, the interface is intuitive, Apple Pencil works like a dream, and it was FUN to use.  I stopped using because I switched to a PC earlier in the year, but it left a gap I haven't been able to fill since.  No sub, either.

    Other than that... Photoshop and Clip Studio Paint are on iPad.  Doesn't get more photoshop-ey than that.

  • PaintboxPaintbox Posts: 1,633

    Affinity is probably the most photoshop like on Ipad, I love it, it's  a great application with many desktop level tools. It's decent for drawing. But Procreate is more geared for drawing, but probably wins the award for most polished app on the appstore.

  • WilmapWilmap Posts: 2,917

    I use affinity photo and affinity designer. Both are very much like Photoshop and in my opinion much better and far cheaper.

     

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