FEATURED APP

A pro-level photo editor for all

Acorn is powerful, affordable and easy to master.

Acorn 7

Image editing for humans

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Not everyone needs an expensive, every-possible-feature photo editor. Acorn has just enough pro-level features to get the job done without being overwhelming – all in an easy-to-use package.

This affordable app is one of the fastest ways to crop, resize and add text to an image. And it offers more than 100 photo effects, like vignette and drop shadow, plus nondestructive filters that you can adjust even after you save a file.

Acorn’s new unified window brings your workspace, tools and palettes together. (Pro tip: press Tab to hide everything but your image and the current tool.)

The app is also powerful enough to grow with you as your skills evolve, thanks to support for layers and masking; nondestructive curves and level adjustments; and RAW and PSD formats. It even offers vector tools and lets you wrap text along a shape or path.

The latest release is optimised for the Apple M1 chip, giving a serious speed boost to an already blazing app. Actions like Flood Fill, Instant Alpha and Magic Wand are up to three times faster than previous versions.

With Acorn’s new Export window, you can specify image format, colour profile, size of the resulting file and more – all on the fly.

This update also adds some nifty new tools, such as Perspective Fix & Crop for fixing distorted images; the Zoom Inspector for seeing the big picture while you focus on a smaller section; and the ability to edit and apply filters to individual frames of animated GIFs.

And don’t miss the new Command Bar, which is like an Acorn-specific version of Spotlight. Press Shift-Command-O, then type a few letters of a task description. Acorn will present matching menu commands as well as links to related Help topics and tutorials. The Command Bar even reveals some niche and power-user features – such as Feather and Use Pixels for Ruler – that aren’t listed in the app’s menus.