Of the many image editing apps for Android, some are better than others, and more importantly, a few are apps like Photoshop that include some of the same tools. In other words, a Photoshop app for Android shouldn’t be your typical image editor that just supports cropping and color adjustments, but instead an advanced photo editor that includes some of the same features that make Photoshop so useful, like layering, a clone stamp, a background remover, and more. Along the bottom of this photo editor is a menu full of everything you can do. These are some of the more Photoshop-specific tasks: clone stamp, warp and stretch tool, resize by pixels, curve tool, hue/saturation changer, and artistic and paper effects. Something worth noting about PicsArt is its automation power. With the portrait cutout tool, for example, it can identify and select just the person from the image so that you can immediately remove the background behind him or her. Even if it isn’t exactly right, you can make minor edits fairly easily. There’s also an automatic beauty tool. Instead of using each specific tool to smooth the skin, fix blemishes, whiten the teeth, adjust the skin color, etc., you can use the auto option to instantly fix everything in just a second. However, even if you do open a particular tool to edit just the hair, for example, the app will identify the hair for you so that changing the color only takes a few seconds. This Photoshop alternative also supports frames, text callouts, lens flare, drawing tools, borders, photo blending, stickers, and more. It’s a true powerhouse of an image editor. The upgraded version of this app, PicsArt Gold, is free for a short time (usually a week) before the monthly cost kicks in. With it, you get no ads, premium filters, many dozens of premium fonts, overlays, frames, collage layouts, and stickers, as well as high-res exports, a one-click background remover/editor, and no watermarks. However, what makes this app unlike others is its specialized tools: instantly remove objects, create color splashes, cut out an object by removing its background, blend photos together via modes like multiply and overlay, and instantly put your picture into a pre-built scene like a newspaper or billboard. It also has a collage maker and includes live effects if you use the Camera option. You can buy the full version to remove ads, download all premium content, have unlimited use of the dehaze and clone tool, remove the watermark, and export to higher resolutions. The subscription is free for a few days when you order a yearly subscription. It’s one of the easiest-to-use apps on the Play Store for making transparent backgrounds. You can zoom as far as you need to, adjust the brush size, and easily undo any mistakes. This app also has a Magic option so that all you need to do is tap a color to instantly have it removed. If the removal process bled into an area you want to keep, just switch over to Repair to fill in those areas with the regular image. Unlike some apps that let you remove the background of a photo, this one has a Cursor Offset option so that you can set how far away from your finger or stylus the cursor should be, making it a lot easier to make edits. PhotoLayers is completely free but it does include ads. Overall, this app is easy to use because the toolbox is a scrollable list below the image. Each item you tap will open a separate set of tools in that category, and saving or undoing/redoing is just a tap away. You can even arrange the toolbar however you like to put your favorite tools exactly where you need them. There are other common editing tools in Photo Editor, too, so you can adjust the exposure, curves, brightness, and gamma levels, as well as instantly apply a variety of effects, remove red eye, manipulate the perspective, whiten teeth, draw on the image, straighten a crooked picture, and start from scratch with a blank canvas. Several unique settings can be customized like to reduce the maximum resolution, perform lossless undos, and set a custom “save as” filename. There are also some extra tools unique to Photo Editor such as the option to compress images to a ZIP file, build an animated GIF, convert PDF to JPG, and save web pages to an image file. When you’re finishing editing in this Photoshop alternative, you can export the picture to a variety of formats like JPG, PNG, GIF, WebP, and PDF. You’ll also find a small handful of filters and “magic” tools to do things to the entire image in just a few seconds, like smooth skin, remove acne, brighten the image, whiten teeth, apply concealer, and slim down the face. A compare button can be pressed at any time to see how your edits look compared to the original photo, which is an awesome feature to show just how useful AirBrush has been. It’s completely free unless you want other features like no ads and unlimited use of the premium features like other filters, more makeup options, the face sculptor, etc. You can get premium features for under $2 /month if you prepay for a whole year, slightly more if you opt for the three-month or month-to-month option. There’s usually a 7-day free trial you can grab.
