Skip the Subscription: 5 Simple Image Editors That Actually Work

I liked the simple features of MS Paint. Quick tasks like cropping, adding text, or boxing elements happen in seconds. However, it has AI embedded in it, and is in Windows. When I switched to Linux An alternative to Windows or MacOS on computers. , I had a hard time finding something simple like that to use for images.

All the suggestions online were to use GIMP. I hate that name and I haven't figured out how to use that program yet. People say it's as feature rich and good as Photoshop, but it's not easy to use. I'm hoping these programs I can share help you.

All the programs listed here are easy to install. They are free, as in $0. By contrast, a program like Photoshop is over $20 a month and lacking privacy. Canva is $180 a year now, and I don't trust online services for photos of my kids. In addition, these don't have intrusive AI built in.

Quick start - Krita or Pinta

My quick recommendation is to try Krita first because I like that one the best of these options. Image and video editing software is often overwhelming for me, with all the buttons and options, but for some reason Krita didn't feel that way.

Pinta has a much more simple user interface everything about a program that you can see and interact with , so maybe you'd like to start there. The reason I don't recommend it first is I felt like the crop and move selection features were clunky.

Simple options for everyone

Let me tell you a few options you might like if you're like me and just want to do some simple stuff to your photos.

These open source Software whose code is publicly available and modifiable. Transparency, collaboration, and often free as in free lunch are important parts of the open source model. programs aren't exclusive to Linux An alternative to Windows or MacOS on computers. . You can use them elsewhere, too.

I'm not going to cover all the ins and outs of these, but I'll talk about a few simple things I do with them.

A quick comparison of programs

The following table lists the image editing tools I have tried out and would recommend as options. The best one depends on what you want to do, but I keep finding myself going to Krita and Pinta for most things, and then using the terminal a text-based tool where you navigate your system and run commands by typing instead of clicking in a user interface for some automated image editing in bulk.

A note about usability

Something I've noticed is the way you select, crop, and move selections doesn't feel familiar sometimes in these programs. That'll take a little getting used to. For some, you have to use a separate button for moving a selection after selecting. For some, crop is a separate button or a right click.

LibreOffice draw - simple and user friendly

I just posted about how great LibreOffice is and I couldn't make this list without mentioning Draw first. It feels the most familiar and you can export your images as a PDF or as one of a number of image formats.

What I can do to the below image is crop it to the meme and then right click the image itself. I then click "save" and tell it, "yes" to "save the modified version instead." I rename it and have a cropped image that I send to my partner.

Pinta - another simple one

LibreOffice Draw is really more document-focused, so you might like Pinta better because of its simple menus and options.

Pinta looks a lot like Paint but there are some differences, like what I mentioned above about selecting.

You can also pretty easily draw in it if you have kids who need to play by themselves for a minute. But Tux Paint is our go-to for that. It's fun.

Krita - feature rich and feels intuitive

Pinta doesn't have as many features as Krita, and the Pinta select-then-crop doesn't feel natural to me. I like simple, but Krita isn't overwhelming.

It's become my go-to for most image editing tasks. I can just click the crop tool to crop things, and you can do a lot in there.

Inkscape

This is another good tool with a lot of features, but I feel like it's a little more specialized than the other tools. The reason I keep this one on my computer is because I use it in the terminal a text-based tool where you navigate your system and run commands by typing instead of clicking in a user interface . I can't do that with Krita. I originally downloaded this for my son to see if he likes it for drawing. He likes Blender for its grease pencil feature and 3D art, but a lot of people seem to like Inkscape, so it might be the choice for you!

Terminal a text-based tool where you navigate your system and run commands by typing instead of clicking in a user interface tools

For readers comfortable with commands, these tools can help you process hundreds of images in seconds programmatically.

⚠️ Skip this section if you're not comfortable with terminal a text-based tool where you navigate your system and run commands by typing instead of clicking in a user interface commands

I use a couple of tools that are really useful for doing bulk operations on images at the same time. If you're comfortable with commands, you can install ImageMagick and Inkscape.

Be cautious when copying and pasting commands. Some of the commands I use will modify an existing file in place. That means it overwrites the current file with the changes.

When you see ~ below in the directory paths, that refers to your home directory the main folder assigned to your user account, where your Documents, Downloads, and other personal folders live. Often shown as the tilde symbol (~) in Linux An alternative to Windows or MacOS on computers. .

ImageMagick

mogrify

I use the command mogrify on .png screenshots and other images to resize them by a percentage.

The following command will resize all the png files in my specified directory:

mogrify -resize 50% ~/Pictures/working/*.png

⚠️ WARNING: This replaces your original files permanently

convert

To resize an image to a specified size, you can use convert. The below command resizes to 1200 pixels

convert ~/Pictures/working/PXL_20260730.jpg -resize 1200x ~/Pictures/working/the-internet.png

Inkscape

One of the things I used inkscape commands for is to resize svg icons I had. I was having difficulty using the UI to resize something so small, so I searched how to do it programmatically. I didn't realize I could have been using inkscape on the terminal a text-based tool where you navigate your system and run commands by typing instead of clicking in a user interface , and I already had it installed, so I was happy to see that was an option.

The following took my favicon.svg file and exported it as a new name in the size 16x16 pixels.

~/Pictures/working/favicon.svg --export-width=16 --export-height=16 --export-filename=~/Pictures/working/favicon-16x16.png

Conclusion

In conclusion, there are some good choices for basic image editing tools. These tools I mentioned today are free, with no subscriptions, no ads, and no tracking. Your photos stay private and in your control. As a parent trying to protect my family's digital footprint and budget, it's nice to find tools that work and are nice to use. Try one of them today and see if you like it!