what is and how does this alternative to Photoshop online and totally free works.
We are going to explain to you what is Photopea and how does it work, a web application that is presented as a complete and powerful online alternative for Photoshop. It is a very little known website despite having been launched in 2013, and its greatest asset is being designed for users accustomed to using Photoshop.
We are going to start by telling you a little about the project, where it comes from, how it works internally and how it can be offered for free so that you get to know it well. And then, we will go on to talk to you about how it works and its main characteristics of use. The official website for this product is Photopea.com, it is worth saying from the beginning because we have detected that there are other imitations that use similar names.
What is Photopea
Photopea is an online image editor Created in 2013 by independent developer Ivan Kuckir. The idea came in 2012, as explained on his blog, when the developer had the idea to create a photo editor. He wanted to do it online to practice as a developer. After five months of work, the first version began to be ready.
The decision to do it online had to do with two points. The first is that Photoshop, the most professional and widely used editor, was too expensive. And the second is that most of the big editors are installable applications, which means that many cannot be used on minority operating systems, and that even for a quick edition you will have to search, download and install them, which already consumes you some time.
Photopea is an editor oriented to professional use, an alternative to Photoshop and GIMP. To do this, it has features such as being able to work with layers and masks, blending modes to combine layers, selections, and adjustments such as hue, saturation, blurs or shyness. Everything that the big boys offer, along with the rest of the basic options.
This web application is intended for those who are used to using Photoshop. Some applications like GIMP are good alternatives, although they require relearning new keyboard shortcuts and ways of doing things. Photopea has the same keyboard shortcuts as Photoshop so that the workflow is not disturbed, and tries to be fully compatible with all your files and the way they work.
Is about a totally free and ad-supported web application, which is the method with which you try to monetize the project. Also offers pay accounts to work in teams with different people, in addition to the possibility of making a copy for your own website or for an internal server.
Finally, tell you that Photopea supports .psd, .xd, .sketch, .xcf, RAW files and compressed formats like JPG, PNG and others. It also supports Photoshop PSD templates, and offers an interface very similar to that of the Adobe application.
How Photopea works
The first thing to know is that if you have ever used Photoshop, you will literally feel at home. Photopea’s interface is practically the same. You have the toolbar on the right, and the panel with layer options and other features on the left. You will also be able to customize the column on the left, although this will have to be done with each new project.
When you open the app, you will be able to open the images from your computer or create a new project, option that will allow you to create images from templates. Here’s an interesting point, and that is there are templates with sizes adapted for social networks, with Facebook or Instagram measurements for your different photos. Therefore, that can help you a lot when creating images for them.
The interface of this web application is adapted to be used without problems. For example, you can right click on the items in the options bar for the suboptions to be displayed. In addition, other external actions are disabled both from the right click and, for example, changing the size of the web.
In this program you will also be able to add and manipulate image layers as in Photoshop, creating multilayer graphics to your liking. Also, you have all advanced options to modify the image and improve it in the Image tab. You can also adjust the contrast, tone or color of a photo with automatisms in this tab.
As we have said, Photopea has a wide catalog of keyboard shortcuts inherited from Photoshop, as well as a system of themes to change the color in which it looks. Definitely, it is perfect if you are looking for an alternative to Photoshop that works in almost all browsers and it’s free, and if your browser supports it, you can even install it as webapp.
Finally, say that the tool also has its filters section so that you can fully manipulate the image in a short time, and that you can sync it with Google Drive using an official extension for the Google cloud. Thus, you can use that space to save your projects in it.
