Secret Photopea

There are many photo and graphics editing programs available both commercially and some actually free. They range from very simple to more complex and many online editors offer very limited access unless you pay a premium fee. I recently discovered an online app that offers a photoshop like interface which at least for now is free Photopea.com.

Photopea runs completely in your device such as desktop, tablets, or even a phone. It does not require that you upload any files to the cloud, and in fact you can load Photopea and then disconnect from the internet and continue to use the app which makes it unique in many ways.

The opening screen allows you to select a variety of templates or document sizes, or upload a image from your computer to work on. The App does support layers, much like Photoshop and other image editors. The interesting aspect of this editor is that it allows you to upload vector formats such as from Corel Draw, illustrator, or work with typical JPG files or PSD files. If you upload a vector file you will notice that it will load the file into layers depending upon how the file was originally created. You can turn on/off each layer much in the same way you may work with Photoshop.

The menus in Photopea have many of the choices that one may recognize from Photoshop and other editing programs, but certainly not all. Even so, it seems to be a feature rich program that will satisfy the needs of many of those who may be looking for options when it comes to editing images.

Photopea has a on line help file that guides you through many of the functions that the App offers and is supported in a Reddit forum for those who may have additional questions and need support. It will even allow you to create sized images that are common in various social media formats. One can even batch convert images from one format to another.

Photopea in its free form is commecial supported, but for $5 per month (non-subscription), you can have the commercials removed and have access to a storage vault.

Photopea is certainly worth taking a look at, and you may be surprised relying on it more that you may expect.