If you’re looking for really basic cropping and resizing, keep it simple and use the native tool.

If you’re looking for really basic cropping and resizing, keep it simple and use the native tool.

Photopea: Online Photo Editor lets you edit photos, apply effects, filters, add text, crop or resize pictures. Do Online Photo Editing in your browser

Pixlr: One of the most popular image editors on Chrome OS is Pixlr Editor. To download it click on the square grid icon in the bottom left of your screen then select the shopping bag icon that represents the Web Store. Once the store is launched search for Pixlr Editor and then click on the blue button marked ‘+ FREE’ to add it to your Chromebook.

When you load up the app you’ll notice straight away that the interface is very similar to Photoshop. The left hand column is where the tools reside, including the ability to crop an image, clone parts of a picture when you want to magically remove people or objects, and more everyday functions such as red-eye removal.

Check out Pixlr on the Chrome Web Store here.

Again, you don’t even need to register. No account needed.

And if you don’t want to install another app to your library, you can launch Pixlr straight from your browser.

Gimp: GIMP has long been one of the most popular Photoshop alternatives on PCs and Macs. It's a very powerful image editor with a legion of fans and tutorials online. Much like Pixlr the interface is heavily based on Photoshop, with an impressive amount of tools and functions. Now Chromebooks can enjoy GIMP for free, thanks to this web adaptation to the classic application. Something special about GIMP is that you can create GIF animations. You will need to create an account to have access to any of the useful features, but once you're set up this is a useful tool for your photo collection. You can find tutorials on how to do just about anything with GIMP.

You can check GIMP on the Chrome Web Store here.

Online version: https://www.rollapp.com/app/gimp

iPiccy: If you don't need all the advanced features of Pixlr, and instead want a simple editor for photos, iPiccy is a great free app. The layout is bright and friendly, with big buttons bearing their functions so you can't get lost. It's powerful too, being able to resize, rotate, and even remove parts of an image via a cloning tool. It also has easy to use settings for adjusting colours and exposure, plus various Instagram-style filter effects.

You can download and install iPiccy from the Chrome Web Store here.

Fotor: Another fun and easy to use alternative is Fotor. This image editor is focussed far more on making cards, collages, and even pretend magazine covers, than the deep editing features of Photoshop. It still has many of the standard tools you'd expect, and also Instagram-style filters are in abundance. There is even a blog on the site that covers various creative ideas, such as how to take chic fashion photos.

Sumo Paint, of all the options I found, looks and acts the most like Photoshop. It has the same toolbar. You can add text. You can have more than one image open at a time. Now, all the tools are manual, so you need to know what you’re doing. You won’t find pushbuttons to fix specific problems with your image. But if you’re used to Photoshop, then this will feel very comfortable. https://www.sumopaint.com/paint/ Offers upgrade for a fee.

Canva, as you can see from the screenshot, has many specialty designs (e.g. posters, business cards), not just social. Other than basics like cropping, Canva doesn’t do image editing. Canva offers a good choice of filters and fonts. It accepts both jpg and png images, or you can choose from their background photo options. It’s easy to find images by searching, and they are cheap, but they do cost $1. The downsides are that you have to create a login to get started, and it teases you with features that cost money. Canva is a good option for someone who needs to design a wide variety of formats and doesn’t have access to stock photography.

Snappa.io took a different approach with their freemium model. You don’t have to worry about the font you want costing money, but you only get 5 images a month. Like Canva, it requires login. The backgrounds are free though. Snappa has various sizes to get you started, and you can choose from social and blogging or ad templates. It has an excellent variety of fonts. Snappa’s other strong point is its video tutorials. Free if only using a few images a month.