Compositor

Compositor is a free, native Mac image editor built to feel like Photoshop, down to the keyboard shortcuts, so the muscle memory carries over. Layers, folders, masks, clipping masks, adjustment layers for curves and levels, a clone stamp, spot healing, content-aware fill, subject selection, and background removal all work today. MIT licensed, no account, no subscription.

Install is a signed and notarized DMG from GitHub Releases with automatic updates. The hard requirement is macOS 26.5. Anything older will not run it, and an open issue asks for macOS 15 support. It is Mac only. It imports JPEG, PNG, HEIC, TIFF, and as of version 1.2 Photoshop PSD files, keeping folders, masks, and some blend modes editable.

Solo creators and small teams who composite and retouch photos: try it before renewing Adobe. Anyone who trades PSDs with clients should wait. On Windows or Linux, GIMP and Krita are the established open source options, and penpot/penpot covers UI design, not photos.

The catch: it was five days old when we looked, shipping several releases a day. PSD support is import only, 8-bit RGB only, no CMYK, and PSD text layers turn into pixels. There is no PSD export at all. The 1.2 release notes admit layer effects were being lost on save until that fix. Keep backups of anything that matters.