Aperture icon

Aperture

Aperture is photo editing and management software developed by Apple. It allows photographers to import, organize, edit, and publish photos with professional editing tools, RAW support, and creative controls. It also has features like facial recognition, geotagging, and editing non-destructive workflows.

What is Aperture?

Aperture is professional photo editing and management software developed by Apple for macOS. It was first released in 2005 as a competitor to Adobe's Lightroom. Aperture provides photographers with a streamlined workflow to import, organize, cull, rate, edit, and publish large photo libraries with powerful tools built for pros.

Key features of Aperture include:

  • Import and organize a large photo library with fast previews
  • Powerful RAW support and non-destructive image processing
  • Professional color correction tools like curves, levels, white balance, etc.
  • Advanced brushes for targeted local adjustments
  • Facial recognition and geotagging capabilities
  • Flexible publishing options to share online or to physical books/prints

While development on Aperture ceased in 2014, it still has an intuitive interface and robust toolset for managing and editing a large volume of images efficiently as a photographer. Many pros continue to use Aperture in their workflows even though it lacks some newer RAW formats and isn't updated anymore.

Official Links

The Best Aperture Alternatives

Top Apps like Aperture

Adobe Lightroom, darktable, digiKam, Apple Photos, Adobe Photoshop Elements, ACDSee Photo Studio, Capture One, Shotwell, RawTherapee, gThumb, Polarr, Zoner Photo Studio X are some alternatives to Aperture.

Adobe Lightroom

Adobe Lightroom is a photo editing and digital asset management software that allows photographers to import, organize, edit, and share their photos more efficiently.Some key features of Lightroom include:Importing and organizing a large number of photosApplying batch edits to multiple photos at onceAdvanced editing tools like radial and...

Darktable

darktable is an open source photography workflow application and raw developer. It manages your digital negatives in a database, lets you view them through a zoomable lighttable, and enables you to develop raw images and enhance them.Some key features of darktable include:Supports RAW files from over 400 different camerasPowerful...

DigiKam

digiKam is a free and open source digital photo management software. It allows importing and organizing photos and other images, viewing and sorting them, editing images (crop, resize, exposure, color adjustments, etc.), geotagging photos, sharing them, and more.Some key features of digiKam:Import photos from cameras, mobile devices, folders...

Apple Photos

Apple Photos is a photo management and editing application developed by Apple Inc. It comes pre-installed on all new Mac computers and iOS devices, including iPhones and iPads. Photos allows users to organize, edit, and share their photo library from one app across all their Apple devices.Some key features...

Adobe Photoshop Elements

Adobe Photoshop Elements is a raster graphics editor for photographers, image editors and hobbyists. It contains most of the features of the professional version but with fewer and simpler options targeted at novice users. Unlike the full Photoshop version, Photoshop Elements focuses more on editing, organizing and sharing images rather...

ACDSee Photo Studio

ACDSee Photo Studio is a photo editing and management application for Windows. It provides a complete set of tools for organizing, viewing, enhancing and sharing photo collections.Key features include:Import photos from digital cameras, phones, disks and other mediaOrganize photos into folders and categories with ratings and color labelsBrowse...

Capture One

Capture One is a professional RAW file converter and advanced photo editing software developed by Phase One. It offers professional photographers and images editors a robust toolset for processing RAW files with excellent color rendering, making edits through layers, masks and local adjustments, reducing noise, correcting lens imperfections, and optimizing...

Shotwell

Shotwell is an open source image organizer, photo manager, and simple image editor originally developed for the Linux operating system. Shotwell is designed to provide an easy-to-use and fast photo software for the Linux desktop.Some key features of Shotwell include:Import photos and videos from cameras or external drivesOrganize...

RawTherapee

RawTherapee is a powerful open source raw photo processing and editing software. It supports raw files from most major camera manufacturers including Canon, Nikon, Sony, Pentax, Olympus, Fuji, and more. Some key features include:Non-destructive raw photo editing workflow - All adjustments are saved in sidecar files rather than modifying...

GThumb

gThumb is a free and open source image viewer and organizer designed for the Linux operating system. It provides an intuitive interface to browse, manage, edit and share your photos.Some of the key features of gThumb include:Simple and clean interface to view images in grid or single photo...

Polarr

Polarr is a versatile and user-friendly photo editor that can be used on various platforms. It is available as a desktop application for Windows and Mac, a mobile app for iOS and Android devices, and also as a web app that runs in any modern browser.As a free photo...

Zoner Photo Studio X

Zoner Photo Studio X is a comprehensive photo editing and management solution for Windows. It combines powerful photo editing tools with an intuitive and customizable interface to provide an efficient photography workflow.Some key features of Zoner Photo Studio X include:Non-destructive image editing with layers supportRaw image processing with...