Photopea — The Complete Guide: A Photoshop-Style Editor in the Browser, No Install
Photopea is a full image editor that opens in a browser tab, with no installation and no sign-up. The interface will feel familiar to anyone who has used Photoshop: layers, masks, selection and retouching tools, and opening and saving PSD alongside XCF, SVG, PDF, TIFF, HEIC and common RAW files. According to the site, files never leave your computer.
Photopea
Ivan Kutskir (Photopea)
A Photoshop-style image editor in the browser with layers and PSD support, processing files on your own computer without uploading them.
Get it from the vendorWhat you get
- PSD support — open a layered file from a designer and fix text or a logo without Photoshop.
- Layers and masks — non-destructive editing of site photos and report figures.
- Selection and retouching — remove backgrounds, hide details and fix blemishes.
- Many formats — from phone HEIC files to SVG and PDF.
- Local processing — work happens in the browser and can continue after going offline.
What is free and what is not
The free account is open to anyone and includes every editing tool, but shows ads beside the workspace. A paid Premium account removes the ads and adds further benefits; the price is shown in the site’s account window. So it should not be thought of as completely free software. One more limitation: heavy files can be slow in the browser.
Related tools
For a full open-source editor installed on your computer — GIMP. For a simple, fast editor on Windows — Paint.NET. For painting and illustration — Krita.
GIMP
GIMP team
Advanced image editing — site photos, perspective correction, marking defects and preparing images for reports.
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Paint.NET
dotPDN
A fast, simple image editor for Windows with layers — for cropping, marking up and preparing photos and figures for reports.
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Krita
Krita Foundation (KDE)
Open-source digital painting and illustration: sketches, hand-drawn renderings and illustrations, with many brushes and tablet support.
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Pinta
Pinta Project
A simple Paint.NET-style image editor with layers, effects and unlimited undo, also on Linux and macOS.
Get it from the vendorThe bottom line
The quickest way to open a PSD or do serious image editing on a computer without install rights — as long as the ads do not bother you.