Snapheal is the photo editor for Mac that first showed up on the App Store in December 2011. It was updated few days ago to version 2.1, bringing the brand new look, noticeable performance boost and the whole set of new handy tools. Mashable called Snapheal “Inexpensive alternative to Photoshop” and just recently Apple named it one of “2012 Best Mac App Store Apps”. So what’s this app about?
Snapheal is incredibly simple, yet powerful tool for removing extra objects from images, getting rid of skin imperfections and performing other complex edits with no special knowledge required. It does quite an amazing job in erasing unwanted stuff from pictures, like stones, wires, people, signs, text and more. Just highlight the extra object with a brush or lasso; click “Erase” button and seconds later imperfection disappears. There is a very handy “Clone & Stamp” tool to enhance the fixed area, but usually its not required.
Here’s a video comparing healing tools in Snapheal and Photoshop. As you can see both apps bring similar results, but Snapheal is much faster
It’s fair to mention that Photoshop is not just about spot healing. But Snapheal is not just about erasing objects, either. The app features retouching and photo adjustment tools that let you enhance the whole image at once or pick individual areas to improve. Editing tools include gamma, hue, saturation adjustments; controls for shadows, highlights, exposure; clarity tool and more. Snapheal has all the tools an average photographer would need to fix and enhance pictures taken. But as we mentioned, doesn’t require any special learning or massive amounts of time to perform edits.
Snapheal is usually priced $20, but is currently available for just $9.99 on Mac App Store. For this price, the app’s simplicity and high quality image processing is available an absolute steal and definitely gives more expensive photo editors run for their money.