4 Best Photo Editing Apps

Our phones are, as Nikola Tesla predicted, tiny computers in our pockets. We can do almost anything with them, not least of all edit photos, make GIFs, and create beautiful typographic images.

Here are four apps that will allow you to create virtually any kind of image with just the smartphone in your pocket.

Apps For Photo Editing

Instagram

Stick with me. You’re not expecting what I’m about to tell you, promise. Instagram is one of the best mobile photo editing tools. Turn off your Wi-Fi and put your phone on airplane mode.

Then, upload your photo and crop, filter, tilt-shift and brighten to your heart’s content. The tools built into the app are top-notch. Then, go to post the image, even if you don’t want to post it to Instagram. Why? Because you have all access to the Internet turned off and you’ll get that failed message.

Did you know that when an image fails to post to Instagram that it’s automatically saved to your camera roll? Yep. So now, even if you don’t want to post that image to Instagram, you can send a copy of it to your email, or text it to someone, or do whatever else you want—you have a beautifully edited image. Maybe you just have to send it to someone for approval before posting. Great—when you get the approval, you don’t have to do any of the hard work. Just upload and you’re good.

Giphy Cam

Sometimes you just need a GIF, right? Of course.

Giphy Cam comes from the source: Giphy. Of course, to populate the GIF search engine with lots of GIFs, you need to use Giphy Cam. The app is filled with filters, overlays, party supplies, reactions, and other very useful enhancements such as shooting stars or dolphins. (If you don’t find these things useful, perhaps you need to reevaluate things.)

Then you can share to Instagram and Twitter, or via Facebook Messenger, text message, or email.

Notegraphy

Let’s face it: those inspirational quotes on pretty backgrounds in a fancy typeface aren’t gonna create themselves, amirite?

Notegraphy has a large variety of templates in different fonts and styles to create your message on. It saves as a high-resolution image, so it looks good in a much larger size, too. For example, I used Notegraphy to create the banner image on my Facebook timeline.

Find a style you like, type in your message, and it’s ready to post wherever you want. There’s a social network of sorts inside the app, as you can peruse other people’s saved notes and acknowledge them with an emotion. The primary purpose, however, is to create attractive typography on the go, and no app does it better or simpler than Notegraphy

Star Wars

You haven’t downloaded the Star Wars app yet? What’s wrong with you? I’ll wait here while you take care of that oversight.

Back? Good.

On the home screen, go to the “selfie” section. Then take a photo of yourself or your cat as Princess Leia, Carbonite Han Solo, or others (including some Star Wars Rebels characters). Choose from a variety of settings (Hoth or Dagobah, for example), companions (stormtrooper or Yoda, for two). If you choose to be a Jedi, you can even change the color of your lightsaber.

Trust me, taking a photo of your Siberian Husky as a Jedi will bring the likes rolling in, if you care about that sort of thing.

Plus, given how rabid the entire world is about Star Wars right now, it’s a quick win to Star Wars-ize anything.

Photo credit: Lauren Kallen