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I need to edit a photo on my Mac. I wish to take two photos and paste them together to create one that's larger, containing both. I couldn't figure out how to do this with iPhoto.

  • For Windows you have Paint.NET.
  • For Linux you have Kolourpaint.

What would be the equivalent on OS X?

Please note that it must be of quality both in code and in UI. I wouldn't want to install buggyware on my Mac.

Dan J
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Maxim Veksler
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5 Answers5

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You can do this simply with Preview. Open the first picture.

  1. Choose Tools > Rectangular Selection.
  2. Select the whole picture.
  3. Copy the selection (choose Edit > Copy).
  4. Choose Tools > Adjust Size.
  5. Turn off the lock for proportional changes.
  6. Select pixels as your unit.
  7. Double the width of your picture.

At this point, you have your unscaled picture in the clipboard and a scaled version in Preview.

  1. Insert (choose Edit > Paste) the picture from the clipboard and align it to the left edge.
  2. Open your second picture in Preview, select everything, and copy it.
  3. Switch to the first picture, paste the second picture and align it to the right edge.
  4. Save your new picture. Done.
guwac
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4

The best simple image editor is Seashore. It's an open-source Cocoa app built around GIMP's technology. That means it provides advanced photo editing capabilities for free and does it in a simple-to-install native app.

jhocking
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    Thanks for including a link. Why do you think Seashore is the best? What features lend it to the OP's use case? – Cajunluke Oct 24 '12 at 19:12
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    As of 2018: I would just go with standard GIMP. It's had Mac-native window manager support for a while now, and it's definitely active—a whole bunch of new stuff is coming out in v2.10! – SilverWolf Jan 19 '18 at 18:43
  • yes things certainly have changed a lot since I wrote my answer. Not only has GIMP become more Mac friendly in deployment, but I've learned that it has "single window" mode to make it even more friendly – jhocking Jan 19 '18 at 19:24
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For a program similar to Paint.NET on Windows, check out Pinta, which is available for OS X, Linux and Windows. It requires the Mono framework (link available on the download page for Pinta).

M K
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  • Do I need to install Mono(http://www.mono-project.com/MonoMac) on the Mac to have this working? If so then this is a by definition no go because of bloatware. I wound't want to install a whole new framework just to edit a picture. – Maxim Veksler Oct 24 '12 at 19:57
  • Maxim, Paint.Net also uses the .Net framework, which is including on all Windows machines, but still conceptually similar to Mono which Pinta requires. I just started using Pinta, and it is a relief to finally find something equivalent to Paint.Net, which I used for years before moving to Mac. – Dave Aug 24 '15 at 18:33
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The online, flash-based Pixlr is excellent: very intuitive and has shockingly good performance.

Chris Herbert
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I would say that Preview is just fine for basic touch ups, though it is not that intuitive from the very start. I discovered the editing tools a month after I was using it to preview images:) There are free trials available for most of high quality photo apps, so you may check Collage, Camerabag, Snapheal, and other. All apps work independently on your Mac, so you need no online photo editors. Hope this helps.

Alex Inventimo
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    Welcome to AskDifferent! Can you please add links (and maybe a short description/recommendation) for the mentioned applications to make the answer useful without relying on Google? – nohillside Mar 05 '13 at 10:35
  • I also had not realized Preview could edit images. But you can do most of basic image editing: crop, rotate, cut, paste, color enhancement, markup, etc. – wisbucky Feb 10 '16 at 23:48