At a glance
Expert’s Rating
Pros
- Bargain price
- No subscriptions required
- Powerful editing tools
- Universal app for Intel/Apple Silicon
Cons
- Not much help for beginners
- Requires macOS 14 or later
Our Verdict
People who are new to photo-editing may prefer an app that provides a bit more help and guidance to get them started, but Acorn provides a variety of powerful editing tools at a price that’s hard to beat. As well as photo-editing, the app also includes some useful vector graphics tools, along with precise typographical controls – and just a sprinkling of AI as well.
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With more and more software tools requiring monthly subscription payments it’s always good to see apps such as Acorn that simply charge a one-time fee that allows you to keep and use the app for as long as you want. Acorn was already sitting on our list of the best photo-editors for the Mac, and the latest version, Acorn 8 was recently listed by Apple as a Finalist for the 2025 App Store Awards. The price on the App Store is $29.99/£29.99, but you can also download Acorn 8 from the developers Flying Meat, and that version offers a 14-day free trial so that you can take a good look at the app before buying it.
Acorn 8 is a universal binary that runs on Intel Macs or Apple Silicon, but you do need macOS 14 or later to run it properly. If you’re using Tahoe (macOS 26) then Acorn 8 gives you the choice of using its traditional ‘classic’ interface or switching to the new Liquid Glass look instead. But if you’re using an older version of the macOS then there’s an archive of previous versions of Acorn still available that you can try in order to see how they run on your Mac – although, of course, these won’t include the latest features that are available in Acorn 8.
As well as its photo-editing tools, Acorn includes a variety of precise typographical controls, including the ability to run text along a path.
Flying Meat
Acorn 8 certainly offers good value for money, as it includes impressive range of photo-editing tools that can match many of its more expensive rivals. There’s a simple palette on the left-hand side of the main editing window – known as the Canvas – which provides quick access to a standard set of editing tools, including rectangular, elliptical and freeform Selection tools, and a Magic Wand for automatically selecting areas by colour. And, as well as a conventional Crop tool, Acorn also includes a Perspective Fix option for cropping photos that have perspective or distortion problems.
You can use the Paint or Pencil tools to sketch in a few details of your own, but Acorn also includes some useful vector graphics tools for drawing shapes such as rectangles, ovals and arrows. Version 8 introduced a new Polygon tool that allows you to freely create multi-sided shapes, and there’s a Bezier Pen for more experienced artists who want to create simple illustrations by hand. Selecting any of these tools activates a second palette on the right-hand side of the Canvas, which provides additional controls for each tool, such as precise typographic controls for the Text tools, or the ability to adjust the size and style of the Paint brush in order to create different brush effects.
New AI features include Select Subject, which can precisely select the subject in the foreground on a photo and separate it from the background.
Flying Meat
As you’d expect, there’s an extensive selection of filters and effects that you can use to liven up your photos and, of course, there are new AI features as well. Acorn 8 doesn’t go overboard with its use of AI, but it does provide a Super Resolution upscaling feature that can increase the size and resolution of smaller images without losing clarity or details.
There’s also an AI Select Subject tool that automatically selects the foreground subject in a photo and allows you to lift it away from the background. This works really well, quickly and easily lifting out detailed elements from a photo or, alternatively, you can use the Mask Subject tool to reverse this process and completely remove the background while leaving the foreground subject on its own.
Most of these tools are quick and easy to use, but using more advanced features, such as masks and layers, does reveal the one weakness of Acorn 8. The app does seem to be aimed at more experienced users, and there’s not much help within the program for people who are new to photo-editing work. There are extensive Help files on the Acorn website, as well as some video tutorials, but these often just bombard you with long lists of features without explaining how they work – so if you don’t already know how the new LUT feature works (Look Up Tables) then Acorn’s Help files won’t enlighten you very much.
Rivals such as Photoshop Elements do a better job of helping new users with its step-by-step Guided Edits. But, of course, Photoshop Elements is a lot more expensive – and now requires a subscription as well – so Acorn 8 is still excellent value for money, especially for experienced users who can dive straight in and make the most of its powerful tools.
Should You Buy Acorn 8?
We’d like to see Acorn provide more help for beginners, but it’s hard to criticise an app that provides so many powerful photo-editing tools at such a competitive price. Acorn 8 will particularly appeal to people who already have some experience of photo-editing work and need powerful tools without the never-ending cost of Adobe’s Creative Cloud subscriptions.
