Free guide · Oct 1, 2026

Replace Photoshop on your Mac for free

Install Compositor, open your PSD files and learn the Photoshop-style shortcuts it supports.

The short version

Compositor is a free, open source image editor for the Mac, built around the Photoshop compositing workflow: layers, masks, blend modes, adjustment layers and Photoshop-style shortcuts. It opens Photoshop PSD and PSB files with the layers still editable.

•What you need: a Mac with Apple silicon on macOS 26.0 or later. Nothing else.

•What you get: a layered editor that's about 7 MB to download, with no subscription.

•How to start: install it, open one simple PSD, read the conversion report, and see what came through before you move a real project.

Everything below comes from the README, the repo's docs and the app's own menu code as of October 1, 2026 (release 1.4.5). I'm on Windows, so I haven't run it myself. This is what the source says.

What's in the full guide

  1. 01Will it replace Photoshop for me?
  2. 02Step 1: Install it
  3. 03Step 2: Open a PSD
  4. 04Step 3: Work with layers and blend modes
  5. 05Step 4: Save and export
  6. 06Bonus: let an AI agent build a project
  7. 07Honest notes
  8. 08Where to go next

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