Image Editor
Free app for editing images and photos.
Choose dimensions and a background. The default creates a transparent 1600 × 1200 PNG.
Select a version to preview it in the editor. Closing brings your current text back.
Choose what to restore. This never changes your document text, drafts, or recent files.
Recovery drafts are unsaved copies kept on this device. Restore one to open it, or delete drafts you no longer need.
No recovery drafts are saved on this device.
Choose which button groups to show on the toolbar.
Header/footer need at least 0.4" top and bottom margins
Jump to a line like 42, or a line and column like 42:7.
Image Editor is a free browser-based app for creating and editing photos and images on your computer or in Google Drive. You don't need an account to work with files on your device.
Open a photo, make changes with the editing toolbar, and save it to your computer or Google Drive. You can also start with a new transparent or colored canvas.
To get started, open an image or create a new blank image with one of the buttons below.
You opened an image attachment from Gmail. Image Editor will load it in the editing workspace, where you can make changes and save a new copy to Google Drive or your computer.
To continue, authorize Image Editor with the button below.
You opened an image from Google Drive. Image Editor will load it for editing and can save your changes back to Drive when you have permission.
To continue, authorize Image Editor with the button below.
You're creating a new image. Choose the canvas size and a transparent or solid background to get started.
Image Editor is designed for quick edits as well as more detailed photo work. The whole process happens on one page:
Select Open Image From Computer, or choose File > Open > From Computer... after the editor is open. Pick a JPEG, PNG, WebP, BMP, GIF, HEIC/HEIF, TIFF, or SVG image. Drag-and-drop and clipboard paste work too. The file is read directly in your browser; it isn't uploaded to an Image Editor server.
Select Open From Google Drive, or choose File > Open > From Google Drive... after the editor is open. Sign in and choose an image in the Google file picker. Image Editor asks for access to the files you select or create with the app, not your entire Drive. If someone changes the Drive file while you have it open, saving pauses so you can review both versions.
Select Create New Image or choose File > New image.... The default is a transparent 1600 by 1200 pixel canvas. You can pick a common size, enter a custom width and height, swap the orientation, and choose a transparent or solid background. Image Editor warns before creating an unusually large canvas because large images can use a lot of memory.
After an image opens, the editing tools appear beside the preview. Choose a tool, adjust its controls, and then move to another tool whenever you like. Your changes remain editable until you close the image.
Remove unwanted edges or change the composition. Drag the crop handles around the part you want to keep, and move or scale the image inside the crop area until the framing looks right. Crop before resizing for the cleanest workflow.
Open Crop to straighten a tilted photo, turn it left, or flip it horizontally. The angle control is useful for small horizon corrections; the rotate button is faster for a sideways image.
Apply a ready-made color style to the whole image. Select a filter to preview it, or return to Default to remove the effect. Filters are a quick starting point; use Finetune when you want more control.
Adjust brightness, contrast, exposure, saturation, temperature, gamma, clarity, and vignette. Make small changes and watch the preview. If a face or bright area loses detail, reduce the adjustment or use Undo.
Draw on the image or add text, lines, arrows, and shapes. Annotations stay attached to the image, so they rotate and flip with it. Use this for callouts, labels, measurements, or circling something you want people to notice.
Add text, drawings, and shapes over the final composition. Decorations stay positioned relative to the cropped result and appear above annotations, which makes them useful for a title, badge, border accent, or finishing mark.
Choose the color behind transparent parts of an image. Keep the background transparent for PNG or WebP, or choose a solid color when preparing an image for JPEG. Without a fill color, transparent areas are placed on white in JPEG output.
Add a finished edge around the image. Choose a frame style and adjust its appearance while watching the preview. Frames become part of the exported pixels, so include their width when planning the final dimensions.
Drag over a name, number, face, or other visible detail you need to obscure. Redaction is rendered into the exported image, but you should always open the saved file and inspect it before sharing. Crop the detail out instead when you can remove it completely.
Set the pixel width and height of the exported image. Keep the aspect ratio locked to avoid stretching. Making an image smaller is useful for websites and email; enlarging a small source won't create detail that wasn't there.
Use the toolbar or Edit > Undo and Edit > Redo to move through your edit history. Edit > Revert all edits returns to the image state loaded at the start of this editing session. Reverting removes every edit made since then, so use Undo when you only want to step back once.
Image Editor saves only when you choose a save command. The status beside the filename tells you whether there are unsaved changes, whether the recovery copy is current, or whether a save is complete.
Choose File > Save, press the Save button, or use Ctrl/Cmd + S. A writable PNG, JPEG, or WebP can be updated in place after the browser grants permission and Image Editor confirms that the file hasn't changed elsewhere. Files opened from Google Drive save back to Drive when you have edit access.
Use File > Save as... to choose a new local filename and location. Use File > Edit in Google Drive to create a Drive file and send future saves there. For a Drive file, File > Google Drive > Make a copy creates another Drive file. File > Download a copy downloads the current result while keeping you in the file you were already editing.
Choose PNG for transparency, logos, text, diagrams, and lossless quality. Choose JPEG for a widely compatible, smaller photo file; JPEG can't keep transparent pixels, so Image Editor uses a solid matte color where needed. WebP often makes a compact photo and can preserve transparency. The filename extension always matches the file format.
Before overwriting a local or Drive file, Image Editor checks whether another app or person changed it after you opened or last saved it. If so, saving pauses. You can keep your version, use the newer version, or save a separate copy instead of silently overwriting work.
Image width and height are measured in pixels. A 1600 by 1200 image contains 1.92 million pixels, no matter how large it looks on your screen. More pixels can preserve detail for printing, but they also take more memory and usually create a larger file.
Zoom changes only the workspace view, which helps you place a crop or annotation precisely. Resize changes the exported pixel dimensions. For a website or email, resize near the largest dimensions people will actually see. For print, keep enough source pixels for the physical size you need.
Transparent pixels are useful for logos, cutouts, and graphics that sit over another background. PNG and WebP can keep them. JPEG can't, so use Fill to choose the background; otherwise transparent areas are placed on white. Check the exported file against its intended background before publishing it.
You can open JPEG, PNG, WebP, BMP, GIF, HEIC/HEIF, TIFF/TIF, and supported static SVG images. Image Editor always exports PNG, JPEG, or WebP. When an input format can't be edited directly, the app converts it to PNG in your browser and explains what the conversion changes.
An animated GIF opens as its first frame. A multipage TIFF opens one supported image rather than the full page set. HEIC/HEIF sequence, HDR, depth, and other container features aren't carried into the export. SVG is rasterized, so the saved result is made of pixels instead of editable vectors. BMP is prepared as PNG.
Saving a still frame over an animated GIF, or pixels over a vector SVG, could destroy information you didn't mean to lose. Image Editor therefore asks you to create a new PNG, JPEG, or WebP. After that first save, you continue editing the newly saved file.
PNG preserves every exported pixel but can be large. JPEG and WebP use lossy compression for photographs, trading a little detail for a smaller file. Image Editor uses a high-quality JPEG setting and a balanced WebP setting. Start from the best source you have and avoid repeatedly opening and resaving a JPEG when quality matters.
After you pause, Image Editor keeps a recovery draft in this browser when storage is available. This can help after a reload, crash, or accidental tab close. A recovery draft is separate from your image file: Recovery updated means the local safety copy is current, not that the file on your computer or in Drive was saved.
Browser storage can be cleared, blocked, or run out of space. Use Save or a new-file command for work you need to keep. If the app says recovery storage is unavailable, your editing still works, but you should save before closing the tab.
The start page can show images you opened recently from Google Drive or computer files the browser still has permission to reopen. Recent-file information stays in this browser. You can remove individual entries or clear the list without deleting the actual image files.
Opening, decoding, editing, and rendering happen locally in your browser. Image Editor doesn't upload image pixels, annotations, filenames, paths, or editing state to a Visware server. Advertising and basic app analytics don't receive your image content.
Google receives or returns image data only when you choose a Google Drive action. The drive.file permission limits Image Editor to files you select with the Google picker or create with the app. Short-lived access tokens stay in memory rather than being stored as app data.
Image Editor creates a newly rendered output and leaves common source metadata, including location and camera details, out of the exported file. Still inspect the picture itself for addresses, documents, reflections, or other visible information you didn't mean to share.
A compressed photo can expand to several times its file size while the browser decodes and edits it. If a large image won't open or the editor becomes slow, close other memory-heavy tabs, try a smaller copy, or resize the image in another app first.
Modern image editors grew from experiments with pixels and frame buffers. At Xerox PARC, Richard Shoup's SuperPaint produced its first stable image in 1973. It combined video input with virtual brushes, fills, palettes, shapes, and color controls - ideas that remain familiar today.
MacPaint, released with the original Macintosh in 1984, brought raster editing to a wider personal-computer audience. Its mouse-driven tools, clipboard support, and magnified FatBits pixel view helped establish familiar ways to draw, select, copy, and edit one pixel at a time.
Thomas and John Knoll began developing Adobe Photoshop in 1987, and Adobe released Photoshop 1.0 for the Macintosh in 1990. Over time, Photoshop added color controls, filters, plug-ins, and layers for photographers, designers, and publishers.
GIMP began as a University of California, Berkeley student project in 1995 and made its first public release in 1996, bringing advanced editing to a free and open-source community. Editors later moved to phones and web browsers, continuing the broader history of image editing without requiring a traditional desktop installation.
Image Editor is free to use. You don't need an account for images on your computer. Google sign-in is requested only when you choose a Google Drive action.
No. Your image file changes only when you choose a save command. Eligible files can be written back only after permission and conflict checks pass. Converted formats require a new file. Choose File > Download a copy when you want to keep working in the original file.
Read the full FAQ, follow the Help guide, review the Privacy Policy, or email support@imageeditor.app.
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