Flying Meat
The image editor for humans.
Download Acorn Free download, version 1.5
Purchase for $49.95.
Requires Mac OS X 10.4.9 or later, works great on 10.5.
full release noteswhat's new in 1.5visit the acorn wiki

Universal Application
Add text and shapes to your digital pictures. Combine images together to create your own. Work with layers to touch up your favorites or make something new from scratch. Do all this and more with Acorn.

Screenshots and Movies

Add text to your photos! A ton of filters are included in Acorn
Brush Designer Air Lizzy Process Applying a radial gradient Chaining filters

Acorn is an innovative image editor built with simplicity in mind. Fast, easy, and fluid, Acorn provides the tools you need to alter and enhance your images, without any overhead. Acorn feels right, it won't drain your bank account, and you don't need a Ph.D. in computer graphics to use it.

New in Acorn 1.5: Brush Designer
Acorn's Brush Designer
watch it in action

Acorn's new Brush Designer is a great new feature where you can draw with a preset brush, and then modify the settings for the brush and watch your stroke update in realtime. No more hassle trying to get a brush "just right". Draw once, tweak, and save. And if you own a tablet, then Acorn's pressure sensitive brush options make drawing even more fun.

image Straightforward, convenient, and easy.
All of the tools condense into one easy to use palette to keep your screen uncluttered and inviting to work with. Easily move the palette around if it gets in your way, or press the tab key to make it hide.
image Performance
Along with your computer's Intel or PowerPC chip, Acorn utilizes your graphics processor unit (GPU) for additional graphics power. Less waiting equals more time creating.
image Layers
Use layers and blending modes make the most of photo editing technics by allowing easy placement of text and other objects, without destroying the picture underneath. Layers allow you to try things out, and change your mind later on.
image Text
Acorn's text tools give you control over text, while making it easy to work with. Everything from bold and italic to kern and ligature. There's even spell check, because we need it.
image Drawing
Acorn features a tool that let you draw, scribble and sketch right on your image. Use a trackpad, mouse, or even a tablet. Acorn has everything you need for making pretty doodles, and even has nifty math to keep those lines looking smooth.
image Filters
Acorn has all of the filters you're looking for, and even includes a great interface to chain filters together to get unique effects. Perform the same filter chain again by choosing "Last Filter" or save your filter as a preset for later use.
image Vector Shapes
Vector shapes let you make squares, circles and lines, but keep the flexibility of changing things later on. Don't like the color of the border? Swap it out. Do you want to make that rectangle have rounded corners, after you've made it? Don't worry about it, just click some buttons and its done.

You can also scale vector shapes easily, and without having to stress about the shape getting pixelated or looking funny. Acorn makes adding shapes to your image a breeze.
image Screenshots
Acorn makes it easy to create mock ups and work with screenshots. As long as Acorn is open, press the Command-Shift-6 keys while in any application, and Acorn will help you make a screenshot.

Your selection will be brought into a new Acorn image immediately, ready for work. Use this in combination with the vector and text tools to create amazing mock ups quickly.
image Selections
Make different shaped selections, invert them, feather, even add a corner radius. Or, if you're looking to quickly select an entire color, try using the Magic Wand for some quick changes.

Selections can also limit the effects of filters and adjustments. If you have a picture that is a little dim in the corner, try selecting it, feathering the selection, and bumping up the colors using the Levels command under the image menu.
image Web Export
Acorn supports many file formats, but when you need to get that image size smaller and still looking good for the web, take a look at Web Export.

Acorn provides an estimate for the size it will be exported at and lets you compare the compressed version to the original.

Export your images for the web.!
image Plugin Architecture
Write custom plugins for Acorn using the Python scripting language as well as in Objective-C. We know this isn't for everyone, but if you have a little programming prowess, writing custom plugins is a piece of cake.
Subscribe to Acorn's mailing list: