I like dabbling with different photo editors. Yes, I’m an Adobe Creative Cloud subscriber and authorized affiliate, but I’m also a fan of knowing what’s available. I recently received news from the folks at Foxit, but it wasn’t about PDF files. It was about its photo editing software, Foxit Studio Photo. So I downloaded the free trial and took a dive into this photo editing option.

What is Foxit studio photo?

Foxit was quite frank in recognizing the power, capability, and popularity of Photoshop. This meant that Foxit kept Photoshop in the back of its collective mind as it developed Studio Photo. It wanted to provide a better experience.

Here’s where I stand with Photoshop: I use the app pretty regularly each day for projects and hobbies, yet the app still scares me with all of its nested menus and options. Yes, knowing keyboard shortcuts are helpful, but that only scratches the surface far as everything that Photoshop can do. Apparently, Foxit feels the same way about Photoshop. It’s a bit much.

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As Studio Photo was developed, Foxit wanted to create an experience that offered all of the core functionality of a photo editor but also captures the most powerful tools of Photoshop. In short, eliminate all of the extra tools and options that an average photo editor wouldn’t use, but give them a little more power than only editing exposure and contrast. I can say without a doubt that Studio Photo does this that.

User experience

Fire up Foxit, and you’re immediately met with an interface that’s very similar to Photoshop. The menu layout, the panels, the color scheme–very similar. But it is definitely stripped down. I wasn’t intimidated when I opened the app. Like most computer applications, you have keyboard shortcuts to make using the app more efficient. When I reviewed Photopea, I enjoyed that most of the keyboard shortcuts were spot on with Photoshop. The shortcuts in Studio Photo has been pretty close to that experience, as well.


Image: Ant Pruitt

Performance of Studio Photo has been fairly stable. I’ve processed random jpg files, smartphone raw (.dng) files, larger jpg files from DSLRs, and also raw files from DSLRs. (.cr and .arw). The smaller and larger jpg files are handled with ease. Smartphone raw files were ok, too. Sometimes processing raw images from the DSLRs was a bit challenging. It didn’t put me off, but it was definitely noticeable.

You can even open Photoshop files (PSD) for processing. The pen tool, like in Photoshop, takes some getting used to. I used my Wacom tablet with it and the brushes lagged a little even though you have the ability to adjust brush settings such as size jitter and scattering. The pressure sensitivity was apparent, but again, a little laggy.


Image: Ant Pruitt

If you do not want to get into granular editing, you can utilize the quick edit options where Studio Pro will automatically process fundamental editing properties.


Image: Ant Pruitt

Free trial

I can see this service as a nice alternative to individuals not wanting to jump into the subscription world of Photoshop. You can get a free trial of Studio Photo for 14 days upon registering with your email address. Fortunately, the free trial doesn’t lack any of the tools or capabilities of the paid version. So you won’t wonder what you’re missing out on from a features standpoint. After the trial period, you can purchase Studio Pro for a flat fee of $59.99.

Have you tried Studio Photo for your photo editing projects? What photo editing tools are you using to make your images pop? Let me know in the comments below or feel free to tag me on Twitter and Instagram with your favorite shots you’ve processed.