Acorn (software)

Acorn is a raster graphic editor for macOS developed by August Mueller of Flying Meat Inc, based out of Mukilteo, Washington, United States. Acorn was first released on September 10, 2007 and was built upon the framework of a previous image editing application of Flying Meat Inc., FlySketch.

Acorn makes extensive use of Apple's Core Image framework for its image processing. The native file format of Acorn is .acorn. Acorn combines vector drawing with bitmap editing, and has been described as an alternative to Photoshop. Key features of Acorn include image filters, a custom color picker, a brush designer, and image editing tools such as crop, erase, paint, select, pan, zoom, move, clone, smudge, dodge, and burn.

Major Features

 * Layers-based editing
 * Layer masks and blending modes
 * Multi-layer screenshots
 * Nondestructive stackable filters
 * Curves and levels
 * Multi-stop live gradients
 * Scriptable
 * Automator support
 * Built in brush designer to create custom brushes
 * Photoshop brush import
 * Vector shapes, Bézier pen tool, and text tools
 * Shape processor
 * Circle text tool
 * RAW image import
 * Multiple selection tools including quick mask and magic wand
 * Smart layer export
 * Web export
 * Guides, grids, rulers, and snapping
 * Native support for Apple’s retina displays
 * Color profile management
 * Deep color image support
 * Documentation online and in ePub format
 * Runs on Metal 2

Reviews and awards

 * Houston Chronicle Acorn 4 review
 * The 25 Best Alternatives to Photoshop
 * Macworld Editor's Choice Award 2009
 * Mac App Store Best Apps of 2013
 * Mac App Store Best Apps of 2015
 * 50 Mac Essentials #46
 * Acorn 5: Tom's Mac Software Pick
 * Clash of the Image Editors: Acorn vs Pixelmator
 * Acorn 4 Macworld Review
 * Acorn 4 The Verge Review
 * 16 Essential Photo Editor Apps