PhotoDonut

Photo filters have since long been quite popular especially on mobile-based apps. It should come as no surprise that more and more full-fledged photo editing utilities for your computer are also integrating more and more creative filters.

PhotoDonut is a useful piece of software that allows to express your artistic vision in a very simplistic way by making it straightforward for you to enhance the look of your photos with the help of comprehensive sets of filters, effects, layers and other tools as such.

The installation process only requires a minute or so of your time and should proceed without any kind of issues. Please note that this application only works on computers with OpenGL-compatible video cards.

Once launched for the first time, the app greets you by displaying a set of documentation sections, full of information, tutorials and other types of useful guides. The utility boasts a clear-cut, black-themed yet not quite impressive user interface.

In this early stage, the main UI element that stands out is the circle-shaped home control menu that provides you with quick access to some of the app's most important sections and controls. For example, you can open, save and share your current work, access the Options section and activate the Batch Processing, Style Editor, and Paint modes, but only in the paid versions of the app.

As expected from an application such as this, PhotoDonut allows you to tweak the basic parameters of your photos, like brightness, contrast, gamma, saturation. As mentioned at the start of our review, the app also enables you to work with layers, by allowing you to choose between multiple blend modes and the opacity levels.

Nevertheless, the highlight of the application is certainly its collection of easy-to-apply effects and filters. You can find an extremely wide array of effects, all neatly-stacked within categories like Drawing, Painting, Photo Effects, and Illustrations. Considering the fact that it bundles basic photo editing tools and an impressive number of accessible and interesting effects, you are provided with a broad range of artistic possibilities.

While it may not be the most feature-packed app or the most stylish one from its category, PhotoDonut manages to strike a reasonable balance between overall features and usability. The app is easy to install, fairly user-friendly, not what you would call eye candy but not awful-looking either, and packs enough features right from the get-go so that you do not necessarily need to opt for the paid version in order to have fun with it.