Design

After opening a photo within Snapseed, you’re provided a simple photo viewer with a single “Edit” button near the bottom. This expands to reveal the editing options available. By far the most useful is the first tool, appropriately titled “Tune Image”. Sliding your finger up and down reveals the available image editing aspects, like Brightness, Contrast, etc. Once you’ve selected the desired option, sliding left and right makes the adjustments.

Swipe vertically to select an option, then horizontally to make adjustments.

Words only complicate the intuitiveness of the interface. The only way to truly appreciate it is to try it for yourself. I have found this “up-down to select, left-right to adjust” experience to be probably the best execution of photo editing available to the mobile platform. While most would assume this type of editing work to be best left for the desktop, Snapseed offers a very complete set of editing tools in a touch-friendly format.

Other editing aspects, including Details and Vignette use a similarly intuitive sliding interface. While I found these extra tools to be less useful in most situations, it’s worth noting that the interface for each option is well designed and executed properly.

Any photo editing app would be incomplete without a batch of filters, and Snapseed is no exception. In this case, however, users are given more control over the effect, with a set of sliders unique to each filter. A set of frames is also available, if that is your cup of tea. While these are admittedly not what draw me to a photo editor, I can appreciate that Snapseed’s implementation of filters and frames is fully realized.