Aviary is a set of photo editing tools that can be included for free by developers into any iOS, Android or Windows Mobile app. This means that you will find lots of software in the store that include the Aviary interface for photo editing purposes: some are just a blatant copy of the tools, repackaged and sold for some money, while others are app with a vision of their own that include these tools as an extra.
Aviary’s own iOS app has finally been released a few months ago: it’s completely free, it is now universal (the iPhone and iPad interfaces are basically identical) and it’s good enough to replace all the useless (and sometimes expensive) clones that have been available in the Store for some time.
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- The home screen for this app has a “coverflow-like” view over your Camera Roll. You can tap the “Albums” button to pop-up the standard iOS image selector.
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- The home screen on the iPhone. The settings button will let you pick the image resolution, rearrange the tools and configure your accounts.
Once you load an image, you reach the main Photo Editor screen.
The Enhance section lets you apply four basic enhancements. No way to apply any “strength” setting to the enhancement: basically, you cannot customize a thing in Aviary.
In the Effects tool, you have four categories available. Only the first one is free, you’ll have to pay (0,99€) for each of the other “rolls”. But BEWARE: if you buy an extra in Photo Editor by Aviary, it does not mean that the same extras will be included in any app that uses the Aviary APIs. If you want the same extra in a specific app, you’ll have to pay for it again.
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- The four effect rolls: Free, Grunge, Nostalgia and Viewfinder
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- The Free filters are actually quite nice, though not everyone of them will be appropriate for your photo
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- Singe (Free)
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- “Vigilante” effect (Grunge)
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- Firefly Effect (Nostalgia)
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- Mark II (Viewfinder)
In the Stickers section, you’ll have a set as a free download and several more for a fee. Once you download them, you’ll be able to apply mustaches, glasses, hats, ballons, monsters, etc, to your images.
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- “Original” Stickers are free
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- For anything else, you’ll have to pay.
You can also apply a set of standard adjustments: Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, Sharpness, Redeye, Whiten and Blemish. They all work as expected, and they’re pretty easy to use.
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- Orientation
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- Crop
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- Contrast: some of the settings use a nice “wheel”
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- Blemish: others let you draw the enhancement over the image
Finally, you can draw over the image, apply some text and you also have a “Meme” tool where you can create your next Facebook phenomenon.
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- Draw
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- Meme
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- Text: unfortunately, you only have one font available.
All in all, Photo Editor by Aviary is a nice set of tools. It does not really excel at anything, but it’s worth have since it’s free, it’s simple to use, and you might want to get used to an interface that you will probably find in many other apps. It’s also worth mentioning that it can save images up to 12 MP, which is definitely nice.
PROS: Free, Universal, Simple, High resolution
CONS: No customization options, most tools are too basic, too many paid extras
Check also: Magic Hour, Vintique, Snapseed, Photoforge2
| Compatibility | Universal |
| Price | FREE |
| Free/Light version? | - |
| Developer | Aviary |
| Resolution | 12 MP |
| My Rating | 7/10 |
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