Open or import a photo

In Photomator, you can open and edit photos from your Photos library or any location on your device, including iCloud Drive, third-party cloud storage locations, connected external drives, SD cards, and more. When editing, you can easily switch between the Photos and the Files browsers at any time.

Photomator supports all the most popular image formats, such as JPEG, PNG, TIFF, WebP, and works with over 750 different RAW image formats.

Open images from Photos

Photomator integrates seamlessly with your Photos library, letting you effortlessly edit and manage photos and automatically save changes back to Photos.

When you first open Photomator, you will need to grant access to your Photos library to start editing. You can limit access to selected photos or allow full access to all photos and albums.

  1. Locate the photo you'd like to edit by browsing the categories at the bottom of your screen:

    • All Photos shows the complete collection of photos in your library.

    • Edited lists all your photos edited using Photomator.

    • Favorites shows a collection of photos marked as favorites in Photos.

    • Albums lets you browse specific albums and folders you created. Albums created automatically by Photos are also displayed and help organize your photos by category or type, for instance, panoramas, long exposure shots, or RAW images.

3. Tap the photo thumbnail to open and start editing.

Photomator doesn't import your photos but edits them in place, so any changes you make to photos within the app will reflect in the actual locations they are stored in. For instance, if you delete a photo in Photomator, it will be deleted from its album in Photos or a folder in Files.

Open images saved on your device, in iCloud Drive, or other locations

File browser in Photomator lets you edit photos on your device, cloud services, or external drives, automatically sync nondestructive changes with the original file, and a whole lot more.

  1. Locate the photo you'd like to edit by browsing the options at the bottom of your screen:

    • Recents show your recently edited photos.

    • Shared shows the photos and folders shared with others through iCloud.

    • Browse lets you browse and open photos from anywhere on your iPhone or external locations such as iCloud Drive, third-party cloud storage locations, connected external drives, SD cards, and more.

    See the Files browser article to learn how to search, organize, and manage your photos in the Files browser.

  2. Tap the thumbnail of a photo to start editing. If an image is too large to be opened, you'll see an alert. The maximum image size varies based on the iPhone model.

When you open a photo from a location for the first time, you can choose to show other photos from that location in the Photomator filmstrip. Tap Give Access at the bottom of the screen, then navigate to the folder you want to view in the filmstrip and tap Open.

Photomator doesn't import your photos but edits them in place, so any changes you make to photos within the app will reflect the actual locations where they are stored. For instance, if you delete a photo in Photomator, it will be deleted from its folder in Files or an album in Photos.

See also

Open or import a photo

Save, share, and export

Photomator settings

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