This new one-click photo optimizer makes your photos look better for free

(Image credit: Unsplash / Jannis Edelmann)

Ashampoo has launched a free version of its Photo Optimizer software with one-click photo editing and automatic optimization.

For content creators on a budget and pushed for time, Photo Optimizer FREE - yes, all-caps - is designed to clean up a photo’s exposure, color temperature, sharpness, stains, and contrast.

The free photo editor software also includes essential editing tools, including cropping, rotating, and resizing. Like its paid-for counterpart, screenshots for the product show a slider, allowing users to see the before-and-after.

What is Photo Optimizer Free?

Photo Optimizer Free is Ashampoo’s gateway towards the fully-featured Photo Optimizer 9. The company has always given away free tools - it already offers free versions of UnInstaller, WinOptimizer, and WinZip alternative, Zip FREE.

The latest free tool to join the stable is promising automatic image enhancements with a single click. Algorithms will then check and fix issues like over-exposure. Ashampoo claims results are “optimal”.

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While the easy-to-use software is - in the company’s words - “ideal for beginners and anyone who doesn't want to spend time getting to know the intricacies of image optimization”, users with a preference for manual photo editing are also served by the program’s toolkit.

Features include adaptive blur, removing face stains, adding limited effects, and adjusting the tone curve. Users are also free to run the auto-optimization, before further tweaking the image by hand.

More advanced tools, such as altering perspective and adaptive sharpen, are locked behind an upgrade paywall.

We’ve previously tipped an older version of Photo Optimizer as one of the best free photo editors - praising its clean, ad-free interface and accessible toolkit, but disliking its hit-and-miss auto-optimization. Here’s hoping the new, rebranded Photo Optimizer Free has fixed these issues.

Ashampoo Photo Optimizer FREE is available to download now for Windows 10 / Windows 11.

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Steve is TechRadar Pro’s B2B Editor for Creative & Hardware. He began in tech journalism reviewing photo editors and video editing software at the magazine Web User, where he also covered technology news, features, and how-to guides. Today, he and his team of reviewers test out a range of creative software, hardware, and office furniture. Once upon a time, he wrote TV commercials and movie trailers. Relentless champion of the Oxford comma.