HOW TO GET PHOTOSHOP 2025 FOR FREE ON MAC. Tutorial 2026
HI. Since I had no idea and had so much trouble on how to get photoshop 2025 for free on my MacBook Air, I decided to make this so it could help any of you guys. (I'm a new MacBook Air user, trust me i had a hard time doing so)
Here's the link to download (x)
And I will help you to install it down below. :D
First of all, this is what you’ll see once you extract the files from the zip. I know it’s in Spanish, but I got you!!
So you will have to click on the Adobe.Downloader.dmg file, ok? I know Mac won't let you download it, so go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Security.
Click on “Open Anyway.” It’ll ask for your Mac password or Touch ID, just enter it. The point is that the app will finish installing. Then something like this will open.
(Heads up: don’t get too excited. I know it’s cool to have all the Adobe stuff available, but you need a specific patch for each app. I’m still trying to get the one for After Effects. If I manage to get it, send me a message and I’ll pass it to you.)
OK. Alright, now you’re going to click on this gear icon. You need to make sure everything shows up exactly like I’m about to show you, okay?
Once you’ve super double-checked everything, go to “Cleanup,” select all of them, and then click “Start Cleaning.” That’s it. close that tab.
Now, look for PHOTOSHOP. Click download, BUT pay attention you CANNOT download the latest version!!! The patch only works for version 26.2. you’ve been warned.
Then go ahead and download it, and make sure it’s actually downloading all the files. Once it looks like this, close the app.
k so back to downloads, go to the "ps installer" folder and click adobe activation tool.
open ur applications folder and click the photoshop app. then hit start activation, it’s gonna ask for ur macbook password, so just type it in. the log at the bottom should say it's done correctly. close that and open 'no account patch ps,'
hit continue, continue, and click adobe ps patch.
hit install, activate it, let it access ur downloads and ur literally done. just look it up in spotlight and it should be there.
and tadaaah!! done, that’s it. you can delete everything you downloaded with no problem, you already have photoshop installed ✨
genuinely wild to me when I go to someone's house and we watch TV or listen to music or something and there are ads. I haven't seen an ad in my home since 2005. what do you mean you haven't set up multiple layers of digital infrastructure to banish corporate messaging to oblivion before it manifests? listen, this is important. this is the 21st century version of carving sigils on the wall to deny entry to demons or wearing bells to ward off the Unseelie. come on give me your router admin password and I'll show you how to cast a protective spell of Get Thee Tae Fuck, Capital
Okay, here we go! I'm gonna try and put this in order from least to most technical knowledge required. I'm not responsible if you accidentally create SkyNet etc.
Level 1: browser extensions
This one is basically impossible to get wrong, or at least to get wrong badly enough that it causes any problems.
Get Firefox, or a Firefox fork like Waterfox. If you use a fork, make sure it's one that will let you use add-ons. On a PC, pretty much any Firefox fork will take add-ons, but on mobile devices, many don't. Iceraven is one that does.
Get the add-ons uBlock Origin, YouTube Sponsorblock (if you use YouTube), and FBCleaner (if you use Facebook).
uBlock Origin comes with a built-in list of filters to block ads and trackers, but you can add your own filters to block any specific element of a website you don't like. You know those goddamn floating frames on fandom.com sites that block half the screen? Now you can zap 'em.
Sponsorblock uses crowdsourced timestamps to automatically skip sponsor spots and self-promotion in YouTube videos. Never listen to anyone say "hit like and subscribe" or "Raid Shadow Legends" again.
FBCleaner hides all content from your feed except posts from people, groups, and pages you've actually chosen to follow.
Level 2: leaving enshittified services
The software that's become standard over the years in a lot of fields is steadily selling more of your data, showing you more ads, and pushing you to buy more expensive subscriptions. Time to tell them to get fucked.
Dump Adobe apps for Affinity or Krita. Drop Microsoft for LibreOffice. Change your default search engine from Google to DuckDuckGo or Qwant. Use OpenStreetMaps instead of Google or Apple Maps.
Level 3: network-level DNS fuckery
DNS, or Domain Name Service, is the thing that tells your computer where www.website.com is actually located. By hacking your network's DNS you can force it to tell your devices that ad-hosting domains don't exist at all. Some of the steps on this one can get pretty technical, but because you're doing all the difficult stuff on a dedicated device, you can't really fuck up anything that seriously.
Get yourself a Raspberry Pi (a cheap older one like a model 3B will work just fine for this purpose), and follow a guide like this one to get it set up running AdGuard Home. AdGuard, like uBlock, has built-in filter lists, but you can also add your own if there are specific domains you want to block.
Once it's up and running, you'll need to change the DNS settings on your router to point to your AdGuard service. This is different for every router but will always start with logging into the admin panel with a password printed on a little sticker somewhere on the router.
With that done, every time a device on your home network looks for ads.website.com, it'll get back a message that says "sorry, can't find it", so it won't be able to load any ads.
Level 4: Android-specific DNS fuckery
Because AdGuard runs on your home network, it can't block ads on your phone when you're away from home - and what's worse, your phone will sometimes remember the addresses it got when you were out and about, and ads will get past your AdGuard wall even when you're home.
To avoid this, get AdAway for DNS-based ad-blocking directly on your phone. The easy, but less seamless, way of using AdAway is the "local VPN mode", which doesn't require you to do any mucking about with your phone's operating system.
Level 5: automated media piracy
The best way to stop seeing ads on all your streaming services is to stop using streaming services. There are loads of ways to do this, but the best ones involve setting up what's called an "arr stack" (Google that for setup guides) along with nzbget and a usenet account. Most of the time you'll want to set this stuff up on a dedicated device - an old laptop gathering dust in the closet is a great option, or you can grab something used from a charity shop or a local electronics recycler.
The great thing about usenet is that unlike with torrents, you don't have to do any sharing from your computer, so you're in a lot less legal jeopardy - legally speaking, distributing pirated content is waaayyy more serious than accessing it. I pay about £3 a month for a secure, high-bandwidth usenet service.
Once you start getting your own collection of media on your own computer, use the open-source media library manager Jellyfin to browse and play things from basically any device.
Oh, and don't be a dick. Pirate all you want from big corporations, but please pay independent small-time creators for their work.
Level 6: fucking with Android
Android phones are a lot more locked-down than they used to be, but depending on the device you own you can still do a lot of messing around under the hood. Note that if you get something wrong while doing this, there is always the possibility that it will turn your device into a paperweight.
Before you buy a device, check where it sits on the Bootloader Unlock Wall of Shame. Once you've bought it, check the xda-developer forums for guides on how to unlock it and "root" it (gain admin access) with Magisk.
Once Magisk is installed, you can add modules to do all sorts of cool stuff, including using AdAway in "root mode" which makes it basically invisible.
You can also install YouTube ReVanced, which will do all the ad- and sponsor blocking stuff we took care of in your Windows browser a few paragraphs ago. Be careful: there are a lot of fake sites out there pretending they're associated with the ReVanced project which might be injecting malware into their downloads. This Reddit post has the official instructions and links.
Also, try out the modded version of Facebook from APKmoddone, which will block most of the same shit as the FBcleaner add-on from earlier. There's always a possibility that modified apps like this are doing something dodgy, but I've never had any issues with this one personally.
Level 7: fucking with Windows
This one is scary because it can seriously fuck up your shit if something goes wrong, but some really cool people have actually made it very simple to strip all the bloat, ads, and spyware out of Windows. The tool I use is ReviOS. Start reading at https://www.revi.cc/docs. Basically, you'll need to download a tool called AME Wizard and the ReviOS "playbook" that tells AME what to do. Read the documentation before you do any of this.
Level 8: switching to Linux
I'm not going to pretend this is an option for everyone. Half the software I use on a weekly basis isn't available on Linux. But if you can switch? Do it. These days, Ubuntu - one of the most popular flavours of Linux - is built with people switching from Windows in mind, and a lot of things will be pretty intuitive. It also has great documentation and a huge community you can go to for help if you're confused about stuff.
And that, friends, is a comprehensive approach to banishing the demons of capitalism from your home!
I don't love that every time a famous artist turns out to be a fucking disgusting piece of trash loser evil shitstain that everyone always scrambles to say WELL THEIR ART WAS ALWAYS MID AND BAD ANYWAY. like dude just reckon with the fact you can't judge someone's moral fiber based on the art they make or the clothes they wear or the way they speak or fucking anything anything at all
i just can't convey the frustration and sorrow that it's been to grow up at first without the internet and then watching it bloom into this useful, fun, connecting force you sometimes spent time on, only for it to degrade into this constant oppressive waste of time and energy where people are constantly pumping out algorithmically designed content for max algorithmic appeal and even the most simple search generates either no results or an infinite abyss of ai generated slop none of which is usable or correct. we briefly had a library of alexandria and then fed it into a paper shredder so advertisers could sell a random mash of pulp back to us at a premium.
someone asked for a coloring tutorial and my sharpening settings, so here it is! there are also a few tips to achieve more HQ gifs. :)
tutorial under the cut!
FOR HIGH-QUALITY GIFS
FILE SIZES
it doesn’t matter what your sharpening settings are if the file you’re using to gif is too low quality, so i tend to look for the best that i can get when downloading stuff.
usually, movies (+2h) look better if they’re 5GB or more, while an episode (40 min/1h) can look good with even 1GB. the minimum definition i try to find is 1080p, but i gif with 2160p (4k) when available. unfortunately, not every computer can handle 4k, but don’t worry, you can gif with 1080p files just fine if they are big enough. contrary to popular belief, size does matter! which means sometimes a bigger 1080p file is better than a smaller 2160p one, for example.
SCREENCAPPING METHOD
this can too influence the quality of your gifs. as a gifmaker, i’ve tried it all: video frames to layers, directly opening video clips, loading files into stack, and i’ve finally settled down with opening screencaps as an image sequence. with bigger files, it doesn’t matter much what technique you use, but i’ve noticed with smaller files you can do wonders if you screencap (either by loading files into stack or opening as an image sequence) instead of using video clips. for example, this gif’s original video file was only 4GB (so smaller than i’ve usually go for), if you can believe it!
here’s a tutorial for setting up and screencapping with MPV, the media player i use to screencap. again, you can keep using video clips for bigger files, but you’ll find this useful when dealing with dire causes. i don't file loads into stack, though, like the video does. i open as an image sequence (open > screencap folder > select any image > click the image sequence button). just select OK for the speed. this will open your screencaps as a video clip (blue bar) in timeline mode (i'm a timeline gifmaker, i don't know about you). you will need this action pack to convert the clip into frames if you're a frames gifmaker. i suggest you convert them into frames even if you're a timeline gifmaker, just convert them into a timeline again at the end. that way you can delete the screencaps right away, otherwise you will delete the screencaps and get a static image as a "gif".
ATTENTION if you’re a Mac Sonoma user, MPV won’t be an option for you unless you downgrade your system. that is, if you have an Intel chip. if you have M1 Max chip (or even a better one), here’s a fix for MPV you can try while keeping that MacOS, because nowadays MPV is skipping frames in its latest build. or you can use MPlayer instead for less hassle. here are two tutorials for setting and using MPlayer. Windows users are fine, you can use MPV without trouble.
FOR EVEN MORE QUALITY
ADD NOISE
here’s a tutorial for adding noise as a way to achieve more HQ gifs if your original material is too low quality.
REDUCE NOISE WITH CAMERA RAW
instead of adding noise, you can reduce it, especially if your gif is very noisy as it is.
the path is filter > camera raw > detail > nose reduction. i do this before sharpening, but only my video file isn't great to begin with. because it’s a smart filter, you can reduce or increase its opacity by clicking the bars next to its name in the layers panel.
TOPAZ AI
i use Topaz Photo AI to increase the quality of my screencaps when i need to. it’s paid software, but there are… ways to find it for free, usually on t0rrent websites. if someone’s interested, i can make a tutorial solely about it in the future.
SHARPENING SETTINGS
here are my sharpening settings (filter > sharpen > smart sharpen). i sharpen things twice: 500% 0.4px + 10% 10px. here's an action for it, for more convenience. here's a tutorial on how to use Photoshop actions. for animated stuff, i use this action pack.
COLORING
here’s the gif i'm gonna use as a base. it’s already sharpened like the way i always do it.
LIGHTNING THE SHOTS
half of the secret of a good coloring is good lightning. i always useCurves (layers > new adjustment layer > curves) and Brightness & Contrast (layers > new adjustment layer > brightness & contrast). the settings depend on the scene you’re giffing, but i always try make my gifs bright and with high contrast to make the colors pop.
CURVES
besides lighting your scene, the Curves adjustment layer has four automatic options that will color-correct it for you. it’s not always perfect and it doesn’t mean you won’t need to do further coloring, but it’s a great start. it’s a lifesaver for most ridiculously yellow scenes. look at the difference! this gif uses the 3rd automatic option (the screenshot below isn't mine btw so that's why the fourth option is the chosen one), from top to bottom. what automatic option you need to choose depends on the gif.
sometimes i like to tweak my Curves layer. not everybody does that, it’s not that necessary and if you’re not careful, it can screw your gif up. to modify your layer by hand, you will need to click and drag points of that straight line in the position you desire. this is the concept behind it:
basically, the lower part of the line handles the shadows, while the upper part handles the highlights of the image. if you pull a highlight point up, the image’s highlights will be brighter. if you pull it down, it will make them darker. same thing for the shadow points. you should play with it to get a grasp of it, that’s what i did when i first started giffing.
BRIGHTNESS & CONTRAST
then i added a bit of brightness and contrast.
CHANNEL MIXER
the scene looked a bit too yellow, so i used the Channel Mixer (layer > new adjustment layer > channel mixer) adjustment layer. here’s a tutorial of how it works. not every scene needs the Channel Mixer layer though, i mostly use it to remove heavy overall tints. in this particular case, the Curves layer got rid of most of the yellow, but i wanted the gif to be just a bit more blue so the Channel Mixer tweaks are very minimal.
SELECTIVE COLOR
now, this adjustment layer i always use: Selective Color (layer > new adjustment layer > selective color). this is THE adjustment layer to me, alongside the Curves one. this is how it works:
ie, you can separately edit a color this way, giving it tints. for this gif, i wanted to make the colors more vibrant. to achieve that, i edited the selected colors this way:
for the reds, i added even more red in them by moving the first slider to the right, making the color more vibrant. for his hat to have a more warm tint, i added yellow to the reds (third slider, moving it to the right). finally, to make the reds stronger, i moved the last slider to the right (more black).
for the yellows, i made them brighter by adding white to them, thus making the tile wall and Paddington more bright as well.
for the cyans and the blues, i just added the maximum (+100) of black that i could.
i wanted for Paddington's nose to be brighter, so i added more white to the whites.
lastly, i added depth to the blacks by increasing their own blackness.
you should always play with the Selective Colors sliders for a bit, before deciding what you want or need. with time, you will automatically know what to change to correct the color grading. it all takes practice!
HUE/SATURATION
i don’t know if you noticed, but there are some green spots on the blue wall behind Paddington. to correct that, i added a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer (layer > new adjustment layer > hue/saturation) and made the saturation of the greens 0%, making that unwanted green disappear from the background.
while the green spots on the wall are specific for this gif, i use hue/saturation a lot to tweak, well, hue and saturation. sometimes someone’s skin is too yellow, i made it redder by tweaking the reds and the yellows, or vice-versa. the hue bar follows the rainbow bar, so the maximum settings (+100 and -100) give the selected color to change its hue to something more red or pink (the rainbow extremities). changing hue can give pretty whacky results, like turning someone’s skin tone to green, so you will need to play with it to get the hang of it. you can also tweak the opacity of your hue/saturation layer to further improve your gif’s coloring. i didn’t do it in this case, the opacity is still 100%. the reds and the blues had their saturation increased to make them pop just a bit more, without affecting the other colors.
COLOR BALANCE
the highlights of the gif still had a green tint to it due to the automatic correction of the Curves layer, so i used Color Balance. this is how it works: instead of giving specific colors some tints, you can give them to the shadows, highlights, and mid-tones. if your shadows are too blue, you counterbalance them with the opposite color, yellow. same thing with the cyan-red and magenta-green pairings. in my case, i added a bit of magenta.
B&W GRADIENT MAP
now, if this gif was a dish, it’s time for the salt and pepper. i always add a Gradient Map (layer > new adjustment layer > gradient map) (black to white gradient) with the Soft Light blending mode, thus giving my shadows more depth without messing with the mid-tones and highlights. it also doesn’t “deep fry” (you know those memes?) the gif too much by adding even more contrast. usually, the opacity of the layer is between 30% to 70%, it all depends on the gif. it always does wonders, though!
COLOR FILTER
finally, i like to add Color Filters (layer > new adjustment layer > color filter) to my gifs. it’s very handy when giving different scenes for the same minimalistic set because it makes them kind of match despite having completely different colors. in this gif’s case, i added a “deep blue” filter, opacity 50% density 25. you can change the density and the opacity of the layer for further editing, again, it all depends on the gif.
VIBRANCE
if i feel like it, i add a vibrance layer (layer > new adjustment layer > vibrance) to make the colors pop. this can ruin your coloring sometimes, especially when regarding skin color, so be careful. i didn't do it in this gif because i felt i didn't need it.
TA-DA! 🥳
AN OTHER EXAMPLE
the color grading of the original scene it’s pretty good as it is, to be honest. let’s see a worse scenario, a VERY yellow one:
no channel mixer this time because the automatic curves option dealt with the yellowness, but you can see it made the gif too green. i needed to correct that with the following adjustment layers:
i added a hue/saturation layer to remove the blues & greens before my selective color layer because i thought that was more urgent than tweaking the tint of all colors. color balance (gif 4) was the real hero here, though, by removing the green tint. the selective color layer was meant to make the red pop more than anything else, because the rest looked pretty good, especially her skin tone (despite the green tint). you can notice that tweaking the curves layer (small gif 3) also helped A LOT with the green problem.
tl;dr 😵💫😵💫😵💫
here's a list of my go-to's while coloring and lightning gifs. it's not a rule, just a guide. there are gifs in which i don't use all these adjustment layers, or use them in a different order. it all depends!
1. curves (automatic option + tweaks)
2. brightness & contrast
3. channel mixer
4. selective color
5. hue/saturation
6. color balance
7. b&w gradient map
8. color filter
9. vibrance
i'll suggest that you study each adjustment layer listed for more info, either with other Tumblr tutorials or YouTube ones. the YouTube ones focus on images, but you can translate what they teach to gif making very easily. you can ask me to further explain any adjustment layer, too! i was brief to keep this short (which i kinda failed lol).
feel free to ask me for clarification or something else about gifmaking wise, i always like to help. ❤️
I really feel like im losing. Like I feel so controlled by my trauma, anxiety, depression, disorders and it's overpowering me. It controls my life. Everything in my life. I feel so paralyzed and so fucked up. Why can't I just be normal. How does everyone else make it look so easy. I'm tired, exhausted, really.
Here is a list of the translations into English of 魔道祖师 (Módào Zǔshī) by 墨香铜臭 (Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù). The novel is 113 chapters and 14 extras (13 on JJWXC plus another extra only present in the Taiwanese published version). This list was updated 2020/11/13.
I am not listing MTL or cleaned MTL translations. For the extras I am listing by chapter every translation, but for the novel I’m only providing links to masterposts / websites / folders.
If you are aware of other translations, let me know and I’ll update this post.
Chinese
The novel has been locked on JJWXC, so it’s not possible to buy it here.
English
Novel (from start)
* [COMPLETE, 1-113+14] translated by K and edited by Addis from Exiled Rebels Scanlations: Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation ;
* [ONGOING, 1-28], by @fanyiyimdzs on the website MDZSTranslation ;
* [ONGOING, 1-21], by Yiling & Misty on their website Taming Wangxian ;
* [ONGOING, 1-3], translation by @pumpkinpaix on the website YumeiTranslations under the title The Founder of the Monstrous Path ;
* [ONGOING, 1-3] translation by @algaesway on tumblr ;
* [ON HOLD, 1-2] by Niiselin on LiveJournal ;
Novel (incomplete translations)
* [ON HOLD, 79-110] by @boat-full-of-lotus-pods on Tumblr (no masterpost) ;
* [ON HOLD, 79-113+4] by chiaki_himura (IG) GoogleFolder, one file by chapter ;
* @coffintownkids [private translation for now]
Specific chapters
* [95] by @froliczxc Tumblr / PDF ;
* [100] by @froliczxc : Tumblr / PDF ;
* [111]
by @froliczxc : Tumblr Censored version / Tumblr Uncensored / PDF / PDF Uncensored ;
Taiwanese extended version: by @bigbadredpanda: on Tumblr ;
Extras:
* [114] Family Banquet
by @bigbadredpanda on Tumblr ;
by chiaki_himura (IG) GoogleFile ;
by K on Exiled Rebels Scanlations ;
* [115] Family Banquet
by @bigbadredpanda on Tumblr ;
by chiaki_himura (IG): GoogleFile ;
by K on Exiled Rebels Scanlations ;
* [116] Family Banquet
by @bigbadredpanda on Tumblr ;
by chiaki_himura (IG): GoogleFile ;
by K on Exiled Rebels Scanlations ;
* [117] Incense Burner,
by chiaki_himura (IG): GoogleFile ;
by K on Exiled Rebels Scanlations ;
* [118] by K on Exiled Rebels Scanlations ;
* [119] by K on Exiled Rebels Scanlations ;
* [Special extra from the Taiwanese published version]:
by @bigbadredpanda: Tumblr ;
by K on Exiled Rebels Scanlations ;
* [120] by K on Exiled Rebels Scanlations ;
* [121] by K on Exiled Rebels Scanlations ;
* [122] by K on Exiled Rebels Scanlations ;
* [123] by K on Exiled Rebels Scanlations ;
* [124] by K on Exiled Rebels Scanlations ;
* [125] Lotus pod
Part I by @wangxianbunnydoodles English only / English+Chinese+Comments ;
by K on Exiled Rebels Scanlations ;
* [126] Dream come true
by @bigbadredpanda Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Author’s notes ;
by K on Exiled Rebels Scanlations ;
Older version of the novel (before MXTX’s revisions)
* [ON HOLD, 19-92] by @qinghe-nie on Tumblr (the masterpost only list 19-89 but three more chapters are posted) ;