Filter apps are a dime a dozen on the App Store, but few are as well polished as Filters. Newly released today and available to download for just $0.99 with no in-app purchases to worry about, the new app from developer Mike Rundle is quite the breath of fresh air.
The first thing you notice when you launch the app, beyond the polished introduction, is the simple interface that is put before you. Any app that professes to feature over 800 different ways of filtering and adjusting an image has the potential to be cramped when it comes to on-screen buttons, but Filters has managed to avoid the usual pitfalls while keeping everything at arm’s reach at the same time. Filters is a triumph for obvious, but with subtle design, and we like it a lot.
Design is all well and good but it’s useless if the features aren’t there to back it up. With those 800 customizations in place though, a lack of options isn’t a complaint that you can honestly lay at the feet of Filters. With filters ranging from Vintage to Dramatic and overlays with dark through to bright varieties there is plenty to get our teeth into. There are the usual temperature, brightness, contrast and other options to be fiddled with just as you might expect, but it’s the range of filters and overlays that steal the show.
Once you’ve filtered to your heart’s content – using the live preview, we must add – you can then undo everything should you decide that you got a little carried away. It’s this non-destructive and non-permanent nature of the changes that Filters makes that means you are free to go a little wild, safe in the knowledge that you can always roll everything back should you need to.
If you do find that you have created a masterpiece then getting it out of the app is a simple case of tapping the share button. Here you’ll find the handy iOS Share Sheet as well as the option to save your new image to the Camera Roll. There is even a button for pushing your creation straight into Instagram, too.
On the face of it, you could be forgiven for thinking Filters is just another image editing app, but the lack of any in-app purchases to unlock additional filters and a user interface to die for make Filters an app that any self-respecting image tinkerer should check out.
It’s only a dollar, after all.