Vignette Perfection: The Best Mobile Apps for Adding Frames and Borders

10 Best Vignette Apps in 2024 [iOS & Android]

Ollie Mattison

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Sharing unedited photos and videos on your social media accounts can negatively reflect on the number of views and like your posts are getting. You don’t necessarily have to know a lot about photo or video editing process in order to add a vignette to a picture or adjust its color, brightness or highlights. As a matter of fact, all you need is a great app that lets you emphasize the center of the image and darken its edges. That’s why in this article we are going to take you through some of the best vignette apps for iPhones and Android devices that make the vignetting process fun.

Top 10 Vignette Apps in 2024 [Free & Paid]

Vignettes can be used to make your selfies look more artistic or to increase the contrast between the edges and the center of a landscape photo. Even though you can use vignetting in any type of photo or video, it is still advisable to carefully choose the images to which you’d like to add this effect, since the results you’re going to get depend mostly on the quality of the original footage. Here are the ten best vignette apps in 2019.

1. Apple Photos App

Price: Free

Compatibility: iOS

iPhone users can edit their photos with the built-in Photos app that offers a variety of photo and video shooting modes as well as a rich collection of filters and effects. The Vignette effect can be accessed from the Edit Photo menu, by tapping on the Adjust button and then opening the Add menu and selecting the effect from the list. The Auto option will be enabled by default and it will automatically adjust the vignette based on the composition of your photo. Alternatively, you can use the strength, Softness or Radius settings to control the size of the darkened area of the image or the vignette’s falloff. Even though the Photos app offers basic Vignetting tools that let you choose which part of a photo is going to be affected by the effect or how intense the effect is going to be, it is still better to use a more powerful photo editing app to create vignettes from your iPhone.

2. Final Touch

Price: $0.99

Compatibility: iOS

When creating a vignette, the lack of control over the feathering or opacity features can significantly limit your ability to produce vignettes that look natural. The Final Touch app is equipped with powerful vignetting tools that let you choose between square, ellipse or circle shapes of vignettes, move and rotate a vignette or adjust the feather size and fall off. However, the app doesn’t let you take photos, which means that all images you want to edit have to be imported from the camera roll. The Final Touch also offers a number of preset vignettes you can easily apply to a photo and customize in any way you want. After you’ve completed the vignetting process, you can share a photo to your social media accounts directly from the app.

3. Snapseed

Price: Free

Compatibility: Android, iOS

This photo editing app offers much more than the Vignette tool, as its users can process images in both JPEG and RAW file formats. Tap on the Pencil icon to access the app’s Tool menu, select the Vignette option and then proceed to adjust the Outer and Inner Brightness sliders. This will enable you to precisely define how dark you want the photo’s edges to be or how bright the central part of the picture is. To change the size of the vignette you just have to pinch in or out on the phone’s screen and Center Size option will appear near the bottom of the screen. Tap on the Save button once you’re happy with the results and then hit Export to create a copy of the photo that contains the changes you’ve made.

4. VSCO

Price: Free, but contains in-app purchases

Compatibility: Android , iOS

Besides being a powerful photo editor, the VSCO app is also a community of photography enthusiasts where you can discover inspiring work or connect with like-minded people. The app also features a collection of effects that enable you to recreate the look of vintage film produced by Kodak, Fuji or Agfa. Despite remarkably powerful photo editing options, VSCO is far from a perfect choice if you want to add a vignette to your photo since it only offers basic vignetting tools. You can add a vignette to a photo the same way you’d apply any other effect, but you won’t have access to advanced feathering options. iPhone and Android users in need of an app that lets them shoot and edit photos and videos should give VSCO a chance. Keep in mind that video editing options are only available if you purchase the VSCO X Membership.

5. Afterlight 2

Price: $2.99

Compatibility: iOS

iPhone photographers who would like to use photo editing tools such as Curves, Selective Hue/Saturation or Clarify are going to love using the Afterlife 2 app. Adding a vignette to a photo requires you to just tap on the Adjustment Tools icon and then browse through the adjustment tools icons until you find the Vignette option. Just tap on the Vignette icon to create the effect and then proceed to adjust the settings. Don’t expect too much control over the vignette size or feathering options, since Afterlight 2 only offers basic vignetting tools. Optionally, you can use Afterlight 2 as an extension for the Apple Photos App if you want to broaden the scope of photo editing tools you have at your disposal when using this native iPhone app.

6. PhotoToaster

Price: $2.99

Compatibility: iOS

A brief look at the list of features PhotoToaster app provides will leave you wondering if there is anything this app can’t do. There are over eighty different one-click settings in Lightning, Vignette, Texture or Border categories that grant you total creative control over the photo editing process. You can add a vignette to a photo you imported into the app from your iPhone’s camera roll, but you can’t use PhotoToaster to take photos. Furthermore, you can use the lightning adjustments to balance the shadows and highlights or process colors on separate channels. The PhotoToaster app is a great asset to all photographers who take photos with their iPhones, not only because it lets them create vignettes in just a few taps, but because it enables them to edit their photos professionally.

7. PicsArt Photo Editor

Price: Free, but contains in-app purchases

Compatibility: Android , iOS

Besides editing photos, you can also use the PicsArt app to create collages from your Smartphone. The app is also equipped with a rich effects library that contains the Vignette effect you can easily customize and apply to a photo. Tap on the Effects icon, select the Vignette effect from the Fx section and then tap on the Gear icon to customize the effect. Adjust the Radius and Fade sliders before picking the color of the vignette. Tap on the Checkmark icon to confirm the changes you’ve made and save the photo. PicsArt is a vibrant community of photography enthusiasts where you can share your works with other users or connect with photographers you like.

8. EffectsStudio

Price: $0.99

Compatibility: iOS

The user-friendly interface and the abundance of photo editing options, make the EffectsStudio one of the best iOS-based photo editing app you can use to add vignettes to your photos. You just have to import a photo from the camera roll and enter the app’s Edit mode to start processing a photo. You can adjust the Vignette effect’s settings, by simply dragging sliders, and all changes you make will be immediately displayed on the screen. Make sure to complete all basic photo editing actions before you add a vignette to a photo in order to avoid losing a part of a picture. The app offers nearly eighty standard filters, more than two hundred custom filters as well as fifty effects you can use to enhance your photos.

9. EyeEm

Price: Free

Compatibility: Android , iOS

EyeEm is a global community of photographers, where you can sell your photos, develop your photography skills or connect with photographers whose work you admire. You can use some of the adjustable photo filters or manipulate your images in any way you want with this app. Creating a vignette with EyeEm is easy since you just have to apply the effect and tweak the settings. The best part is that you can combine the Vignette effect with other options such as Contrast, Exposure or Sharpen to create a visual style you want. Sharing photos on this platform can help you get useful advice from more experienced photographers who can suggest a creative way to use vignettes or any other photo effects.

10. ToolWiz Photos

Price: Free, but contains in-app purchases

Compatibility: Android, iOS

This simple photo editing app offers AI filters, and effects you can apply to a picture in just a single tap. All effects, including the Vignette effect located in the Photography menu, are fully customizable, so you can adjust the radius or choose where the center of the vignette is going to be. When done, you just have to tap on the Checkmark icon to confirm the changes you made and then proceed to apply an art filter like Grainy Film or use Fish Eye, Double Exposure or Mirror effects. The app’s file sharing capabilities could be better since you have to save all the photos you edit to your phone.

Conclusion

Making the edges of a photo darker can without a doubt make your photos stand out, but falling in love with vignettes and using this effect excessively is not necessarily a great idea. Using vignettes in your photos subtly so they aren’t easy to notice will probably create the best results. Which iPhone or Android vignette app do you use to edit your photos? Leave a comment and let us know.

Ollie Mattison

Ollie Mattison is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Ollie Mattison

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