Adobe's Photoshop is the gold standard for image editing among photography
professionals. And The GIMP is often touted as an open source Photoshop
alternative. Mostly, it really could serve as such, but that is not to say that
it is suitable for professional use. Continue reading for the reason why.
Features: I would have given The GIMP 5 stars here except for one thing: No
process color support (aka CMYK). Without support for CMYK, the standard color
model used by professional printing houses, The GIMP is a non-starter for use by
a working professional photographer editing images intended for press
publication. For just about anyone else, it is more than powerful enough for
just about any image editing need.
Interface: It continues to improve with every version, but when describing
The GIMP's interface, the word "intuitive" doesn't exactly roll off
the tongue. On the other hand, to be truthful, that word doesn't come to mind
when I am talking about Photoshop either. With Photoshop, one eventually learns
and becomes proficient. A Photoshop user, when encountering The GIMP for the
first time, finds the interface layout to be confusing. But, to be fair, newbies
with either Photoshop or The GIMP are equally confused. If one is used to
Photoshop - from work, let us say - and one wants a powerful image editor for
home use and can't justify paying from one's own pocket the sky-high price of
Photoshop, can download a variant of The GIMP called GIMPShop. GIMPShop is
simply The GIMP with an interface that duplicates that of Photoshop. There are
easier-to-use image editing programs for sure, but from my
experience,easy-to-use means giving up power and flexibility. If you want the
power of Photoshop or The GIMP, you must bite that bullet and start reading some
tutorials.
Performance: Fine, once the damned thing initializes. It seems that splash
screen stays there forever. Ubuntu Linux boots faster than The GIMP takes to
initialize! The initialization seems to hang at the font loading stage. It
appears to stall there - for as long as 30 seconds or so - and then, finally, it
finishes loading and comes up, ready for use. The developers of The GIMP clearly
are aware of this; in the fonts loading stage, there is a parenthetical stating
"This may take a while." Frustrating - but once up, its performance is
fine. It applies edits and filters smoothly and quickly. It is also stable -
never hangs or crashes. So, 4 stars. Performance good, initialization
maddeningly long.
Price/Value: Superb. This program is good enough to pay real money for.
Powerful, flexible, extensive online help, great support on the Web. Also, there
are lots of plug-ins and extensions out there; one of them even makes it
possible for The GIMP to use the gazillions of Photoshop plug-ins out there.
Tons of capability out of the box, tons more through add-ons, lots of support,
and totally free. Don't see how that can be beat. If full CMYK support were
added, no one ever need drop $700 for Photoshop again.
Review by bonejob (8 months ago)
Adobe's Photoshop is the gold standard for image editing among photography professionals. And The GIMP is often touted as an open source Photoshop alternative. Mostly, it really could serve as such, but that is not to say that it is suitable for professional use. Continue reading for the reason why.
Features: I would have given The GIMP 5 stars here except for one thing: No process color support (aka CMYK). Without support for CMYK, the standard color model used by professional printing houses, The GIMP is a non-starter for use by a working professional photographer editing images intended for press publication. For just about anyone else, it is more than powerful enough for just about any image editing need.
Interface: It continues to improve with every version, but when describing The GIMP's interface, the word "intuitive" doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. On the other hand, to be truthful, that word doesn't come to mind when I am talking about Photoshop either. With Photoshop, one eventually learns and becomes proficient. A Photoshop user, when encountering The GIMP for the first time, finds the interface layout to be confusing. But, to be fair, newbies with either Photoshop or The GIMP are equally confused. If one is used to Photoshop - from work, let us say - and one wants a powerful image editor for home use and can't justify paying from one's own pocket the sky-high price of Photoshop, can download a variant of The GIMP called GIMPShop. GIMPShop is simply The GIMP with an interface that duplicates that of Photoshop. There are easier-to-use image editing programs for sure, but from my experience,easy-to-use means giving up power and flexibility. If you want the power of Photoshop or The GIMP, you must bite that bullet and start reading some tutorials.
Performance: Fine, once the damned thing initializes. It seems that splash screen stays there forever. Ubuntu Linux boots faster than The GIMP takes to initialize! The initialization seems to hang at the font loading stage. It appears to stall there - for as long as 30 seconds or so - and then, finally, it finishes loading and comes up, ready for use. The developers of The GIMP clearly are aware of this; in the fonts loading stage, there is a parenthetical stating "This may take a while." Frustrating - but once up, its performance is fine. It applies edits and filters smoothly and quickly. It is also stable - never hangs or crashes. So, 4 stars. Performance good, initialization maddeningly long.
Price/Value: Superb. This program is good enough to pay real money for. Powerful, flexible, extensive online help, great support on the Web. Also, there are lots of plug-ins and extensions out there; one of them even makes it possible for The GIMP to use the gazillions of Photoshop plug-ins out there. Tons of capability out of the box, tons more through add-ons, lots of support, and totally free. Don't see how that can be beat. If full CMYK support were added, no one ever need drop $700 for Photoshop again.