Photoshop and gimp?

[Bubble99]

Well obviously Photoshop has more features and better than gimp but the question is how bad is gimp? Is gimp like 5 years behind Photoshop or more like 8 years behind Photoshop.

I hear Photoshop is getting lot of AI stuff well probably gimp is really lacking in that area.

What is your view on gimp? How bad is it?

 

[coffeemilktea]

I think my biggest issue with GIMP is that the UI seems very awkward to use compared to Photoshop (or maybe I'm just more used to Photoshop).

But in terms of pure features, GIMP is pretty good and unless you're an advanced Photoshop user, you might not notice how much GIMP is lacking compared to Photoshop (especially with plugins, where Photoshop has an overwhelming advantage).

Personally, I'd recommend Pixelmator Pro to most people; it's got a good amount of newer features, it gets updated constantly, and it's way cheaper than Photoshop (though obviously, not free like GIMP).

 

[MacGizmo]

I laugh every time I see GIMP in the same conversation as Photoshop. They're both image editors, and that's the extent of the comparison. GIMP is a very capable hobbyist app, but it's like comparing Apple's Text Edit app to Microsoft Word. That is of course just my opinion.

A better Photoshop alternative is Affinity Photo or Pixelmator Pro. Both offer modern tools and functionality that are more advanced than GIMP by an order of magnitude. And much, much cheaper as well.

That being said, I'm a professional designer with years of experience invested in Photoshop — I was using it before it was even called Photoshop. I've played with virtually every image editor that's come to my attention. Affinity Photo is the only one I find that I could actually replace Photoshop with if I absolutely had to. I have used Pixelmator Pro as well, but not enough to say I could switch to it full-time.

 

[gilby101]

I laugh every time I see GIMP in the same conversation as Photoshop.

Exactly!

 

[chrono1081]

While I appreciate the contributions of the Gimp developers, it's just awful to use (unless it changed and I'm unaware of it). I'd use pretty much anything else before Gimp.

 

[Iwavvns]

I guess it comes down to your comfort level. I've been using GIMP for about 24 years.. I've just never used anything else. I tried Photoshop a couple years ago and it seemed bloated and overwhelming and I went back to GIMP after a week. Granted, I've been using Linux as my sole operating system for 25 years, so there's that. I'll take GIMP over Photoshop any day. Though I've been wanting to try Pixelmator Pro and I'll probably do that next month.. now that I have a Mac.

 

[gilby101]

Photoshop a couple years ago and it seemed bloated and overwhelming

Like you, I find Photoshop overwhelming. That is because we don't want to use many of it capabilities. The OP did ask about GIMP compared with Photoshop and I don't think GIMP even attempts to compete with much of Photoshop.

Maybe the OP should be asking about how much better Photoshop is at doing the tasks which can be done in GIMP.

 

[bogdanw]

I roll over laughing when I see non-professionals paying over $20 a month for an app.

@Bubble99 Depending on what you want to achieve, some free alternatives:

GIMP https://www.gimp.org + PhotoGIMP https://github.com/Diolinux/PhotoGIMP (A patch for optimizing GIMP 2.10+ for Adobe Photoshop users)

Krita https://krita.org/ + Generative AI for Krita https://github.com/Acly/krita-ai-diffusion

digiKam https://www.digikam.org

FireAlpaca https://firealpaca.com

Seashore https://github.com/robaho/seashore or https://apps.apple.com/app/id1448648921

 

[gilby101]

I roll over laughing when I see non-professionals paying over $20 a month for an app

I wouldn't be paying that, but PS is part of the US$10 pm Lightroom package. That is about as near as Adobe goes to provide something for free!

 

[Bubble99]

I roll over laughing when I see non-professionals paying over $20 a month for an app.

Well oblivious GIMP is being development by hobbyists well Photoshop is being development by a large teem of paid programmers. Well with out using both I would not know what features GIMP is lacking so can only simplify how many years GIMP is behind Photoshop is it 6 years or 8 years.

I also hear Photoshop is not easy to use and have so many features one really has to go school on how to use Photoshop properly. Where GIMP is more more for hobbyists that don’t want pay for photo editor. Well Photoshop is for pros that have gone to school and know how to use Photoshop.

Not sure if Affinity Photo is more user friendly than GIMP.

 

[ipaqrat]

GIMP is fine for the professional daily grind production/publication - acquire, crop, color grade, light curves, denoise, sharpen, optimize resolution, export, repeat... GIMP has the essential filters for these tasks, plus a little latitude for creative expression. In this regard GIMP is a totally valid competition for Photoshop.

GIMP loses as the use cases branch out to higher end improvisational artwork and fraudulent recomposition. It can use photoshop filters, but results are spotty. With capable AI locked behind vendor Paywalls, GIMP will never get those features built in, though plug-ins for those paid services are conceivable. However, feature limitations weren't what held GIMP back for me, at least not the only thing.

GIMP was historically an intrinsically LINUX X11 app, regardless of where was ported. Linux (and unix) feel weird in vague ragged cursor tracking, imprecise pointing/selecting, control click handling, open/save, print, import/export... It drove me nuts. Worse nuts than usual. Not in an amusing Deez Nuts way. Same goes for Inkscape (like Illustrator) and Scribus (like InDesign), which sprang from X11. I found them all frustrating AF to use, which made it feel like fail, even though the apps weren't technically bad. Even after years of practice, I got angry every time I had to use them. But ya can't do charitable publishing for moms, pops, schools, cops, clinics and 501c3 outfits at Adobe's prices.

Now I use Affinity Photo, Designer and Publisher for production work (so long as the printer/output bureau can handle color separation and trapping). The Affinity apps, now owned by Canva, are super nice at their price point (and hopefully remain so. Being native to the Mac OS, they are way friendlier than GIMP/Inkscape/Scribus. I still base my photo work in Lightroom, paying my monthly tithe until Affinity gets their catalog on. For Pete's sake, Canva, even GIMP has a plug in for Darktable.

The Affinity apps also lack some glaringly necessary features (Asset catalog database, bitmap autotrace, color separation with trapping, pre-press-ready PDF output), but maybe Canva will extend development (they made a big, bold commitment to price ceilings and feature advancement, which I still consider transparently B.S.). Admittedly, print production is all but extinct, so there's that.

 

[Bubble99]

GIMP is fine for the professional daily grind production/publication - acquire, crop, color grade, light curves, denoise, sharpen, optimize resolution, export, repeat... GIMP has the essential filters for these tasks, plus a little latitude for creative expression. In this regard GIMP is a totally valid competition for Photoshop.

GIMP loses as the use cases branch out to higher end improvisational artwork and fraudulent recomposition. It can use photoshop filters, but results are spotty. With capable AI locked behind vendor Paywalls, GIMP will never get those features built in, though plug-ins for those paid services are conceivable. However, feature limitations weren't what held GIMP back for me, at least not the only thing.

GIMP was historically an intrinsically LINUX X11 app, regardless of where was ported. Linux (and unix) feel weird in vague ragged cursor tracking, imprecise pointing/selecting, control click handling, open/save, print, import/export... It drove me nuts. Worse nuts than usual. Not in an amusing Deez Nuts way. Same goes for Inkscape (like Illustrator) and Scribus (like InDesign), which sprang from X11. I found them all frustrating AF to use, which made it feel like fail, even though the apps weren't technically bad. Even after years of practice, I got angry every time I had to use them. But ya can't do charitable publishing for moms, pops, schools, cops, clinics and 501c3 outfits at Adobe's prices.

Now I use Affinity Photo, Designer and Publisher for production work (so long as the printer/output bureau can handle color separation and trapping). The Affinity apps, now owned by Canva, are super nice at their price point (and hopefully remain so. Being native to the Mac OS, they are way friendlier than GIMP/Inkscape/Scribus. I still base my photo work in Lightroom, paying my monthly tithe until Affinity gets their catalog on. For Pete's sake, Canva, even GIMP has a plug in for Darktable.

The Affinity apps also lack some glaringly necessary features (Asset catalog database, bitmap autotrace, color separation with trapping, pre-press-ready PDF output), but maybe Canva will extend development (they made a big, bold commitment to price ceilings and feature advancement, which I still consider transparently B.S.). Admittedly, print production is all but extinct, so there's that.

What do you mean by ragged cursor tracking, imprecise pointing/selecting, control click handling, open/save, print, import/export? Are you trying say Linux distros have strange cursor movement and pointing/selecting things unlike windows and MacoS?

 

[ipaqrat]

Yes, that ☝️. Except ALL THE OSs feel different.

• Cursor response, start, tracking speed and smoothness on straight path or curved path, halt.
• Scrolling behavior when clicking or using a mouse wheel.
• Left/right/center button responses.
• Whether a function executes on button-down, vs button-up, and how quickly.
• How window focus changes with cursor placement.
• Boundaries between controls on screen (menus, buttons, checkboxes, window borders, etc).
• Tolerance for pixel-precision when clicking.
• Predictability of where the cursor placement when you don't sniper-eye it every pixel along the way.

Keeping in mind these sensations and reactions occur in hundredths of a second - your speed of reacting when things are working their best.

The Mac was PERFECT up through MacOS 9. Smooth, predictable and precise. You always knew where the cursor was and would land. Apple's mouse control took real processing power, too; you could watch CPU workload spike when you were busy with the mouse. That was back in the day when mouses had balls 😜. Monitors were @ 13 to 20 inch 72 DPI CRTs that weighed 50 friggin pounds.

Windows was and remains meh, kinda loose and unpredictable. Windows mouse vendors brag about the DPI resolution the device can sense, but that sure doesn't translate to operational slickness and precision in the OS and productivity apps.

Mac OS X (windowing on underpinning BSD Unix) is OK, not great, maybe a little rougher and more vague. If you ever spend some time with an older MacOS system, the difference in UI is immediately noticeable. Old MacOS was like fresh smooth blacktop, quiet and grippy; while modern Mac OS X is like salt-rotted concrete.

So, NOW take that even less-refined experience of X11 on Linux (because linux pros are prideful keyboard jockeys who look down on GUI mouse-yankers), and PORT it to the MacOS in one application. The Mac user confronts not only different look/feel in the application, but also cursor control interpolation to the Mac's native GUI layer. And furthermore, each linux app ported over behaves a little differently with GUI and peripheral control.

.

That said, I haven't tried GIMP/InkScape/Scribus in the few years since switching to Affinity. Maybe it's all awesome, now running Mac M-native code, and I'm missing out, and paying too much, because I'm too busy acting traumatized and grouchy.

 

[Bubble99]

I can’t see GIMP doing well with all this AI stuff coming out now where Photoshop will get these new features but not GIMP.

So if you thought GIMP was 5 years behind photoshop with features now it probably be more like 8 years behind photoshop.

 

[ultratiem]

Oh boy. I haven’t touched GIMP since uni back in 2010 (I’m still on the list of contributors bless them). It was pretty rough. But I was running Linux at the time so I gave it a chance. Bought a Mac and moved back to Adobe CS.

I heard they were close to v3 so I installed it this morning. Wow. It was sooooo broken (tried both the dev build and release). The UI is an absolute train wreck by today’s standards. I’m actually still shook. Give it a whirl, it’s free.

I loath Adobe but to compare Ps to GIMP is like comparing steak to a rotten tomato that’s been sitting behind a radiator for 6 weeks.