I love the Gimp. I find many features are easier to learn than Photoshop. It goes both ways though... some stuff is much nicer in Photoshop.
I miss a few features though - Gimp doesn't do 16 bits per color channel (yet), and it doesn't do clipping paths in JPEG files (which arent part of the JPEG standards). If it could do both of these it would meet all my professional needs.
I use gimp in conjunction with blender, inkscape, video editors, and other FOSS. I just recently discovered a new plugin for FFT. The greatest advantage to me is the fact that all the FOSS tools are integrated and I can modify them at source level, if I need to have something special. I quite often get the source package and make changes to make it more effective. This is something you can't do with PS or other closed source. I think this is the greatest advantage , if you are a programmer and graphics artist. Here is a link to gimp FFT if anybody might find it interesting. http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/The_GIMP/Remove_coherent_noise [wikibooks.org] gimp FFT [wikibooks.org]
Or layer grouping, or really anything useful when it comes to layers other than basic masking. If you're constructing anything more complicated than an icon, inkscape is better for you. And even that's annoying to use compared to illustrator.
I love the GIMP, it lets me do more than most of the inbuilt editors in any OS I use, and doesn't cost a shedload of money like PhotoShop, and as I do a lot of work for volunteer organisations, I can give them the original files, and a copy of GIMP and I know that anyone can install it without needing pirated or expensive software.
And GIMP may never do 16 bit colour channels. It's been almost 10 years since a developer added 16 bit depth per colour channel. But the maintainers of GIMP did not add this capability, so the developer forked it and started Film GIMP now called CinePaint [cinepaint.org].
If it could do both of these it would meet all my professional needs.
Have you tried CinePaint? I'm using Mac OS X now and though there's a version of CinePaint for OS X it's not native and needs X11. Unfortunately I haven't been able to get CinePaint t
Last time I checked out GIMP, it didn't have any color management [wikipedia.org]- no CMM, no recognition of ICC profiles. This makes it near impossible to edit photographs for printing or print them with predictability. It was a definite deal killer.
In fact, Linux was out, because I need color management in the OS too. Any progress on these fronts over the past 5 years or so? I'm always interested in Linux and check it out every so often, but so far my graphic arts needs have kept me on Macs.
Gimp Rocks! (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Gimp Rocks! (Score:4, Interesting)
I quite often get the source package and make changes to make it more effective. This is something you can't do with PS or other closed source. I think this is the greatest advantage , if you are a programmer and graphics artist.
Here is a link to gimp FFT if anybody might find it interesting.
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/The_GIMP/Remove_coherent_noise [wikibooks.org]
gimp FFT [wikibooks.org]
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Or layer grouping, or really anything useful when it comes to layers other than basic masking. If you're constructing anything more complicated than an icon, inkscape is better for you. And even that's annoying to use compared to illustrator.
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I love the GIMP, it lets me do more than most of the inbuilt editors in any OS I use, and doesn't cost a shedload of money like PhotoShop, and as I do a lot of work for volunteer organisations, I can give them the original files, and a copy of GIMP and I know that anyone can install it without needing pirated or expensive software.
Gimp doesn't do 16 bits per color channel (yet) (Score:2)
And GIMP may never do 16 bit colour channels. It's been almost 10 years since a developer added 16 bit depth per colour channel. But the maintainers of GIMP did not add this capability, so the developer forked it and started Film GIMP now called CinePaint [cinepaint.org].
If it could do both of these it would meet all my professional needs.
Have you tried CinePaint? I'm using Mac OS X now and though there's a version of CinePaint for OS X it's not native and needs X11. Unfortunately I haven't been able to get CinePaint t
Re: (Score:2)
In fact, Linux was out, because I need color management in the OS too. Any progress on these fronts over the past 5 years or so? I'm always interested in Linux and check it out every so often, but so far my graphic arts needs have kept me on Macs.