Gimp still isn’t an effective competitor
It needs gui rework from a UI designer and is still lacking in features that creatives use
Blender is amazing though
Krita is a great program for art but I wish they’d implement full vector functionality
I’m sure for anyone who has real work to do, GIMP will hold them back compared to Photoshop.
But I grew up using GIMP and got some pretty impressive results with it. Now that I have Adobe CC access and have been using Photoshop through that, I am perpetually confused on how to do x, which I know how to do in a couple clicks in GIMP.
To be fair, I’m sure that’d go doubly so for someone who started with Photoshop since it does have an objectively cleaner UI.
I’m the opposite. I grew up pirating CS4/5/6 Photoshop but just for simple tasks. I can’t for the life of me figure out Gimp.
I’ve moved on to many paid, but not subscription apps mostly from independent shops. But I’m a designer using a Mac so your results may differ.
- Photoshop -> Pixelmator Pro (Affinity Photo is ok too)
- UX -> Sketch
- Illustrator -> Affinity Designer / Sketch
- Indesign -> … I hate when someone sends me a indesign file. I don’t do book, magazine, or catalog layouts anyway. PDFs are better and I can edit them in a bunch of apps.
I do still use Autodesk Fusion for 3D hobby projects, but I’m planning to switch to Ondsel (FreeBSD) over the winter.
I’ve used both and I miss features from each when using the other. Photoshop needs numeric entry for when positioning things.
Photoshop also lacks the automation features of the GIMP which makes it feel like a toy in comparison if your workflow usually involves performing the same repetitive actions on batches of images. Like, “how can anyone stand working with this‽ Everything is so manual!”
Yeah, I think you can argue for Krita, but it isn’t fully there for everything photoshop does.
I paid for Affinity Photo 2 and that does the trick for photo editing at a reasonable price. I really wish Gimp was up to it. Blender is really showing up most of the rest of that list, and of those Photoshop is where I think the biggest opportunity would be for a Blender-quality Gimp rework or alternative.
I don’t understand why people say GIMP needs a UI rework. It seems vastly more intuitive than Blender’s UI 🤷
Don’t get me wrong: I love Blender–use it all the time for adding organic-like shapes to CAD stuff–but you can’t just sit someone down in front of the default cube and expect them to be able to get working. They’ll need a tutorial at the very least.
If you sit someone down in front of GIMP for the first time and ask them to perform common photo editing tasks they’ll have it figured out pretty quickly. Eventually they’ll get good at it. So much so that if you then take that person and put them in front of Photoshop they’ll be annoyed that they can’t follow their usually quick workflow.
Reminds me of this:
Calling Figma free is like calling complimentary bread sticks a full dinner.
Penpot would be a better alternative. I never used it but it’s gaining momentum.
I suspect they use a different definition of “Free” than we are used to. DaVinci Resolve and Figma are not FOSS, and have free and paid levels.
I believe the others are all free (as in beer) as well as free (as in speech).
As a former Photoshop user, I found all the paradigms and ways of thinking in Gimp were just so utterly different from what I was used to. Simple things like cropping, resizing selections and layer management felt like exercises in frustration.
Tried Krita instead, and I’m immediately feeling at home and able to be productive straight away.
I’m sure Gimp is awesome but my brain didn’t like it. If anyone else is feeling the same way, give Krita a try.
It is not just you. I started using gimp and later switched to Photoshop and it was such a great productivity improvement after just a few minutes.
Try Krita too then, if you’re interested in moving to free and open source. The paradigm is very similar to Photoshop.
Krita took some adjustment for me after years of Photoshop. After I learned the workflow and keyboard shortcuts, I found that it was much better than Photoshop for painting AND completely free for life.
