GIMP anyone?

Hello all,

My background is video, not photos.

I have been thinking about branching out so I can do some of my own Photoshop-type work, and then ran up against the PRICE of Photoshop! Whoa Nellie!

I started playing around with GIMP just a little bit and was wondering...does anyone here use it for professional work? If so, can you give me a rough idea of how it stacks up to Photoshop?

I have read that GIMP is as (or nearly as) powerful as Photoshop but that it has a really steep learning curve (but I don't know how that compares to Photoshop's learning curve). If someone has used both I would love to get a sentence or two from you about the differences.

For now, I am working with GIMP (the price is so much better!), but I would be grateful for your thoughts on GIMP as a professional tool.

My thanks in advance!

 

i did a tutorial in gimp but i think photoshop is easyer to handle if your new to it when you worked with a program some time the is no real divverence .

if you're a professional I think photoshop is worth buying it

 

If you can't afford photoshop, you may want to go with an alternative tool that is still easy to work with & produces quality. Just so you know, my current Software collections consists of: Illustrator / Photoshop / Dreamweaver / Fireworks (All CS3's), Wink (Debugging), Notepadd++ (Back-up Editor), 7-Zip (File manager), Serif DrawPlux x2 (My Primary Graphics tool), Blender (3D Modeling), Inkscape (Back-up Vector), & a few more.

My Primary Graphics tool is Serif DrawPlus x2. Reason why it's my Primary? Simple, It handles Vector, Raster, Paint, CAD, Flash, & Edit's Pdf's all in one software, And it only cost $100.00.

Serif DrawPlus x2 was the first software I purchased when I got into Graphics for profit. Within the first week I made my investment back & within the first month I was able to start purchasing Adobe products .

Even though i own several adobe softwares I still use Serif DrawPlus x2 as my primary tool & barely use the other tools at all. Only time I really open up my Adobe tools is to convert a file format to .Ai or .Psd when a client specifically requests the format.

If you are looking at getting into graphics as a profession, I would suggest at least purchasing a good tool that can aid in being a catalyst for your futures success.

Simply Google "Serif DrawPlus x2" to read up on it from the official serif.com site. It's definitely worth the investment.

Hope this helps with your tight budget. I wish you luck!

 

Thank you both for the responses.

I recently stumbled upon notepad++ so I use it all the time. My copy of Flash is dated (mx 2004 pro). "Serif DrawPlus x2" sounds "priced to move" and I very much appreciate the heads up on it. It sounds very versatile.

Thanks again!

 

Yeah,the price is so much better because it is free LOL.
I used both photoshop and GIMP.And I know a bit about the
difference.The major difference from my point of view is
GIMP don't have automated action script like photoshop.
If you do repeatable graphic design for example, ecover,
You can repeat the same process using photoshop that is
to create ecover.But you NEED to start it all over again
with GIMP everytime u want to design new ecover.
I know GIMP had a script fu,but it is quite hard to learn
because it is more to programming.I try to learn
but I give up.

But for me, GIMP is great for free.Really I begin to like
this software.There are great community out there
where you can find lots of tutorial to learn more about
GIMP.

Njoy!

Azim

 

Azim,

Thank you for your informative response.

As it turns out, I did a little research on scripting inside of GIMP because of your post and found that GIMP also supports a GIMP-PYTHON scripting language.

See this link for details: http://www.gimp.org/docs/python/index.html

This is actually GREAT for me as my profession (the one I pay the bills with consistently) is as a software architect/engineer and I am very familiar with Python (and it is one of the easier languages to learn).

Yet another thing I see to like about GIMP.

Clearly I will be playing with GIMP more while I am "financially challenged," and afterwards I'll have to make some decisions about the Photoshop type products.

Thanks again.

 

I like GIMP because it's easy to use for simple tasks. But if you want to make something more complicated it will be a little harder than in Photoshop. I've made a blog post about it some time ago.

 

Thanks r0bin,

All I have done with it thus far has been simple things and I agree they have been quite easy.

 

Have you tried GimpShop yet?

GIMPshop is a modification of the free/open source GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP), intended to replicate the feel of Adobe Photoshop. Its primary purpose is to make users of Photoshop feel comfortable using GIMP.

Due to the changes to the interface, many Photoshop tutorials can be followed in GIMPshop unchanged, and most others can be adapted for GIMPshop users with minimal effort.

You can get it here: www.gimpshop.com

I figured if you wanted a free opensource Raster/Paint tool that feels more like photoshop, you may be more interested in GimpShop

 

Hey ScorpianAgency,

I am equally a noob at photoshop as I am at GIMP (I tend to use PC Paint for any simple stuff I need done for video)...but this is great advice as it would make it easier for me to move back and forth between the two. Do you know if GIMPShop supports the full GIMP functionality?

Thanks!

 

It sure does, everything is the same, the only difference is the interface has been modified to mimic Photoshops

 

I'm downloading GimpShop now. Thanks for the head's up!