We’re going to talk about an open source photo editor, which is the best alternative of PhotoShop. Yeah, that’s GNU Image Manipulation Program, Gimp. If you’re familiar with the name, you know that this software for image editing. It designs not only for photo editing but for touch-ups, image creation, and animations etc. But, Photoshop hates this small guy because Gimp is not a gimp. It’s a strong powerhouse and it works smoothly, doggedly, and potently without forgetting its small origins. What we mean that’s this Gimp was made by a community of one mind individuals who brought this openly sourced creation into continuation to be given free of cost. As it’s made with the user’s mind’s freedom and we’ll explore soon.
Besides, we’re not constantly the brightest bulb, but we’re happy to say that we got on board when we learn about it. It’s been a lifesaver ever since. But, when we download this software for the first time, we thought us wrapped up in an unfamiliar world of unfriendly tools where it comes with the unforgiving settings, merging with the usual ugliness of free software. After that, it was a surprising and useful good-looking setup similar to Photoshop in most features. As it comes with the known panels of brushes, paths, layers, and other tools that made the experience amazingly comfortable. Besides, learning the software was easier than learning Photoshop because of how much overlap there is between the two apps. Although the fact that it was developed by people, it’s liberally given to everyone smart enough to take benefit of the open source photo editor Gimp.
Quick Notes of Gimp
- Category: Digital Photo Software
- Operating Systems: Windows XP/Vista/7/10/Mac
- File Size: 126.48MB
- File Name
- License Model: Free
Why Will You Like the Open Source Photo Editor Gimp?
What the other potential reasons are that you’ll like this open source photo editor Gimp. As the digital photography gets changed our lives because it gives us the ability to sit behind a computer monitor and it lets us be our own Ansel Adams with the post creation of our own images. But, it’s not so simple that you’re thinking about. This is because there is much software to edit your photos after you take them and the most famous one is Photoshop. Currently, the open source photo editor Gimp is a clear-cut rival to Photoshop, which is very similar to Photoshop, and some say better as well. Now, let us show what the reasons are that some people like it more than PhotoShop.
Open Source Photo Editor Gimp
We’re starting with the most noticeable and perhaps most significant, GIMP is an open source photo editor comes completely free of cost. Yeah, it’s free and it doesn’t require any charge, no nada, zip, and zero. But, Photoshop takes upwards of $700 for a single use! So, the old saying stays true, as it’s free, it’s for me.
Smaller in size
This open source photo editor, Gimp is 20X small software than Photoshop. As a result, not only the installation goes faster, it takes up far less hard drive making it the perfect image editing software for netbooks and laptops where your hard drive space may be a thing of the premium.
Fast and stable
As Photoshop is very resource rigorous, it’ll run on older hardware. But, it doesn’t optimize so that it’ll be sluggish and slow. Besides, the open source photo editor, Gimp is as stable as fast as well. You can install it on almost any hardware running Windows, Mac, or even Unix!
User-friendly
Gimp is comparatively more user-friendly than Photoshop. Actually, Photoshop was created as software projected for photographic editing and graphics, but never as a digital photo editor. This is because it’s full of features and functions that most photographs don’t need or want. Although the physical layout of the Gimp’s screen is similar to Photoshop; it’s also flexible and customizable to fit your needs.
Goes portable
GIMP is much portable. So, if the install of the software wasn’t small enough already, there is available a portable version to load on your USB drive so that you can take on the go and edit programs while using anyone’s computer, anywhere and anytime! It’s most definitely worth looking at when searching for an image editing software with all the benefits and upsides to GIMP and the free price of the software.
Some other beneficial features of Gimp
Photoshop needs to approve by Adobes’ development team to modify the core code. But, it’s open source photo editor architecture, which means anyone can modify the core code and new features and develop plugins. In GIMP, batch processing through automatic actions is far superior. Because of this photographer often need to do repeatable actions to large groups of images. As a result, this feature alone is worth its weight in the gold standard. You can open, edit and save Photoshop’s native PSD file format with GIMP. It doesn’t matter if they’ve started the job in Photoshop if you’re editing for someone else, because GIMP can handle the file format. Moreover, it comes with free upgrades where Photoshop costs as much as $200.
Setup of this Open Source Photo Editor, Gimp
Although the Toolbox is straightforward and about simply they come. There’s a learning curve, but not a steep one for a beginner without any photo editing experience. You’ll settle in quickly if you’ve used Photoshop before.
Gimp Tools
There are so many tools in this software. The toolbox includes the following tools, but not with the limitation to:
- Paintbrush
- Color select
- Feathered selections
- Layers
- Burn
- Dodge
- Masks
- Selections by path and color
Besides, pretty much everything else you’d wait for in luminously planned photo-editing software. It feels like we’re cheating the system when we use the filter options. We’re astonished and still hard to believe that this is professional a software, this is versatile and high quality, and it’s completely free.
The filter of the Open Source Photo Editor Gimp
Although its brushes are relatively limited, they are in the fun toolbox. But, don’t worry if you’re wondering what the heck that bell pepper does. All people do it. An exact duplicate of that pepper appears on the digital paper when you select it and click on the canvas. Also, same goes for the star while other brush does the same. When you click and drag in the usual paintbrush sort of way most make some pretty awesome patterns. For example the sun-looking brush, which populates an elegant spackle of firefly-looking orbs. And it’s that trail behind your brush as you drag it along. It looks like a universe of suns planted randomly wherever you click if you make the size bigger.
Gimp Brushes
Its patterns are filled with your canvas along with the pattern if you choose. If you need a leopard-skin backdrop, it must be yours to do. Also, it can make a hazy 1970’s tie-dye swirl. Although the choices are limited, there are free ways to fill your patterns and brushes with more options than you’ll know what to do with. You can get it right away.
Advantages of Using the Gimp
The largest advantage of using this open source photo editor is it’s entirely free of cost. If you talk about the formats, don’t do because it can handle almost any format you need, such as gif, jpeg, mpg, pdf, png, psd, xpm and much more. We applaud you for your bold indifference if you’re using any platform other than Mac, Windows, or Linux. It’s said that the app is remarkably compatible with Windows, Mac, Linux and many other Unix style OS. Ii this case, you’ll be able to use it in almost all OS. It’s a great advantage even Photoshop can’t give you it because Photoshop runs well on Windows and Mac OS.
Besides, the flexibility and customization are the greatest strength of Gimp. As there are lots of Gimp plugins to take advantage, which makes it the most flexible photo editing tool ever. Moreover, it’s a massive package of glorious, powerful, awe-inspiring, and extensive Gimp plugins. Also, there are a number of other options moving around in the never-ending digital expanse of the internet. But, if you can find what you need the easy way check the Gimp plugin registry first.
Conclusion
This open source photo editor Gimp comes with all well. But, its scalar function does not work well when you need to enlarge a lot. Moreover, it needs to improve algorithms that work with image scaling functions and improve their correctness. And its feature development can be disgracefully slow. But, what you wait for, as its community developed software you have direct input as a user if you’re so inclined. As its user, you’ll not find any other fault of this app. Besides, in comparison to Photoshop, it’s far better than that in many ways. So, you’ll get the full benefit when start using the software.
