Despite the title of this thread, this is more of a look and see thread than a direct comparison. I've used both, but frankly, these days I go more for "free" than useful. So I'm not going to pick any particular program. You have to judge for yourself. So when I found this video on You tube I knew that I had to tell you about it. GIMP v. Photoshop .

Also, thought I'd point out to you that there are other free programs out there that do similar things to both GIMP and Photoshop. So I'll point you to my directory where you can find other photomanipulation software listed. Some are free, some are "TRIAL OFFERS", and some you plain have to buy. This link will take you to the Content Creation category in my Poser Directory. Poser Directory

BTW, if you find any broken links, or have any questions about the software or the Directory itself, plese feel free to ask either in this thread or through Rendo's sitemail.

I have CS5 Extended, as far as software goes it's really old now and I'm sure GIMP has surpassed it by now but I paid a lot of money for this suite so I'm sticking with it for as long as I can.

That's cool. This thread isn't about which one is better, but gives you an idea of which one suits you better if you're looking for such a program.

I have used Photoshop until Version CS5. Since the recent update of Gimp earlier this year, i use Gimp.

I have done most of my post work on renders with gimp and i create and edit new textures with it. The charm of the program is, it's very similar to Photoshop, most actions and filters are working like in PS, but it has many features and plugins PS hasn't. The downside of gimp is, it's sometimes slow and it crashes from time to time.

I've been using Photoshop since Photoshop 4, upgrading as far as Ps8, on the old Mac (non-intel chip), and then through CS to CS6.

I also have Affinity Photo in reserve, just in case CS6 gives up.

My husband and I both use GIMP because cost effectiveness. :) Me for my occasional Poser render edit (it may be to the detriment of me but I [refer 'made in Poser' mean it was made there and not pushed through a thousand filters before it is posted anywhere said it was made there)... and him for his work for a gaming server. Our professional artist friend uses Photoshop because requirements in the industry, but we swap stories and agree that both do their job for what they supposed to do.

I've been using GIMP since 2000 or so.

For what I do with photo-manipulation, texture-building, or with postwork, GIMP gets the job done, and it does so admirably. It's also come a long, long way from the rude and crude beginnings that it had.

Now if you're a pro artist, Adobe still has a lock on that world. If you want to do art for a living, learn Creative Suite (or, well, they're pushing to Creative Cloud nowadays, so...)

If you're an amateur or prosumer just starting out, you'll have to decide for yourself, but on the amateur level, GIMP gets it done nicely.

It's nice to read that Gimp has made his way to become an equal to Photoshop. Equal in the sense that one can do in Gimp whatever one can do in Photoshop. I personally miss one thing in Gimp that Photoshop has and that's the superior text tool. Gimp has made progress in this case, but it is far away from what Photoshop can do.

Since a lot of you seem to like GIMP so much, you might be interested in a couple of earlier postings I Made in this forum.

Free GIMP Plugins

Free GIMP Brushes

JohnDoe641 posted at 12:15AM Sun, 29 September 2019 - #4364249

I have CS5 Extended, as far as software goes it's really old now and I'm sure GIMP has surpassed it by now but I paid a lot of money for this suite so I'm sticking with it for as long as I can.

If it's old you want, I'm using the plain, ordinary Photoshop 7.

SamTherapy posted at 7:25PM Sat, 28 September 2019 - #4364657

JohnDoe641 posted at 12:15AM Sun, 29 September 2019 - #4364249

I have CS5 Extended, as far as software goes it's really old now and I'm sure GIMP has surpassed it by now but I paid a lot of money for this suite so I'm sticking with it for as long as I can.

If it's old you want, I'm using the plain, ordinary Photoshop 7.

At one time, I was too, but then my mac went bye bye, and took Photoshop with it. I got everything else up and running on the new machine, but couldn't manage to get Photoshop up and running. I found GIMP and haven't really looked back since. I can't afford to.

blackbonner posted at 12:32PM Sun, 29 September 2019 - #4364616

It's nice to read that Gimp has made his way to become an equal to Photoshop. Equal in the sense that one can do in Gimp whatever one can do in Photoshop. I personally miss one thing in Gimp that Photoshop has and that's the superior text tool. Gimp has made progress in this case, but it is far away from what Photoshop can do.

^^^^^ This. All of it. I will add that I hate Adobe. Overpriced and in my experience not supportive of customers. Their text manipulation tools are excellent, though. I have not used GIMP much, as it was very cumbersome when I tried it, but since I mostly paint with these programs, I find programs like Clip Studio Paint much more efficient and cost effective. I don't think Photoshop has a lock on the pro art world anymore- in part because 'art' means too many different things in the digital age. Most 'art workers' are pretty specialized now, and don't need all the features of Photoshop, let alone the whole cloud nonsense. There are many programs out there that do the things they do as well or better than Adobe products and at a fraction of the price, or free. As long as they have file compatibility for the total work flow, they're perfectly viable professional tools, and more and more use .psd as an import/export file type, so there aren't that many compatibility issues anymore. I haven't used GIMP in a long time, but I'd be surprised if it doesn't handle .psd as well as photoshop does.

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"Lifetime perpetual license that supports up to 2 devices."

https://www.humblebundle.com/software/painter-create-with-confidence

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EClark1894 posted at 1:10PM Wed, 02 October 2019 - #4364251

This thread isn't about which one is better

Neither was my reply. ;)

If using Photoshop wasn't a requirement back in my college days I wouldn't have bought the suite and I would probably be using GIMP right now.

I gave Gimp a serious try this year (Spring and Summer). Trying it as a free alternative to my Paint Shop Pro (X3).
It is undoubtly a very powerful tool, with many features. I loved that. But it lacks the shortcuts that make life easier in any program. And I had enlessly to select the menu, click an option and validate a confirmation dialog. It was slowing down my workflow so I gave up.
I now have Paint Shop Pro 2020 in my purchase list.
But I have mùade an extended study (mostly for Photography). I've had positive echoes for both CaptureOne and Affinity Photo. I didn't have the time to evaluate those at the same time. I save the list for next time. I am not quite satisfied with Paint Shop Pro, but I know it too well. It doesn't surprise me anymore :)

yarp posted at 7:05AM Tue, 31 December 2019 - #4375058

I gave Gimp a serious try this year (Spring and Summer). Trying it as a free alternative to my Paint Shop Pro (X3).
It is undoubtly a very powerful tool, with many features. I loved that. But it lacks the shortcuts that make life easier in any program.

GIMP is super-customisable, everything from the layout and docking of panels and tabs, right up to custom shortcuts.

Click Here for ways to create, edit, and manage shortcuts in GIMP!

Thank you Retrowave, didn't know that. I will give it a look.
But the shortucts is only part of it. Maybe I am wrong again, here are 2 points that I find really annoying:

• If I want to crop the top and botton of an image into the the middle. I have to create a layer, with say the bottom, and move that layer on to the middle..In the end merge layers (and so move my mouse out of the image to the layer palette). It is so simple in PSP in comparision: select, move, done !.
  
• The Stroke select pops up a dialog. I have to click it to close it. In PSP these are optionnal docked options you don't have to bother if you don't change any setting from the previous time. Activate the stroke selection button and highlight any part of the image: done !
  These 2 tools I use quite frequently.
  So when processing snapshots it took so much time compared to PSP I gave up.
  But I didn't uninstall GIMP. It has a great tools, so I still think I can do something with it..

Unfortunately, I'm making do with an iPad at the moment, so cannot check, but neither of those things should be an issue in GIMP. It sounds as if you're mixing the crop tool up with canvas cropping. I hardly ever resize the canvas, but if I recall even that function, accessed from the menu I believe, is quite well done. If I recall, you specify a size in percentage or whatever measurement you want, and it will ask you where you want to position your current canvas relative to the new one. For example, you might want it to stick to one specific side or corner instead of the middle.

Regards the popup, it sounds as if you need to experiment with customising the interface if you want that thing in a specific permanent place. To give you an idea of how customisable that stuff is in GIMP, here are just a few tips:

• Every tool in every in every palette can be added, removed, rearranged, added to new custom palettes, and even skinned.
• Every tool palette can be docked or floating.
• Every tab contained in every palette can be rearranged, added, removed, and even dragged between palettes.
• The GIMP splash screen can be customised.

Could go on for ages, but In a nutshell, you can make GIMP look and behave pretty much exactly as you wish, so I would start dragging windows, palettes, and tabs around and experimenting with various docking combinations. Try right-clicking on things like tabs and toolbars headers etc, which if I recall brings up more options. Also bear in mind that if you grab the edges of control palettes, windows etc, you can resize them and everything will be saved.

Before you do that, though, I would go into preferences and really study the depth of options under every tab, even the stuff tha normally would not interest you, because that way you will discover things that you would never dream they would allow you to customise. Just mess around with it, you can always go back to the default if you break something.

BTW, yarp, can't remember what they call it now but there are two window modes that GIMP can run in. If your GIMP has a separate toolbox and image editing window, you need to get out of that mode but like I said, I cannot remember what it is called now. It's an option either in the menu or preferences, and when you change it, GIMP will behave more like a regular program with all the palettes and toolboxes contained within one big window.

I always use GIMP in a single window and double-click on the titlebar to maximise it.

Thank you for the detailed Answer. I think I will dig in deeper and see if I can find a parametric solution to that problem.
Sure I am running GIMP in single Windows mode. I prefer that mode too.
I wish you a happy nex year, it is 07 am here.

A Happy New Year to you, too, Yarp. If it were not for sound of fireworks going-off outside my flat last night, I wouldn't have even noticed it had arrived until seeing your post