Is GIMP popular with you people?

kingopayne · 03-22-2006

I was just getting the hang of Photoshop, using it for 3D textures and loving it. The use of transparencies/alpha channels has made my models much more detailed without bringing up their "weight".

The other day, I needed to export a .png, and my PS7.0 couldn't help me out. Neither could it make animated .gifs. So, on a whim, I searched for a PC version of the GIMP, got it installed, and found it looked a lot like PS and could export my .png, as well as create animations with the additional GAP download (GIMP Animation Package).

So I'm wondering...why bother with Photoshop? It's not free. When software is free, and well established, like Blender, it seems to have a great rate of development. Free software seems, to me, to follow the needs of the users, who are the ones developing it, whereas corporate software seems slower to react.

Watchyathink?

Loki · 03-22-2006

Good point. Maybe Photoshop is seen as "trendy" amongst graphic designers, or maybe people are pre-conditioned to think that free software sucks when it doesn't. An enigma! I tell you....

I've heard you can color comic strips and characters really well in GIMP?

kingopayne · 03-22-2006

I don't know about colouring comic strips, but there seemed to be good documentation and user support for the GIMP, so if you want to try it, it's as easy as clicking or pasting this link.

http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/stable.html

I had to download and install the help file, as it wasn't installed with the GIMP, but these are self installing, so no worries if you're a Windows type like me, and don't know about assembling programs the way they seem to like doing in LINUX. You also have to install the environment, which is at the above link, so GIMP can run on Windows. I've had no problems with it, but have only been playing with it for a couple days now.

I'm seeing the valuable skill is learning many programs, not just one, as many projects seems to require the use of a different program just to convert a file format.

zapphnath · 03-23-2006

Not to mention GIMPshop
http://blog.yumdap.net/archives/20-G...r-Windows.html
which changes TheGIMP's menus and such to emulate those found in Photoshop.

Also, Imageready came with PS 6.0 and PS CS2, so it should have been included in PS 7.0 - that's what you'd use to make animated .GIFs.

viceflip · 03-24-2006

I have tried GIMP, IMHO it is jsut dirt compared to PS. I am using PS7 btw.

tyty9892 · 03-24-2006

I
'm using PS 7.00 too.......but who says PS can't be free......(The Power of Limewire)

Babybutch · 04-02-2006

I've tried using Gimp few times when my old computer could not longer run Photoshop due to ram problem. In my opinion Gimp has the potential to compete with Photoshop but what drew me out from Gimp was the interface (Ive tried the original gimp and gimpshop). It's not friendly and confusing. There was an article that Ive read regarding Gimp VS Photoshop. The article said something about how Photoshop was made in a sense of an artist but Gimp was made in a sense of IT programmer. I second that thought. Still I think Gimp has the potential to compete with Photoshop in the future.

muish · 04-09-2006

I first used PC version of GIMP, which i got with the free ubuntu distribution of Linux. it is almost similar to photoshop but then i realized that felt at home when using photoshop... i think it will take some time and continuous usage to get used to GIMP.

paganpenguin · 04-10-2006

I first started using the GIMP several years ago when I installed Mandrake 8.1 onto my AMD K6 - 500. It was good, feature rich, but lacked the polish and idiot friendly interface of PS. It was only last year that I actually changed to a XP/Photoshop CS2 only PC, having run Linux for a while.
Now, well I run the GIMP in both XP and Ubuntu Breezy Badger so that I can have maximum portability between the OS's (I use Linux for everything, my girlfriend needs XP for everything, so I ended up having to compromise and use XP during the day and port my work over in the evenings.....).
Included in my install of the GIMP is the GAP (Gimp Animation Package), and I have CinePaint also installed (a fork of the GIMP that is geared towards the touching up of film/video in post production)... something of an afterthought.

My opinion is similar to many, that the GIMP was created by hackers for hackers (or programmers for programmers, depending upon what you define as a hacker). But it is the graphics package of choice for me now...

*unleash* · 04-10-2006

(i tried the gimp once and i couldn't get it, now after like 3 years i will try it again and then i can tell you what i think is the best), but i can already tell you that gimp is ,for a free program, as good as photoshop. But i think that the gimp has a few problems photoshop don't have, that's why photoshop is still sold because all the computer magazines say:"download the gimp now free".

Cki · 04-14-2006

I have Gimp and Photoshop CS2, I will take CS2 any day. As far as your Adobe not making animations, just go over to Image Ready, you can make all the animations you want.

the-negative · 04-14-2006

GIMP-hater.
Just too messy, cluttered, with no sense of interface design paid.
Well, this is one of the applications that pay for not using the MDI, Propellerhead's Reason does that too but has an awsome interface to back it up.

NeoLokie · 04-20-2006

The GIMP is good for a free program, no doubt about it, but its not a professional tool, its not for professionals, photoshop is. I've used the gimp and I wouldn't use it again. as for not being able to export as a png, you didn't look hard enough ;-) I'll eat a goat if it isn't in save as.

raven2424 · 04-20-2006

for me gimp is not popular but i photoshop seems to be the way many go

Troskan · 05-04-2006

All software is free man, just go to javareactor and choice the bitoreent that you need, in the version that you need.