STICKY:  The Gimp - free alternative to Photoshop

Gilestheblank wrote in post #6766374
GIMP is the worst, it crashes all the time....

Nice flame attempt. It doesn't. What version are you supposedly using and on what OS?

Hmm I have had a total of 3 crashes of GIMP since I started using it, maybe a couple more, but I traced those to a bad USB dfriver conflict on my External HDD. Maybe try a Re-install... Or something besides Windows ME

Gilestheblank wrote in post #6766374
GIMP is the worst, it crashes all the time....

I don't discount that some people have problems... I mean look at professional programs even (like Photoshop or Lightroom...) for some it works without a hitch, and for others its nothing but problems. And these are applications development budgets. Sometimes crashes can be traced to other underlying software/hardware problems that don't appear to manifest themselves anywher else except that one application. If you seem to be a lone-wolf having that type of problem when others don't, its a clue there is something else going on.

Programs like Gimp are updated regularly. One version I used about a year ago crashed every other time I used it, but reverting to previous version (or waiting for next release) solved that. That's another nice thing about open-source applications like this, they get updated pretty often... and if you know how to submit bug reports they can actually get addressed.

Recently completely re-installed Gimp version 2.6.3 (Windows). Thought I'd post here the scripts and plugins that I find invaluable and are the first things I installed before I even ran Gimp.

- Smart sharpen (redux) script with the refocus plugin. The refocus plugin Windows version is a little harder to track down since the link from the smart sharpen script page is for source files only. I use smart sharpen as the last step after I've resized and just before I save for web.
Download smart sharpen (redux) here
Download refocus plugin for windows here - click the "download" button top left.

- GreyCStoration plugin for noise removal. Note that when you go to the download page, it says for Windows users to install the Imagemagick libraries as well. Ignore that if you are only using it as a Gimp plugin. The libraries are only necessary if you're using it as a standalone program.

- Liquid rescale plugin. This is a seriously cool piece of software. Check out the demo video.

- Resynthesizer- another cool piece of software. I've only had a bit of a play with it. Had a little trouble getting the synthesized texture scale to match where I wanted it to go. Will have to play more, but lots of potential.

- UFRAW- RAW conversion.

That's all I can think of for now. I might add some more as I think of them.

I downloaded a plugin from deviant art. I assume I am just supposed to put the file somewhere in the gimp folder? Where do I put it?

For Windows, plugins go in c:\prog files\gimp\lib\gimp\2.​0\plugins

With Windows crashing all the time, I decided to go out and buy some removabale hard drive trays for my system. Now, after a lot of reinstalls, I have 2 drives for Linux (pop them in and out) and they have GIMP on them. I have been so pleased!

No more virus problems, no more pop ups on the net, no more slow system, etc.

I let my wife use the Windows drive and then I just replace the Windows drive when I want to use Gimp. As mentioned, it's a Photoshop Clone and you don't pay a penny for it. It's not a download for a Windows system. It's for Linux only.

I'm confused by some statements in your post, marian. I use both linux and windows, and am not biased one way or another. But...

1. With good management and software, you can avoid viruses, popups etc in windows.
2. Gimp is not a photoshop clone. It's completely different. Just has some similar features, but so do many other image editing programs that are also not photoshop clones.
3. It is not for linux only. There are windows and mac downloads readily available.

Let's not get into Linux vs Windows debate shall we. To each their own.

Gimp is not PS and is not even close but it was never supposed to be and it's almost as good for an average home user. If I had to use it I'd sorely miss the highlights and shadows with preview (there's a couple of plugins that do that - sort of - but there's no preview and it's slow). Also selection tools aren't as good, and the interface is of a kind only Gimps mother could love. But for a free app it's amazing.

I don't have photoshop but hope to one day and my question is I know that photoshop is hard to learn, would it be wise to learn on gimp before I buy photoshop, would that help me out, or would it just confuse me even more. I just thought if it is free it would be a good place for me to learn it and than invest in the photoshop.

i would say that depends on how savvy you are. The controls are all in different places on the two programs i believe, but it should let you play with the steps in Post processing and what works and what doesn't so when you get to photoshop you have an idea of what needs to be done.

Nicely put jpatten. I for one have no problem switching between gimp an ps. But I've been around computers nearly my entire life so adapting to user interface changes doesn't even phase me. Others seem to think gimps lack of UI eyecandy is an insurmountable obstacle... So it really is dependant on the user.

I am in a similar situation. Currently don't own Photoshop, and would like to get started with *something* soon. I'm torn between Photoshop and Aperture -- but wondering if GIMP would be a good place to start before investing in the more costly packages. Can anyone comment on how Aperture compares with GIMP?

Aperture I think is more suited to the RAW editing side of things I believe. Also it applies nondestructive edits (edits are just instructions used for aperture to display the edits. New files taking up disk space aren't created until you tell it to do so.

If you shoot raw and plan on using Gimp you're going to still need something for your Raw processing (canons DPP is a good choice.)

Or UFRAW or Rawtherapee