Photoshop Elements or GIMP?

Currently I've got GIMP and I'm just now trying to buckle down and get serious about learning how to use it but I was wondering if getting Elements was worth it? I can't swing Photoshop so that's out. Opinions?

Which has the most independent support? Which has the most support through forums, articles on line, books in the stores? Will you have to figure out how to do things or solve problems yourself, or will you be able to go online and find quick multiple sources for any issue?

Which is better supported in terms of plug-ins from 3rd party manufacturers?

I used to be contrarian about most things. Yes, I owned an Atari and a Betamax, and I resisted Photoshop for years. But I finally realized that when you're on the road less travelled, you'll have to wait longer for help after a breakdown.

RDKirk wrote in post #8492227
Which has the most independent support? Which has the most support through forums, articles on line, books in the stores? Will you have to figure out how to do things or solve problems yourself, or will you be able to go online and find quick multiple sources for any issue?

Which is better supported in terms of plug-ins from 3rd party manufacturers?

I used to be contrarian about most things. Yes, I owned an Atari and a Betamax, and I resisted Photoshop for years. But I finally realized that when you're on the road less travelled, you'll have to wait longer for help after a breakdown.

excellent points

RDKirk wrote in post #8492227
Which has the most independent support? Which has the most support through forums, articles on line, books in the stores? Will you have to figure out how to do things or solve problems yourself, or will you be able to go online and find quick multiple sources for any issue?

Which is better supported in terms of plug-ins from 3rd party manufacturers?

I used to be contrarian about most things. Yes, I owned an Atari and a Betamax, and I resisted Photoshop for years. But I finally realized that when you're on the road less travelled, you'll have to wait longer for help after a breakdown.

I see your point.

GIMP has definitely given me some headaches but I have nothing else to compare it to so I didn't know if it was the program or me (I'm sure I play a big role right now while trying to learn how to process though).

I ran both for a long time before I got CS4. There is a ton of support/forums/how-to's on the web for both. I had only gimp for a long time. When I decided it was time to get serious again I got Elements and started to learn the adobe interface. It helped a lot when I moved to CS4. I understood how Adobe thought of things and made it a lot more intuitive. Gimp is way more powerful, than Elements so dont give it up. But elements has a much better way of working. So keep gimp, and get Elements, it is worth the money. Especially if you can get it on sale. Then use both for their strengths. I actually still go back to gimp for some jobs as I am faster on some things in gimp than I am in CS4.

If you're a Costco member, they occasionally have a coupon mailing for Elements brining it to about $50.

I'm along same line as Mark, above. Used only Gimp for a long time, but don't regret getting elements. I still use both.

I've used GIMP for a couple of years, before I was able to acquire an older version of PS.

I tried Elements but it felt sluggish and I hated the way it felt dumbed down in certain areas.

PS is way ahead of GIMP, especially in interface and speed. GIMP is way ahead of Elements, in my opinion, and I still use it just for kicks.

Just a quick question. Couldnt you use the online photoshop tutorials as a guide when using gimp?

Gimp has alot of tutorials to be sure but the vast majority seem to be design. Not really photo editing, hence I would think the photoshop tuts would help

They definatley can help. But really if you already know the gimp interface. And what you need to fake and what directly crosses over.

elitejp wrote in post #8502174
Just a quick question. Couldnt you use the online photoshop tutorials as a guide when using gimp?

Gimp has alot of tutorials to be sure but the vast majority seem to be design. Not really photo editing, hence I would think the photoshop tuts would help

Try Gimpshop, they made it to mimic PS menus. However it's a couple of intermediate releases behind.

Gimp has layers, masks, curves, levels, brushes and so on, just like PS. They may be in different places on the menu but it never bothered me. Some command dialogs are very similar and some work slightly differently, but I don't think I'm yet where I can really be bothered by the difference.

Gimp doesn't have 16bit modes, LAB colors, and it's funny with EXIFs sometimes. For the last one, I use Exifer to copy data from CR2 to resulting JPEG. (Although they seem to have fixed Exif issues in one of the latest releases). Gimp also has fairly poorly thought out interface - no easy way to auto arrange the different boxes, you just have to drag them out of the way. OTOH, you can do pretty much anything you do in PS (at a serious amateur level , at least), and you can spend several hundred dollars elsewhere. I'd see if you can get an older version of PS (e.g. PS7) for cheap, if not stick with Gimp unless you can easily drop the money on PS. This is a highly subjective opinion

Added: it appears there's a new "Gimp-like-PS" development, GimPhoto, based on a slightly newer version (2.4 vs 2.1 for Gimpshop; the latest Gimp is 2.6).

http://www.gimphoto.co​m/

I find that Photoshop Elements is in a lot more photography magazines than GIMP and even Photoshop.

Probably because more 'ordinary' people start out with it... (their readers)
Gimp is more for people already 'into' computers and PS is more used by people who have used elements or are pro. (Take this with however many grains of salt you wish)

Both of the latter likely won't be reading photomagazines for basics in photo editing.

Note I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with PSE, Gimp or PS or whatever else I mentioned .

> I've been on Linux 95%+ for the last several years, and once you're comfortably familiar with it (yes, it does take some "familiarising" - but so does Windows to those who have never used that before) - and currently find it does just about everything I need to do, from the over 10,000 free applications, tools, utilities, etc, that can be multiply-installed via the Synaptic installer.

Once you get used to working simultaneously across several Desktops - I use 6, mostly, but add "Temp" ones at times - trying to "do everything" on one Desktop feels a bit cramped.

I dual-boot Windows (mainly because my ISP insists on having "Windows or Mac) available, but it also gives Windows-compatibilty for a few things, such as DVD-RWs that friends with Windows need to add to.

As well as Gimp, Linux has other Graphics apps, Krita - similar to Paintshop Pro, Image Magick - if you like scriptable higher-end graphics apps, but as others have mentioned, it's Gimp that gets the "Photoshop Comparisons", like it or not!

Gimp is an excellent "paint" and general graphics app - and will do a lot more than say, Paintshop Pro or other "midrange" Windows apps. The skilled "artistic" folk (which I am not!) - can make very beautiful projects with Gimp.

But the "hard question" has to be asked.... Is Gimp a "real" pixel-editor? And the Truth must be told of it - NO, it is not...!

Gimp is nowadays a lovely piece of work - and you sure can't complain about the price. I'm on disability - so that - and the other current large apps, like OpenOffice, Avidemux and Audacity, are a very big advantage because of that.

In Oz we have a saying about "Giving folk a Fair Go" - and that does include not thieving from them. In that I include "proprietary software" as being "other peoples' property" - until or unless one pays to use it, of course. I'd love Photoshop CS 3 or 4 - but at well over AUD$1,100.00 here (US$880.00, approx) - that's just not on my current horizon.

I used Photoshop from version 4 in the 1990s, through to 5.0 with the 5.5 upgrade kit, skipped 6, and just after going on disability nearly 5 years ago, bought legit second-hand 7.0 from a used-software shop. That's still my "current so far" version!

So while I do use Gimp a lot - PS-7.1 (the free upgrade into it) - is my "pixel-editor". Gimp is a lot of things, but, sadly, "a proper pixel-editor it ain't" - so to say.

The Tools in Gimp are just far too lumpy and clumsy - and once you mag-up to 200% or 400% - block or cover too much of what you're trying at "fine point" to do.

There are also vastly more PS-7 plugins, actions, etc, available free, than for Gimp. So I use both - and to "work-between" convert *.psd or *.xcf to *.tiff - which runs happily in either.

PS-7 runs very well under Wine in Linux. The Pic shows it running in PCLinuxOS-2009.

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Interesting discussion. I have used GIMP for a while, and like it - I got one of the GIMP instruction books and found it very useful. More recently, I bought Lightroom since I take a lot of RAW images, and none of the open source RAW processors was doing it for me. Love Lightroom. Then, maybe because I bought Lightroom, Adobe sent me an offer to buy Elements 7 for $29.95. I figured even if I didnt like it it was worth $30, so I just got it. I'm sure it will be a little while to get used to it, but the integration with Lightroom should help. I'll let you know