Photoshop 7 vs Gimp

I only have a few hours of online time left in my CS2 trial. I have grown dependent on Photoshop, but I do not use it enough to justify the cost.

After my CS2 expires, would I be able to use an earlier version of photoshop, such as 7.0? Or would the CS2 trial expiration prevent me from using other trial versions of photoshop?

Assuming that I will be able to use P7, is it superior to other less expensive alternatives, such as Gimp? What specific actions are missing from Gimp?

I use the GIMP pretty much exclusively now, but there's a few things I miss from PS. It's been probably a year since I used PS, but let's see...

GIMP does not have adjustment layers, so adjustments such as curves, saturation, etc.. cannot be tweaked later. In other words, it does not remember what adjustments have been made, other than in the undo history.

Can't think of anything else right now, but I'll ponder it some more.

Overall, I think the GIMP is an excellent program, and it has served me very well. There are a lot of scripts available to do various things, from filters to text effects. I say give it a try, since it's not like it's going to cost you anything.

You might also want to look at Paint Shop Pro... I haven't used it in a couple years, but it was a great program then, and I understand it still is.

Gimp here too. All I use is Unsharp-Mask (Filters, Enhance, Unsharp-Mask).

yeap, that's all I use it for (+ crop and scale ans save-as).

Cheers

I downloaded both and tried them out. After using CS2, I found Gimp to be a dissapointment. The most important lacking feature I noticed was the magnetic lasso; but there were several others. The interface was also awkward. Photoshop 7 was closer to CS2 than I had hoped. The key features that I use are there. The few missing features that I use are not essential.

adobe elements 3 is a lot cheaper and ideal for photographers, {not sure if you can download a demo from the adobe website}

You can use actions in elements
http://www.dpforums.co​m/forum/showthread.php​?t=2024

Add Curves, mask, channell to Elements 3 for FREE
http://www.dpforums.co​m/forum/showthread.php​?t=1584

AKA23, I think I used it once in the last 3 years & found that I still don't like it. For me, this works a lot better:
https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=82876

I've used GIMP & I liked it. It has some filters that I thought were better than PS. I'm using PS7 now & it does everything I need it to. Take a look at this:
https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=82861

The combination of RSE & PS7 are good enough that I see no reason to upgrade to PSCS2.
For "normal" shots I shoot RAW & use the free RSE (RawShooter Essentials) since it came out & wouldn't be without it now. I usually only go into PS to crop, resize & do some final sharpening with an Action unless it's a complex shot. For the simple shots, RSE saves the conversion info so I can delete the big tiff file & save a lot of hard drive space in the long run.

Well I do graphics and I really like CS2, I've tried GIMP a long time ago but I find myself going back to PS for I know how to work it better. I have nothing against GIMP but I'm a PS person myself and I don't think I'm going to change any time soon.

Nothing really compares to CS2 IMO, try Adobe elements 3, that should do you good $129.99 on Amazon.

I hear that CS compares pretty well to CS2.

I used the GIMP a couple years before PS, but more for general image manipulation and less for photography. It has fewer plug-ins than PS and I'm fairly sure it doesn't support RAW images directly (PSE3 now does). This can be a pain if you work with RAW very much, unless you are happy to use a different program to convert the RAWs to another lossless format, although I think that working directly with RAW must be better.

I realized the other day that PS allows you to rotate crops and change its sides while preserving ratio, and GIMP doesn't. Beyond plug-ins and filters, there are several small things and a few important things that PS either has that GIMP doesn't, or else implements better. Nevertheless, my impression is there are really very few important things PS can do that the GIMP can't.

The user interface of Photoshop is likely to seem awkward if you are going from GIMP to PS, just as the GIMP is likely to seem awkward if going from PS to GIMP. That's something you quickly get used to and IMO not really an argument unless there is something about an interface you just can't stand.

I should add that the current version of GIMP (2.2) is vastly improved over what was available a couple of years ago. Its interface is much nicer, it has several more features and it also runs much more stably in Windows (this is probably more the GTK than GIMP). If you haven't tried it recently, then you might be interested in looking at it again. An important advantage of Photoshop over the GIMP (as well as most any other similar program) is that there are more people out there using PS, so it's easier to find help or how to do perform a given task.

Despite what the GIMP can do (and it's always getting better), Photoshop is simply more professional, has more, does more and creates a better workflow.

On a budget, I'd say PS Pro, Elements 3 and the GIMP are the best options. GIMP is of course the best option for *NIX enthusiasts, and (pirates aside) unquestionably gives the best bang for your buck.

It may be easier, but I don't see where it's "better".

Excellent point! OTOH, GIMP has a large community that's always been happy to help out.

Very true. It's about 1 "L" more expensive, too!!

Starting out on a budget, I'd suggest Elements 3 and the GIMP are the best options. As I said above, after converting in RSE, "I usually only go into PS to crop, resize & do some final sharpening with an Action unless it's a complex shot." Almost any imaging utility will work for that, & I've had no compelling reason to upgrade from PS7.

I suppose that's true enough, although many might consider easier better. Better use of time, though perhaps not better in terms of image quality.

Yes. 8)

Starting out on a budget, I'd suggest Elements 3 and the GIMP are the best options. As I said above, after converting in RSE, "I usually only go into PS to crop, resize & do some final sharpening with an Action unless it's a complex shot." Almost any imaging utility will work for that, & I've had no compelling reason to upgrade from PS7.

Yes, I'd say paying for Photoshop for such simple tasks is overkill.

michapma wrote:
I hear that CS compares pretty well to CS2.
I realized the other day that PS allows you to rotate crops and change its sides while preserving ratio, and GIMP doesn't. Beyond plug-ins and filters, there are several small things and a few important things that PS either has that GIMP doesn't, or else implements better. Nevertheless, my impression is there are really very few important things PS can do that the GIMP can't.

I am not sure what 'preserving ratio' means. In The Gimp you can also rotate crops to any degree: layer/transfrom/arbitr​ary rotation. It looks like it preserves the 'ratio.'

CS2 is excellent from what I hear, but I don't know if I needed. The Gimp 2.2 is very good and complete for what I do (you can use clone tool to correct skin, etc) and there is a plugin to make it work just like CS2 (it will look and work just like photoshop) if you want. I use the Linux version (which they say is a little bit better).

Cheers

Ebay is another option. I just bought Adobe Photoshop 8.0 CS + Adobe Photoalbum 2.01 for $19.46 . I was the only bidder.

At prices like that, Adobe might go out of business...

What I mean is when you rotate the crop box before cropping, i.e. the trace that shows what you have selected to crop.

I didn't know about that plug-in, I'll have to check it out. Do you have a name or a link for it?

!!!!