GIMP vs. Photoshop

Is GIMP just as good as Photoshop? I tried both on a single task to see how they compared. But why even bother with GIMP in the first place? Money, of course.

The last I checked, you could get Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended for the Mac for $162.50 on eBay. There were still nine hours of bidding left, so the price likely went up before it was finally sold.

This is not a bad deal, and you could probably find others. The fact remains, though, that if you want Photoshop, it’s going to be pricey at best.

Since we’re all about freeware here at thriftmac, the alternative is GIMP. Its name is an acronym that stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program, but when pronounced out loud, the word becomes derogatory. Think lame.

GIMP paletteUnfortunately, if you’ve had experience with Photoshop (or pretty much any Mac program), your first impression of GIMP will indeed be of something lame. The palettes have cheesy icons and roughly hewn fields and widgets. And you have to use Windows-esque menus attached to the windows with yet more crude icons.

But they say you can’t judge a book by its cover, so let’s move on.

The main area of GIMP presents you with a window and a message urging you to drag a file in to open it. I tried to drag a png graphic from the desktop several times without any luck. But opening it from the menu was no problem, so we’ll let that one pass.

Since the graphic was quite small, my first thought was to zoom in with a keyboard shortcut. With Photoshop you do this with Command+. With GIMP, you simply use + and – to zoom in and out. It’s not quite that simple, though, because to get at the plus-sign on a keyboard, you have to press shift. The minus-sign doesn’t require this. It’s a bit confusing, but not unprecedented.

Next I needed the colour picker. GIMP has a tool that looks a lot like the one in Photoshop and worked as expected. If you’re using the pencil or paintbrush, you can hold down the Control key to invoke the picker. (In Photoshop, use the option key.)

Switching to various tools in the palette is an odd experience. For example, if you want the pencil, and the window where you’re working is highlighted, a single click won’t do. First you must click on the tool palette to highlight it, then you must click again to choose the pencil. There’s none of this in Photoshop (or any other Mac program that I know of), so you’ll have to get used to it.

Next, of course, I had to choose what size I wanted for the pencil. There’s a bunch of presets, or you can type in the number you want. But honestly, the widget for the presets is so poorly done, it will make your eyes hurt. See below:

GIMP brush widget

I soldiered on, finished my work and this is what I got — the little arrow you see here and beside the “Download Site” links throughout thriftmac.

download arrow style=

So is GIMP as good as Photoshop? No. But if you can’t afford to take part in the bidding at eBay, it’ll do the job. Perhaps the best thing about GIMP is that it is similar enough to Photoshop that you can use it as training for when you have enough cash to take the next step.

Posted Wednesday, January 20, 2010 in

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  1. Hi, I thought you might appreciate some history on the program. I used to use the GIMP when I was a poor university student over a decade ago (man, I feel old).

    Most of the problems you mentioned — besides the program being on the ugly side — are ‘solved’ on the Linux platform (the original birthplace of the GIMP) through the use of focus-follows-mouse. This is a method for windows to come to the foreground by simply mousing over them. This used to be quite normal behaviour, but has somewhat fallen out of fashion lately.

    The GIMP is definitely ‘ported from Linux, and still feels like it on the mac. It’s a shame, because it does have some promise if a talented developer could make it go more native.

    Andy Berdan

  2. Good to know things are better on the Linux side. As for the program’s looks, I’ve often wondered why some of the many talented graphic designers out there don’t take on open source projects as a way of making their mark in the world. It would look good on anyone’s resumé.

    Mark

  3. Hi,

    X Windows subsystem on the Mac can be configured to behave properly with programs like GIMP when clicking into the inactive window. Run any X Window app or just X11.app, and in Preferences select “Click through inactive Windows”. That will do the job.

    Aram

  4. Great tip. There’s also a preference for Focus Follow Mouse, although it’s accompanied by a warning of possible adverse effects.

    Mark

  5. You’re not a very smart person. Just by not working like Photoshop GIMP is worse? I use them both and i know they both do the exactly the same thing and you use the same techniques but using different buttons and clicking on different places. You’ve just made an idiot article. It’s easy to tell something is worse if you don’t know how to work on it.

    Luis Freitas

  6. One must remember that gimp is made by volunteers. I am guessing most is done in their free time. But this is just a guess.

    Mostly I use photoshop first but I always try it later on if I could do it in gimp and usually I can, not always though. But if I can’t usually there is somewhere on the net a plugin ,to download, that can make it possible. I would say most of the time if I can’t do something in GIMP that I could do in Photoshop, I haven’t done enough research on the net for it.

    Gimp is different in use than photoshop. First time I used photshop I could find everything very quickly. With gimp I wasn’t so lucky,it was less user friendly, less intuitive. First time I used it I was just frustrated.
    But the longer one works with a application the better one becomes. I did stick with gimp for a year and it did pay off. It is good to memories the steps you make for every effect you make, that really helps to get down with every application but especially with gimp.

    The open source is great it means you can change it at least if you know how code.

    Although I’m for a open source especially if low on $. One does have to think what does it do to software market. And what does free software do for company’s that are willing to get in to the market. More competition would lower the price but It doesn’t help for beginning software company it makes it harder to sell it if there is already free software available. Is it good to give software for free away, wouldn’t it be better to sell it for at least some symbolic break-even price. Even 50 would be something. Did opensource become a smart way for dumping software on the market.

    This question reminds me of remark Paul Allen once made about Linux. I believe it was when Japanese government switched from windows to Linux because it was free. His reaction was” is this communism “.

    It is a legitimate question is it good for economy to have software for free?
    doesn’t it actually help the established software brands stay dominant and become the only profitable software makers?

    Johnny

  7. Don’t struggle with the shift key for zooming… + and – on the keypad, a small move from the mouse.

    Chris Darby





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