GIMP

Opmerkingen: Whereas some people consider GIMP as a toy software, or a cheap (free) Photoshop replacement, it is not. Instead, GIMP has proven to be a capable, professional software that does not want to be a mere Photoshop clone. On the contrary, they do have their own roadmap, own shortcuts and
their own user interface, and even some successful plugins and features of its own (such as resynthesizer) have been later integrated in Photoshop. Whereas some consider it as being difficult to learn or not user-friendly, it is in fact a proof that it follows its own path to success.
While I admit that from time to time I do miss some of Photoshop features, like non-destructive operations or basic vector operations, I am confident that GIMP fits in the great majority user cases without compromising final results.

Pluspunten: I have been using GIMP for many years for my image editing projects (both, pet projects and professional projects) and I have come to realize that it features such an enormous variety of toolboxes, filters, options... that allow any type of image editing, even really complex ones, with impeccable results. Consequently, there is no need to switch to other software like Photoshop or the like. Not to mention that it is a multi-plattform Free/Libre OpenSource Software. Some features I like the most of GIMP
- Multi-plattform: available for Linux, Windows, Mac, portable...
- FLOSS
- Customizable user interface
- Selection and manipulation tools (like Unified Transform tool)
- Real-time edition
- Professional results Additionally, recently GIMP has seen a major improvement on user interface that makes it even easier (and appealing) to use.

Minpunten: - Small development team with small budget: as a result development happens at a slow pace, even though developers do have great ideas and roadmap.
- Lacks non-destructive filters/effects like in Photoshop
- Lacks some vector operations (only works with bitmaps)
- While there is plenty of documentation and tutorials, most image editing tutorials and manuals are addressed to Photoshop only, and whereas in most cases the same techniques can be reproduced/adapted, it requires extra effort that some users do not want to make.
- The fact that it is not so broadly used as Photoshop may be a problem if collaborating with others, even though GIMP opens and saves Photoshop's native file format (although, admittedly, some filters/effects may be lost).

Opmerkingen: Overall, I have had nothing short of an enjoyable experience using GIMP over the past few years. It is versatile enough that I can use it for everything from making flyers and posters to making thumbnails and title card art for YouTube and Facebook videos.
For someone with a limited budget and even more limited technical knowledge when I began, I could not be happier with GIMP and still use it to this day for ninety percent of my projects.

Pluspunten: GIMP offers quite a bit as far as options and competes with some programs out there that can cost sixty dollars or more. When I began using the program, I was brand new to graphic design and generally making artwork and editing visual media on a PC. Through the use of tutorials and other sources that I was able to find on the official forums for GIMP, I was able to learn the program in about half of the time that it has taken me to learn other, lesser programs.
Along with great customer support and tutorials, the interface on GIMP is much easier to get the hang of for beginners and the more time that you put into learning the various functions, the more GIMP grows with your skill level and on top of providing various tutorials, the GIMP community is one of the best communities that I have ever interacted with. Amongst the free editing programs that I have used and even amongst ones that I have paid for, GIMP has been by far the easiest and most reliable one. All of the work that I produce with it has a consistent level of quality and a lot of the functions provided by GIMP have been helpful in helping me to understand more about using techniques. All in all, I would say that for the price, GIMP is an amazing program for a beginner or someone on a budget.

Minpunten: The thing that I like least about GIMP is probably that in a recent update, a few of the features that I had grown to depend on were taken out which resulted in taking the time to figure out how to proceed. It wasn't a deal-breaking feature, just something that I liked to save time but being that I didn't use it outside of one or two occasions months apart, it wasn't anything that I was willing to stop using GIMP over and I found out how to proceed and get what I needed to do accomplished through searching for help amongst the forums that are set up.

Opmerkingen: With Gimp I am creating weekly flyers with products from our company. We can save an enormous amount of money by doing this by ourselves and not some external design company.

Pluspunten: Gimp is an open-source image manipulation program what means it is absolutely free to use. Also, you will receive regular updates which add new features and fixes bugs including security issues. It has all the abilities that for example Adobe Photoshop and other commercial programs have. It can offer even more because it is easily extensible and flexible for every environment with lots of great community plugins and scripts.

Minpunten: The user interface of Gimp is not the most beautiful one but its function is very good. It has a lot of menus and submenus so for beginners it may be a little harder to achieve some more complex operations such as retouch of a face or double exposure. Also, compatibility with Adobe file formats exists but don't except that it works perfectly. Most of the time it works flawlessly if you are opening the document from older versions of Photoshop because newer version needs some updating and updates occur approximately every 2 months which is still faster than what Adobe is doing with their Photoshop.

Opmerkingen: For business applications, it's hard to recommend GIMP for any serious work. While capable, investing in more user-friendly and functional software would be better overall.

Pluspunten: GIMP is an image manipulation program in the same vein as Adobe Photoshop, with many of the same features and tools to allow you to get very similar results to its more professional counterparts. There are many benefits to being free open source software. On top of serving GIMP for free, the code freely available for viewing and modification. Having many decentralized developers means that many improvements such as features and bug-fixes happen quickly. So long as there are people passionate about the project, development will continue. Also, documentation and tutorials are plentiful for GIMP, as the community for this program is very passionate. Simple searches will yield basic start-up tutorials as well as advanced tutorials for more complicated tasks. GIMP development stagnated for a few years, but with more recent development GIMP has made strides to become more modernized and easy to use. In earlier days of GIMP, it wasn't even possible to draw a circle without a significant number of steps, but this and much more has been added to the program!

Minpunten: GIMP is not as intuitive as competitors like Photoshop, requiring scripting and additional steps to accomplish certain functions. If you plan to become a designer or graphics artist and need to do image manipulation professionally, then GIMP will hinder your abilities to do so. Software parity is important in the professional world, and while GIMP can handle .PSD files it would be better to just use the first party application that the rest of the industry is using. GIMP gains a lot of leeway for being free, since there is no development being backed by a major company. The UI is comparatively clunky and features less accessible compared to paid alternatives. Do not think that you'll be getting the same results as easily in GIMP as you would in other programs.

Opmerkingen: Generally, GIMP is an excellent alternative open-source editing platform for professionals. It's free availability on all operating systems enable users to work seamlessly.

Pluspunten: I have been using GIMP for a few years now. Earlier on, my experience with this software was not quite right. Now that I am more advanced in graphics and photo edits, I have come to appreciate this open open-source image editing platform. Believe me, when I say this software is excellent, it is because the results are impeccable. GIMP has it all! Its excellent array of features are so good that they can rival adobe photoshop capabilities. These features allow you to tune photos, images and create an artwork of your own. As a graphic designer, you will be able to seamlessly crop images, make colour adjustments, customises brushes and adjust gradients among others editing. Here are some of the advantages of using Gimp over other image editing software. 1.It has incredible, and quality features making it the best among open -source programs 2.Single-window mode operation which is great for single pc operation. 3.GIMP is 100% free. 4.It supports plenty of image formats such as GIF and PDF. Additionally, GIMP is customizable such that you can add and remove menus or icons on the fly. 5.It is easily extensible to ease image manipulation with the third party. 6.Last but not least, GIMP works efficiently on all major operating systems. Whether you choose Linux or windows, results are always impeccable.

Minpunten: the script-fu is not user-friendly. GIMP lacks intuition on new users and can make their experience pretty cumbersome. Some filters and effects don't explain or guide how the image should be modified. It would be awesome if it would support PSD photoshop images. It does not open some files such a JPEG.