woo-hoo!
For any of you who are into retouching or manipulation of photographs, there is awesome and amazing news you should know about, especially if you abhor the pricing of Adobe Photoshop. GIMP has recently announced, on top of their new release of 2.8 with optional full single window mode, a development version able to incorporate full 16- and 32-bit picture editing, along with EXR and HDR layering. SWEEEEET!!!
If you aren't too excited or wondering what all the giddy is, I suggest you download a version from their stable release download page for your correct OS (unix/linux, windows, mac) and try it out. There is also an installable Help, or try F1 for context help in the program itself, and for extreme die-hards there is 'The Gimp Bible' floating out there somewhere in pdf land too..
So you might also be wondering well why would you want to do such a thing? the program you have works 'just fine' you keep telling yourself? I'm sure that like most others that I have talked to about their editing programs, that same program is some freebie with nowhere near the power or capability found in Gimp. After myself having used those same other programs, and found them lacking in either editing, speed, fluidity, or stability issues, I keep finding myself rolling back to my lovable affable Gimp, always cuddling it like a lost love I somehow did wrong to. Adobe Photoshop I have tried, but even Elements drags a lower-end PC to a near- absolute halt. Why deal with self-torture when the closest thing to Adobe is a soft warm fuzzy GIMP?
But if you like your proggie, stick wid'it... just me and my thoughts man.. me and my happy thoughts..
Until they overhaul the gimp user interface I don't see them getting much traction. Last time I used it it took me 10 minutes to figure out how to crop haha
ReplyDeleteMy image editing skills rank somewhere around my rocket science skills though so my word is not worth a lot.
I completely understand about the interface, it does take getting used to.
ReplyDeleteIt's frustrating esp if you come over from using adobe ps, buttons are diff, but overall things are actually simpler in my opinion. I agree also because the buttons were revised so much they were almost completely diff to the 2.2 version I've been using for like 4 years. Having all crazy colors and wild extra buttons on the main tools is confusing to me I admit, and even worse because I don't think you can remove the ones here you don't want!
But I think with the new turn-around times the code-crew has, the efficiency of adding such options in a timely manner is extremely beneficial. And unlike Adobe, anyone can input ideas or problems to the team and it's actually resolved in some manner.
And believe it or not, GIMP is nearly the 2nd in lead in all photo editors worldwide, if I recall correctly. PaintShop Pro is about the only contender after Adobe, but it costs about the same as Elements and does about the same. Personally, I'd rather not spend another 100 or 750 USD every time a new version is needed to keep up. I used to be seriously frustrated with the turnaround in Gimp versions, but it seems now the group has far, FAR more momentum esp since it is has been an active Google Summer of Code Group.
The best place to start figuring out Gimp usage is to download the Help file exe, or view the online version. Even though it's 2.6, it's still viable. Also don't forget the in-program context help ('F1' key, and mouse rollover buttons).