Want Photoshop? Not a Millionaire? Try GIMPshop

February 3, 2009 | Awesome Apps

As I’ve gotten further into the world of blogging, I’ve increasingly had the need for a bit of image manipulation. Due to my absolute lack of skill in this realm, I’m thankful it’s only been a bit.

If you’re in my shoes, and looking for a tool to do some great image manipulation, odds are you’ve given Photoshop a long, hard look. If you’re in my shoes, and a student, odds are you can’t scrape together two nickels for some Ramen- much less the many hundreds of dollars Photoshop costs.

For users like us, there’s GIMPshop. GIMP (which stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program) is the best open-source image editor available, and doesn’t cost a dime. GIMPshop is GIMP, but with the look and feel changed to more closely resemble Photoshop.

GIMPshop’s menus and interface closely resemble that of Photoshop, which I think is a much better design than GIMP’s native one. The similarities also make it easier to switch between Photoshop and GIMPshop than between Photoshop and GIMP, if you’re working on multiple platforms or computers.

You can even use a number of Photoshop plugins to make GIMPshop even better, using a small application called PSPI. GIMPshop looks and feels almost exactly like Photoshop, to the point where most users won’t notice the difference.

The other nice feature of GIMPshop is that it now means you can follow a lot of Photoshop tutorials to get desired effects and results out of your images. There are a ton of resources for Photoshop tutorials, and most of them are either exactly the same or incredibly close with GIMPshop. For a list of Photoshop tutorial sites, check out my post on Make Use Of.

GIMPshop also comes with all the features you’ll love about GIMP: cross-platform usability, endless customization, simple use, and a number of easy ways to customize the look and feel of the application. Since it’s open-source, GIMP is always and constantly improving, and is a great application for basic and intermediate image editing.

GIMPshop is available for Windows and Mac OS X (though only 10.3 and 10.4), and can be installed on Linux with a little work.

GIMPshop is not a perfect application, is slightly outdated (though a Leopard version is reported to be coming), and certainly can’t replicate all the features of Photoshop. What it can do is save you a ton of money, provide a great image editor, and help you convince other people you’ve got Photoshop.

Because you’re a high-roller like that.

What do you use for image editing?

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Jeff

Interesting. As a photoshop non-beginner user, I think it can do barely anything you wanted to do. However, GIMP looks good at what it offers. I'll give it a try ;-)

PSD To Wordpress

Photoshop is by far the best! However, I use GIMP as well.

Oli

Not used Gimp for a while, although powerfull I found it really quirky. Been struggling by with old versions of PSP and paint.net. Will give Gimp another look.

Abhijeet

I am looking for such blog links that can be treated as reference while using GIMP, please post those links here. I am certainly coming back to get hold of them.

davep3355

Quasi-difficult to say. As a Photoshop user (which I sort of am now), it's easier to use GIMPshop. But, when I started, I'd have to say GIMP by itself. I'm definitely a fan, but I think you're right- if you're into GIMP, there's probably little incentive to switch to a new interface.

deepikaur

Gave it a shot today, and I must say that I'm somewhat impressed by the Photoshop rendition. Is it enough for me to become a full-fledged GIMPshop user? Definitely not. Then again, I don't have Photoshop on my personal PC. Like you said, GIMPshop does build a great bridge for full-on Photoshoppers, but it's just not going there for me. I'd rather stick with just GIMP. Which do you find easier to use: GIMP or GIMPshop?

davep3355

I hear you- Photoshop's definitely the gold standard. I'm no expert, but the transition between GIMPshop and Photoshop was pretty solid to me. Have you tried it yet? What'd you think?

deepikaur

I've been using GIMP for quite a while for various at-home projects, but I would much rather be using Photoshop, since that's what I've become more comfortable with as a Graphics student.

Never heard of GIMPshop though. Will give it a spin, thanks. :)

Shawn

Wow Gimp has really changed. I downloaded and tested out years ago. It's certainly an option for folks on a budget. Now if I could only find a FREE WYSIWYG application that's like Dreamweaver.

carmen

Holy Cow! I've been debating photoshop's $700 price tag for a few months now. You've rescued me from my own insanity. I'll have to give this a try.

davep3355

That's one of the awesome things about GIMPshop- you can use the Photoshop tutorials! It's great.

Leah

I use Gimp and it does everything. The only problem is that there aren't as many Gimp tutorials online as Photoshop ones.

davep3355

Totally true. Short of a few, high-level features, there's nothing GIMP can't do. I've used it for a while, and find it slightly more complicated than Photoshop, but every bit as useful- that's why I think GIMPshop is so cool.

Looking forward to that link!

UK Money Saving

I can bet anyone on GIMP's enormous capabilities for zero cost. I have used it for my small project of creating logos (transparent ones) and with little help from couple of GIMP dedicated blogs, I could get one beautiful logo created.

I don't remember the blog, need to check my bookmarking profiles, but there is a very nice blog dedicated to GIMP tutorials. Will come back when I find the link.