I have GIMP installed on my own laptop. I'm not massively into graphics and photo manipulation, so for anything graphical I need to do (which largely pertains to less complex web graphics for applications), it does the job and does it very well.

My sister is a graphic designer though, and swears by Adobe products, mostly for the workflow features.

mou87 wrote:

I remember there used to be a graphic interface mod for Gimp mimicking Photoshop.

GIMPShop? http://www.gimpshop.com/ [link is to free software modification, btw]

Dunno which platform you use, on Windows I'd have two recommendations - try Picasa 3 and Paint.NET. Both are freebies.

Picasa is completely photo oriented, it's got a very funky non-standard interface but unlike Gimp, mere humans can learn it. I use it occasionally, works very well in some situations.

Paint.NET is more drawing oriented than photo oriented but if you look under Effects -> Photo there are basic tools for removing red-eye, softening portraits, sharpening and such.

It's very rare that a single application will have all the right features to get everything done. That's a fantasy that software vendors try to sell people on. Sometimes you need a screwdriver, sometimes you need a hammer. There's a reason they don't sell hammers with phillips head bits at the end of the handle. Same applies to software.

(how is it that I just *know* some smartass is going to find some outfit that sells screwhammers or hammerdrivers or whatever )

I just use GIMP simply because I mostly do traditional drawing/painting and hardly ever do extensive photo manipulation. GIMP is very hard to use though in my opinion, so I kind of wish that I have Photoshop.

I'll definitely look into Picasa 3 and Paint.NET though.

squareroot36 wrote:

I just use GIMP simply because I mostly do traditional drawing/painting and hardly ever do extensive photo manipulation. GIMP is very hard to use though in my opinion, so I kind of wish that I have Photoshop. I'll definitely look into Picasa 3 and Paint.NET though.

If you're looking for artsy stuff, try ArtRage - the starter edition is free. Very Mac-flavored but it works really well with my Bamboo pen and touch.

I still keep a Windows XP virtual machine around so that I can keep using my ancient version of Fractal Painter (before they got bought out by you-know-who)

I use Photoshop. There are plenty of easy tutorials on youtube to get you started on editing pictures extremely well. After you start to get the hang of it there are no limitations. The filters, modifications on brushes, easy sun setting effect and even make realistic hair in less then an hour or two. Ridiculously powerful and even greater with a tablet. If you can get it I would recommend it over everything. If not you can use GIMP, it is less than that of Photoshop but you get what you pay for.

I don't use anything besides Photoshop.

I use GIMP because it is free and not to mention that there are many plugins, scripts, and extensions to download and install to make it very close to Photoshop in features. Another good thing about GIMP is that you can install Photoshop brushes without any problems whatsoever and it consumes less RAM on Linux but it consumes too much on Windows.

I have GIMP and I love it. I do lots of random stuff from editing/touching up photos to making random things. I have used Photoshop and I found that GIMP was a lot easier to use (although it's probably because I've been using GIMP for a year and a half before I ever tried PS). I do like Adobe's products... I just don't have the money for it right now. If I ever win the lottery though, I'd definitely spring for the Creative Suite. =P

The more I use ArtRage the more I like it - and with a free trial it's hard to go wrong (studio version is only like $30 or so, a screaming deal)

I also recently discovered Inkscape. It's a free, open source vector drawing program (like Corel Draw) that seems to work fairly well. It's no speed demon - even on an i5 with 16GB of RAM and an HD6950 it can take a long time for some operations but it gets the job done.

http://inkscape.org/

I ​L♥√ع Photoshop, GIMP is complicated, and Corel draw and picasa Ȋ̝̊̅‎​ƨ̣̇ also cool