photo: what is another alternative for adobe photoshop?
By merraine1428
@merraine1428 (445)
Philippines
August 30, 2010 4:07am CST
i once had adobe photoshop, i loved it. but because my computer had been invaded with viruses, the programmer advised me to reformat it, i agreed, all my files including this adobe photoshop was lost. i had no installer for it, i tried to search the net, found one, but its a trial version, i hate trial versions, so i uninstalled it.
one day, i googled for some other softwares that could be used as an adobe photoshop alternative, the best that i found was GIMP, its free, so wow!. i've been using this for quite some time but since im new to it, i can only do simple edits.
5 responses
@owlwings (43897)
• Cambridge, England
30 Aug 10
I use The Gimp and Paint.net. Both are free and both support layers. Paint.net is somewhat quicker and easier to use and quite powerful; the Gimp has (it claims) 95% of the functionality of Adobe Photoshop.
I used to use Paintshop Pro but since it became part of Corel and became nearly on a level with Photoshop, I haven't bothered with it.
For use with a Graphics tablet (digital painting) I am testing MyPaint (free) and ArtRage (cut-down trial version free, otherwise it's $20, $40 or $80, depending on version and level). Artrage looks like a kid's toy but is actually very powerful and easy to work with, especially with a good pressure-sensitive tablet.
I also use Inkscape (freeware) for vector (scalable) drawings and that can also vectorise bitmaps (which is a good and more flexible alternative to posterization).
All of the above are useful There are many tutorials for the Gimp available which will show you how to use it to as good effect as Photoshop and many professional photographers swear by it (though most probably use Photoshop because it's an 'industry standard').
@owlwings (43897)
• Cambridge, England
31 Aug 10
I find Artrage great fun to play with. There are quite a few tutorials/demonstrations on YouTube. To be quite clear: it is not an image editor - it is a painting/drawing program which really does need a graphics tablet (you can work with a mouse but the control you have over the brush is like trying to paint with a 10 foot pole!)
It allows you to trace or paint over a photo and to produce a 'painted' look (my avatar was done in Artrage).
For basic (and not so basic) image editing, I find I use Paint.Net the most, followed by Gimp (for more advanced editing). You can, of course, do freehand drawing or tracing in either of those, too, (again, it's best to use a graphics tablet) but Artrage has some very cool 'painterly' effects ('tubes' or 'brushes' in Photoshop terms).
@merraine1428 (445)
• Philippines
31 Aug 10
sorry, i have to look at your profile to be able to see your avatar clearly,,, ^^
wow! artrage is really cool then, but since i dont have the tablet, i'll have to cope up with the mouse,,, ^^
@merraine1428 (445)
• Philippines
31 Aug 10
from the ones you mentioned, i think i'd give Artrage a try, i want user friendly editors, thx so much for your response,,, ^^
@nixiecole (358)
• Philippines
30 Aug 10
i suggest corel draw or paint. i used to use it,and a lot of establishments use it. its almost the same as photoshop so i think you would not have a hard time adjusting to it.
@akopoaysi (739)
• Philippines
30 Aug 10
you can use macromedia fireworks. it is good too. im using both. :)
@loktibrad (107)
• Slovak Republic
11 Sep 10
I´ve been using GIMP for two weeks but I totaly dont like that program. Yes it is free and no one can be frustrated it is not as photoshop but I realy enjoy control in PS and the gimp gives me impression it is from another century. I mean nothing can compare to PS, nothing from free tools out there. Yes you can achieve neraly the same effect as in PS but it may take longer time because you are not used to use it.
