Gimpified

[John_SD]

Have any of you guys used Gimp? What are your thoughts on the product?

Last night I downloaded Gimp from its .org site and so far like what I see! While I have not even begun to scratch the surface, I can tell you that this is a very robust product. It is free, of course, and is said by many to be the equal of Photoshop.It accommodates many a plugin too, and will handle RAW files. Prior complaints about a lack of documentation seems to have been addressed, as there are many tutorials, books, videos and Udemy and Lynda courses available for Gimp. 

The initial execution took about 3 minutes as it performs a search and install of fonts, but after that all subsequent executions were rapid. 

I went with Gimp because of its reputation and because I do not want to become chained to Adobe's subscription model whereby I must send in a monthly tribute to the corporation for the remainder of my life so that I may continue to rent my own photos and work on them.

I like Gimp's layout! It is a three-panel product at launch time, with the Toolbox on the left, main work panel in the middle, and Layers/Brushes on the right. 

There is no way I could train myself on this product in a vacuum, but the internal user documentation in version 2.8.22 is good. At some point, I may pursue some Udemy courses. That said, this is not a product that I believe I can master in short order. Substantial time and effort will obviously be required to really become Gimpified, but it is a cool piece of software. I like it so far!

[diverhank]

I used to use Gimp about 10 years ago but the lack of readily available training and documentation caused me to stop using it. 

Personally I found it to be almost like photoshop - highly capable and for free...Can't beat free.  I still don't think the documentation is good enough now or am I wrong?  If I am, I might give it a try again.

[John_SD]

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@diverhankwrote:

I used to use Gimp about 10 years ago but the lack of readily available training and documentation caused me to stop using it. 

Personally I found it to be almost like photoshop - highly capable and for free...Can't beat free.  I still don't think the documentation is good enough now or am I wrong?  If I am, I might give it a try again.

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I would encourage another look at the product. For open source, the documentation is pretty good and refined.

Forget YouTube. Most of the Gimp videos I've found there are rubbish. Typical dorks blathering away while they struggle to make their point. Most are winging it off the top of their heads with no syllabus and zero ability to instruct. 

Have a look at docs.gimp.org It is substantial. 

My plan is to use the internal documentation for now (Help-->User Manual) It is fairly extensive once you step into it and navigate from topic to topic. 

I think you will be pleasantly surprised. 

EDIT: OK, Diverhank, I just ordered "Gimp 2.8 for Photographers: Image Editing with Open Source Software" This will surely cause v3.0 to be released any moment now LOL. 

[ebiggs1]

Only thing I can say is Gimp is not PS.