I'm just curious before I get totally wrapped up with learning to use GIMP. What are the main differences between Photoshop and GIMP apart from the fact that PS is ridiculously expensive? In my opinion, becaues GIMP is free and very powerful Adobe should knock down the price of PS to around $150 or less to stay competitive. I've been reading some general articles about GIMP and the gist of these articles is that the video game industry is starting to recognize the validity of GIMP as a serious contender to PS and most game studios don't care which package you're proficient at as long as your portfolio looks great. Studios like Ubisoft, Blizzard, Rockstar, and Runic Games don't really care much about that as long as you have the fundamental skills.

Gimp was never intended to compete with Photo Shop but if you want a few reasons i can think of here goes.....

Open source code.Users can build and distribute filters, and scripts for Gimp versions anytime.
Python, SCM, and compiled binaries.Soon Javascript will be added to that list.
Gimps additional filters are genuinely free of charge.And there are a slew of them.
Very nice ones.
http://registry.gimp.org/

Also the next step for Gimp is non destructive editing with GEGL.
It's already implemented in Gimp-2.6.11, and more in Gimp-2.7.3 (newest unstable version)

Another thing i love about Gimp is it's completely customizable through it's rc files.

Also you can run just about any 8bf filter in Gimp with PSPI, and/or Rob A.'s Shellout python script.
I can even run Paint Dot Nets filters now.
And oh yeah it's FREE!

Currently GIMP only can work with 8-bits per Color channel (PS can do 32-bits per Color channel). PS can also do non-destructive editing and currently GIMP can't. GEGL promises both higher bit and non-destructive editing, but so far even with the 2.7x beta, that's not been implemented yet. Still, the good news is that rarely will you ever need more the 8-bit editing, and, if you are a self taught gonzo editor like me, not-destructive or lossless (hate both terms; prefer self documented) editing is so over rated. May help you if you need to back track, but otherwise no benifit to me. Also, GIMP lets you do a few things in parallel (like if you run a filter and it is still running, you can duplicate a layer while the filter is still running; do this quite a lot; lol). PS can only run one option at a time (so GIMP can do things PS can't).

I don't even know what that means, Lyle. Hehehe! Why do you need to worry about bits and editing when all you're doing is creating art? If you need to edit a layer you just need the eraser tool like in real life! As long as you can get the same results or better than you would have with PS I'm all for using GIMP instead. My only concern is if everyone in the office is using PS and you're the only one using GIMP will your files be compatible? And if you can recreate the same cool filters that PS has with GIMP and achieve the same results that would be awesome. I recently watched a speed painting video of an artist using PS and he was demonstrating how to do digital fire with a custom brush he made and it was very impressive. His fire looked very realistic. I sure hope that same level of quality is possible with GIMP.

Is GIMP a threaded app? I have a 4x2 core processor, but GIMP only uses one at a time.



I think if you do enough photo-processing, low bit colors give unwanted artifacts. I don't know much about the photo-manipulation world - so I can't give details on that. Plus, everyone creates art in their own way That said, I'm trying to wean myself off of using 100+ layers. My last two drawings used 53 and 40.



If you export to .png, .jpg, etc, those files are certainly compatible. I don't think .xcf's can be read by Photoshop, or Photoshops raw files (not sure what they're called) can be read by GIMP. Don't quote me on that... I've never used PS in my life. Basically, I don't think you can transfer layer data between the two programs.

In my opinion the quality is the same.You can also create your own brushes in Gimp.Animated or regular.
Many brushes come with Gimp Paint Studio along with tons of presets.These make Gimp very, very powerful as a digital art program.As i am sure you are already aware of after studying the videos.

The truth is if you need a plugin or brush or filter to accomplish a task in your digital work...chances are Gimp has it in the repository, you can download it, or a user will create it for you or already has.

Just search or ask.

Gimp can read many files including SVG and PSD.
It will not import layer styles however.

Only a handful of layer data are compatible with each other merrak and even then, the results can be quite different. Also, to use layers between the two apps, you have to save in PS format obviously.

As for multi-threading, I can only vouch that you can do a few minor things simultaneously as mentioned such as duplicate a layer and adjust opacity slider and things like that. I just tried this; you can run G'MIC on one layer and run another GIMP plugin on another layer simultaneously; now eat your heart out PS. lol

lol ... Actually with Shellout you can run any other programs filters...*cough* ... including PhotoShop itself.
Sooooo...i guess Gimp does handle layer styles... heheh

That's true if you have photoshop Rod (which I do). lol

You have to imagine my best Wizard of Oz's wicked witch voice..

How about a ;little fire scarecrow...<insert>wicked witch cackling here</insert>

Rod, I'm almost sure I know how you did that !

And there is that dude right there, who made one my most used things in GIMP G'MIC! G'MIC is a large package of filters basically.

If you don't mind doing command prompt work, G'MIC can also work with higher bit images. GIMP G'MIC is still only for 8-bit per color channel (and alpha; forgot to mention that earlier) though. Still like the fire preset David and that's a cool skull Rod.

GIMP would be naked without G'MIC...

Many think that use a professional tool may help to get better results,but except for few professionals that dedicated a lot of time and effort to learn, it is usally true the contrary:

if you are not a experienced photographer you have higher chances to get a good photo with a point-and shoot camera that with a professional digital reflex, because a point-and shoot will try to give the best automatic result, while a pro reflex would allow to do better ( if you know how), but would also allow to do worse.

Same for Photoshop or even gimp, most of commune retouch (apply automatic level and/or contrast,fine tune saturation,color balance,gamma crop,resize, convert to other format, add a simple frame ...) are better done with more simple tool (as Picasa, Xnview, irfanview ) .

Gimp or photoshop would not do that better, but would allow other things impossible with picasa or xnview,
( as create realistic photo-collage , or add big breast and a sexy make up to Barak Obama and mustachesand macho muscle to his wife, or...here a endless list)

It's amazing how, in really a short time (few years) G'MIC is really now so important to the way I do retouching. I was a big fan of GREYCstoration long (years) before I even knew who David was. I still, until recently, used an older version of GREYC for fake smudging (didn't like the new version), but now, I played with the Anisotrophic preset to get an even better fake smudge effect so now, G'MIC is pretty much the King for me. Again, G'MIC really needs to be made an integral part of GIMP itself like a few of the other presets that come with GIMP. It's that big a deal. Any GIMP developers here to listen?

Yes but am i sure how i did that!

But yes i did use GMIC to show Eric how easy you can create a realistic fire in Gimp.

Thanks David!

Here's the video about digital fire that I was referring to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CopmBXDR ... ideo_title

It's more fantasy than real but it looks cool enough. So where to you get this G'mic filter package? I'm sure I can just Bing it and find it easily.

I just added the GPS add-on and it changed the look of my interface a bit. I experimented a little and figured out how to detach tool sets and reorganize tabs in my Gimp windows. It would be nice if you could dock the windows to the left and right edges of your screen.

I was getting used to the keyboard shortcuts from Mypaint but Gimp doesn't use the same shortcuts. They seem so much more logically placed in mypaint than in Gimp. I know I can change them but I don't like messing up the default settings. Anyways, Gimp looks even better now that I changed the interface colors to a cool black and grey color scheme. It's much easier on the eyes now.

There is a button that will restore the default shortcuts, so that they cannot be lost. Besides, what good are the shortcuts if you don't remember or use them because they're laid out poorly?

I find it's much easier to learn about GIMP by just reading through the tutorials on the official site. I just needed to know how the most important tools work so I'm spending the rest of the day reading and experimenting.