GIMP Version: 2.8.14
Operating System: Windows
GIMP Experience: New User

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Does Gimp has an equivalent to the 'place' tool in Photoshop? if yes, how do I access it?

What is the Place tool?

As Curley (Three stoogers) says..... "If there's no place around this place, I reckon this must be the place, I reckon". Nuck, nuck, nuck....

Perhaps the following from Photoshop User Guide may be helpful in addressing this question ??

Place files-

The Place command adds a photo, art, or any Photoshop-supported file as a Smart Object to your document. Smart Objects can be scaled, positioned, skewed, rotated, or warped without degrading the image.

1-Open the Photoshop document that is the destination for the placed art or photo.

2-Do one of the following:

A)(Photoshop) Choose File > Place, select the file you want to place, and click Place.

B) (Bridge) Select the file and choose File > Place > In Photoshop.

Further instructions may be accessed at-

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using ... files.html

I don't know, drag and drop or copy and paste into a new layer would give the same results as that explanation. Doesn't seem like much of a feature to me.

A smart object is a feature in Photoshop that lets you change the effects of filters.
Its another option for non destructive editing.
For example Gaussian Blur is a destructive filter in PS, however, when you convert your image into a smart object, you can go back and change the radius of the Blur whenever you want.

Whenever I use a filter like Gaussian Blur, I first duplicate the layer and apply the filter to the top layer. I then use the opacity slider to fine-tune the amount of filter I want.

There is only one PS tool I miss and that's the crop tool. Of all the image editors I've tried, non have a crop tool as good.

Smart Object definitely enables you to apply nondestructive filtering in Photoshop, and it is their workaround to not being able to have Krita-esque/Affinity Photo-esque filter mask. Both of these programs enables you to apply filter masks to layers which can be blur, dodge, burn, guassian blur, noise, unsharp, and so on. In Photoshop, without Smart Object, there is no way to apply a filter mask to layers. Smart Object is another workaround to not having instanced layers which Krita has, and maybe Affinity Photo. And also, you are on point on what is nondestructive editing.



That's a workaround, but you are only affecting opacity of the filtered layer, but you aren't changing variables. If you want to reduce from 1000 px blur to 5 px blur, you have to blur again with more clicks than if you were to have filter layer/filter mask.

As for the title of the thread, place tool closest equivalent would be 'import as layer', but it's not quite the same thing. In Photoshop, you can go to the placed layer, and edit it within another window, and make changes back again. So, you will have to make changes within GIMP.