GIMP versus Photoshop
If you’re in the field of graphic or web design, quality image editing or design software is like your bread and butter. Whether you’re tinkering with Facebook images or crafting production-quality designs, the right software can breathe life to inspiration.
GIMP and Adobe Photoshop are two of the best image-editing programs available, and they each have some unique advantages. In this article we investigate the pros and cons of each program to help you decide which is best for your business.
GIMP pros and cons
GIMP (or GNU Image Manipulation Program) is an open source image editing software that’s considered by some to be the free Adobe Photoshop alternative. The fact that GIMP freely distributed will be music to the ears of many an aspiring designer wishing to hone their skills.
As with similar design software, GIMP is used for image retouching and editing, free-form drawing, resizing, cropping, photo montages, converting between different image formats and more specialised tasks. While it doesn’t have as many features as Adobe Photoshop, the GIMP community is constantly expanding it feature set with plugin after plugin.
In terms of hardware requirements, GIMP needs much less resources than Adobe Photoshop (i.e. RAM and disk space). GIMP is available on Mac, Windows and Linux. Adobe Photoshop is not available for Linux users.
Adobe Photoshop pros and cons
Adobe Photoshop is considered to be the world’s best imaging and design software. As an industry-standard tool that’s been around since 1988.
As a commercial solution, Adobe Photoshop has many more features than GIMP. But of course it comes with a price. You used to be able to purchase a boxed version for roughly $700. Now Adobe Photoshop is only available through a monthly subscription, anywhere from $10-$80. This may not sound like much, but does add up over time.
In terms of hardware, Adobe Photoshop requires 1BG of RAM and 2.5 hard drive space, versus 0.256 GB and 0.02 BG respectively for GIMP. And, as mentioned earlier, Adobe Photoshop is available on Mac, Window and online, but not Linux.
In the know with iFactory
We’re very aware that it’s unfair to compare free software against a costly proprietary one. We know it pits a free, community-centric solution against a commercial, industry-standard. And yet, it’s a comparison that many digital start-ups and budding designers are making. So, we hope this article has helped.
Contact iFactory today on 07 3844 0577 to find out more about our entire suite of web solutions including website design, app development, digital marketing and more.
