GIMP vs Photoshop

Way back in late 40s, people debated about the superiority of a pocket watch over the wrist watch. Even now, we debate about a notebook vs PC! The fact to bring forward this subject, is the heated argument that we witness regarding GIMP vs Photoshop. Every invention naturally gets challenged by an equally better invention and the exciting field of graphic designs is not an exception to this fact. Well, an expert might have an excellent eye to determine which is the best of the two, but such debates confuse a layman, big time! Hence, this article is an effort of lending you an advise when it comes to selecting the best amongst Photoshop vs GIMP. But before that, let's get to know what are the Photoshop and GIMP, in the first place!

What is GIMP?

GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program, which is a free raster graphic editing program. Along with image editing and retouching, several other features of GIMP are - free form drawing, image resizing, photo cropping, multiple image combining, image format conversions and creating basic animated images in the .GIF format. Though GIMP was created for UNIX, it now works great with other operating systems like Linux, Microsoft Windows, Solaris, Mac OS X and FreeBSD. It has used three GUI (Graphical User Interface) tool kits since its inception. Since the time of its launch, the GIMP has always been a subject of regular reviews and criticism as well, which is a common thing for such a popular application. It is the same fact that leads to the comparison between GIMP vs Photoshop.

What is Photoshop?

Adobe Photoshop is a graphic editing software which is developed by the Adobe Systems. There are two versions in which the Photoshop is available, namely - Basic and Extended, wherein Extended version has a lot more features than its counterpart. Photoshop is a software which is used for media editing, authoring and animation. A Photoshop Document (.PSD) can store an image in almost all the available formats in Photoshop, which includes the layers like color spaces, masks, transparency, ICC profiles, spot colors, alpha channels, text, duotone, and clipping paths settings. This fact makes a Photoshop file far better than say - .ESP or .GIF formats. Photoshop can also read as well as write the vector and raster image formats like Adobe Firework, .ESP, .GIF, .JPEG and .PNG. This fact gives Photoshop a slight advantage when it comes to the debate between GIMP vs Photoshop.

How to Choose Between Photoshop and GIMP

The best thing that you can do is to check for the online reviews for both the products before making up your mind for any one of the both. However, there are a few things that you can do as your 'homework' about both these excellent software.

Requirement and Compatibility
First up, determine your requirements and the purpose for which you need these software. If you want a software in order to make some minor changes in the digital photography images like removing the red eye and resizing the images, then both these software are too advanced for such minor issues. But if you are an aspirant graphic designer or have a keen interest in photo manipulation and graphic arts, then these are some of the best and powerful software for you! Secondly, way before selecting either GIMP or Photoshop, check the compatibility of both the software with the software and hardware system of your PC. The best source to do that is to search on the official websites of both GIMP and Adobe Photoshop. In case your system is not compatible with them both, then you may need to upgrade it to facilitate one of these software.

End Result and Technical Support
Firstly, decide what exactly do you want to do with the end product of either one of these programs. Do you want it for web or for print? Or for both? The comparison tells that both the programs are nice for web but, if you want it for printing which involves critical color works and the CMYK color models, then Photoshop is the better choice. GIMP has the CMYK support, but it lacks the accuracy and you also need to download it separately for GIMP. Secondly, consider the kind of web search skills that you have. Understand that being an Adobe offspring, Photoshop comes with an easy technical support; while GIMP is an open source software and hence, you may need to spend a lot of time for finding the solutions on the web - of course, if you are not well versed with the web searching fundamentals. Finally, cost is the only point where the GIMP brush passes Photoshop. You see, GIMP is a free to download software while you need to spend a whooping USD 600 and more for downloading Photoshop! According to the reviews, many people suggest that one should download both the software and then decide which is the best for you.

Well, if you will ask me to choose between GIMP and Photoshop, then I would rate both of them equally. It is just the question of time and money. GIMP is equipped with all the inbuilt advanced features of Photoshop, the only thing is that you need to download them separately. While Photoshop is a bit high-end, but it is smarter! What more can I say? Think about it and choose the best!