A free, downloadable photo-editing program?

[TNH]

I would really like to have a good photo editing program for my computer. What I have now is pretty much worthless. I would like something that does a good job, has a lot of tools, and that you download off of the internet. (Preferably for free!)

I've heard about Gimp, (you download it, and it is free) and I was wondering if it is any good? Do any of you have it? They say that it's comparable to Photoshop. Is there any other editing programs like Gimp that are better?

I would really like some help. Thank you, everyone for advice!!

[Skoropada]

I have used GIMP some time ago, and yes, it's very powerful and its free.

There are several users around here that do their post processing in GIMP.

[4umfreak]

Why not try it? After-all, it's free. I use it all the time. I'm not a pro graphics guy an my skills are limited, but its a good tool with lots of features and tutorials online.

[TNH]

Originally Posted by Skoropada

I have used GIMP some time ago, and yes, it's very powerful and its free.

There are several users around here that do their post processing in GIMP.

So it can do a lot? I didn't know if it was useless since it was free, or if it really is good. Sound like I should try it.

Originally Posted by 4umfreak

Why not try it? After-all, it's free. I use it all the time. I'm not a pro graphics guy an my skills are limited, but its a good tool with lots of features and tutorials online.

Good point. If it's free, there's nothing to lose, I guess. So you think it that it's worth it?

[Jonbar18]

I`d just say go ahead and get Gimp. Similar UI to Photoshop, even a bit simpler. Lacks some of the more advanced features, but does the basics well. And the best part is, if you don`t like it, there`s no loss. It`s basically an unlimited free trial.

[IABoomer]

GIMP is very capable, although there is a fairly steep learning curve. Another freely available program that also looks to be stunningly flexible and powerful is Photivo, but again, the documentation seems to be pretty sparse and the functions aren't necessarily intuitive.

[3bayjunkie]

you could probably use photoshop tutorials with gimp, but you will have to figure out where the tools are as photoshops tool bar may be layed out differently.

[veritasimagery]

I use GIMP and yes, you can transfer over some of the tutorials for Photoshop. The biggest drawback I can think of is the lack of "plug-ins" available for it. But for free, it can do a lot.

[Phoenix_Jackson]

I've been a GIMP user for some time. It can do basics like cropping, brightness/contrast adjustment in many forms, tones and hues, and the rest of it. It is also capable of intense work. RAW processing, composites, some tone mapping, etc. With so many tutorials on youtube (or articles if you want to read), and scripts written by some techies (to add even more functionalities), you'd be satisfied with GIMP for a long while.

[NathanFranke]

I was trained on Photoshop, and I found the transition to GIMP to be extremely painful. All my muscle memory for Photoshop stuff didn't translate to GIMP.

I hear there's a GIMPshop plugin that makes GIMP's UI more like Photoshop, but I haven't tried that.

If you haven't learned Photoshop, then you really have nothing to lose with GIMP. There are even GIMP tutorials on the interwebs, so you don't have to do Photoshop>GIMP translation.