However, since the start of 2009 when I bought the student edition of Photoshop (Adobe Creative Suite 4 @ S$99), I've switched over to PS for making TVB graphics. I'm still a fan of GIMP though because I've found features that are useful (I'll talk more about these later). But I still switched over because PS allows for more non-destructive editing & that's really useful!
Non-destructive editing means that no permanent change has been done to the layer. The original layer is kept intact & changes are added separately (like layer adjustments, layer masks & layer styles). GIMP offers layer masks but not layer adjustments nor layer styles. As such, it becomes more prudent for you to think through what you want to do with the layer before starting. If not, you could find yourself in a situation where you wish to undo a certain destructive change you made earlier (e.g. undo-ing the desaturation) but this change was made in the midst of other changes you wish to keep. What this means is that you will most likely have to re-import the original layer then try to redo ALL the other changes while leaving out that particular change. Sounds daunting right? But with PS, all you have to do is either to make invisible or trash that particular adjustment layer/layer style (e.g. Vibrance or Hue/Saturation adjustment layer). Thus, for someone fickle like me who wants to fiddle with everything before deciding what's best, PS would offer more flexibility and room for experimenting. However, if you are one who already has the final image in mind and knows exactly what to do, GIMP handles it just fine.
While it's superior in non-destructive editing features, PS just does not match up to GIMP in it's antialiasing for fonts. For small fonts, this is particularly acute. Look at the two images below:
Unlike PS, GIMP has the the ability to change the stroking of a selection (I'm referring to Edit -> Stroke -> ...). Rather than a solid line, you can choose various types of dotted lines. I believe that you can produce the same results in PS with some tweaks in the brushes settings in PS but that's tedious compared to a few mouse clicks to get the exact spacing you want in GIMP. As such, when I was making graphics like Linda Chung's, the whole graphic was made in PS but for the dotted border, I created it in GIMP before saving it as a PNG file & importing it into PS as a layer. (I know this sounds quite tedious but it's really quick.)
These are but only a few areas where comparisons for the two can be done. However, I shall not go into the rest because my purpose here is just to highlight features that I find most useful in the two softwares. Overall, the non-destructive editing features of PS really wins me over because of flexibility it offers. However, I still go to GIMP for my dotted borders & for avatars (where the readability of small font sizes is critical) when I know that I will make few colour adjustments. Because of my foray into GIMP before PS, I'm exposed to a different editing software & thus a slightly different way of doing up these graphics. I hope that you will try GIMP & discover different ways of producing the same result! Please do share with me your experience in using PS, GIMP or any other image editing software! Thanks! :)
Post inspired by this article & partly also because of an email I sent to dreamlucky (owner of No Regrets fan blog).
check out GEGL and NDI... GIMP 2.8++
ReplyDeleteHi andreasp, I'm not into such technical aspects of GIMP. :) Thanks though & I do look forward to the stable release of GIMP 2.8 :D
ReplyDeletenormally, i m using photoshop for all my art work and screencapture, any way, i would glad that you gals can introduce me some others more great software for my art wor ! :)
ReplyDeleteOh I see...I din know of GIMP until I was trying to find an image editing software that's free but with enough features for me to make graphics. Glad to share my experience with u! :)
ReplyDeleteThis is a very good article with really helpful examples of what you can expect of the two. Too often a GIMP vs Photoshop article is nothing more than the writer stating that Photoshop is better and the comments ending up in people saying that whatever they use is best and the other program sucks.
ReplyDeleteI'm a GIMP user myself. But have worked with Photoshop a bit too. I think I can add some things to actual differences you can run into.
First there are the transformation tools. I think Photoshop is better at this because it's one tool instead of separate tools. This way it's much faster to get the same quality results.
However the perspective tool in GIMP works much easier. I couldn't get the PS perspective tool to do what I wanted with my limited PS skills.
As for a plus point in GIMP the gradient tool must be mentioned. It's just way more advanced. Something that comes in very handy if you're into digital art.
The GIMP text tool in 2.8 will be what it should have been from the start. But one thing, it's minor, is still annoying. The way you choose your fonts. A simple drop down menu with all the fonts is sorely missing. Instead you have to scroll down through a long window with only "Aa" as preview.
And the last thing I can think of so soon is the option in GIMP that lets you resize an existing marquee selection with drag handles.
For instance, if you want to make a selection around a ball you can just fine tune your selection while you make it. I've looked for this feature in Photoshop but haven't been able to find it.
Thanks Jolie for the insightful comments! I agree with you on the text tool for GIMP. But the rest of the stuff I dun use them very often so I'm not very familiar. But thanks anw for pointing them out! :)
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