Courtesy to Twitter user XdanielArt (date of publication: 8 June 2024)
this post was submitted on 30 Apr 2025
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Honestly, GIMP is not a good alternative to Photoshop. I know, "it's free" is enough for many people, but it ... just isn't.
With GIMP 3.0 it's a bit better at least, they've finally added non-destructive editing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfaq-Cm1ZkA
Full changelog here:
https://www.gimp.org/release-notes/gimp-3.0.html
I'd dare say that unless you've already learnt Photoshop (and have to unlearn it) then Darktable+GIMP works fine for home photo editing.
If you're used to Photoshop and your skills with it is what puts bread on the table... then I completely understand not switching tools.
As somebody who has been trying to decided which of the RAW photo editors to use, I can tell you that Darktable has a steep learning curve over Lightroom. The UI is incredibly dense and the names of sliders don’t make sense unless you’re an image science expert.
I'll take your word for it, I've never used Lightroom.
Whenever I played around with Darktable it seems finding a tutorial to get the effect I wanted was just a minute of searching away, and there's a ton of beginner tutorials available too.
https://www.darktable.org/2024/12/howto-in-5.0/
But then I was the kid that rtfm the game manual on my way home from the store and love dense UIs as an adult. :)
Been usin DT for close to a year now. I agree the learning curve is a little steeper than light room but once you get it, everything clicks into place. I can't believe how powerful this program is and it's free. It's unbelievable
Darktable is a godsend to me for converting film negatives.But I pretty much only use image conversion, RGB curve, then fidget with the exposure and RGB sliders in negadoctor a little more then I'm done. No idea how to do anything else.
Yeah but it should tell you something that they just figured out non-destructive editing by 2025. Love the team, want to see it succeed, but it’s not PS at all.
My understanding is that a lot of tech debt has been removed with the release of 3.0 and I'm hopeful it will make future updates simpler and faster. :)
I want to make GIMP work for me but it’s the small things like trying to select a layer and move it with the arrow keys but the arrow keys instead are incessantly switching between layers for some reason? I find the fussiness of layer selection among other stacked layers in your canvas frustrating also.
I wish there was a plugin that made everything work exactly like Photoshop, made all keyboard shortcuts Photoshop user friendly, added content aware fill, etc…if these issues would be fixed then I’d use it more often. (I found and tried to install PhotoGimp for my Gimp install on my Mac but alas it didn’t work…recommendations?)
"It didn't work" gives very little to work with, all I can recommend is to follow the instructions:
https://github.com/Diolinux/PhotoGIMP?tab=readme-ov-file#macos
Not a mac user myself.
Rooting for them! I have had it installed for like 15 years lol
Does never removing it count?
GIMP didn't "just figure out non-destructive editing by 2025". You're talking as if it was something that the GIMP development team just decided to randomly add recently, after previously ignoring user demands.
The foundation for that functionality (GEGL) has been in development for ages and was also used for some functionality in 2.6 for a long time. The reason why it took this long is that it's a pretty fundamental change to how the app works. Also, that meshed with other upcoming changes at the time. Also, small development team.
I have said several times I have gimp and support them. I didn’t think they just discovered it - I’m saying the fact that in 2025 they just implemented it is indicative of why I say they’re behind.
They do good work. Yes they’re a small team. It doesn’t change the fact that the software has limitations.
The question isn’t “are they working hard?” or “are they doing a lot for what they are/their size?” It’s “how does it stack against PS?” And of course they can’t hang with the billion dollar international company with an army of programmers.
Yeah I really like what they’re doing and I applaud their efforts, but they are a solid decade behind PS when it comes to feature parity.
I assume you are right. So then I ask myself, for my own occasional use, would a standalone version of Photoshop from 2015 cover my needs?
Yeah, I think it would!
I was always a much heavier user of Lightroom than Photoshop anyway. I still need to choose between the FOSS options there.
And UI usability.
It's in the roadmap. :)
https://developer.gimp.org/core/roadmap/#gui
I imagine Gimp users revolting if it ever improves a lot.
Have users ever not revolted against change? :P
More than a decade on that. I would say the usability is so bad that they are not on track to catch up ever unless something changes. Every year or so I download GIMP and try to use it for something basic, and I always fail and give up.
I wonder if it would be feasible to create a different UI on top of the existing GIMP backend.
Look into PhotoGIMP, afaik it precisely delivers Photoshop-like symbols, maybe even layout, and shortcuts
I thought they had stopped development? Have t checked them in a decade.
Last release was in mars to make it work with GIMP 3.0
https://github.com/Diolinux/PhotoGIMP/releases
Which tech billionaire flew the dev team into space for this? /j
I use krita way more than gimp
Krita is also more of a Paint.NET than a Photoshop replacement.
The same with Lightroom sadly. The open source alternatives are either too buggy or have UX designed by very "opinionated" people, making them painful and frustrating to use. I currently want to get rid of Lightroom but can't.
Give Darktable a go. I switched from LR to DT a year ago and im never going back.
I love love love GIMP!!!
But yeah it's not a PS alternative, and tbh that's not really what it's supposed to be or what its developers want out of it. it's different
It is an alternative if you are a casual user.
No
You could give Photopea a try, if you're looking for a free (as supported) alternatives, it has all core functions and a interface that looks very familiar. No installation required so you can easily test it, and use it in any browser (not sure how well it works without mouse and keyboard or low end devices though).
If you want more than core functionality I don't think there is a (legally) free option out there.
Always with the GIMP hate. You make a better free alternative then.
It's not on the end user to make a UI that isn't total ass.
If all you care about is the price its great but the UI is trash.
My go-to PS app:
https://www.photopea.com/
All online, same controls, hell, same icons. I'm a little stunned that Adobe hasn't sued them into oblivion.
You can pay to drop the ads, but I'm not really seeing much end user benefit otherwise. Not seeing ads ATM, maybe I blocked 'em.
This meme from the late 90s is still going? It's honestly an impressive record.
The meme that GIMP is in any way comparable to PS? Yeah, I agree.
I mean, "compares as bad" is comparable, right? :p