Chapter 12: Moving from Adobe Photoshop to GIMP

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Introduction

Like many Windows users, you probably have come to expect a lot of powerful graphics capability on your PC. Some Windows users are satisfied with the Paint and Photo Editor applications that come with Windows and are found under Accessories in the Programs menu. However, neither of these applications is a full-featured, robust, graphics package. Neither of these packages is of professional caliber. They are quite limited in what they enable you to do with an image. This of course leads to the question of what graphics application is of professional caliber? Many Windows users, as well as Macintosh users, turn to Adobe Photoshop as their choice for graphics applications. Adobe Photoshop is one of the most widely used graphics applications on the market today. It is hard to imagine anyone involved in graphics design, digital photography, or a related field who has not used Adobe Photoshop. However, there is no version of Photoshop available for Unix or Linux machines. It should also be pointed out that Adobe Photoshop is a commercial product and can cost several hundred dollars. Even if there were a version of Adobe Photoshop released for Linux (and as of this writing there are not even any hints or rumors to that effect), there is still another reason why you might want to search for an alternative product. If you are a home user, not a graphic artist, who wants a professional caliber program for your own use, it may seem unreasonable for you to pay several hundred dollars for a graphics application.

This is where GIMP comes in. GIMP is a graphics application that can do virtually everything that Adobe Photoshop can do. In fact, if you are experienced with Photoshop, you will probably be able to master GIMP within a matter of a few hours. The two applications are that similar. There are two real advantages to GIMP. The first is price. GIMP is open source and is available as a free download from www.gimp.org. The second advantage is the platforms that GIMP is available for. GIMP was designed for Unix and Linux, but there is also a Windows version available. Much like Open Office, you can get GIMP for free and use it on both Windows and Linux machines.

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