Hi,
I'm a Mac and Linux geek rather than a true photographer. I have only
recently started using the Gimp but I'm learning fast from Akkana Peck's
"Beginning GIMP" book. I've never used Photoshop, which might surprise
you. I'd like to find someone who is experienced with both Photoshop and
the Gimp to help me advise a friend, or perhaps someone could point me
to a website where these two bits of software are compared fairly and
honestly. Let me explain the situation:
A pro photographer friend of mine is interested in switching to Linux, a
process I have offered to sup****t her with 100%. However, she is
concerned about whether the Gimp will be sufficient for her needs.
Photoshop seems to be almost a religion amongst professionals. Many of
her photographer colleagues have been highly disparaging about the Gimp,
calling it slow, clunky, and likening it to where Photoshop was when it
first came out many years ago. I'm only a beginner with Gimp, and know
nothing of Photoshop, so I am unable to judge whether her colleagues'
advice is fair, or counter argue it if it isn't. My suspicion is that
Photoshop users are a clique, and that they're just snobbish about
alternative image editors without really trying them out properly. I
would like to be able to tell my friend that she will not be
disappointed with the Gimp and that it is not so clunky that it will
slow down her workflow, but more than that I want to give her honest
accurate advice regardless.
I've read elsewhere in this group that Gimp doesn't yet have 16-bit per
channel colour depth, or CMYK sup****t (although I see you can make
separations with "Decompose"). Not being a pro photographer myself,
these things seem pretty esoteric to me. How im****tant are they to
photographers such as my friend wi****ng to get the best out of her
photos before uploading them to a photo library?
Other than those colour space issues, would someone please offer their
own opinions about what it is the Photoshop has that the Gimp lacks? Is
the user interface of Photoshop so slick that general workflow is
faster? Does the Gimp have any advantages over Photoshop that I could
tell her about?
--
James Taylor
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