Hello and welcome to yet another tutorial by Davies Media Design my name is Michael Davies
and in this tutorial I'll be providing an in-depth comparison between GIMP and
Photoshop quick disclaimer I've been creating GIMP tutorials and courses since 2011 and have
been a strong advocate for both GIMP and Free and Open Source Software. In fact some of you
know I'm not afraid to talk a little **** every now and then about Adobe. But I think many of
you on my channel would like a more neutral objective approach when comparing these two
programs so that's what I've decided to do for today's video. I'll be using GIMP 2.10.18 and
Photoshop CC 2020 for this tutorial which are both the latest versions of their respective software.
But of course before I get into that I want to direct you guys over to my website at
DaviesMediaDesign.com. As always I have tons of GIMP, Inkscape and Darktable tutorials,
as well as Help Articles covering Free and Open Source Software - so definitely check that out.
You can enroll in my GIMP 2.10 Masterclass: From Beginner to Pro Photo Editing on Udemy.
You can enroll in any of my Skillshare classes by visiting GIMPschool.com. And you can get more with
a Premium Membership to Davies Media Design. I'll start this video with an introduction to
Photoshop and GIMP, and we'll follow that with the strengths and weaknesses of both programs. I'll
by no means be covering all the features found in both programs as that would make this video
excessively long. Let's start with an introduction to the two programs. It's no secret that Photoshop
has been a cultural icon for the better part of the last two decades and that it has both defined
and dominated the photo editing and manipulation landscape since its inception in 1990. It's become
so ingrained in society that the brand name itself has become a verb - as in to "Photoshop"
someone out of a photo. Today, Photoshop has become a staple in the photo editing arsenal
of photographers around the world. It utilizes many AI powered smart selection tools as well as
non-destructive editing features. Additionally, Photoshop has tons of intelligent tools for
creating mock-ups for branding assets, web design, and more. It is considered the industry standard
software for photo editing and manipulation and is the go-to program for professional
photographers and creative agencies. On the other hand GIMP, or the GNU Image Manipulation Program,
has paralleled Photoshop since its inception back in 1996. Originally founded by a couple of college
students as a viable photo editing program for Linux operating systems, this free software has
evolved through community-based development to be by far the best FREE Photoshop alternative on the
planet - as well as arguably the best Photoshop alternative period. GIMP has everything you need
for editing and manipulating your photos including both basic and more advanced tools. Though,
it hasn't quite become a verb - which perhaps is for the best since I don't think people want to be
"GIMPed" out of a photo. GIMP has had a meteoric rise in recent years thanks to its improved
development and community support. GIMP has become an obvious choice for everyday photographers,
photo retouchers, and digital artists. All that being said let's dive into what I like and dislike
specifically about each program, starting with what I like about Photoshop. Photoshop's strengths
start with its world-class team of developers and software engineers. As the "Golden Goose"
of a multi-billion dollar company, Photoshop essentially has an endless supply of talent
and resources to maintain and develop the program. As a result the program is constantly innovating
with new features, improved performance, and cross-platform functionality. Photoshop is
undoubtedly a very complex program with multiple integrations that work seamlessly such as the
built-in RAW processing interface "Camera Raw," smart objects for creating interactive design
assets, and Creative Cloud app integrations for bringing in compositions from other Adobe apps
like Lightroom or Illustrator. Additionally Photoshop has integrated tutorials into its
home screen to help beginners learn the program, as well as Adobe Stock templates to create quick
projects. Of course you'll need a Creative Cloud plan that includes Adobe Stock in order to access
stock templates or photos. Adobe Photoshop's user interface is simple in design but also packed full
of features. It has grouped tools, dialogues that can be repositioned anywhere around the canvas,
and a dynamic options bar that changes based on the tool you have selected to reveal additional
tool settings. Getting into some of the tools, Photoshop has a variety of smart selection tools
that work quickly and intelligently. Though they aren't perfect as I demonstrated in my "GIMP vs.
Photoshop: 90 Second Background Erasing" video. However, tools like the Object Selection tool
and Quick Selection tool are quite effective smart-selection tools. These tools also come
with the "Select Subject" button in the options bar to quickly select prominent subjects in the
photo. Additionally the "Select and Mask" button within these tools brings up a properties dialog
for quickly refining your selection regions - further extending their capabilities and
speeding up your work flow. I can't talk about Photoshop without mentioning the features that
made Photoshop famous. Its Airbrush, Heal, Clone, and Warp tools, as well as its object removal
tools. It's infamously good at transforming the body which has sparked a worldwide debate
on body image, and whether disclaimers should be required on heavily Photoshopped images. The
Content Aware Fill feature can erase pretty much anything within a selection area from a photo,
and the Spot Healing tool can quickly paint out mistakes in a photo such as a stain on
someone's shirt. Photoshop naturally has a full suite of image adjustment tools like Curves,
Levels, Dodge and Burn, and various transformation tools such as the Free Transform and Crop tools,
as well as a variety of filters for common tasks like blurring or sharpening. However,
one of the program's major strengths comes from its non-destructive editing features - most
notably the adjustment layers that make it easy to preserve your original photo as you work or go
back and tweak adjustments you make at any point in your workflow. Photoshop is undoubtedly a
world-class photo editing and retouching program used by many of the best photographers in the
world. It performs well even with larger image sizes with most of its tools being lightning
fast. It works on Mac, Windows, and iPad with the new Photoshop for iPad. Of course it also
has a huge community of creators that create thousands of informative tutorials, articles,
and courses on the program. Finally there are plenty of add-ons, plugins, brushes, fonts,
etc. you can download and install for Photoshop to further enhance the program. Let's move on to
GIMP, which certainly has had a different upbringing. Rather than having unlimited
monetary and developer resources to maintain its software, GIMP relies entirely on volunteer
contributions from an open-source community of part-time developers with day jobs. There's no
massive corporate umbrella or army of nine-to-five top tier software engineers dedicating their work
lives to the development of GIMP. Despite this, GIMP has managed to survive nearly a
quarter century at the time of this video, while becoming a powerhouse alternative to
Photoshop. This bootstrap mentality of GIMP's development process often works in its favor,
creating a culture of community around the project. There are many features found in
GIMP that are obviously inspired by Photoshop, but GIMP is not simply a carbon copy of that
program. It does many things differently while in fact doing some things better than Photoshop.
Opening GIMP for the first time you'll immediately notice that, like Photoshop, it has grouped tools,
a dark theme, and dialog boxes surrounding the canvas. There is also a Tool Options dialog
that allows you to adjust various settings for your tools. Like Photoshop, the dialogues can be
moved around to create different workspaces. GIMP also uses a layer system including the ability to
add layer masks, group layers together, and add layer modes to layers. Fun fact:
there are more layer modes in GIMP than there are blending modes Photoshop. Like Photoshop,
GIMP contains many smart selection tools with its most powerful tool being the Foreground
Select Tool. This tool contains similar features found in the Object Selection, Quick Selection,
and Select Subject tools found in Photoshop. GIMP has powerful retouching tools including the Heal
tool, Clone tool, and Warp Transform tool. These tools work just as effectively as their Photoshop
equivalents, allowing you to retouch photos in a timely manner and get professional results.
It has all the vital image adjustment tools like Curves, Levels, Dodge and Burn, and more for basic
and advanced photo editing. It even has a suite of transform tools like the Unified Transform tool,
Scale tool, and the more advanced 3D Transform tool. GIMP has a variety of filters for common
photo editing tasks like sharpening and blurring, as well as filters for more advanced effects like
the Long Shadow filter. Most of these filters run on an open source engine known as GEGL that
allows for faster performance and cool features like the split view preview option. I have an
entire tutorial dedicated to the GEGL concept on my channel. Just like Photoshop, GIMP has a large
community of content creators that create how-to tutorials. Davies Media Design, for example,
has hundreds of free tutorials on YouTube, Help Articles on our website, and multiple GIMP courses
for mastering the program and improving your photo editing. In the areas where GIMP is lacking there
is usually a third-party plugin or resource to fill in the gaps. For example, the G'MIC plug-in
does a great job of offering additional filters and effects, while the Resynthesizer plug-in
gives you access to an intelligent object erasing tool that works just as good if not better than
Photoshop's Content-aware Fill. Additionally, there is a full suite of complimentary free
and open-source software programs like Darktable for RAW processing, Inkscape for vector graphics,
and Blender for 3D design and animation. They use a similar code base to GIMP. Like Photoshop,
GIMP supports third-party fonts, brushes, and patterns. It even supports the use of
most Photoshop brushes. Finally there are some great free stock photo websites like Pexels and
Pixabay that have free assets to download and use for any of your GIMP projects. Ultimately,
GIMP finds its strength in its simplicity, making it ideal for the casual photographer or beginner
photo retoucher. However, as you delve deeper into the software you'll learn that it is powerful
enough to accomplish professional-grade editing and manipulation tasks. It works on all desktop
operating systems including Windows, Mac and Linux, and at the end of the day it's absolutely
free and backed by an awesome community. Alright, so I've covered what I like about both programs
but let's get into where the programs have their weaknesses - starting with Photoshop. It's most
glaring weakness is the subscription fee you pay every month, of course. For many businesses and
individuals this is an unwelcomed added expense, especially in tough financial times like right
now. And yes, I know pirating software to get around the price tag has become common, but this
comes with many unnecessary risks that I won't get into for this video. Outside of its price tag,
Adobe also has a tendency to constantly update its software. This is usually more a good thing than
bad, but constant updates can be a nuisance to some - requiring ever-increasing amounts
of computing power and a never-ending learning curve, especially since Adobe forced its users to
stop using older versions of the software. If one version of Photoshop contains a bug, for example,
but the update isn't compatible with a user's operating system or graphics card, then the user
is stuck with the bug or needs to upgrade their computer. Sticking with compatibility for the next
weakness, Photoshop does work with Windows and MAC operating systems, as well as on the iPad,
but it does not work on Linux operating systems. Of course you can use a virtual machine to run
Photoshop on Linux, but it's not quite the same as running it directly on your desktop. Finally,
for users who simply want to edit photos for personal, small business, or passion projects,
Photoshop contains more features than they'll ever need. This complexity can slow down simple
photo editing tasks, especially when working on a computer running below the recommended system
requirements. Let's move on to GIMP's weaknesses. Having a volunteer workforce is what makes GIMP
free, but this does come with drawbacks. For one, development on GIMP can be inconsistent,
with new release versions taking anywhere between three or four months to be made available - versus
Photoshop's steadier one release version per month schedule. It is often the case that
GIMP has more ideas than it has developers to implement those ideas, and so some features get
delayed over more routine bug fixes, while other features go overlooked entirely. Another weakness
in GIMP is its lack of non-destructive editing features. Though it has made up some ground on
this front in recent years, it still does not have popular features like adjustment layers
or smart objects. For many photographers used to working with these features in Photoshop,
this can be a deal-breaker. However there are some workarounds to preserve your image as you work,
and the GIMP team has promised adjustment layers in a future version - GIMP 3.2 to be
exact. Lastly, GIMP does not currently support full CMYK color modes. This means that all your
images are edited in the RGB color space and thus may not properly display if you need to print your
work. This is once again a deal-breaker for some, especially those who work a lot with printers, but
for people who only post their work online this is a non-factor. GIMP does offer CMYK soft-proofing
modes that allow you to preview how your colors will look once your composition is printed, which
I cover in a dedicated tutorial. But for some this is not enough as it still creates compatibility
issues, especially if someone sends you a photo in CMYK mode and instructs you not to convert it to
an RGB color space. Once again the GIMP team has plans to implement a full CMYK color mode soon,
but currently the program does not support it. If you're still wondering which program you
should use, let me sum it up this way: GIMP is a fantastic free alternative to Photoshop for small
businesses, casual photographers, influencers who post their work directly to their audience online,
and even professional or freelance photographers working on a budget. It's also perfect for
beginners wanting to give photo editing and manipulation a try without having to make a
purchase. In other words, if you aren't working with clients or agencies that require you to work
in Photoshop, GIMP will do the job just fine. If you're a professional photographer working
for an agency that only uses Adobe products or someone that isn't as budget conscious
and is willing to put in the hours to learn the ins and outs of a more complex program,
then Photoshop is certainly for you. It is, after all, the best photo editing software money can
buy at the moment. Just make sure you have a computer powerful enough to handle the program,
otherwise you may not be able to take full advantage of the power of Photoshop. And
remember ultimately you can still download GIMP for free if you decide to purchase Photoshop.
That's it for this tutorial hopefully you liked it if you did you can check out my YouTube channel at
Youtube.com/DaviesMediaDesign. Don't forget to subscribe and click the bell icon to be
notified each time I have a brand new tutorial. You can also check out any of the links to my
resources in the description of the video. But thanks for watching and I'll see you next time.