Alternative Graphics Editing Programs

We're going to go out on a limb here and say that Photoshop is probably the best-known graphics editing program out there. But it's a top-dollar item. And really, it isn't the best solution for everybody, with its steep learning curve. There's plenty of competitors to Adobe's flagship product out there, and some of them are very attractive competitors. Most of them are even free, if that got your attention...

Gimp - The number one competitor to Adobe Photoshop. Gimp and Photoshop share 95% of their features - what you can do with one, you can do with the other. Gimp is actually simpler to learn than Photoshop, although users who are used to Photoshop struggle with it because that's all they know how to do. Gimp also has some unique features - a scheme-like scripting language, a huge base of plug-ins, and it is not only free to download, but licensed as GPL free software.

GimpShop For ex-Adobe users who just can't get used to the way Gimp does things, there's GimpShop. Same functionality as Gimp, an interface like Photoshop. Free GPL.

CinePaint Put a little Hollywood magic on your desktop! CinePaint started out as a fork from the Gimp many years ago, but has since been taken in a whole new direction. It is maintained by the film studio production industry itself; it is used in feature motion picture work to process filmed images. It has a host of features supporting every aspect of high-definition film and print work. Pretty much every blockbuster Hollywood film you've seen that had special effects in it was processed in CinePaint. Free GPL.

Paint.NET As the name suggests, Paint.NET uses Microsoft's .NET framework 2.0. Produced as a State University project as a replacement for Microsoft Windows Paint, it has since gone on to be a very handy raster image editor which is catching up to the Gimp, but maintains the minimalism of Windows Paint. MIT license, free to download.

Picasa This is not a full-feature image editor, but it's a very handy tool just for manipulating personal photos. It can do some basic photo-editing filtering, rotating, cropping, and framing, but where it really shines is its capacity to automatically search and catalog every image on your machine, and make them all easy to find. It also shines for composing albums and sharing photos socially. From Google, and as you'd expect is very easy to learn. Free to download, but proprietary licensed.

Pixel Image Editor With a generic-sounding name like that, you might just miss this one. Also, it's not free; but it only costs a measly $32 USD! Pixel is praised across the Internet as being the budget image editing solution. It packs a pile of features into a rather light-weight program. It's license is proprietary, but $32 is almost free anyway.

With the possible exception of the Gimp family, each of these is far lighter-weight than Adobe Photoshop, making them ideal for subnotebooks. All of these at least run on Microsoft Windows systems; most will run on Mac and Linux as well.

The thing to remember when picking out an image editor is, what do you need it for? There's a huge range of graphics tools out there, and most people who get image software only have a specific purpose in mind, such as managing photos or making headers and banners for their website, or even making web comics. You'll want to pick the image editor that offers only the features you need, without confusing yourself with a lot of complicated features you won't use anyway. Many people seem to struggle with learning new image editors, so give yourself time, understand that it takes some learning, and read the manual.

Filed Under: Digital Photography • Product Reviews