how would you guys rate this app

[dorqiekat]

The open source photoshop, GIMP. I've been trying to use it.. and other than the fact that it crashes every time I try to select a font, it's great. What do you guys think of it, is it good enough (even with the crashes) for light photoshop or should I cough up the money and buy something better...

Note, don't have much money to spend, but I can save.. and then maybe in the next century I'll have something cool!

 

[Bear]

Doesn't sound so great to me...

The open source photoshop, GIMP. I've been trying to use it.. and other than the fact that it crashes every time I try to select a font, it's great. ...

It sounds like it's not such a great program if it is crashing on you.

Photoshop Elements 3 might do the job for you.

 

[mduser63]

IMO, a lot of open source software is good, and I use a lot of it daily, but the GIMP is a bad example of free software. It just doesn't work very well, is slow, crashes and has a weird interface (although there's a Photoshop style interface for it on the web somewhere). If I were you I'd get Photoshop Elements. Actually, I'm able to do a lot of light work in Graphic Converter, so you might check that out. It's only $30 or so.

 

[AlmostThere]

Depends on the platform, imho.

On Linux or Unix - excellent (I am not a professional photo editor so no comment there but occasionally have esoteric imaging needs). I find the interface excellent and much better than any of the photoshops (on other platforms). Image and photo manipulator of choice by a long way.

On windows it is very good, pretty similar to Unix, although a little quirky for navigating filesystems.

On a Mac - very average. I find it the interface substantially slower (700Mhz Athlon Linux PC compared to 1.6 PB) with all sorts of weird window focusing annoyances. I keep it because if I need to do something, then at least I know it can be done but I prefer to use something else if it is possible.

I don't know why but the Mac version just isn't all 'there', so to speak.

Can't say that I have any stability issues in over 5 years of use, though. You could try using 1.2.x which I think is available through fink (if you are using Gimp.app, i.e. Gimp 2.2.x)

HTH

[edit] If you don't have it, have a look at "Grokking The Gimp" http://gimp-savvy.com/ you can download it free

 

[dorqiekat]

Can't say that I have any stability issues in over 5 years of use, though. You could try using 1.2.x which I think is available through fink (if you are using Gimp.app, i.e. Gimp 2.2.x)

where can I download the earlier version? Is it more stable?

 

[Daveway]

I've used GIMP before for awhile until I completely switched to photoshop. Gimp is just to wierd and unusual to use, not intuitive. Another problem is that it's not exactly easy to install from my experiences. You have to install different moduals and such.

 

[wordmunger]

Yeah, GIMP is a pretty powerful piece of software; the Mac implementation is not very good, though. It can do a lot of the things Photoshop can do, but the slow interface makes it not worth it, for me. Photoshop Elements might be a reasonable thing to save for.

 

[AlmostThere]

Use fink to install gimp 1.2.5-3 (version reported by fink on my PB)

http://fink.sourceforge.net/download/index.php?phpLang=en

I came to OS X from a Unix background, so most of the stuff on that page seemed straightforward when I did it, and it was all from the command line It is also one reason I quite like the Gimp interface, where others might not - YMMV, as they say.

IIRC after stage 3, you can pretty much just type:
sudo apt-get install gimp
in the Terminal which will download and install all the necessary files.

Other useful commands are:
apt-cache search [something]
apt-cache show [packagename]

I expect you can add 'gimp' to the Applications menu in X11 (which I assume you have already) but I run all that stuff from a command line (iTerm seems better than Terminal)

I would warn you though, by OS X standards, or even Gimp2 standards, Gimp 1.2 is not much of a looker - it is a pretty old app by now.

The two versions should co-exist side-by-side.