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by DenisM 5035 days ago
Any thoughts on this new GIMP vis-a-vis Photoshop Elements?

I don't mind paying <$100 for a decent graphics editor. My primary use case is tweaking screenshots, app icons, buttons, and the like for my iOS apps and the web site. I want to get in and out as quick as possible, so I can get back to my other work.
4 comments
bazzargh 5035 days ago
I'm a gimp user. My mum (who has a mac, but isnt a confident computer user) asked for 'photoshop' for christmas after seeing what I'd done fixing up family photos.

I knew if I just gave her Gimp (or Photoshop for that matter) she'd just get stuck - they aren't very user friendly. I had a look at all the image editors I could - Acorn, Seashore, Pixelmator, etc and came to the conclusion that Photoshop Elements beat them all for ease of use.

Specific things that help are the guided actions (in the panel on the right) that act like wizards for performing common actions, but also teach you how to do these things; and the selection & healing tools are miles better than those in the other tools. Take a look at the demo on the top left here: http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop-elements/features.ht...

... it's talking about the smart brush, which I don't bother with, but what you're looking at is how well it manages to select within a picture.

I still prefer using Gimp, but for quick photo edits, I tend to use PE now. However, I tend to work with photos not eg icons as you do - not sure if PE is any use for that.

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kellishaver 5035 days ago
I haven't tried GIMP in ages, but have a look at Pixelmator. It's a great little app. http://www.pixelmator.com/ It has a lot of features for not a lot of money, and a very Photoshop-like interface.
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zyb09 5035 days ago
GIMP, tried out a lot of image editors and imho it goes like this: Photoshop > GIMP > Elements > Pixelmator. Pixelmator has a really nice UI, but it's lacking features left and right. Photoshop is still the nicest, especially for coders, who don't know what they are doing (real artist only need a canvas and a brush anyway).
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microtonal 5035 days ago
Photoshop Elements is a light-weight blend of Photoshop and Lightroom. It's more for managing photo collections, tweaking things like exposure and contrast, removing red eyes, etc.

If you want a sub-$100 Photoshop replacement, I'd go for Pixelmator. It's really affordable, and provides the functionality that most users need.

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