Down with Photoshop! What else can I use?

[parlkilkington]

I don't like the idea of Adobe's monthly subscription. Plus, I feel like Photoshop has way too many complicated tools. For something free and easy... what can you recommend?

[Anduril]

I know a lot of people use and swear by GIMP; it's been a while since I've tried it out, so I can't give a personal recommendation (but looking it up right now, it seems to be a very different beast than when I last used it). For my own personal, really basic uses, I've been using Paint.NET.

[parlkilkington]

I know a lot of people use and swear by GIMP; it's been a while since I've tried it out, so I can't give a personal recommendation (but looking it up right now, it seems to be a very different beast than when I last used it). For my own personal, really basic uses, I've been using Paint.NET.

GIMP eh? Not a bad shout. Do you think it's better or worse since you last used it? But looks pretty cool.

[yoshiblue]

You lose a few tools but it gets the job done. People suggest to get plugins and such for more fancy stuff with GIMP.

[parlkilkington]

GIMP does get featured a lot on those top alternatives to PS lists. Crashing seems to be an issue, but looks like they have been working on resolving that. I'll give it a shot! I found a pretty solid review of it. https://www.1and1.com/digitalguide/w...obe-photoshop/

Here's what they said in a summary:

✔ Similar performance to Photoshop
✔ Numerous plugins available
✔ Large community
✔ Multi-layered work possible
✔ Images can be stored as PDFs
✔ Plugins for use in CMYK available
✘ Complex to use
✘ Requires intensive tutorials/training
✘ Only limited processing of PSD possible