Scratch

jji7skyline wrote:

Welcome to the ultimate duel between the new Gimp 2.8 and Photoshop's flagship beta — Photoshop CS6

Note: Please don't skip to the verdict.

Ease of use

Photoshop has always been used by the majority of image editors and creators. Although it is a very common piece of software, it is not the easiest to use. Gimp on the other hand has also been quite unyielding to the photography/graphics newbie, especially because of it's multi window interface, which can be a handful at the best of times. With 2.8 however, under the Windows menu item is a handy tick box called "Single window mode. This docks all the windows into the main window, and ultimately, the interface looks a lot like the one in Photoshop, especially when using the "Pro" theme. Photoshop has also ditched it's floating thingies idea and gone with a one window interface in CS6. Ultimately, I would say that for ease of use, Photoshop CS6 and Gimp 2.8 are neck and neck.

http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/8918 … pscs61.png

Gimp: 0.5
Photoshop 0.5

Performance

So how much RAM do they use? How long does it take for them to execute a gaussian blur? Let's find out.

For this test, I am using a Full HD (1920 x 1080) image of rendered clouds.

With just this image open, Photoshop uses 187.3MB of my precious RAM. What about Gimp though?

Gimp uses 91.1MB. A significant difference. Photoshop uses about twice the amount of RAM compared to Gimp.

Now let's test a gaussian blur of 50 radius on the same image on both image editors.

The difference is marginal. Photoshop gives you full size previews and they are pretty fast. Photoshop however does not let you choose the X and Y values of your blur, only the pixel radius. Gimp does.

It is interesting to note though, that Photoshop's blur seems more blurry. Is this because of a difference in the formulas used to execute the blur? Likely it is.

Gimp also launches many times faster than Photoshop.

Performance-wise, Gimp wins hands down. It will do all that photoshop can do, but using half the resources. Very handy if you like having a browser open while you work with images.

Gimp 1.5
Photoshop 0.5

Productivity

With Gimp 2.8 came tabs. Instead of having several documents open in several windows, now they can all be in the same window, in different tabs. Tabs can do wonders for productivity, and Photoshop has had them, even before CS6. It seems though, that Gimp's tabs are superior. They open faster, close faster and give previews of what the documents look like, not just the titles of the images in the tabs.

I remember that some time ago, when a person and I were discussing the superiority (or not) of Gimp, he said that just one feature makes Photoshop better. Layer groups. Now Gimp has that feature.

It seems that Gimp wins this one too.

Gimp 2.5
Photoshop 0.5

Compatibility

Photoshop does have an edge on Gimp when it comes to compatibility with Mac. Gimp has to work with the X11 environment, which means that the menu bar is inside the window, not at the top of the screen like with native Mac apps. Photoshop doesn't run inside the X11 environment so it can work with the Mac menu bar, launch Mac style dialogs and work almost seamlessly with the OSX environment.

That's all fine for Mac and Windows users, but what about our Linux fans

Gimp runs natively on most Linux distros. There is, however, no Linux version of Photoshop or any Creative Suite. Does this means that for Linux users, the line ends here? Hardly. Any die-hard photoshop fan can run it on his/her Linux system simply by installing the Windows version on top of WINE. Wine Is Not an Emulator. Still, according to Wine HQ CS5 is rated Silver and CS6 is rated as bronze. Not bad.

So, Gimp runs ok on all platforms. Photoshop runs fine on some platforms.

It's a tie again.

Gimp 3.5
Photoshop 0.5

Conclusion

Gimp has become insanely great with the release of 2.8. It's no longer the clunky, linux user's "bitmap" editor. It's a fully fledged professional image manipulation application. Photoshop has also made a few improvements with CS6. Ultimately however, as you can see with the points, Gimp wins. If you have a problem with this verdict, or know something about Gimp or Photoshop that I haven't included here, please let me know. I'd be happy to change points, verdict etc.

There is one thing that I have noticed here. Photoshop can feel sluggish at times, and uses a lot of memory, but the full size previews are excellent. They are fast and accurate and are very useful. For this, I will give Photoshop an extra point. Gimp's full size preview only works with some things.

Verdict

Gimp 3.5
Photoshop 1.5

I'd say that for windows users that Gimp is better. I downloaded gimp and when using it, it needed you to wait another 10 minutes are so for it to download the help page so I didn't even bother. I went to start drawing and you had to double click on an icon to use it, I have never had a different application that would've needed that. And that X11 thing with the menu bar is pretty bad in my opinion. I haven't even seen photoshop though. But, for ease of use, I think that would have to go to choice 3, the good ol' paintbrush.

I love Gimp-just because of the price.

But if I was able to purchase photoshop I would take it into consideration.

Also, just a hint, don't quote long walls of text.

Decent review.

I like Photoshop and Gimp about the same but I usually use Photoshop more because I recently got it and I love some of the features.

I have both GIMP and Photoshop Elements 9, and I like them for different things. Photoshop I like a lot more for image cleanup, because of the way it handles anti-aliased selection and fills, whereas I use GIMP for its scaling, quick fixes, and cropping (as well as filesize). I don't have the new version of GIMP, but I have a question; does it have a preview for indexing images and show whether it'll modify the image, like PSE does?

Wooohooo GIMP FTW 

slinger wrote:

Wooohooo GIMP FTW 

You got 2.8? It's cool isn't it? 

@trinary: I almost never use PS xD

Have you tried downloading the new version of GIMP?

You should probably look at some tutorials or something...

I use GIMP. Freeware pwnz.

slinger wrote:

scimonster wrote:

I use GIMP. Open source pwnz.

Open source not freeware :b

Wait, it is open source, right? That book i was reading made me forget the difference. 

i think ur a bit biasd on this. and 1 more thing: u use a lot of weasel words like "it seems" wich dosnt necesarrily make it true if ur tryin to state facts to suport ur theory. i notice in a category u say that they tied but u give gimp a score of 1 and dontr give ps any rise in points

I think the new GIMP seems a lot more professional and finished.