Overview of GIMPshop: Free Open Source Photo Editing Software

Review of GIMPshop
by Summer Banks (7,622 pts )
Published on Nov 29, 2008
Part 4 of 5 in the series: Open Source Web Design Software
4

Web developers used photos to increase the user friendliness and look of a website. Adobe Photoshop can be beyond the budget for many beginning web designers, insert GIMPshop.

GIMPshop is a powerful and robust Open Source image editor that could be used to substitute Photoshop. GIMP that stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program offers users an advanced open source program for bitmap imaging. It is accessible online and can be downloaded for free. Just like Photoshop, GIMPshop is used in correcting and retouching photographs, creating artwork and composing images.

Imitation Photoshop

GIMPshop is a version recreated by Scott Moschella from GIMP. Scott reorganized and renamed GIMP options, tools, menus and windows so that they could closely be similar to Adobe Photoshop’s naming and structure conventions. Most of the menu options and entire menus were reorganized to authentically imitate the Photoshop interface. GIMPshop is fundamentally a similar program as GIMP but with a few cosmetic changes.

The main purpose of GIMPshop is to make GIMP accessible to most Adobe Photoshop users. For users that have never used Photoshop software before, they may not be able to appreciate GIMPshop. However, longtime users of Photoshop could use GIMPshop comfortably. This open source program is not a one-to-one imitation of Photoshop. Some menu items are not in the direct order as in Photoshop though the ordering is pretty close. Users of Photoshop can now alternatively use GIMPshop by getting downloads of this open source program.

MAC Friendly Photo Editing

Users will also have to install Apple’s X11 then follow instructions provided in the Mac’s README feature. Though GIMP is popularly known to be a free as an open source replacement for Photoshop used by the Linux OS, its workflow does not perfectly resemble Photoshop’s. It can be ported to the Windows OS. The main difference between GIMPshop and other image editing applications is its keyboard shortcuts that enable advanced users to use them easily.

GIMPshop modifies the terminology of programs to match that of Adobe. In Windows versions, plugins called ‘Deweirdifier’ are used in combining various application windows to an MDI system that is normally used by many graphics packages. Because of changes in the interface, Photoshop tutorials can be used in GIMPshop with less effort. If looking for a perfect substitute for Photoshop, GIMPshop is the best choice that supports different platforms.

Open Source Web Design Software

Why pay for a web design software when there are several free alternatives?

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Summer Banks (7,622 pts )

I am a North Carolina transplant by way of Nevada, Michigan and West Virginia. I can manage to battle my way through a heated discussion about politics and religion and never look up from my flower garden... read more

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