Where are the Photoshop Alternatives?

I can’t vouch for these, but my friend uses both of them:

GIMPshop
http://plasticbugs.com/?p=320

Seashore
http://seashore.sourceforge.net/

I think the GIMPshop needs X11, but Seashore is a native coco application.

=) Hopefully you’re on OSX hehe…

anywho, me and a couple other people have put together this growing application directory for OS X – somewhat sifting the good from the bad and also having one place where you can say, I’m looking for an OS X image editor that does what photoshop does – and then you look and it has the decent options listed. Of course, it’s an ever growing unfinished project, but….

http://wiki.vanillatree.org/index.php?title=OS_X:_Application_Directory

=) hope i’ve been a smidge helpful

I personally enjoy Xara Xtreme (new “Pro” version just out – and yes, the name is lame). The downside is the program is Windows-only at the moment, so no good for Mac users.

Still, I’ve been using it for years and LOVE it. Simple interface, all vectors, great exporting for web, extremely fast.

The GIMP’s interface makes baby Jesus cry, unfortunately, and the last time I tried GIMPshop it was very very crashy. (On Windows, probably a year ago.)

For touchups to photos, Picasa is quite nice. I use it to manage all of my photos, and to do most of the editing of them before sending to flickr, printing, etc.

Never used it either, but heard lots of good about it: Paint.NET. And there’s Inkscape to replace Illustrator. Same story: never tried, great reviews though. If I’ve just made a complete fool of myself and you’re now under your desk ROFL, I apologize :-) Still, I’m curious to see what you think of it.

I’d suggest Fireworks as a good alternative, but now that it’s adobe-owned, it might share the same characteristics that you’re trying to get away from.

Pixel is a cross-platform option to replace Photoshop. Like the others, I haven’t tried this one out.

GiMP is 8-bit RGB only with terrible color management. OK for Web, but utterly useless for print.

I’ve been looking for a workable alternative to Photoshop since version 2 and still haven’t found one.

I like Inkscape a lot – you can get a very expressive line with it, even with a mouse, and it is cross platform and free

Inkscape Sourceforge Download page

I keep trying to give GIMP another shot but it makes me cry, never mind baby Jesus, whenever I launch it – having said that I’m going through another of my give it a try phases so we’ll see (sniff)

Fireworks is my main graphic package and I love it. Fast, vectorful fun compared to Photoshop’s overblown interface and incomprehensible, exhuastive pauses every time you try to edit text (grrr). Unfortunately I think it will lkely be the end of the line for it now that Adobe own it (see SoundForge, Cooledit, what else?...)

I’ve been a fan of Fireworks from version 1.0. It’s a bit bloated now, but the feature-creep doesn’t get in the way of the basics. It’s been blending the vector and bitmap tools from the beginning and has always been ahead of Photoshop for web-dev features (image map development, slicing, etc.). I am really looking forward to the Universal Binary due next year.

Joshua – there is an open source version of Xara Xtreme planned for Mac OS X. However, it’s not the Pro version and seems to be more of an alternative to Illustrator than Photoshop.

Eric – I tested the latest version of Pixel the other day on OS X 10.4.8 Intel and found it still to be too buggy to use. I also find the interface a little odd being almost like it is running inside a VM.

Garret – You don’t mention whether you’ve tried any alternatives such as gimp.app . If you do I’d recommend you also run the included “Turn On X11 Focus Follows Mouse.app” otherwise the double clicking needed to first focus the tools palette and then actually select the tool will quickly drive you nuts.

As much as I would like to I cannot quite get into gimp. Certain features (or lack of) such as it’s text handling are very painful compared to Photoshop. Other notable features it lacks are live effects and the ability to organise layers into folders.

Every so often a gimp v’s photoshop thread pops up on digg.com and I always find the arguments seem to miss some of the key points and suggest people are not using gimp for web/graphic design but merely for editing their digital photographs. On that basis I think that unless you need CMYK then gimp v’s photoshop is largely preference and budget.

I find where gimp is weak is in it’s use in a workflow. For example, the lack of decent text handling and live effects makes putting say the “Comments”, “View the Archives” buttons from this site together a lengthier process. Especially if you need to come back and change the text.

Saying all that though I do wonder how long it will be before a decent Photoshop alternative comes up. Gimp is planned to be moved to a much more powerful core sometime soon so it will be interesting to see how that goes.

I’d be interested to hear of any professional web graphic designers that are using gimp.

Nick

If you’re looking for something just for Web work, and you don’t need to swap multi-layered documents with other designers or developers, then take a look at Fireworks. It takes a little bit of playing around to get used to it if you’ve been in Photoshopland for a long time, but ultimately, the combination of vector and bitmap is really nice.

The issue for me is that the designers I work with all use Photoshop religiously and don’t appear to have any interest in changing.

Give Macromedia Fireworks 8 a try:)

Take a look, it’s faster than Photoshop, is has incredible vector power (oh, yes!), and is entirely web-focused (not print). I’ve used it since version MX, I think (v.6). Now Adobe acquired MacroMedia and there’s Fireworks 9 (Fireworks CS3) to be released next year, but for now, Fireworks 8 is maybe the best version to get. You may have 30 days free trial.

There’s also an excellent article by Stephane Bergeron on this:
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/fireworks/articles/why_fireworks.html

:)

My $ 0.02 :)

I agree with Michel. I always have used Fireworks and I love it.

To swing the other way, and as a self-employed creative, I’m happy with using Photoshop.

I’ve not needed to use Adobe’s customer service. Perhaps if I did I’d have a different opinion.

People have touted GIMP as the best free alternative but I think we’re far off a quality commercial alternative as Adobe is steadily building their monopoly.

Nick — That’s good to know about Pixel. When I looked around, it says on the site the Mac version is behind the other versions in terms of development. Not sure if this means the Windows/Linux versions are any less buggy…

Another one is Chocoflop, which bills itself as

“CoreImage-based, realtime, non-destructive, high dynamic range Image and Photo Editing Application for Mac OS X”

http://www.chocoflop.com/

The GIMP is decent, but has quite a steep learning curve (especially if you’re migrating to it from photoshop). It’s open source though, so maybe it’s worth the money photoshop costs?

Fireworks? I used to use it all the time before CS came out

I’d vouch for Fireworks. It’s my fav.

I can only offer anecdotal evidence. My graphics person, a long time PS for print designer/producer, uses The GIMP when visiting/working in my office. From the first time she used GIMP, she expressed how easy it was to transfer her PS skills. Further, she was favorably impressed by the user interface.

There is no question PS is a better choice for print, but I’m a web developer/fixer, and my graphics experience is limited and limited to GIMP. For the web, GIMP is more than sufficient for my meager talents.

cheers,

gary

A bit late to the party here, but if you’re looking for a crop/resize and save for web tool, ImageWell is what you need. I use it all the time!

http://www.xtralean.com/IWOverview.html

Have you ever tried Pixel Image Editor (former pixel32)?

As a graphic design teacher, i find that Photoshop is very simple to access to non-graphic computer users. The learning is easy and quick, and the logic of the user interface makes for this. I taught other softwares to people willing to use an alternative (Corel photopaint, The Gimp, Fireworks, pixelpaint), but they all share the same handicap a bloated user interface with too many options, and for the Gimp a lack of real software interface.
Photoshop was not the first graphic software, remember photodeluxe on Amiga 2000, but it set the standards and has kept the head.
It has many downsides, but like democracy it can’t be replaced.
Ps : i’m not in anyway affiliated with Adobe, and i hate Monopolistic Companies Customer Abuse, a practice they seem to share with Apple.

Fireworks!

We won’t be getting away from Photoshop any time soon if we work on a web and print projects.

As a independent contractor, I HAVE to have Photoshop by my side. Clients with their own marketing departments will have a high chance of handing you a .PSD file.

to my knowledge nothing beats Fireworks when it comes to web layouts Give it a try!