Adobe Photoshop vs Gimp

[cnrtechspot.com]

Can projects that I can with Photoshop done with Gimp?
I learned from another forum.
Someone told me :

" Degrade and GFX ( I don't know what they are really) in Photoshop is not in Gimp and they are important.

Are they really important and Is Gimp good much like Photoshop?

Thank you.


My english is bad and so pls write in simple lang

[CtrlAltDel]

Gimp is every bit as good for 99.9% of people as Photoshop is.  In the few areas where Photoshop is more advanced than Gimp, like opening RAW files, non-destructive editing, etc..., Gimp will have those features in a short amount of time when the next big release of Gimp comes out.

I'm no expert on the pro's and con's of each one but, you can type Gimp vs. Photoshop into a search engine and get a thousand articles written about it and it will give you a much better understanding than I could.

[PixLab]

(05-30-2021, 08:28 PM)cnrtechspot.com Wrote: Someone told me :

" Degrade and GFX ( I don't know what they are really) in Photoshop is not in Gimp and they are important.

Are they really important and Is Gimp good much like Photoshop?

Be careful about fan boys/girls pseudo arguments (both side), and this is a pseudo argument!
I did a quick search about GFX, it seems to be the Photoshop's engine for filters and others effects(I might be wrong, though), you can safely say that Photoshop does not have GEGL, but GIMP has it.
On both side, those "arguments" do not make ANY sense!

Two things you need to know:
1) GIMP has few limitations compared to Photoshop, for instance it has no mesh tool like in Photoshop or Krita, but this tool can be over come with G'MIC (gmic.eu) or other plugins, or even with some GIMP filters like the "Curves Bend...". It's not perfect, though, but the job can be done.

2) On the over hand you will go a lot faster and it's easier to create different type of planets and star field in GIMP than in Photoshop (just an example), as GIMP has at least 3 different type of true "sphere" tools with light effect, and Photoshop has just a simulated "spherize" which is more on a lens effect than a sphere, unless you use the Photoshop's 3D menu -> (did you ever use it?).

If you remember that GIMP is NOT Photoshop, and Photoshop is NOT GIMP, everything will be fine.
What you do in one software will have a different workflow in the other one.
Both software are excellent and you will never use them at 100%, ever!

By the way, if any doubts, NASA and JPL use GIMP for their orbital telescope and other radar in space or what so ever imaging from space... images in 64 bit like FITS file...

In the end, it seems you are not a master of Photoshop either (you don't know what is GFX nor Degrade), which means that every project you did in Photoshop was using these "general standard tools" that you will find in GIMP as well. GIMP can open your PSD, you can use your preferred Photoshop's brushes in GIMP (80% of the time photoshop's brushes work in GIMP).

So to answer your most important question

(05-30-2021, 08:28 PM)cnrtechspot.com Wrote: Can projects that I can with Photoshop done with Gimp?

YES!

[denzjos]

On the top right of this forum you can search to al kind of solved problems in this forum. Find the things you want to do in gimp (and did in PS). Mostly you will find a solution. Don't forget, gimp is free. There is a learning curve to use gimp, but that is with all things in life... I'm happy with gimp.

[meetdilip]

GIMP has no CMYK support as far as I know. That means if you print an image from GIMP without converting it to CMYK colour profile first, it will look really bad. Far from what you have drawn.

[PixLab]

Please not the CMYK again... That's wrong.

Unless you have a manufacture printing millions of carton every day for your favorite hot/cold drink, toilet paper or cereals' boxes and need colors separations (to save ink for example) or being a logo designer for a printing company, I think that I can safely tell that this pseudo "argument" is quite irrelevant nowadays for 99% of the planet.
There are a lot of math, science and theories behind RGB to CMYK, icc device profile to printer color space... but there is too much to speak about this for this thread.

As you're saying:

(05-31-2021, 02:50 PM)meetdilip Wrote: GIMP has no CMYK support as far as I know. That means if you print an image from GIMP without converting it to CMYK colour profile first, it will look really bad. Far from what you have drawn.

It seems you never print with GIMP... Try, you will be surprised as it does a good job.

Tell me, when you print a webpage, do you convert it to CMYK? No! but your webpage is well printed although it has the color profile of your monitor -> RGB/sRGB...
When you print from your favorite office suite like LibreOffice, do you convert your document to CMYK? No! but your favorite office suite does a great job at printing...

For most people who just wants color on paper, it doesn't matter since the built-in color profiles in printers do a nice job converting RGB to CMYK.

Do you know that CMYK start with white (paper), thus the Key (K), -> no paper are pure white, and depending the brand (even in the same brand) the whiteness will be different, for example they are slightly yellowish/blueish/grayish, and even the level of gray or yellowish is different...
If the "whiteness" of the paper do not match the Key, you're not going to get what you've expected...

Go to a printing shop and ask the workers/owners what's the profile people come in with their image to print in their shop, they will tell you that 99% come with RGB/sRGB/ARGB, and (almost) never with CMYK.

I certainly have one of the cheapest printer in the world using CMYK inks (Epson L220, bought around 120 USD 5 years ago), I print, have printed and will continue to print from GIMP on that printer until it dies.
I have printed  pictures for passport, pictures for IDs, printed my photos. I have printed drawing like a ludo game, snake and ladder and so that I did made with GIMP and printed from GIMP (for my kids), color are absolutely normal, no noticeable deviation...
Oh, and all that without "converting" to CMYK, how about that
You do not need to convert to CMYK, because your CMM/S (Color Management Module/System) either from the computer or the printer itself will do it.

In the end, it's how you've set up your printer.

Last but not least, GIMP has a softproofing CMYK colours (I never used it), GIMP can generate CMYK separations (I never used it), CMYK TIFF image, in > Change color FG-BG you have a CMYK tab (I never used it)...

[meetdilip]

I would be delighted if printing from GIMP on paper has no colour deviation. I do not have a printer at the moment so, I cannot try it myself. I always thought and was told that both Inkscape and GIMP is not suitable for printing on professional press. I have not used Photoshop in ages and stick to Inkscape and GIMP whenever possible. On Twitter, there were comments from official handles ( both Inkscape and GIMP ) in reply to CMYK requests. I am amazed the there was no " go ahead and print ", it will work fine.

I am no artist but it will help me a lot if GIMP output will work when dealing with visiting cards and alike. I can earn a little bit if the output is professional press-ready. I really hope that it is ok to send GIMP output to press. Thanks.

[CtrlAltDel]

(06-02-2021, 01:03 PM)meetdilip Wrote: I would be delighted if printing from GIMP on paper has no colour deviation. I do not have a printer at the moment so, I cannot try it myself. I always thought and was told that both Inkscape and GIMP is not suitable for printing on professional press. I have not used Photoshop in ages and stick to Inkscape and GIMP whenever possible. On Twitter, there were comments from official handles ( both Inkscape and GIMP ) in reply to CMYK requests. I am amazed the there was no " go ahead and print ", it will work fine.

I am no artist but it will help me a lot if GIMP output will work when dealing with visiting cards and alike. I can earn a little bit if the output is professional press-ready. I really hope that it is ok to send GIMP output to press. Thanks.

I think what PixLab is smugly relating to the board is that CMYK support is not a real thing and it's make believe and is a figment of the imagination of the deluded.  That "EVERY SINGLE ARTICLE" ever written in the history of the Internet mentions that Gimp doesn't yet have CMYK support, and Photoshop does, is just an amazing coincidence and CMYK doesn't exist, a mere fantasy.

That Gimp developers are very proud in anticipation of the next major release of Gimp actually having CMYK support is not something that is really happening.  Many Gimp users haven't been begging for CMYK support for over a decade now because, well, there is really no such thing as CMYK.

Please don't mention CMYK again when anyone asks you to compare Gimp to Photoshop because to do so makes one appear as if they are just making things up and would make you appear untruthful. The thousands of magazine, web site, blog posts, etc., articles over the years, about Gimp not having CMYK support, were all written by people that didn't have printers and don't really even know what they are talking about.

In comparisons of Gimp to Photoshop, there is now no need whatsoever to ever mention CMYK again because PixLab says so. And, unless you are Kellogs Foods and need to print cereal boxes millions of times a day at a massive corporation outfit, CMYK would do no one any good anyway.

[PixLab]

(06-03-2021, 01:49 AM)CtrlAltDel Wrote: I think what PixLab is smugly relating to the board is that CMYK support is not a real thing and it's make believe and is a figment of the imagination of the deluded. That "EVERY SINGLE ARTICLE" ever written in the history of the Internet mentions that Gimp doesn't yet have CMYK support, and Photoshop does, is just an amazing coincidence and CMYK doesn't exist, a mere fantasy.

That Gimp developers are very proud in anticipation of the next major release of Gimp actually having CMYK support is not something that is really happening. Many Gimp users haven't been begging for CMYK support for over a decade now because, well, there is really no such thing as CMYK.

Please don't mention CMYK again when anyone asks you to compare Gimp to Photoshop because to do so makes one appear as if they are just making things up and would make you appear untruthful. The thousands of magazine, web site, blog posts, etc., articles over the years, about Gimp not having CMYK support, were all written by people that didn't have printers and don't really even know what they are talking about.

In comparisons of Gimp to Photoshop, there is now no need whatsoever to ever mention CMYK again because PixLab says so. And, unless you are Kellogs Foods and need to print cereal boxes millions of times a day at a massive corporation outfit, CMYK would do no one any good anyway.

Wow-wow-wow! I did not knew that some one can misinterpret my comment the way you did, especially to that point! That's scary.
You made me sound like an anti CMYK "terrorist", which I'm not, at all.
Anyway, Thanks for the woke up as I would never have thought that my comment could be seen the way you saw it.

(06-02-2021, 01:03 PM)meetdilip Wrote: I would be delighted if printing from GIMP on paper has no colour deviation. I do not have a printer at the moment so, I cannot try it myself. I always thought and was told that both Inkscape and GIMP is not suitable for printing on professional press. I have not used Photoshop in ages and stick to Inkscape and GIMP whenever possible. On Twitter, there were comments from official handles ( both Inkscape and GIMP ) in reply to CMYK requests. I am amazed the there was no " go ahead and print ", it will work fine.

I am no artist but it will help me a lot if GIMP output will work when dealing with visiting cards and alike. I can earn a little bit if the output is professional press-ready. I really hope that it is ok to send GIMP output to press. Thanks.

"I can earn a little bit if the output is professional press-ready" ... OK, now we know why you need CMYK

If you do need CMYK, I would suggest to use directly/learn Krita instead of GIMP, it's as good as GIMP for visiting cards, flyers, brochures, and alike, and you can directly work in "CMYK". Also, you might want to give a try to Scribus as this software is more dedicated for this kind of stuff.

But if you prefer to work with GIMP (which I understand, it's a lovely piece of software), you can convert your files in Krita once you have finished with GIMP.
To do so, export to PSD/PNG/your-favorite-extension from GIMP, open that file in Krita then in Krita's menu go to > Image > Convert Image Color space... > Model -> CMYK/alpha, then save -> done
Also you can re-adjust colors in Krita while in "CMYK" color space

[CtrlAltDel]

(06-03-2021, 05:33 AM)PixLab Wrote: Wow-wow-wow! I did not knew that some one can misinterpret my comment the way you did, especially to that point! That's scary.
You made me sound like an anti CMYK "terrorist", which I'm not, at all.
Anyway, Thanks for the woke up as I would never have thought that my comment could be seen the way you saw it.

  I did feel you may have overreacted a bit to a very standard reply, oft-repeated a million times, about CMYK not being natively available in Gimp.  On the other hand, on reflection, I also overreacted in my response and overdid it.

No hard feelings.  Everyone is very friendly around here and you seem extremely knowledgeable.  I hope you stick around, as it never hurts to have another expert helping out.