This free photo editing software is equivalent to Photoshop

Discover the 100% free open source photo editing software whose tools and features are extremely similar to Photoshop. Called Gimp, it’s for anyone, graphic designers, photographers, illustrators, hobbyists, professionals, and more.

I think it’s no surprise that I tell you that in the world of photo editing, image editing, creation and graphic design, the professional standard is Photoshop.

In fact, the complete suite of Adobe Creative Suite is quite unanimous among those who know about it, whether Dreamweaver, Illustrator or InDesign.

If several factors can explain the constant popularity of Photoshop and other Adobe software, it is also true to say that not everyone is ready to invest such a large monthly amount to have access to it.

Looking for an alternative, my team and I decided to give Gimp a try, which is completely free for Linux, macOS, and Windows. Pleasantly surprised, it is still what we use today for most of our basic needs.

A very complete tool that has nothing to envy anyone

If Gimp can be very suitable for less experienced users in photo editing and image creation and modification, it is also very complete and can be suitable for professionals.

In fact, there are most of the flagship features that are on Photoshop as well as a range of the same tools, such as:

• The creation of icons;
• Advanced photo editing;
• Layers and their management to make them visible or not;
• Support for JPEG, GIF, BMP, PNG, PSD, PCX and TIFF formats;
• Drawing, digital painting, animations, and more.

As is the case with Photoshop, Gimp has a host of tools scattered throughout the drop-down menus and various boxes of its interface.

It contains everything you need to come and select our image or various parts of it, manipulate them, transform them, draw them, retouch them and correct them.

Then, at the level of the interface and the menus, we are not out of place either. True to any software, all of this is accessible from the top bar or by right-clicking on our image being edited.

These include:

• The classic copy, paste, cut, undo, redo, etc. functions;
• A menu specifically for layers and the actions you do on them;
• A menu just for filters, to adjust their effects on images;
• A help section to get it online or directly from the software.

Faced with all this, it’s hard to make her difficult, especially since I remind you, this is a completely free software. Little extra plus: it is even offered in French.

We only have to download it from the Gimp website and install the version that corresponds to the operating system of our computer to be able to use it.

The biggest problem is that if the grip is quite good for amateurs and professionals with experience, for beginners, it’s another story.

Learning to use the interface can be difficult for beginners to understand and you have to be patient and consult YouTube videos, tutorials and forums to become more comfortable. Fortunately, since it’s freeware, that’s not the only thing missing.

Moreover, there is a sort of « ultimate manual » that can be consulted directly on the Gimp website. It is ultra complete, covers absolutely all the tools and is even available in French!

It’s a bit of a shame, but it’s the « price to pay » to benefit from a free version of the expensive Photoshop software.

Visit the Gimp website to learn more and download it