Re: Free vs. pay software

frederick wrote:
measekite wrote:


TJ wrote:
The August 2007 Computer Shopper contains an article comparing free and pay application software. Two of the comparisons are of interest to those who do much printing: Microsoft Office vs. Openoffice.org 2.2 and Photoshop vs. The GIMP.

The conclusions were that for most people, those who don't necessarily need all the bells and whistles that professionals look for, the free alternatives are the clear winners. Read the entire article at http://computershopper.com/feature/software-showdown-are-free-downloads-as-good-as-for-pay-apps-200706


To Measekite: I have temporarily disabled your entry in my killfile so that I may read your comments directly, if you have any. Before you make them, however, please read the article for yourself.

TJ

Speaking for Windows only:

I do not have to. I use both MS Office and OpenOffice. I use Photoshop and just installed Gimpshop. I know Gimpshop is not as good as Photoshop but based on the cost difference I agree one should try GimpShop unless you need to interact with other Photoshop users or get various forms of PS support. In that regard I would like to see how it stacks up with Photoshop Elements. If Elements is better than the $75.00 or so is meaningless. Like a Quarter Pounder without cheese.


As this is a printing forum, there are two significant reasons to use Elements or full PS over the Gimp for photo editing and printing.

First is the ability to edit in 16 bit colour space. If you make significant changes to colour balance, levels etc, then you will see banding/posterisation if editing in 8 bit due to integer rounding ( a blue sky is often where this is first seen). This gets exacerbated as you edit several times, and/or if you save between edits, especially compressing as jpg.

Second is the ease of using ICC profiles for printing. While there is usually some way of using profiles using the printer driver, AFAIK there's no way to view "gamut warning" in Gimp (or Elements), and a difficult job to soft-proof in Gimp using view/filters and loading the profile.

The first problem can mainly be worked around if shooting in raw, and making any significant changes using the raw converter before saving for any further editing in Gimp's 8 bit colour space.

The second might be improved when Gimp 2.4 is released, but a pre-release (2.3xx) I was looking at didn't look promising.

Otherwise, Gimp is terrific, in Windows even supporting features such as pressure sensitivity and switching to eraser when inverting the pen with my Wacom tablet. And if you can use PS, it's no trouble to switch to use Gimp and vice versa.

No matter what software you use, you should never edit a jpeg file. It should be converted to a lossless format like png or tiff first. That should be one of the first things covered in the docs for any photo editor. Even the great Photoshop can't prevent degradation from repeated saves of a jpeg.

TJ

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Relevant Pages

  • Re: Free vs. pay software
    ... Two of the comparisons are of interest to those who do much printing: Microsoft Office vs. Openoffice.org 2.2 and Photoshop vs. ... As this is a printing forum, there are two significant reasons to use Elements or full PS over the Gimp for photo editing and printing. ...
    (comp.periphs.printers)
  • Re: Free vs. pay software
    ... Two of the comparisons are of interest to those who do much printing: Microsoft Office vs. Openoffice.org 2.2 and Photoshop vs. ... As this is a printing forum, there are two significant reasons to use Elements or full PS over the Gimp for photo editing and printing. ... This gets exacerbated as you edit several times, and/or if you save between edits, especially compressing as jpg. ...
    (comp.periphs.printers)
  • Re: Free vs. pay software
    ... Two of the comparisons are of interest to those who do much printing: Microsoft Office vs. Openoffice.org 2.2 and Photoshop vs. ... I know Gimpshop is not as good as Photoshop but based on the cost difference I agree one should try GimpShop unless you need to interact with other Photoshop users or get various forms of PS support. ... As this is a printing forum, there are two significant reasons to use Elements or full PS over the Gimp for photo editing and printing. ...
    (comp.periphs.printers)
  • Re: Free vs. pay software
    ... Two of the comparisons are of interest to those who do much printing: Microsoft Office vs. Openoffice.org 2.2 and Photoshop vs. ... I know Gimpshop is not as good as Photoshop but based on the cost difference I agree one should try GimpShop unless you need to interact with other Photoshop users or get various forms of PS support. ... As this is a printing forum, there are two significant reasons to use Elements or full PS over the Gimp for photo editing and printing. ...
    (comp.periphs.printers)
  • Re: BIG prints
    ... TBH I didn't have much of a problem with the GIMP it's mostly Photoshop 2.5 ... Then saved it to Photoshop format to send to a publisher. ... to do the edit in GIMP and send it again. ...
    (uk.misc)