# Free Photoshop? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 28, 2003, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-photoshop/215682 "2003-11-28T06:02:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2003, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-photoshop/215682/21 "2003-11-29T05:01:05Z")
Photoshop was invented by two brothers, John and Thomas Knoll, to be used in video/film effects and photo manipulation. John was working (and later became one of the top guys) at _Industrial Light and Magic_, the George Lucas Special Effects company, where they still use the software religiously. Thomas is still in charge of future development of Photoshop, but John is now firmly busy with all things Star Wars. But you can see that, as it was designed originally for industry professionals, and from their efforts to expand it into web-based, video-based, and a whole lot more in addition to it’s origins, it makes it a complex and worthily expensive piece of software. [linkity link](http://www.storyphoto.com/multimedia/multimedia_photoshop.html) ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2003, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-photoshop/215682/22 "2003-11-29T05:02:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by neutron star \* > Of course, all this is assuming the video camera is digital. :smack: That should have read “assuming the digital camera is a digital VIDEO camera.” But now I see you also mentioned he was a film student, so I guess it is. I need to learn to pay more attention before I reply! ---
**Author:** ![Freiheit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e8c25b/32.png) [@Freiheit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freiheit)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2003, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-photoshop/215682/23 "2003-11-30T01:27:45Z")
Thanks for the replies, everybody. I’m downloading GIMP right now. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2003, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-photoshop/215682/24 "2003-11-30T07:23:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by GuanoLad \* > Thomas is still in charge of future development of Photoshop, but John is now firmly busy with all things Star Wars. Actually, the folks in charge of Barneyscan…erm…Photoshop are all Adobe folks and have been for years. John is indeed way into ILM stuff but still writes Photoshop imaging plug-ins and such occasionally. Dunno what Tom’s been doing lately, but I don’t think he’s touched any Photoshop code quite a few years. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2003, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-photoshop/215682/25 "2003-11-30T11:58:13Z")
His name, and not John’s, still appear in the Photoshop credits. Though you’re probably right in that he doesn’t program much anymore, that’s not really what I said - he’ll still oversee development. Of course, I’m just extrapolating from what little I know. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2003, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-photoshop/215682/26 "2003-11-30T12:39:22Z")
I don’t know how this will affect your decision but a lot of inside sources say that the makers of high priced software (Photoshop, 3DSM etc) either don’t mind or actually like it when poor starving students pirate their programs. Once said poor starving student gets used to a particular program, its sometimes painful to switch and they will end up preferring their software to competing brands. Ultimately, both the student benifits from having powerful, free software that they wouldn’t have been able to buy in the first place and the companies benifit 5 years down the track when their market share increases. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-photoshop/215682/27 "2003-12-01T06:47:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by GuanoLad \* > His name, and not John’s, still appear in the Photoshop credits. Though you’re probably right in that he doesn’t program much anymore, that’s not really what I said - he’ll still oversee development. > > Of course, I’m just extrapolating from what little I know. GL, I’m a little closer to the font, since I work @ Adobe, although not on the Photoshop team. Tom may still contribute to Photoshop in some way, but I’m honestly not sure if he’s active at all on that product. Tom definitely does not ‘oversee’ Photoshop development in any sense; I know several of the people who are involved at that level. ---
**Author:** ![MrMyth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e19b73/32.png) [@MrMyth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrMyth)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-photoshop/215682/28 "2003-12-01T15:36:35Z")
Thomas is active over at the DPreview forums, where he is working on intergrating digital camera RAW files conversion directly into Photoshop. He’s been collecting samples of different manufacturers for some time now. ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-photoshop/215682/29 "2003-12-01T21:10:04Z")
Never knew GIMP ran on windows, very cool. ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-photoshop/215682/30 "2003-12-01T22:49:03Z")
OK, I’ve been following this thread, and I went and downloaded GIMP; for the simple kind of stuff I want to do (enhancing my digital photos, etc.), it is terrific. Unfortunately, I’m having a little trouble getting through the documentation, since it seems to start with the premise that I’m _not_ a total ignoramus about this stuff, which I am. So I need some help: In GIMP, is there a way to record a “macro” that will perform a number of preselected actions on an image? In other words, I’d click a button or select an option, and GIMP would go and adjust the color settings, brightness, contrast, hue, saturation, etc., the way that I’ve programmed it to do. I _think_ this would be a “filter” in GIMP, and I tried the option called “User Filter” but I couldn’t make head or tail of it. Am I barking up the wrong tree? Any help will be much appreciated. Especially if it’s dumbed down to the point where a child (or a 32-year-old English major) could understand it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-photoshop/215682.md?page=1)