# Good free or cheap Photoshop alternatives? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 29, 2011, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-or-cheap-photoshop-alternatives/569446 "2011-01-29T22:04:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2011, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-or-cheap-photoshop-alternatives/569446/21 "2011-01-31T07:30:44Z")
> [@Dervorin](#): > > You might want to try GIMPShop, which, despite the potentially dodgy-sounding name and URL, is The problem with Gimpshop is that it hasn’t been updated in a long time. The next version of the Gimp will have a better interface (including a single window variety), but, for right now, that’s the most annoying part of it. Although I’m generally against pirated software, I’m getting close to reinstalling a pirated copy Photoshop CS2 that I unwittingly bought from eBay for my Photoshop class. Oh, and the Gimp doesn’t have shape tools or any vector abilities, but I find I can use [Inkscape](http://inkscape.org/), the open source answer to Adobe Illustrator. Other than a deficient bitmap trace tool, it’s pretty good. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2011, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-or-cheap-photoshop-alternatives/569446/22 "2011-01-31T08:14:10Z")
I’ve never been able to get GIMP to do stuff I did in Photoshop all the time, like copy one layer to part of another. It’s superficially similar, but I miss Photoshop. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-free-or-cheap-photoshop-alternatives/569446.md?page=1)