# Is GIMP still the go-to for free open source photo editing? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 9, 2019, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gimp-still-the-go-to-for-free-open-source-photo-editing/827493 "2019-01-09T23:55:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cuckoorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2019, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gimp-still-the-go-to-for-free-open-source-photo-editing/827493/1 "2019-01-09T23:55:49Z")
And what about a free open source page design program? Any recommendations? ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gimp-still-the-go-to-for-free-open-source-photo-editing/827493/2 "2019-01-10T01:14:01Z")
I do not have market share figures versus Photoshop, but GIMP is still getting active funding and development and updates every couple of months. “If it ain’t broke…” By “page design”, do you mean an alternative to Indesign? What is your target medium? (Book, magazine, newspaper, poster?) ---
**Author:** ![Sefton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Sefton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sefton)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gimp-still-the-go-to-for-free-open-source-photo-editing/827493/3 "2019-01-10T01:24:33Z")
I can answer yes to the first question. It’s taken a couple weeks, but now I’m just as productive with GIMP as I was with Photoshop. For the second question, I have no idea. ---
**Author:** ![Fair\_Rarity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fair_rarity/32/153_2.png) [@Fair\_Rarity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fair_Rarity)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gimp-still-the-go-to-for-free-open-source-photo-editing/827493/4 "2019-01-10T01:52:49Z")
I just read a rec for [Photopea](https://www.photopea.com) recently and it seems fairly decent from the little I’ve tried it. I think it’s online-only, however. I use [Paint.net](http://Paint.net) (which is downloadable, despite its name) mostly. It’s not as effective at a lot of things, especially without plugins, but for quick fixes, it loads much faster than my Gimp and is more intuitive and easy to use. (My Gimp loads slowly because of some plugins I added. Plus for anyone who hasn’t checked, it got updated fairly recently so you might have to manually update.) eta: And I am testing out Inkscape, which also seems good. ---
**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:** [January 10, 2019, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gimp-still-the-go-to-for-free-open-source-photo-editing/827493/5 "2019-01-10T02:46:02Z")
If you’re looking for page design software, try the search term Desktop Publishing, as it threw up [these](https://www.scribus.net/category/made-with-scribus/) [three](https://www.lucidpress.com/pages/tour/free-desktop-publishing-software) [options](http://www.flipbuilder.com/extension/free-desktop-publishing-software.html). ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gimp-still-the-go-to-for-free-open-source-photo-editing/827493/6 "2019-01-10T05:52:51Z")
[Paint.NET](https://www.getpaint.net/) is my preferred program, it doesn’t have the (IMHO, I’m not a graphic designer) clunky Photoshop UI that GIMP has. The only real disadvantage for some is Windows-only. Edit: missed **Fair Rarity’s** post, so I concur. But the .NET part has nothing to do with the internet but with Microsoft’s [.NET Framework](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET_Framework). And for everything else, there’s [del]Mastercard[/del] [Irfanview](https://www.irfanview.com/), a great program for batch processing. It is not for Photoshop-like editing. Inkscape is supposed to be like Adobe Illustrator, not Photoshop (vector editing). ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gimp-still-the-go-to-for-free-open-source-photo-editing/827493/7 "2019-01-10T15:16:50Z")
If you’re specifically looking to edit digital photos, Darktable is worth knowing about. Gimp is to Photoshop what Darktable is to Lightroom. If you need to batch edit a bunch of files or make subtler “development” adjustments, it may be better. Gimp, to my knowledge, is still the most powerful free alternative to Photoshop, but it still has an obnoxiously unintuitive interface and isn’t nearly as good as modern Photoshop for automatic adjustments. If you don’t need a ton of raw power, I will second [paint.net](http://paint.net) for having a much easier interface for doing quick edits. ---
**Author:** ![Fair\_Rarity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fair_rarity/32/153_2.png) [@Fair\_Rarity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fair_Rarity)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2019, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gimp-still-the-go-to-for-free-open-source-photo-editing/827493/8 "2019-01-11T01:57:01Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Edit: missed **Fair Rarity’s** post, so I concur. But the .NET part has nothing to do with the internet but with Microsoft’s [.NET Framework](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET_Framework). I wanted to make that distinction because Photopea is an online-only editor and if one had never heard of [paint.net](http://paint.net), it sounds like it’s online-only too. I never knew that was where it got its name. The more you know _rainbow_ ---
**Author:** ![JB99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/439d5e/32.png) [@JB99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JB99)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2019, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gimp-still-the-go-to-for-free-open-source-photo-editing/827493/9 "2019-01-11T02:51:07Z")
I use GIMP for everything. It’s extremely rare to find something GIMP _can’t_ do.