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youtube.com - Musician and Best Buy employee, Keith Parsons, rocks his Best Buy holiday campaign audition.
103 Comments
- xythian, on 02/27/2009, -2/+40I know it's borderline heresy to say it, but I use Paint.net for quick and low level tasks. Why use a riding lawnmower when all you need is scissors?
Also, Photoshop Express is a great alternative to give someone who wants some more advanced photo editing options but will be overwhelmed by full blown Photoshop. - JonnyCasino, on 02/27/2009, -1/+18I am shopper, and just can't seem to find myself a replacement for what I do. However, Paint.net is a great alternative that i've been using lately for fast crops and chops. It's light and the best feature on Pain.net that I use [even after i've shopped an image] is the Glow Filter, it's a one step filter that surpasses the 4 step process for the same effect in Photoshop.
- Treshnell, on 02/27/2009, -0/+11If you made money from Photoshop, you should be paying for it. If you're using it to just play around with it, you should still pay for it, but you can feel less guilty if you didn't.
- Wreckage, on 02/27/2009, -0/+11For quick photo editing and viewing nothing beats Irfanview.
- Julie188, on 02/27/2009, -4/+14I use GIMP -- sort of. It is really complicated to learn so I haven't mastered it yet. But it seems to do everything photoshop does.
- mourne, on 02/27/2009, -1/+11... I do. Sure it's more hip to just torrent everything, but I believe that if something is worth using (specially as heavy as I use photoshop), it's worth buying.
Same applies to music. Maybe I'm more stickler about it because I'm a musician. I also believe in Karma. - smemily, on 02/27/2009, -2/+12It doesn't. If you're using it in a casual capacity, it's fine, but for professional print work it's out of the question because it lacks Photoshop's ability to handle complex color management.
- mourne, on 02/27/2009, -0/+9I heard a while back, not sure if it's true or not, but that Adobe actually likes it when people pirate it and learn it. Because when these same people get hired into design jobs, the company that hires them has to buy licenses and all that. It's the companies that Adobe makes the money off of, not really the individual.
Could be a load of crap though. - 7m7uf, on 02/27/2009, -1/+10I can't see myself replacing photoshop. I've tried GIMP and it didn't jive with me - it was nice, just i was too used to photoshop i guess. However i may have to find one after my student discounts go bye-bye. I hope a free alternative to photoshop, that i like, comes soon - i really have been wanting to switch over to linux -- Photoshop and Dreamweaver have been keeping me using Windows.
- AndrewMoyer, on 02/27/2009, -1/+10Feature-wise, it's always been behind Photoshop by a few versions it seems. And it's UI is a bit more awkward, but it gets the job done for most tasks.
- temsi, on 02/27/2009, -2/+10A Hyundai Excel can get you from point a to point b (most of the time).
In that respect, it will do most of what a Rolls Royce does.
But it will never be considered an alternative to Rolls Royce.
The GIMP is a good tool, but it will never replace Photoshop - the Rolls Royce of photoshopping (see, it not only has become synonymous with photo manipluation, it's became a verb, for crying out loud). - brstilson, on 02/27/2009, -2/+10Most people who use Photoshop use less than 10% of its features. Photoshop is software for professional print houses, so in most cases using Photoshop is like using a helicopter to go to the corner store 2 blocks down the street for a pack of smokes.
I would say Gimp is a great tool, except the interface is just too clumsy and awkward to be usable. It's obvious that the Gimp people have no idea how to design an effective interface - Atomic1fire, on 02/27/2009, -0/+8I use paint.net, because its relatively easy to do the things I need to do at the time.
- mcprogrammer, on 02/27/2009, -1/+8It's more than "a few versions" behind. At least for anyone using it professionally, there's nothing that comes close to Photoshop.
For basic photo editing, it's fine for most people though (besides the awkward interface). - inactive, on 02/27/2009, -0/+6There is a difference between pirating something to learn it as a teenager and making tens of thousands freelancing off it without giving back.
- mourne, on 02/27/2009, -1/+7I don't necessarily think karma is going to get you. But I believe that if you do good things, it's more likely that good will happen back.
I buy CDs I like and I hope that my example encourages others to buy my CD.
Everyone else can do as they wish and live happy lives. =) - mattbeetee, on 02/27/2009, -0/+6I use Photoshop for heavy duty stuff and a great little app called Pixelmator for crops and low level edits. Pixelmator is highly intuitive, and screen-lickably beautiful to boot. I recommend to any Mac owners who would like something that packs a punch yet only takes 2 seconds to load.
http://www.pixelmator.com/ - DaftMonk, on 02/27/2009, -2/+8Pixelmator! Mac-only, can't handle all the stuff Photoshop can, but very useful for basic-level to intermediate image editing. Uses the GPU for processing, has a BEAUTIFUL interface, and is fast as the blazes. $59, worth every dime. Monthly-ish updates make each version better than the last.
http://www.pixelmator.com/
... sorry for sounding like an advertisement. - daddymcguire, on 02/27/2009, -0/+5A lot of people have a hard time using GIMP after using Photoshop for a while, myself included. Once you get used to certain shortcuts, tool locations and the layout it makes it a little harder to use a different program to do the same work.
That being said, I had some help in retraining myself to use GIMP instead of Photoshop with the use of an excellent book on GIMP. As my needs in graphical editing and creation do not require the extensive abilities of Photoshop, I have found that GIMP still does more than what I require. I imagine that could be said for most people as well. - inactive, on 02/27/2009, -0/+4Nice website gimpshop - more ads than content http://img515.imageshack.us/my.php?image=gimpshop. ... :P
- tellahoohooo, on 02/27/2009, -7/+11Who pays for photoshop?
- wedges, on 02/27/2009, -3/+7sorry, but none of these can be considered viable alternatives, especially when working as a graphics professional.
- InsaneOni, on 02/27/2009, -0/+3The graphics industry business model is pretty much based on pirating of software. There's no way someone's going to plunk down $700 or $7000 (for some 3d packages) to learn how to use something. Then once they're trained, they can encourage their employer to buy the software. See, it's a win win for everyone.
- mourne, on 02/27/2009, -2/+5I tried GIMP and was just frustrated in the lack of ease of use. I'm not sure if I'm just to 'conditioned' to photoshop though. I've been using it since 4.0.
I used the Corel photo program for a while and liked it, but I've never found anything else to be even remotely as good as photoshop. I'm just glad Adobe fixed the crap in CS2, cause that was one of the worst versions. CS4 is righteous though. - rip747, on 02/27/2009, -0/+3and how many of these free "alternatives" can actually open, read, and save to a psd file?
- sremick, on 02/27/2009, -0/+3I love GIMP and am really good with using the interface for the features it supports. It remains my favorite and the UI doesn't phase me. Unfortunately, some tasks are next to impossible.
GIMP could take some cues from Paint.NET when it comes to simple ways to do simple, common tasks. - melonhedd, on 02/27/2009, -2/+5Paint.net is not open source anymore
- RobN, on 02/27/2009, -0/+3For lightweight stuff, like cropping, rotating, resizing, IrfanView is awesome. For just viewing a bunch of pictures rapidly, it's incredibly awesome!!
People who are in love with Photoshop probably wouldn't consider it worth talking about, but for 80-90% of what average people actually do, it will load faster and do what you want more intuitively than any of the alternatives I've seen. Awesome, awesome tool that doesn't get nearly as much love as it deserves. - shrapnel09, on 02/27/2009, -1/+4Exactly! Most people don't need Photoshop in the first place. I prefer Paint.NET myself. The startup time, if nothing else, makes me hesitate using PS.
- tymme, on 02/27/2009, -0/+2That's ok, Adobe wants you to pay every time you use the word 'photoshop' as a verb, so it'll rack up about the same costs. ( http://digg.com/tech_news/Adobe_The_Photoshop_trad ... )
- inactive, on 02/27/2009, -2/+4That's a poor analogy. The Rolls Royce isn't so reliable and uses much more fuel than a Hyundai.
- tellahoohooo, on 02/27/2009, -0/+2my job paid for it, not me...and before that it was a copy i got from my school...before that...i was using ms paint
- Nickolassc, on 02/27/2009, -1/+3Paint.net is all I use. Does everything I need and takes zero learning time.
- nirzar, on 02/27/2009, -1/+3those are so not ALTERNATIVES... how can a WEB BASED image editor be ALTERNATIVE for photoshop??
- freezerburn666, on 02/27/2009, -3/+5gimp seems powerful but the layout is atrocious, 3 or more different windows and all they ever do is get lost behind other *****. i mean just look at the mess in the screenshot on the page! jesus man! and you can't shrink the toolbar width without chopping off the tools, wtf. i tried gimp shop and it installed, didn't look anything like photoshop, just regular ol gimp, always tries to install every time it runs, i don't get it. i'm glad i can use CS2 in wine.
- chadillac83, on 02/27/2009, -0/+2I was just about to same the same thing, love this lil app, it's light fast and the GUI is gorgeous.
- cr42yr1ch, on 02/28/2009, -0/+2For the casual user it does do everything that photoshop does, but for a professional designer it is sadly lacking some major features. As smemily said the lack of proper colour space management is crippling in a professional content.
- chadillac83, on 02/27/2009, -0/+2agreed, great app, light fast and awesome GUI
- KibibyteBrain, on 02/27/2009, -1/+3But thats where I disagree with the article's logic. Paint.net is a great app but its even self proclaimed not an alternative to Photoshop. The only real alternative to Photoshop is GIMP. And thats only for some tasks, those working in motion graphics or in DSP researcher or other even more esoteric Photoshop users still have no alternative to Photoshop. The only people for whom most of these apps could be alternatives to PS are those who don't really need PS anyway.
- Koppie, on 02/28/2009, -0/+2#1 GIMP
That's all you need to know. - soulseek, on 02/28/2009, -1/+3It's weird that no one here refered Pixel Image Editor
Cheap, lightweight, powerful and multiplatform
http://www.kanzelsberger.com/pixel/?page_id=12 - CIM81, on 02/27/2009, -1/+3There's no alternative to Photoshop.
- MtheoryX, on 02/27/2009, -0/+2I actually prefer RC to Coke, but I totally get what you're saying.
- MrAwesomeMan, on 02/27/2009, -0/+1I wish I could take a helicopter to the corner store. How awesome would that be?!
"The helicopter...oh yeah, that's mine. I'll get it out of the intersection as soon as I buy these smokes." Who doesn't wish they could say that? - inactive, on 02/28/2009, -0/+1I think there might be a certain amount of conditioning involved. I use GIMP since I was using Ubuntu for the last two years and its fairly easy to use. First time I used it I thought it was a piece of ***** and had no ease of use but then got the hang of it.
The other day I tried using photoshop to just colour balance a photo of my sister and I was getting a little frustrated but got there eventually. I had used photoshop a little bit before, just to touch up photos and all that easy sort of stuff thats why I like gimp. Its more than capable of doing the things I need.
Photoshop is a more powerful tool if you know what your doing though. Basically people have to accept that the two are not the same thing even though they are very "similar". - jamshid, on 02/28/2009, -0/+1Not a photo editor, but fyi I was pleasantly surprised at how usable OpenOffice's Draw application is for creating simple drawings that scales well (SVG). Well, the text didn't, but maybe that's an SVG problem with fonts.
- darkstar107, on 02/27/2009, -0/+1www.pixlr.com
- Seems like a cool online photo editor...check it out. - Treshnell, on 02/27/2009, -1/+2If I wouldn't have bought it if it wasn't available for download, have they lost any money when I did download it? No.
I play around with it sometimes for fun and as a hobby, but if it hadn't been available for free (or very cheap, like a student discount), then I just would have found a different hobby.
Now if someone were to profit off of it, then I'd agree. Anyone that uses it (or any software) to perform a service in exchange for other gains (money or services) has used it for profit and should pay the creators for their work, or find a free option. - Koppie, on 02/28/2009, -0/+1Maybe because it's not FOSS? Infidel.
(Watch everyone without a sense of humor digg me down.) ;-P - inactive, on 02/27/2009, -2/+3RC Cola is an "alternative" to Coke but you know what, it still blows.
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