So after many, many, many years of using versions of Adobe PhotoShop, I’ve finally decided to switch to GIMP. I love PhotoShop, and have an old bundle I bought maybe a decade ago (!) that included PhotoShop and Premiere. I’ve definitely gotten my money and use out of it - and technically, it still works. Premiere doesn’t seem to like the type of files I capture games with, nor does it do a very good job of exporting video. Probably because the version was created way in the early days of HD video - so it doesn’t export my Mavic footage or other widescreen gaming very efficiently. Sometimes I find it drops the audio tracks too. I’m sure there are plug-ins or whatever to address these issues, but sometimes you just get tired of battling with old software.
And instead, you decide to battle with new software. Not because it is worse of course, but just because it is different than what you used before. From Premiere, I moved last year to DaVinci Resolve 15 (you can still get 15, but it looks like a new version is 16)…a freeware solution that is every bit as powerful and complete as Premiere was, with the added bonus of easily working with HD footage and exporting it nicely.
So with the video editing side out of the way, and with the delivery of the new computer, I decided to ditch Photoshop 2008. By all accounts, it looks like GIMP 2.10.10 is one of the favored editors out there. I’ve been dabbling with it today and it seems very powerful, and can do everything that PhotoShop could do (and probably way more), but it is taking a while to get my fingers to stop moving to shortcuts that don’t work with GIMP. The good news is, I don’t need a lot of features, so learning the few I need shouldn’t take too long:
Image resize
Image crop
Vignette
Lighting (light/dark)
Change file type/format
Occasionally some artsy stuff
Next project is deciding if I should drop Microsoft Office 2007 (LOL). I understand Libre Office or something is the latest and greatest competitor there?
GIMP takes a bit of getting used to, but it is quite powerful and the price is definitely right. I still prefer PS though, but I was using it so infrequently that the monthly subscription wasn’t worth it for me.
Yeah - with regards to moving away from Microsoft Office, I’m pretty sure one of my organizations (the hospital system I fly for, or our certificate holder) has a company wide subscription to MS Office…the online-ish version or something. I should probably look into that. I’ve always felt that the online versions felt sort of sluggish though…maybe I’m remembering wrong.
Yes MS Office Home & Student 2019 still looks to be standalone.
Am currently on 2016 pro plus but tbh I don’t use anything really outside of what I did for 2007 at home.
There are alternatives these days - also couldn’t justify O365 subs although we do have that at work and there are a ton of new apps that I haven’t even opened to look at with it.
Edit: don’t click the links, they are not links. That’s how the program is called. Sorry can’t fix that from my phone.
Sometimes GIMP is overkill.
I recommend Paint.NET then. It has the most common functions, is very easy to use, and with a plugin it can even open some photoshop files.
For me the combo of Inkscape (for vector graphics) and Paint.NET fulfills 99% of my graphics needs.
IMHO Libre Office does everything a WYSIWYG office suite should do. The only real downside is that Microsoft keeps changing their file formats around so none of the competitors can ever achieve full compatibility. I’ve been using LO for ten years now and the only issue i have is when i need to exchange files that make heavy use of formating with MSOffice users.
Yeah, it’s always kind of annoying switching to new software and having to lean a new way of working. Everything’s more or less the same, but yet different…
I find Libre Office is a very good suite indeed, and for all ordinary functions probably 99.9% compatible with MS Office. Been using it since before they changed the name from OpenOffice to Libre Office, and see no reason to shell out for MS Office.
As for a Lightroom alternative, RawTherapee is pretty good, at least for the simple stuff I’m doing. And it’s UI is heavily inspired by Lightroom.
Same here. I used OpenOffice and LibreOffice and it is fine for 98% of things.
I am a fan of open source software. Makes life much easier without licensing issues. And there are MANY open source alternatives to common programs that work really well.
…for me, arriving into the thread to discuss how Mac’s (aka the “Dark Side” of computers) do all that video and photo editing soooooo much better.
Seriously, I like the Mac apps for video, audio and photo/graphics editing. I have used Corel products for editing both video and photos for years. Then I went to Macs in 2012…and have never looked back.
The Moviemaker app that comes with the Macs is pretty good for video editing. I will need to upgrade to something better if I want to really get into video production.
I’ve upgraded the photo editor tom Pixelmator which is not the highest you can go, Burt does everything PhotoShop does…I also got Photoshop for Mac which is good but its “PC roots” show through a bit.
Has somebody mentioned Darktable as a Lightroom alternative? I occasionally use it, but have never used Adobe LR. I bet it’s not as refined as its commercial software counterpart. But hey, I’m not complaining. It works for me when I get in the mood to process raw pictures: Organise, touch up, export to jpeg.
I wish I had a tool to do all that and then push the end result into a nice relatives-friendly web album thingy. With integrated backups. For free.
Today I also use Mylio, but I’m only halfway satisfied and have yet to find the holy grail of picture … management.
Love it! It’s missing some features that are nice to have but I’ve heard from a professional photographer that switched from Lr, that it’s actually quite a bit more powerful in certain instances and certainly is just as capable.
