The GIMP 2.6 vs. Photoshop Smackdown - The GIMP 2.6
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Let’s face it, Photoshop has become a household name -- not because everyone can afford it and has purchased it, but because it’s widely used in various industries and well publicized. On the other hand, very little is known of GIMP, which performs many of the same basic tasks as Photoshop, but without the huge array of unnecessary features.
GIMP 2.6 can perform rectangular, circular and freehand selection, while the “smart selection tool” can select contiguous regions and the “intelligent scissors” feature can auto-create paths between regions defined by strong color changes. GIMP also has approximately 150 standard effects and filters, including drop shadow, blur, motion blur and noise.
Recent adjustments to GIMP have given this image editing software more of Photoshop’s positive attributes and none of its negative ones, making those not locked in an Adobe workflow capable of performing basic editing tasks well and without complication. One of the most minor adjustments that will be making a major impact is thechange to the user interface’s palettes (toolbox and docks in GIMP parlance) which are now utility windows, meaning they won’t show up in your dock or task bar as separate windows -- a long requested feature.
Lastly, GIMP 2.6 hasn't moved to a single unified window, as Photoshop has done, but it does now feature an “empty image window’ which acts as a container for all your open images. That means that closing an image no longer closes the application, and it also means there’s drag-and-drop support for opening images.
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