I need an alternative to Photoshop and Gimp.

May 27, 2020 11:37 AM

Creative Cloud is down, and because Adobe is a collective of rat bastards, so is Photoshop. I need to do some image editing that requires the pen tool so I can do custom selections. Gimp is a nonstarter for me. I hate the interface and refuse to use it. What else could I try while I wait for the CC overlords to fix this nonsense?
posted by Kitchen Witch to Computers & Internet (12 answers total)

The GNU Image Manipulation Program has a fork called Glimpse with a totally revamped interface.
posted by mkb at 11:41 AM on May 27, 2020

Response by poster: Sorry, forgot to mention: it has to be OS X compatible. I can't access my Windows machine right now :( I will share Glimpse with my Windows using coworkers, however.
posted by Kitchen Witch at 11:43 AM on May 27, 2020

Best answer: Have you seen Affinity's products? PC/Mac/Ipad, polished and eating Adobe's lunch.
posted by stratastar at 11:47 AM on May 27, 2020 [11 favorites]

Seconding Affinity tools. They are an excellent replacement for about 95% of people using Adobe tools.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 11:49 AM on May 27, 2020 [1 favorite]

Krita is more focused on drawing/painting but is incredibly well done and can do a lot of photoshop stuff; it’s free. Pixelmator is a good choice as well ($40). I own and use Affinity Photo as well, and it’s great too ($50).
posted by kyliej at 12:02 PM on May 27, 2020 [4 favorites]

Pixelmator and Affinity photo are both excellent.

But I've been working in Creative Cloud software all day, and nothing appears to be down.
posted by jonathanhughes at 12:29 PM on May 27, 2020 [1 favorite]

Affinity Designer has a vector side and bitmap side. I’ve used it a lot and found it quite easy as a photoshop user. Lots of tutorials on YouTube and their website.
posted by Crystalinne at 1:01 PM on May 27, 2020

I like Photopea. It's an free online (you use it in your browser) alternative to Photoshop. It has a lot of similar features.
posted by starlybri at 1:58 PM on May 27, 2020

I'm confused by the note that "creative cloud is down". Photoshop currently works on my mac & resides entirely on it. It only needs to phone home "once every 75 days" (or something like that).
posted by lalochezia at 5:10 PM on May 27, 2020

Response by poster: Creative Cloud has been completely down intermittently over the last few days. For many people, the sudden downtime caused the applications to try and phone home sooner than it should have, and we were all locked out of our programs.

https://downdetector.com/status/adobe-creative-cloud/news/315568-problems-at-adobe-creative-cloud/

Right now it's working again. But I've got the Affinity suite in my back pocket which is fantastic. Thanks so much.
posted by Kitchen Witch at 2:42 AM on May 28, 2020

If you don't like Gimp's interface, there's Gimpshop.
posted by some little punk in a rocket at 4:57 AM on May 28, 2020

You might also want to look at Krita, depending on what kind of editing you need to do. It's much more a 'digital painting' tool, as opposed to a generic image editor, but it's really great and has a very usable interface despite being open-source -- I loathe Gimp less than you do, so take my opinion with a grain of salt, but Gimp's UI is frustrating and I find Krita's pretty great.
posted by Alterscape at 7:38 AM on May 28, 2020