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Photography
Design
OSX
Software
Free
Bitmap Graphics
What are the best freeware/OS raster graphics editors on Mac?
4
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Considered
12
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Recs.
Apr 16, 2023
Last
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Best freeware/OS raster graphics editors on Mac
Price
Platforms
License
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GIMP
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Windows 10/8/7; Linux; MacOS
GPLv3+
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Krita
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Windows, Linux, Mac, Android
Open source
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Gimpshop
-
-
-
See Full List
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GIMP
My Rec
ommendation
for
GIMP
My Recommendation for
GIMP
All
14
Experiences
3
Pros
6
Cons
4
Specs
Top
Con
•••
Unintuitive interface
GIMP doesn't embrace OS X application design, thus Mac users might have a hard time wrapping their heads around GIMP's interface.
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Top
Pro
•••
Free, open source and cross-platform
GIMP is completely free and open source, meaning you can use GIMP and all of its features without spending a penny. This makes it an excellent case for artists or designers who may not have the budget to spend over 700 USD on Photoshop. It is also available for free on Windows, Mac OS and Linux. It's licensed under GPL with source code available here.
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Raghu Ranganathan's Experience
Although initially hard to start out with, GIMP is a close to professional program for raster graphics editing and creation of art. It is FOSS, hence there are some developers working on it to make it better each day. It is still in active dev, and will be. Very useful for making memes, from personal experience.
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows 10/8/7; Linux; MacOS
License:
GPLv3+
Tethered capture:
No
Non-Distructive Editing:
No, Feature in development with GEGL
See All Specs
Top
Con
•••
Less features than other programs
Being a free program, it shouldn't be surprising that it has limited features. For those needing more advanced features for something more professional, GIMP just isn't for you.
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Top
Pro
•••
Powerful
GIMP is the most feature rich free image editing tool. It has most image manipulation and workflow tools that you would expect from an image editing software and what it lacks it makes up with plugins.
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The Oracle PhD's Experience
Gimp is an open source application with familiar GUI and easy to use
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Top
Con
•••
Lacks adjustment layers
Adjustment layers offer a non-destructive way of combining different photo manipulations. Without adjustment layers the only way to see changes is by irreversibly editing the image. They are promised in future updates.
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Top
Pro
•••
Content-aware tools with a plugin
There's a content-aware fill plugin available for GIMP.
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Kevin Driscoll's Experience
Gimp is a great alternative to Adobe products.
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Top
Con
•••
Poor performance
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Top
Pro
•••
Modular & single-window interface options
By default GIMP splits out each window, but you can check to use the one screen mode in options if you prefer.
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Top
Pro
•••
Lightweight
Compared to to other photo editing software, GIMP is very light weight. In addition it isn't very resource-intensive, meaning you can put it on a flash drive and have it with you to load up on just about any computer.
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Top
Pro
•••
Beginner-friendly
Gimp has less features than programs like Photoshop, but for a beginner, or someone not needing complicated options, Gimp is the perfect choice. It allows you to quickly do basic photo manipulation so you can easily get the product you need without having to worry about complicated features getting in the way.
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here
Recommend
4
2
--
Krita
My Rec
ommendation
for
Krita
My Recommendation for
Krita
All
10
Pros
6
Cons
3
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Free and open source
Krita is completely free and open source. They have raised a couple of successful Kickstarters in the past to get the initial financing and now they are accepting donations.
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Top
Con
•••
New features are not tested thoroughly
Since releases are so often and with little time between them, usually new features are not tested a lot and this can bring a lot of bugs with them. Which fortunately are quickly patched in the next release.
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Linux, Mac, Android
License:
Open source
Technology:
C++, Qt
Top
Pro
•••
Easy editing in a tiled view
Tiled view that shows your image tiled in the editor, and permits you to edit it as you are seeing it tiled. If the brush passes out of your texture, it will just automatically wrap back the painting to the other side of the original texture, while permitting you to paint and see the results on any of the tiled "clones". (the shortcut key to activate this is w by default)
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Top
Con
•••
Working with text is not that pleasant
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Top
Pro
•••
Constantly updated
Krita is getting constant releases with updates and bug fixes. New features are added at a pace that far surpasses the other alternatives.
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Top
Con
•••
Documentation is lacking
Krita's official documentation is incomplete in some areas, especially for new features that are constantly added. But this is compensated with it's great design and usability which makes it easier to understand how things work.
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Top
Pro
•••
Very customizable
Although the UI is rather busy, Krita is very customizable. The editing window can be themed and the sidebar can be customized extensively throw many dockers or panes.
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Top
Pro
•••
Amazing support for displaying brushes
Krita's preset brushes are one of the default dockers. Each brush has a preview on mouseover that shows a detailed view of the type of brush involved. All the brushes also have useful and descriptive names such as "HP Pencil" or "Textured Fuzzy".
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Top
Pro
•••
Easy to use layout
All the most used and useful tools are easy to find in Krita's UI and are often just one click away. They are not hidden behind menus or dropdowns.
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here
Recommend
2
--
Gimpshop
My Rec
ommendation
for
Gimpshop
My Recommendation for
Gimpshop
All
3
Cons
3
Top
Con
•••
Spamware that stole another person's work
Gimpshop was a project by a developer Scott Moschella . An anonymous user bought gimpshop.com and took his work and added bloatware and spam into the installer. The situation is not well known to most people who continue giving this random spammer money.
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Top
Con
•••
Development is on hold
The developer has anounced that this program is on hold due to someone stealing his work.
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Top
Con
•••
UI is not native and has a lot of problems
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Recommend
2
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Letters
My Recommendation for
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