What are the best photoshop alternative for book cover creation?

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4

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6

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Apr 27, 2021

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Here’s the Deal

3 Options Considered

Best photoshop alternative for book cover creation	Price	Platforms	License
-- Paint.NET	FREE	Windows	-
-- GIMP	-	Windows 10/8/7; Linux; MacOS	GPLv3+
-- Inkscape	FREE & Open Source	Windows, Mac, Unix	GPLv2

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PhotoWorks

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score 2 · Answer 1

Paint.NET

Top Pro

Easy to learn and use

Unlike most photo editing software, Paint.NET is simple to learn and easy to use. This means less time is spent learning the in's and out's of Paint.NET and more time on photo editing. For those who only edit photos sporadically and don't have time to invest in learning complicated tools for editing, Paint.Net will suit your needs. See More

Top Con

Only available on Windows

Paint.NET is only available on Windows. See More

AergantinaONE's Experience

It woookeded good See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows

Top Pro

Lightweight

Paint.net provides a streamlined but effective core tool set. Support for advanced and niche features is provided through modular plugins, allowing the user to install only what's needed. See More

Top Pro

Actively developed

The project is active and being continually expanded and refined. See More

Top Pro

HiDPI support

Paint.NET supports fully HiDPI displays, with no scaling problems. See More

Top Pro

Active and friendly community

The forums are filled with tutorials, as well as people who are friendly and eager to help. See More

Top Pro

Free software

There is no charge for this software; but donations are welcomed. See More

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score 2 · Answer 2

GIMP

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. See More

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. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows 10/8/7; Linux; MacOS

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. See More

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. See More

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. See More

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. See More

Top Pro

Content-aware tools with a plugin

There's a content-aware fill plugin available for GIMP. See More

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. See More

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. See More

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score 1 · Answer 3

Inkscape

Top Pro

It can do anything

A very powerful software that can do pretty match anything! See More

Top Con

Uses its own SVG-format by default

Inkscape might use SVG as its default format, however this SVG's contains some additional SodiPodi/Inkscape additions that can be troublesome if you want to import the SVG into some other application. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Mac, Unix

License:GPLv2

Technology:C++

Initial Release:2003

Top Pro

Interface is available in 29 languages

Basque, British English, Brazilian, Portuguese, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Korean, Latvian, Norwegian (Bokmål), Polish, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Swedish. See More

Top Pro

Dark Theme Support

The new 1.0 beta 2 version finally got support for dark theme which normally is only available for commercial software like Affinity Serif, Adobe Illustrator. See More

Top Pro

Export to different file types

You can export and save your files for example as a "normal" svg, png, jpg, bmp etc. file. See More

Top Pro

Cross-platform

Pre-built binaries are available for Windows, Mac and Linux. Inkscape can be built from source on additional platforms. See More

Top Pro

Opens lots of file types

Inkscape supports many common formats for import (including SVG, Photoshop and Illustrator) and its plugin architecture allows more to be added. See More

Top Pro

Free and open source

Inkscape is GPL-licensed and maintains public repositories. See More

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What are the best photoshop alternative for book cover creation?

3 Options Considered

Paint.NET

My Recommendation for Paint.NET

My Recommendation for Paint.NET

Easy to learn and use

Only available on Windows

Lightweight

Actively developed

HiDPI support

Active and friendly community

Free software

GIMP

My Recommendation for GIMP

My Recommendation for GIMP

Beginner-friendly

Lacks adjustment layers

Lightweight

Unintuitive interface

Modular & single-window interface options

Less features than other programs

Content-aware tools with a plugin

Powerful

Free, open source and cross-platform

Inkscape

My Recommendation for Inkscape

My Recommendation for Inkscape

It can do anything

Uses its own SVG-format by default

Interface is available in 29 languages

Dark Theme Support

Export to different file types

Cross-platform

Opens lots of file types

Free and open source

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PhotoWorks

My Recommendation for PhotoWorks

My Recommendation for PhotoWorks

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