What do you like about GIMP?

[+Karl G]

While I've been aware of GIMP for a long time (since it has a long and important history in the free/open source software community), I've not used it much until recently. I'm lazy, and have used image-editing programs with similar interfaces for my mostly modest image-editing needs. Still, I'm aware that GIMP is powerful and feature-rich, so learning to make better use of it will probably benefit me in the long run.

 

Anyway, for those of you who are GIMP fans and/or long-time users, what do you like about it compared to other options available on your platform?

[+RevEng]

I'm on Linux, and while there are some alternatives, Gimp is pretty much the defacto choice for raster editing. I used to do Photoshop on Windows up until version 4, but switched to Linux and Gimp at that point and haven't looked back. 

 

At this point any feature-rich photo/raster editing software will have all of the functionality 90% of users need, so I don't think you'll get a response with some killer feature that's exclusive to gimp. So for me it's a matter of...

 

• It's a feature-rich editor, with a standard plug-in format, and a ton of file import/export options.
• It adheres to file standards quite well.
• It has a large user-base, with a ton of tutorials, community support, and add-ons available.
• It's available on many different OS platforms.
• It's Free Software.
• It's free software.
• It's local software that doesn't require a subscription.

 

[+Muddyfunster]

I wouldn't say I'm a GIMP fan, more a case of it's a necessary evil ! That said, I've become more accustomed to using it in my workflow. At times it frustrates me, partly because it's GiMP, partly my lack of knowledge. For example, I have the latest version installed but if I try to open png's of a certain dimension or bit depth, it crashes. Every time. re-installed same issue. Grrr. 

 

I guess the best thing that I like is from a pixel editing point of view, I can do things that I can't in the ADS sprite editor like arbitrary rotations (used this a lot doing the airplane sprites in Danger Zone).