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For Linux users, Adobe doesn’t offer any of their Creative Cloud software, including Adobe Photoshop. Linux users have long had GIMP, which is a capable photo editing alternative to Photoshop. Although similar in functionality to Photoshop, GIMP’s default appearance is quite a bit different. With a new patch for GIMP 2.10, called PhotoGIMP, users can achieve a much more similar user interface to Photoshop.
PhotoGIMP’s major contributors are Diolinux and yevklim, and the PhotoGIMP Patch has been designed for people with experience with Photoshop. As pointed out by John Aldred at DIY Photography, more users have been turning to Linux for their operating system needs. The result is that there are photographers used to Photoshop who are now needing to learn the ropes with GIMP instead. When you boot up the standard version of GIMP, you immediately see that the layout of tools is very different from Photoshop. Not only this, but the keyboard shortcuts users have committed to memory often work differently in GIMP. This is where PhotoGIMP comes in. By making GIMP look and act more like Photoshop, it should dramatically reduce the learning curve.
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| As you can see in this screenshot, PhotoGIMP looks quite similar to Adobe Photoshop in terms of organization, tool location and the overall user interface. Image credit: PhotoGIMP on Github |
The primary features of the PhotoGIMP patch for GIMP are as follows:
- Similar tool organization and layout to Adobe Photoshop
- Hundreds of new fonts that mimic those available in Photoshop
- New Python-based filters, such as ‘heal selection’
- Default settings maximize the space on the canvas
- New splash screen
- Following Adobe documentation, in-app shortcuts are set similarly
- New icon and name using a custom .desktop file
YouTube channel Novaspirit Tech recently published a video overview of PhotoGIMP, including a quick comparison showing the differences in user interface between the standard version of GIMP and PhotoGIMP.
While PhotoGIMP does not include all the same tools and features of Photoshop, it appears to look the part. For installation instructions, refer to the PhotoGIMP github page.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)