Has anyone used GIMP AND Photoshop?

[swiss]

I use Photoshop Elements now and have run into something that apparently PS can't do but GIMP can. I'm wondering if I should just switch to GIMP. On the surface it sounds silly since ostensibly PS can do more than GIMP but maybe GIMP is better for mapmaking specifically? I should note I'm using Photoshop Elements, which is a slimmed down version of Photoshop CC

Thoughts?

[Sam101]

I use both Gimp and PS, but not Elements. Gimp can actually do lots of things that PS can't, and the other way around. I'd say that Gimp is better than Elements, for sure.

Does Elements have Layer Adjustments or Layer Styles?

-edit.
By the way, it isn't an either this or that. Since Gimp is free you can use both. Also, look at Krita, which is also free. I often have more than one editor open and move layers between the programs.

[swiss]

Elements has both Layer Adjustments and Layer Styles. I use the latter often but had never heard of Layer Adjustments until you mentioned it. I just took a tutorial so I now know what it does and how to create them, but it wasn't apparent what the application for map editing would be. What do you usually use layer adjustments for in your maps?

[Sam101]

Elements has both Layer Adjustments and Layer Styles. I use the latter often but had never heard of Layer Adjustments until you mentioned it. I just took a tutorial so I now know what it does and how to create them, but it wasn't apparent what the application for map editing would be. What do you usually use layer adjustments for in your maps?

You can adjust things like colors and levels non-destructively. You can always go back and adjust them without creating a new layer, and if the layer is in a group or stack, then this is very helpful. In Gimp I always have to duplicate layers as backups before I adjust things. Also, gradient mapping is superior in PS. In my opinion, the non-destructive aspect of PS really is what makes it generally more powerful than Gimp. Other things too, but I will always use Gimp because it has full color animated brushes and a few other things that PS doesn't have. Also, I have lots of scripts that do very specific things in Gimp, and they are easy to adjust and tweak exactly how I need them. I have many, many useful scripts that I would need to pay for in PS.

By the way, Krita has non-destructive adjustment layers (called filter layers) and layer styles. I could actually get by pretty well with only Gimp and Krita, if I did not have PS.

[swiss]

Wait, so GIMP doesn't have layer styles or layer adjustments?

Does it have layers and layer masks? Those two things are what I think of when I think of 'non-destructive'.

Yeah the color brushes are the thing that got me interested in GIMP, but if it doesn't have the non-destructive stuff it may not be worth it

[swiss]

I found this tutorial for installing layer effects in GIMP. Does this change anything?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CspiWs127F8

[Sam101]

I found this tutorial for installing layer effects in GIMP. Does this change anything?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CspiWs127F8

Not really. It is still destructive. Gimp scripts that are important to me don't emulate PS scripts. Plugins like the Felimage noise generator, and scripts like those RobA has here on this forum. More importantly, Gimp scripts are easy to open and change exactly the way I need.

If I understand correctly, Elements doesn't even have a curves adjustment, either as a non-destructive adjustment or just a straight curves adjustment. That alone is too much of a handicap. Photoshop CS2 is better than Elements, in my opinion. Gimp 2.10 has higher bit depth, and if I understand correctly, Elements is generally stuck at 8 bit. That's sort of breaks Elements for me at least.

[Azélor]

Both can achieve the same things but sometimes the method might somewhat differ.

[Azélor]

I don't think there is a big difference if you go over 8 bit. 8 bit has plenty of colour, many of them you can't print or see the difference between them.

I also don't see tge usefulness of the curve adjustment, assuming we are talking the same thing. It's a must for photo editing but rarelly used in mapmaking.

[Sam101]

The 8 bit limitation can be important. Even if I cannot see the difference, the computer can, and more importantly, any filter or process that uses more than 8 bits can see the difference. For example, a histogram starts to look like a hair comb when you do a levels adjustment in 8 bit, or color banding, and this is mess sometimes in bump mapping, etc.

Gimp has 16 bit float, which I don't think PS has, and levels can be adjusted above and below the clipping points. This is important because the colors can be recovered.

Also, if I want to use a photograph as the basis for a texture then curves would be important, but I don't agree that curves are unimportant in map making.