In addition to being nonintuitive for most people who are used to other image editors' simple 'save selection' command, it's just too many steps. For instance, converting a selection to a layer mask involves first saving it as a channel and then applying that channel to a layer as a mask. Many of GIMP's photo editing tasks and workflows don't work the way they do on other programs, so it takes some time to understand how to do even simple tasks.

MORE: Best DSLR Cameras From Beginner to Pro Steep Learning Curve Script-Fu (which is based on Scheme) is installed with GIMP and is what most people use to create macros of tasks they do frequently, such as resizing an image for the web. GIMP supports a variety of scripting languages, including Python and Scheme. If it isn't, you can tap into the open-source community to learn how to create it yourself. Although it can be a security risk to install a plugin from what may be an unknown source, any feature or command you think GIMP might be missing could very likely be available as a plugin. In addition, GIMP's active community of user/developers has created a wide range of plugins. However, GIMP comes with a few dozen plugins, such as those in the Filters menu. Unlike most photo editing programs, GIMP doesn't support the many third-party Photoshop-compatible plugins. In fact, a large population of user/developers continues to explore and invent new extensions to GIMP. What sets GIMP apart is that it’s open-source and easily extensible - or at least it's easy for those who know how to code. MORE: How Many Megapixels Do You Really Need? An Extensible System For instance, the revised Text tool works directly on your picture rather than in a separate window, with control over font, size, color, alignment, baseline offset and kerning. With the recent major revision, GIMP has made nice improvements to bring the program more in line with competitors. Of course, being GIMP, the layer groups are scriptable via a plugin API. What's more, layers can now be organized into groups. On the other hand, it has a very nice 'open as layers' command, which places a photo into a layer of another image. Although GIMP has layer masks, it doesn't have adjustment layers. In addition, GIMP goes far beyond the basics to give you the controls for some rather advanced editing, such as channel manipulations.

Gimp for mac reviews