Filled Under: Image Editing Software
Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is a program that was developed in 1987 and fully released by Adobe in 1990 after rights were purchased appropriately. Photoshop is generally regarded as the standard by which all other graphics editing programs are measured, as it contains the most features and most precision of any photo editing program available to date.
What is Photoshop used for?
Frankly, Photoshop is a very expensive software and is not very user friendly at all. It is generally marketed towards large corporations, photographers, and other types of artists that are very serious about their work and very familiar with computers. It has just about every image editing tool a person can dream of. Even developers have said that a person can use Photoshop all of their life and discover something new about it every day. It is a complicated software. However, its complications are mostly due to its extended capability for precision. Because of how precise it is, it has countless tools allowing for the most complex customization imaginable.
The idea behind Photoshop is if it can be dreamed of, it can be created, and often, just using the tools native to Photoshop, an entire picture can be created out of nothing. Photoshop is used in the modeling world, it is used to enhance photos in magazines, it is used by corporations to advertise their wares more attractively, and the list of users goes on and on. As of the last update, Photoshop has even included a tool allowing limited tweaking in 3 dimensions rather than two. Currently Photoshop is available in basic form, or a Photoshop extended which has more tools available.<7p>
GIMP
GIMP, which stands for the GNU Image Manipulation Program, is an image editing software that is freely downloadable online. It features many of the same capabilities offered in programs like Photoshop. Though it is a drastically stripped down version, people that are unfamiliar in the world of heavy image editing or computer advertising will be unlikely to realize how many features it lacks. It is not the most user friendly program, but it is still much simpler than what most competitors offer.
GIMP’s vision
GIMP aims to become, one day, a freely available equally useful alternative to other photo manipulation software. Comparisons between the adobe program Photoshop and GIMP are regularly drawn, thought he creators of GIMP have made sure to state on numerous occasions that they did not try to copy Photoshop. The main controversy behind the program is whether it is fit for a professional environment, a question which GIMP’s creators are staunchly positive on. They believe that GIMP is equally useful to people in all types of work environments.
Its popularity, though partially due to its usefulness, is mainly due to its status as a free software. It was developed as a side project by two college students for a class in 1995, and has since been acquired by another company and developed further. Critics of GIMP maintain that GIMP is simply not fit for a professional environment, nor for high end pay-to-use software, but is perfect for the average photo editor at home. However, GIMP is still in development, sticking to their mantra that one day they will be able to stack up to the best of their competitors in terms of ability in the home space and the professional office space.
Corel Draw
Corel Draw is a Canadian vector graphics editor that was developed around the same time as Photoshop in 1987, but wasn’t released until 1991, one year after Photoshop. At first, its status as a vector graphics editor set it apart from Photoshop, and other bitmap editors, and for professional purposes, both of those types of programs were seen as necessary. However, with recent developments in technology almost 20 years later, Corel Draw is now implementing elements that can be found in basic graphics editors, and programs like GIMP and Photoshop are opening their doors to vector editing elements.
What is Corel Draw good for?
A vector graphics editor is essentially the same thing as a bitmap editor, but the two are used for different things because they have different tool sets. The thing that really sets apart Corel Draw from programs like Photoshop though is its aptitude at handling animation. In general these vector programs are much better for animated things such as comics and cartoons than a bitmap editor would be.
Also, for unique documents like flyers and posters there are extra options for sizing everything up perfectly on a vector editor like Corel Draw that would be made much more complicated on Photoshop. Corel Draw is great for handling blueprints and specialty maps, but not so great with artistic imagery. A better way of putting it is, an advertising and marketing company might use Corel Draw whereas a musician making the art for their album cover might be using Photoshop. There is a lot of overlap in the capabilities of both programs though since the invention of new computer technologies.