PhotoImpact vs GIMP

Easy-to-navigate UI. The convenience of the interface that consists of two preview windows lies in the fact that you see both the original document and the effect of the currently applied filter. You can zoom in and out of the preview windows, combine them for illustrative purposes, and save current settings to use them later on other images.

You can also adjust the settings manually. The workspace window has an Options button that pops up a traditional settings menu.

Customizable editing modes. You can pick the included ExpressFix utility as your main tool for working with digital photos. The utility’s workflow consists of several stages responsible for different image enhancement methods. During each stage, you can apply the software’s premade settings by picking the needed element from the offered thumbnails.

You can also use the Custom button to interfere with the filter’s work and input user settings. All your filter variants can be saved and added to the style panel.

Workflow simplifying utilities. PhotoImpact has three such tools: Task Manager, Batch Manager, and Easy Palette. With the help of Task Manager, you can “memorize” a sequence of actions that you tend to complete often. The Manager is also equipped with an editor that allows making changes to saved tasks. Once an action chain is defined, it’s placed in the Batch Manager, and can be later used for editing any number of images.

If you frequently use a combination of any settings, then Easy Palette will save it on a separate panel. Additionally, Easy Palette includes premade settings for bump maps, reflection maps, different natural textures, as well as “gel” buttons and text that imitates the Mac OS X style.

Advanced cropping tools. With the help of the Crop tool, you can quickly cut an image to the right size so that it matches your desktop wallpaper. To do so, once you’ve chosen the tool, pick “My Wallpaper” from the “Select aspect ratio or crop box” menu panel.

The availability of additional options like Rule of Thirds and Golden Ratio gives you the ability to account for the Golden Ratio rule or its simplified version when cropping your photos. This allows you to avoid having to use third-party cropping pictures apps to fix the composition of your photo.

AI features. They allow beginner photographers to get fantastic results even if they don’t know any advanced photo enhancement techniques. The software offers an AI Denoise feature for minimizing noise, while AI Upsampling allows boosting the visual fidelity of low-res photos. Finally, the AI Style Transfer feature lets you make your images more artistic by making them resemble artworks created by renowned painters.

If those features aren’t enough for you or you want to achieve a perfect image, then you can reach out to a professional service that will quickly give your photos the look you want.

Cancel applied actions. The software lets you cancel up to 200 last applied actions, giving you ample freedom to experiment without having to worry about losing your original project.

Quality work with raster images. GIMP is an open-source photo editor that can be used with images in any format. With its help, you can not only deal with the most common mistakes made during a photoshoot such as poor exposure, red eyes, or an uneven horizon line but also create complex artistic designs based on your photos.

Drawing tools. If you want to breathe life into your most creative fantasies, you can make use of GIMP’s various drawing tools that include a brush, pencil, airbrush, calligraphy tool, fill, gradient, eraser, and so on. The software also allows you to install your own brush sets, many of which you can find online, thus infinitely expanding GIMP’s functionality.

Cross-platform. Unlike Photoshop that can only be used on Windows and Mac OS, GIMP supports nearly all existing OS.

Third-party plugin support. With the help of special plugins that run from within GIMP and are responsible for this or that feature, you can set up this software to perform such serious professional tasks as logo creation, vector illustrations, website interface design, and much more. There are also GIMP plugins that provide special textures or artistic effects that are already available for free.

Basic animation editing. The editor allows processing animated files in MNG format. Each frame is processed as a separate layer that you can apply basic changes to.