Daily reminder that there are free and open-source alternatives to Photoshop and the likes which should do most of the things you need it to.
I know Photoshop has a few features people can’t live without for work reasons or what not so these aren’t replacements for everyone, but if you’re just doing some light digital art or image editing as a hobby or as something to pass time, these should be a good enough replacement given that you’re alright with learning a new piece of software.
God i hate GIMP’s UI. Luckily Photopea exists now and has I think every Photoshop feature. Noteably the incredibly necessary (for me) pen tool is there.
Krita is good to know about though for when I need to do charachter sketches for my artist partner to turn legot.
I got used to GIMP in school since me and my friend would fuck around with it so much and we didn’t know about pirating photoshop or whatever. I feel like I have so much control but I’m sure every editing software feels like that when you grasp the basics. The only things I struggle with is how many options you think would be in blur or animation or whatever are hidden deep within menu trees you wouldn’t think to look
My main thing is that i cannot undersell how necessary the pen tool is for what i use photo editing for. I know paint.net doesnt have it. And if GIMP does i cant find it. So im using photopea or photoshop.
Color replacement us a little easier in paint.net so i use it for that. GIMP is just so unituitive and my brain is smooth as a pearl.
Kolourpaint is pretty good if you just want something quick like mspaint
