Announcing GIMPshop

FOLLOW THIS LINK FOR THE LATEST VERSIONS OF GIMPSHOP – UPDATED OFTEN

UPDATE (5/17/06): Gimpshop 2.2.11 now available, check the link above to see if there’s a version available for your OS.

UPDATE: HUGE, huge shout out to my web host: ReadySetConnect. This post got Slashdotted and they weathered the Slashdot effect with not even a hiccup. Thanks so much! You guys rock! Anyone looking for affordable, expert web hosting need look no further. That said… bring on the GIMP.

Windows installers and Linux Packages are available for GIMPshop based on 2.2.4 (see below).

UPDATE (4/4/05):

• Freshmeat.net: links to GIMPshop source, the RPM by Anshuman of codemills.com, and a torrent of the same RPM.
• Suramya.com: Very detailed instructions by Suramya Tomar for compiling and installing GIMPshop under Linux. Get the GIMPshop for Debian package at the bottom of the page.
• GIMPshop for Windows: WinXP port of GIMPshop which includes the Dewierdifyer plugin and a Windows GTK theme for that Windows feel. Weighs in at only 8 Megs. Thanks dakira and Hybr1s!
• Solaris/SPARC Package
• More to come shortly.

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I have been hacking the Gimp for weeks and it’s finally ready. GIMPshop for Mac OS X 10.3 is now available! 40 MB Download. Note: You will need to download and install Apple’s X11 in order to run GIMPshop. If you don’t have X11 yet, it’s free but you will have to provide your name and email address at Apple.com to download it.

UPDATE: 1/19/06 – This version does not yet run on OS X 10.4, but will shortly.

For those who don’t already know, the Gimp is a powerful, open source image editing application. For more info on the Gimp visit gimp.org. GIMPshop is essentially the same program with some cosmetic changes.

The Gimp’s menu structure and naming conventions had been a constant source of frustration for me because I was so used to Photoshop. So, I did what any hardcore graphics geek would have done. I hacked GIMPshop together. It’s a proof of concept and it’s a little buggy, so don’t expect too much.

I must say that this hack stands on the shoulders of giants. First, many, many thanks to Aaron Voisine who wrote detailed instructions for building Gimp.app from source. Also, thanks to the hardworking developers who have dedicated countless hours to making the Gimp the formidible application that it is today.

My original purpose for GIMPshop was to make the Gimp accessible to the many Adobe Photoshop users out there. I hope I’ve done that. And maybe along the way, I can convert a Photoshop pirate into a Gimp user.

If you’ve never used Photoshop before, you may not appreciate my GIMPshop hack. What I’ve done is renamed and reorganized GIMP’s tools, options, windows, and menus to closely resemble Adobe Photoshop’s menu structure and naming conventions. Many of the menu options and even whole menus were recreated to faithfully reproduce a Photoshop-like experience. After running my GIMPshop hack, you’ll find that Photoshop and the GIMP are strikingly similar.

Longtime Photoshop users should feel very comfortable using GIMPshop.

Why is my Gimp special (other than the obvious Photoshop similarities)? For one, my Gimp is a packaged Macintosh application that you can run from within any folder on your computer (very little installation required). GIMPshop can even be run from a USB thumb drive, so you can take it with you! Second, my Gimp is currently (as far as I know) the only public, free Gimp.app based on the recent Gimp version 2.2.4. The creator of Gimp.app, Aaron Voisine hasn’t yet made Gimp.app version 2.2.4 available.

What made this project especially difficult is that there isn’t one file that holds all of Gimp’s tool names and menu structure. I’ve modified hundreds of files and combed thousands of lines of code to make this version of Gimp a reality. This work pales in comparison to real coding, but for a hack like me, it required a lot of learning and work.

Now the bad news. I don’t have 24/7 access to a PC so I have not yet compiled GIMPshop for Windows or Linux. If there are any enterprising developers out there who are able to compile GIMPshop for other platforms, please download GIMPshop’s source code (14 MB), compile it, and either make it available on your site (and give me a shout so I can link to you) OR send me the file and I will host it here.

UPDATE: I believe the original GIMPshop for OS X launch bug has been fixed by this updated release. Please replace your original GIMPshop file with this one if you were having trouble launching GIMPshop.

Also, don’t forget to read the README file!

GIMPshop is by no means a 1-to-1 copy of Photoshop and you may find some menu items that are not in perfect order. But GIMPshop’s pretty close, and I think it does the job. I’m getting lots of use out of it and I hope you do too.

Please post any glaring omissions or menu change suggestions in the comments. Consider this release as version .1 beta

Is it finally time to ditch Photoshop and go open source? Almost.

Download GIMPshop for OS X 10.3 (43 MB Download)
Also, you will need to download and install Apple’s X11 if you don’t already have it.

Download GIMPshop SOURCE for developers (14 MB Download) The code for GIMPshop is based on Gimp ver. 2.2.4 with minor modifications.

Oh! Don’t forget to use the Photoshop shortcuts for super GIMPshop power (the shortcuts file is included with every GIMP distribution). Mac users, follow my instructions in the README. Linux users, get the file here and follow the directions.

Please post any OS X successes in the comments. I’m kinda worried that there are more than a few people who are having trouble running it (only two complaints so far, though). I’m very happy that the Linux users out there aren’t having any problems. There seems to be some OS X bug solutions in the comments too, so check it out.

Finally, if anyone can help out and mirror GIMPshop I’d be very grateful. Please post your mirror links in the comments (scroll down this page past the screen shots).

Comparison Screenshots

Adobe Photoshop Edit menu:

GIMPshop Edit menu:

Adobe Photoshop Image – Adjustments

GIMPshop Image – Adjustments

Adobe Photoshop Image – Rotate Canvas

GIMPshop Image – Rotate Canvas

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Original Gimp Tools

GIMPshop Tools

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Some shots of the original Gimp and some points of confusion for Photoshop users which I have fixed:

Convolve? I’ve renamed this to Blur/Sharpen.

This command is called Expand in Photoshop. Photoshop’s Grow command is quite different.

Here the name Paths is used for the paths palette, the tool for drawing paths, and for the path tool’s options. Confused? Me too!

Here a command that functions just like Photoshop’s Auto Levels is hidden in Gimp’s Layers menu and is named Normalize.

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