Paint.net vs Gimp?

Of these two free, very powerful, Image Editing programs, which do you prefer?

Myself, I like them both. Some things are easier to do in Gimp than in Paint.net and vice versa. One very annoying thing about Gimp is its loading time. Every 3 startups it decides to rebuild the font cache which even on my semi beefy PC takes about 2 minutes. I am using just the default fonts

 

You have already answered yourself: Both. Simply use the one that is easier to use for you for the specific task

I would report the font cache thingie in Gimp as a bug ...

 

I mostly use Gimp on the mac. I like how advanced it is but also at times it's annoying. Sometimes there are features missing that I wish were there and I really wish they'd totally get rid of the X-windows interface. There is a `GimpShop` which is more mac-ish but last time I looked it didn't run on more modern macs anymore. Also I think Gimp is a little bit unorganized and quirky, but for most things I've found it useful. Only used Paint.net a little bit. I think the mac really lacks a really good image editor, something along the lines of Paintshop Pro would be nice, which I prefer on Windows.

 

I didn't really like using Gimp until I figured there was a single-window mode. Still, I had to play around with settings a lot and a long time before finding a good workflow.

What advantages Paint.net has over Gimp? I quickly tried it once and it felt much less repelling but since I had already become comfortable with Gimp I didn't try it any futher.

 

I have mixed feelings about gimp. I mainly used it for painting images / textures in conjunction with my Bamboo stylus back in the 2.6 days. After 2.8 was released, tablet support was completely broken for me (on windows).

It's a shame though, because the single window interface was quite an improvement. Fortunately my tablet does cooperate with 2.8 on ubuntu (so as an effect, I am running 2 versions of gimp on two different operating systems). One of these days I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and install 2.8 on Win7 regardless.


Now in lieu of that, I personally have not tried Paint.net. I there are a couple of other programs I've used for painting/sketching.

Mypaint has a nice simple ui, but I've encountered a sort of memory bug when I undo on certain occasions (leaving artifacts on-screen.)

Krita is another interesting one. It works quite well on linux, but is a little slow to boot on on the experimental windows builds.

I still tend to use gimp the most. It's the first image editor I really learned (besides ms paint), so it's trickier for me to learn a new program sometimes.

 

Even as a programmer, I'm a huge Photoshop fanboy. Subscription is cheap, and well worth it.

Adobe is having a special now on Photoshop CC for $9.99 a month.

 

I LOVE Paint.net

It adds the simplicity of paint with some very valuable tools found in Photoshop and it is free. The effects are awesome and I use them on a daily basis. I consider gimp bulky and confusing based on my experience with it.

Don't get me wrong, I am no artist, however Paint.net is actually doing a good job of making me look like one.

 

Some other inexpensive options:
Artrage and Krita for simulating traditional media
Pro Motion and Graphics Gale for pixel art

I've started dabbling with painting on my iPod during lunch breaks. Artrage was the first I used, and now I'm doing pixel art with Sprite Something.

 

GIMP is great, I used to dislike the UI but they've improved it a lot over the years.

 

Paint.net is very user friendly. And it is good for beginning editors. I find photoshop easier to use than gimp.My point is gimp is not user freindly, but the editing mechanics are better than paint.net . I prefer paint.net out of the two

 

i think GIMP is more accurate and easy for non graphics designers and beginners, well i mostly works on Photoshop and illustrator. here i found caparison between paint.net vs gimp

 

Yeah GIMP is more powerful than paint

 

Paint.net !! Only because I use it and am familiar with it. I see the comparison spreadsheet and that looks to be for the base product(s). People have made some quite fabulous plugins for Paint.net which work very nicely.

I've never used gimp. I'm sure it's a great tool and can do pretty much everything paint.net can. Probably more, much more. I like the paint.net interface and can actually figure out what I need to do, so... it works for me.

 

I like Gimp, haven't used Paint.net.

Gimp is basically Photoshop miniature.

 

GIMPSHOP is updated now.

http://www.gimpshop.com/downloads

 

Though GIMP is more powerful, I prefer Paint.net for its simplicity. Though, I do most of my creation in Inkscape, with Paint.net used for finishing touches, combining effects, and image manipulation.

Gigi

 

I use gimp generally though it is a little bit ugly... lots of features, and yet some holes in the features, and the organization/layout of stuff isn't totally great. Not quite as polished as photoshop etc but it usually gets most jobs done. I wish it had better performance, screen updates can be slow. Gimpshop all the way (native osx widgets - x-windows is a nightmare).