"BLOG POST #4 -- GIMP"

 "GIMP" -- PHOTOSHOP?

GIMP, or GNU Image Manipulation Program, is a free cross-platform image editing software. It's utilities, purpose, and software interface is much like its paid counterpart, Photoshop, which most may have heard of. Both softwares offer the same editing tools such as retouching, curve editing, enhancing, positioning, crop/resize, image conversion, etc. I personally use Photoshop and the Adobe ecosystem for my media creations, such as Lightroom. Finding out about GIMP was eye-opening especially as a paying customer to Adobe. GIMP and Photoshop share a lot of similarities yet there is a bit of a difference in quality of the software. Unlike Photoshop, GIMP is much less powerful onto your hardware. However, this is due to the lack of features GIMP has, in comparison to Photoshop. This can be a huge deciding factor to whether one may get into image/photo editing, as not many people may have the access for capable hardware to run Photoshop. With Photoshop, you are paying for quality and more features. With GIMP, however, you are receiving the same Photoshop experience, but with less taxing power onto your hardware, with a few less features than Photoshop.

"ACCESSIBILITY IN EDUCATION" -- FREE?

GIMP can be incredibly useful in an Educational setting! This software can be a fantastic tool for photography and graphic design classes. I believe that GIMP is much more beginner friendly than Photoshop. With that being said, students will be able to understand the world of editing and graphic creation much easier with GIMP as it has less extra features and is straight to the point. With the newly remote learning times due to COVID-19, GIMP's free price and user-friendly capability can be a helpful tool for both students and teachers alike who are not able to afford or run a more powerful program such as Photoshop. 

"GIMP TRAINING"

The GIMP training was very insightful! Having training or informational sessions for editing softwares such as GIMP is very important. It allows for students to fully utilize the features the software offers. However I believe it is important to note when to use the features properly in given editing situations. Speaking from experience with photo editing, it can be very easy to get lost in the amount of special features an editing software has, only to resort to the basic editing features that make an image or graphic lose its potential. To avoid this, it's really important for students to apply the training in assignments given by teachers to provide experience. In my opinion, editing and creation becomes its best when done through constant practice and trial and error.

"PHOTOPEA" -- BROWSER PHOTOSHOP

Photopea is a free, photo editing browser software much like Photoshop and GIMP. Photopea can provide a widely accessible way for students to edit and create images in the browser alone. It's special feature is that it can save into .psd or .xcf files, which are respectively the Photoshop and GIMP files. Students will then be able to work on these projects on either program. This can be incredibly useful as anyone with a browser and internet can access Photopea.

"CONCLUSION"

Personally I have been using Photoshop and Adobe softwares actively for almost a year and I can safely say that it is worth its price. As a student, Adobe offers a student deal of $30 a month and you get full access to all of their editing and creation softwares. I believe that with softwares, you get what you pay for, and you are paying for quality. GIMP is a great software for what it's purpose is for: a free alternative to Photoshop. With the COVID-19 pandemic, more and more classes are starting to utilize technological assignments and tasks. It is very important for teachers to recognize that not all students are able to have these accesibilities to technology due to lack of hardware power. Overall, we are on a great path to adapting to technology and software integration into education; and I am excited to see what is in store for myself in my future teaching endeavors.