What’s Your Favorite Photoshop Alternative?

Posted on May 21st, 2010. Written by Rico.

Let’s face it: most of us use Photoshop as a glorified image resizer. Recently I found an alternative that’s nearly as a capable as Adobe’s flagship product, not as demanding on the computer, and most importantly, free.

Have any of you heard of Paint.NET? The app is pretty old, originally created as a more capable replacement to Microsoft Paint (the limited image editor that comes with all copies of Windows). I’m not sure how Paint.NET stacks up against other free Photoshop alternatives, but it runs well on Windows 7. I tried using GIMP, but unfortunately it doesn’t load properly on my Home Basic Edition of the OS. With a 3-point-something megabyte installer, Paint.NET is also a quick download. Given its Windows-centric origins, there is no version for the Mac.

One thing I like about Paint.NET is how it handles resizing like Photoshop. Aside from image resizing, it’s also possible to change the canvas size of the image. This ability is very useful when you’re cropping an image for different proportions.

What about you dear readers? Now that you’ve kicked your Photoshop piracy habit (let’s be honest here, even the local rich folk balk at spending P30,000+ on Photoshop), which app have you settled on? I’d prefer you share something that works on all computers (Windows, Mac, Linux).