How to make The GIMP look like Photoshop

The GIMP is one of the best free image editing tools for Mac. It’s the closest thing you’ll find to Adobe Photoshop without paying big bucks. However, a frequent complaint by those switching from Photoshop to The GIMP is that the interface isn’t exactly easy to use.

The GIMP has been designed in a rather awkward way, so that anyone used to Photoshop quickly gets confused by menu layout and the different naming conventions that The GIMP uses.

An excellent solution to this problem is GIMPshop.

GIMPshop is a modification of The GIMP which gives it an Adobe Photoshop style interface so that you can enjoy the best of both worlds. All of the functionality of The GIMP remains the same with the bonus of a much easier to use Photoshop style interface.

GIMPshop features menu layouts, dialogs and naming conventions that all Adobe Photoshop users will be familiar with.

However, there are a few issues to be aware of when trying to install it on Mac. Firstly, you’ll need Apple’s X11 to run GIMPshop. Secondly, the main problem that Leopard and Snow Leopard users will have is getting GIMPshop to remain stable. Although GIMPshop is supposed to officially support Leopard and Snow Leopard, the reality is quite different.

It can easily be made to work properly though by modifying a library file. Instructions of how to do so are here and the libraries you need to make it work are here.

Of course, GIMPshop isn’t a replacement for Photoshop but it’s probably the closest thing you’ll ever get for free. It’s available for Windows and Mac.