Instead of Adobe Photoshop

Raster image editing and retouching.

Partly

GIMP does most of what most people use Photoshop for, and the ways it differs will annoy you daily. Krita is the better choice for painting.

You lose: The plugin ecosystem, CMYK for print, and two decades of muscle memory.

Start here

GIMP

GPL-3.0a containeractive

Different shortcuts, different menus, no CMYK. Free and capable.

github.com/GNOME/gimp gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gimp

One container, no domain needed.

Also worth a look

KritaGPL-3.0a containeractive
Built for painting, not photo retouching.
github.com/KDE/krita invent.kde.org/graphics/krita

Facts checked 8 November 2026. Licences, activity and archive status come from each project's own repository; the verdict and the cost lines are the desk's.