What replaces Photoshop?

warden said:

I haven’t read all the posts but you could always try Photoshop 5 or 4, and just buy an older computer that will install and run it. There are people on this forum that are happy to buy a spare computer to run scanning software that is long discontinued and incompatible with new computers, so keeping old image processing software alive in a similar way should also be possible.

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Or just run any number of virtual computers to use with older OS’s and older software.

cerber0s said:

It’s pretty good bang for the buck

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Well no monthly rental chargers for starters.

I will agree with others, nothing will approach the features of PShopm, which I started at version 2.5 in the early 90's. I now use CS6 on a Mac running the last system I can that will support CS6 (Sierra). When this fails, I will bite the bullet and move to CC, as others have done, as much as I don't want to rent software.

PhotoLine development continues and there is a new beta version every 2-3 weeks. In addition to UI icons and Cursors pack https://www.deviantart.com/shijan/art/825902404 now we have Assets and Presets Library Project
https://gitlab.com/Herbert123/photoline-assets-and-presets-library It includes huge amount of Palettes and Gradients collections. Palettes organized in groups and so works only with 24.40b9 and newer versions, but i guess final release with hundreds of improvements will be released very soon...

cerber0s said:

Or just run any number of virtual computers to use with older OS’s and older software.

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Virtual machines have their own problems and consume resources. I average 50 MB every click of the shutter. I can't imagine using anything but a recent machine. I got this Mac because Nikon Studio wouldn't run on Win7 and my old Pshop didn't know what RAW was. Time moves on, make the best deals you can on recent hardware.

I'm doing well with Affinity. Curves, cropping and sizing are my most used, layers and such every so often. Affinity works as well as Pshop for that. Pshop crop is better but I don't have to straighten painting edges often which is the only use I had for that special feature.

I'm very happy with the current PS subcription model. I it were for sale, I'woould have to buy a new version every other year to stay up-to-date. That would be more expensive than the current subscription model. Leave it as is!

CasperMarly said:

Have and use Photoshop CS6 and it works well. One of these days it may not.

When that day comes I'll need something to replace it - a program I can buy and use, not rent or lease.

What is out there that will give me what Photoshop can do?

Am looking at Photo editing and finessing images. Don't use Lightroom or any other programs for images. Just Photoshop since version 2.

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So, you are missing all the new innovative tools since version 2. Oh, you don't know what you're all missing!

RalphLambrecht said:

So, you are missing all the new innovative tools since version 2. Oh, you don't know what you're all missing!

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Ai and Behance? Unlikely for me to go there. There are really useful tools but there's a lot of Fluff too.
Too much is made of this. It's not worth building a machine to run old software, there are tons of programs that will do what Old Photoshop will do. The price of New Photoshop is not so high that extreme measures are called for. Affinity does all I need right now and I will get Photoshop again when I feel the need. I find the people at Affinity more gracious than Adobe but I will do what's necessary for my photos.

If one is using that old a version of Photoshop, my guess is that the most current Photoshop Elements ($100 but often on sale) will do what you need. I could be wrong.

David Brown said:

If one is using that old a version of Photoshop, my guess is that the most current Photoshop Elements ($100 but often on sale) will do what you need. I could be wrong.

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Yes but for less money you could have Affinity with Curves, Layers, Filters.......

And there are lots of others. Some people like Gimp.

I bought Elements on sale at Costco and didn't think it was worth the money.

Photoshop is worth the money, it's their Security that ruined my experience.

For literally no money you can use PhotoLine that in one tiny single app (60 megabytes) replaces Photoshop, Illustrator, Pagemaker, Bridge, Lightroom, PDF editor, Batch converter, Panorama stitcher, Focus stacker, HDR merger, and even Barcode/QRcode generator Painting options also slowly improved step by step. Last version of PhotoLine is formally free and fully functional to save and export files. it only show "unregistered" banner at start. PhotoLine can use Ps plug-ins, brushes and Swatches, partially can read PSD files. PhotoLine also allow quick exchange of layers with any other external app. So if you need AI options, you may install free app Krita and use free AI Diffusion plug-in.

shijan said:

For literally no money you can use PhotoLine that in one tiny single app (60 megabytes) replaces Photoshop, Illustrator, Pagemaker, Bridge, Lightroom, PDF editor, Batch converter, Panorama stitcher, Focus stacker, HDR merger, and even Barcode/QRcode generator Painting options also slowly improved step by step. Last version of PhotoLine is formally free and fully functional to save and export files. it only show "unregistered" banner at start. PhotoLine can use Ps plug-ins, brushes and Swatches, partially can read PSD files. PhotoLine also allow quick exchange of layers with any other external app. So if you need AI options, you may install free app Krita and use free AI Diffusion plug-in.

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The app looks good! I haven’t heard of it before but it sounds like a credible option for those looking for a free app that allows similar features to mainstream image creation software.

It would be interesting to see someone put it through its paces rather than just saying “Adobe can’t do this”, or “this is better than Adobe” without actually comparing UI, efficiency, results, etc, side by side.

I recently switched from GIMP to LightRoom and PhotoShop Classic when I brought th Nikon 7Zii. GIMP is well priced by somewhat obscure and clumsy.

"Replace Photoshop" is too abstract question. Photoshop is an app that have huge amount of totally different tools, so what exact tools do you need to replace? Each generation of Photoshop have some new useful and useless options, so what exact Photoshop version do you need to replace? Photoshop is not ideal or perfect tool. Same as other apps it have pros and cons. Other apps may have unique tools that outperforms Photoshop, as well as limitations that makes them worse than Photoshop in some areas.
Cool thing about PhotoLine is that developers listen to users and quickly add missing options if possible, For example you can check thread "List of important things available in Ps but not available in PhotoLine" here https://www.pl32.com/forum3/viewtopic.php?t=6952

Some PhotoLine cons:
PhotoLine UI panels and sliders have no global pretty skin. (UI concept looks similar to Photoshop CS versions in 2005-2010 https://www.versionmuseum.com/history-of/adobe-photoshop) UI looks different in macOS and Windows. But due same reason UI feels very fast. You also need to install custom Icons and Shortcuts set for UI because original icons are very bad and original shortcuts not too logical.

PhotoLine Brush soft edges are 8-bit only, so you can't paint in Linear gamma. Photoshop brushes are better, but not perfect as well. They use 10 or 11 bit, and they also can't paint smoothly in Linear gamma. Affinity brushes use true 16-bit.

PhotoLine "Remove Brush" is OK, but not so "smart" as "Content-Aware Spot Healing" brush in Photoshop. It works very well for single spots, but can't detect correctly long scratches on grainy uneven surface. Actually i tested similar scratches in many other apps and they all behave worse than Photoshop CC 2018.

Layer Styles not ready yet for serious design work yet. They are not so advanced as in Photoshop and too limited in size. Some of them are still 8-bit only. Layer Styles engine in PhotoLine still under development and should be improved soon or late. Also there is no quick and easy "Fill" slider near "Opacity" slider.

PhotoLine don't have yet Mean, Median and other image stacking modes. So no Temporal noise reduction.

HDR Merge in PhotoLine can merge only 2 or 3 frames and exposure steps between frames should be the same (for example -1, 0, +1).

Panorama stitcher is fully automatic. It don't have any option to select spherical or flat/planar projection.

Text can't snap or align using true edges of the letters. For some reason it use fixed boxes around letters and align only to those boxes.

PhotoLine don't have "Puppet Warp" tool.

Crop Tool have no "Centered" toggle.

The problem for me is I don't want to learn another program, That takes years with Affinity or Photoshop. Both have huge depth. I paid $60 for Affinity, I'd send them more if they asked. I know where my tools are. You'd have to pay me to switch.

Adobe shut my paid for program down 3 times on weekends with No Customer Support and I hold a grudge very well.

GIMP meets my needs for editing 16-bits-per-channel TIF files. It is a touch slow and clunky but you get used to it. I use RawTherapee to convert from RAW to TIF.

The last time I really used Photoshop was the early 2000s, and I never really enjoyed the interface.

All I do in GIMP is curves/levels, invert, rotate, crop, clone brush, and occasionally dodging/burning. I haven't found myself needing more.

GIMP has come a long way and in the next year they'll introduce dynamic adjustment layers. I think that's going to make a dramatic improvement on an already more than capable solution.

koraks said:

GIMP has come a long way and in the next year they'll introduce dynamic adjustment layers. I think that's going to make a dramatic improvement on an already more than capable solution.

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I still get GIMP updates so I will see those improvements.

Sirius Glass said:

I still get GIMP updates so I will see those improvements.

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Yes, me too. Very much looking forward to it. I also saw significant improvements over the past 2 years. There's very little GIMP doesn't do that I'd like it to - and the many things it does do, it does quite well.