Pixel: Photoshop for the Linux Crowd
Linux users unhappy with the GIMP image editor may want to take a look at Pixel, a cross platform image editing application, which more closely mirrors the behavior of Adobe Photoshop. Although Pixel isn’t free in either sense of the word — a licensed copy will set you back $38 USD and the source is not available — in terms of ease-of-use Pixel trumps the Gimp on a number of levels.
Where the GIMP’s palettes are each separate application windows, Pixel opts for a unified interface similar to that of Photoshop, eliminating the confusion of palettes showing up in your taskbar or app switcher.
Pixel also shows evidence of a deeper concern with UI design than you’ll find in the GIMP, which, while functional, is nothing special to look at on any platform. Pixel’s panels are more compact and closely mirror those that Photoshop users are accustomed to. Pixel even has few things, like a live workspace switcher which lets you keep multiple customized workspaces open at the same time, that Photoshop doesn’t.
Pixel is still a beta and thus a work in progress, but it already offers the core functionality of both the GIMP and Adobe Photoshop with support for layers, paths, channels, masks, selections, as well as color management support for RGB, CMYK, Grayscale, CIE Lab modes and even support for HDR (High Dynamic Range) images with 32-bit/channel precision.
There are also the usual complement of adjustable brushes, filter plugins and most of the tools you’ll find in Photoshop.
Perhaps even more impressive is Pixel’s roadmap, which promises full compatibility with Photoshop files, SVG support and Photoshop plugins support due for the final release of the first version.
Pixel isn’t perfect by any means, if you frequently use the Photoshop camera RAW plugin you’re out of luck here. Pixel can convert and open your RAW file, but it doesn’t offer any RAW adjustment options. Pixel has also been around quite a while and is still in beta form, which may not speak well for future development, but the application was stable and useable in my testing.
Also, as noted above, Pixel isn’t free which won’t sit well with some Linux users (I should also point out that Pixel is available for Windows, Mac OS X, FreeBSD and others — even BE OS). Still if you’re looking for Photoshop on Linux, Pixel has the GIMP beat. There’s a demo version of Pixel available for download if you’d like to test it out before purchasing, the demo is limitation free but will watermark your images when saving.
[via Digg]
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