I've been using Adobe Photoshop since the old Creative Suite 2 days, and I've been resistant to switching programs because breaking years of habits in order to use a free product never felt worth it. Most of my general day-to-day photo editing could be handled in the built-in image editor program on my laptop, and when I needed anything fancier, I had an old version of Photoshop that was still working for quite a while.

I then had access to Photoshop for the sake of testing hardware using the PugetBench suite of benchmarks, and for general day-to-day online publishing needs. But I've recently lost access to Adobe. Doing some research on the best Photoshop alternatives led me to GIMP. But as a longtime Photoshop user, the switch was jarring. So here's what I did to make GIMP feel familiar.

Re-arrange the toolbars

A visual uplift helps

To make the transition easier for myself, I started my GIMP journey by moving the dialogue boxes over to the right-hand side to mimic Photoshop's default layout. You can alter these by using the Dockable Dialogues menu. I moved most of the tools over to the right and unlinked a few that I knew I wouldn't need, so the toolbox on the left would only include the standard manipulation tools rather than dialogue boxes.

I also went into system settings to tweak the toolbox, removing the GIMP logo and ungrouping the tools so I didn't have to go hunting for things. From here, I could also rearrange tools in an order that felt the most familiar.

Keyboard shortcuts

A few custom maps to keep things moving

I don't rely too heavily on keyboard shortcuts in most photo-editing programs, so I really just had to map a quick shortcut or two, like overwrite to easily save my files as a .PNG or .JPG file.

However, you can create additional custom keyboard shortcuts to make GIMP feel even more like Photoshop. So if you are a keyboard wizard with your Adobe apps, you can customize GIMP for increased functionality. However, there are a few caveats. Some key usage and mouse clicks in tools can't be customized to function exactly the same way. So there will still be a learning curve.

Add a few Plug-ins

Just a few tweaks to add more features.

The right GIMP plugins can make all the difference. I wanted to keep things a little basic, so I didn't get overrun with choice while learning a new piece of software. I stuck to just two plugins, but there are plenty of good ones out there to consider.

The first plugin I installed was G'MIC, as it adds color adjustments, noise reduction, sharpening, artistic effects, and image transformations in GIMP. So if you were looking for those Photoshop tools in GIMP, here's an easy way to achieve them. Since I use my MacBook for photo editing, I had to install the G'MIC-Qt port for macOS since G'MIC is designed for Windows and Linux by its original developer. The other plugin I opted for was BIMP, which allows for batch edits on multiple images simultaneously, like Photoshop's Image Processor. So if you've got to batch re-size or crop a series of product photos, BIMP is incredibly useful.

While there are a few plugins out there that purport to turn GIMP into Photoshop, GimpShop is mostly deprecated at this point. PhotoGimp is still being updated, and could be worth an install depending on your particular photo editing needs. I wanted to keep my GIMP experience a little different, so I don't forget what program I'm using, so I stuck to feature-specific plugins instead. Additionally, you can run Photoshop plugins in GIMP with the Photoshop GIMP Extension Installer, though this won't work with all Photoshop plugins.

It's still not Photoshop

But I'm learning to live with it.

There are some other ways you can make GIMP feel like Photoshop, so if my personal tips didn't quite get you to a comfortable level with GIMP, there are other things to try to make it feel more like Photoshop. You can add more shortcuts, import Photoshop paintbrushes, and extend PSD support so you don't lose access to your old files.

Of course, there are some Photoshop features that GIMP just doesn't have access to. And those gaps would need to be filled with alternative programs. It's not the one-stop powerhouse Adobe app, but GIMP does come close. And most of the time, that's all I need.

However, there is a general caveat with making GIMP too much like Photoshop, and that's software support. If you find a cool new plugin or see a video on a fun GIMP shortcut, it will likely use the default GIMP interface. So customizing too much can hamstring you down the line. This is partly why I stuck to a few small changes that were mostly visual for my version of GIMP.