Courtesy to Twitter user XdanielArt (date of publication: 8 June 2024)
this post was submitted on 30 Apr 2025
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Honestly, GIMP is not a good alternative to Photoshop. I know, "it's free" is enough for many people, but it ... just isn't.
With GIMP 3.0 it's a bit better at least, they've finally added non-destructive editing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfaq-Cm1ZkA
Full changelog here:
https://www.gimp.org/release-notes/gimp-3.0.html
I'd dare say that unless you've already learnt Photoshop (and have to unlearn it) then Darktable+GIMP works fine for home photo editing.
If you're used to Photoshop and your skills with it is what puts bread on the table... then I completely understand not switching tools.
As somebody who has been trying to decided which of the RAW photo editors to use, I can tell you that Darktable has a steep learning curve over Lightroom. The UI is incredibly dense and the names of sliders don’t make sense unless you’re an image science expert.
Been usin DT for close to a year now. I agree the learning curve is a little steeper than light room but once you get it, everything clicks into place. I can't believe how powerful this program is and it's free. It's unbelievable
I'll take your word for it, I've never used Lightroom.
Whenever I played around with Darktable it seems finding a tutorial to get the effect I wanted was just a minute of searching away, and there's a ton of beginner tutorials available too.
https://www.darktable.org/2024/12/howto-in-5.0/
But then I was the kid that rtfm the game manual on my way home from the store and love dense UIs as an adult. :)
Darktable is a godsend to me for converting film negatives.But I pretty much only use image conversion, RGB curve, then fidget with the exposure and RGB sliders in negadoctor a little more then I'm done. No idea how to do anything else.