GIMP 2.8 - A blogger's free alternative to photoshop

Are you thinking about getting Photoshop but not looking forward to the dent in your purse afterwards? Look no further than GIMP 2.8., a free program that does everything you need as a blogger without the nasty price tag.

GIMP 2.8. is a free GNU Image Manipulation Program and is available on both Windows and Mac. I really cannot tell you how good this program is for all you image creation needs! I swear by it and use it daily at work and for my blog.

I am in no way an expert at using all the features the program has but over the last year or so I've learnt how to do enough to create the designs I want. Hopefully by the end of this post I'll have shown some of the features of GIMP 2.8. and saved you some money. ^_^

If anyone has every used an Image Manipulation Program before, such as Photoshop, then you'll be aware of many of the common features used in these kinds of programs. If not then you have the ability to crop images, clone aspects of the image to paste onto other areas, apply blends, add text, rotate and select certain aspects of the image

If you ever want to see that kind of images you can create, just look at all the images I use on my blog, all have had some GIMP 2.8. usage applied, from a simple crop or a full image build such as my blog header. You can build from scratch or just simply edit an image you have on your computer, the possibilities are endless. I've even created a tri-fold leaflet within it which was professionally printed for 3,000 copies. They look fantastic if I do say so myself. ^_^

I really cannot praise GIMP 2.8. enough for it's simplicity and easy of us. It really is idle for any blogger who needs this sort of program and who doesn't want to pay the purse breaking price of Photoshop, or worse get in trouble for downloading it free. You'd be surprised how many people do that, and not only do they run the risk of getting in trouble, but they also put their computer at risk of viruses.

So what you waiting for, why not start that blog design you've been wanting to do for a while and start creating it in GIMP 2.8. If anyone has any questions or gets stuck, just drop me tweet or e-mail and I'll certainly help you if I can. I'm also doing some tutorials in the future, so let me know if there's something particular that you'd like to see.