Difference Between Inkscape and GIMP
Every graphic designer’s dream is to be able to design graphics that will dazzle the market every time they produce something on their respective software of choice. But can everyone afford to spend the paid source online that costs probably 700 USD at the minimum? That’s where our need for use of open-source software comes into the picture. There are various alternatives to Photoshop and Corel Draw but Inscape and Gimp find their way to be the most popular mainly due to their free availability.
Having said that many times users get confused as to which software is supposed to be used when. My point being, it is advisable to educate ourselves about the software features to be able to use them as per our requirement. So let’s start understanding their features first and then list out a good number of comparisons between them so that next time there is no possible confusion, hopefully.
What are Inkscape and GIMP?
1. Inkscape
It is graphic design software. Its main purpose is to create vector graphics. It’s an alternative to Photoshop Illustrator and Adobe Corel Draw. It is freely available online. It bags the GPU (General Public Usage) license which makes it available almost anywhere.
Here is an image of Inkscape UI extracted from the internet.
Image Source: Link
It has a file format. SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics). This file format is an open file format so it can also be edited in other contemporary software. This is not a photo editor primarily. It doesn’t even have some essential photo editing tools and effects. But the tools that are extremely crucial for drawing are the highlights in the software.
2. GIMP
It is graphic design software. Its main purpose is to create and edit raster graphics. It’s an alternative to Adobe Photoshop. It’s freely available online. It also comes with a GPU license. GIMP actually stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program.
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Here is an image of GIMP UI extracted from the internet.
Image Source: Link
So if you see, its name along with features denotes a completely different package of tools and properties. It comes with a lot of neat tricks to edit a picture like an image retouching, editing with image effects and filters and also basic tools that are allocated are mainly for image manipulation itself, like various sort of selections and various types of coloring, etc.
Head to Head Comparison Between Inkscape and GIMP (Infographics)
Below are the top 8 comparisons between Inkscape and GIMP.
Key Differences
Many people consider Inkscape better than Gimp, while or vice versa. What I consider is that before comparing the two it’s more important to list our requirements first. Let’s look at the differences on both.
1. Recognizing Usage
When I say INKSCAPE mainly designs vector graphics, I mean that it will help draw shapes and designs with the help of Geometry, providing scalable axial values. These values identified by the software are paths ( i.e. x-axis value and y-axis value). The endpoints of these paths are denoted as Nodes that have the facility to alter values through special handles attached to them. The shape is nothing but a closed path. Hence it becomes very easy to draw in this software. Therefore it won’t pixelate and the picture will not appear unclear and torn when if it will be enlarged.
GIMP designs raster graphics. So your image has to be a raster image first to be edited in this software. A raster image is the one that is formed by the collaboration of hundreds and thousands of pixels. Pixels are nothing but tiny boxes containing color values in them. So basically color coding of any image can be edited by simply changing the color values of these pixels. Various image related file formats can open in this software like .bmp, .jpeg, .png etc. So if you zoom into an image it might seem torn or blurry when in fact it’s actually the pixels that are just displaying their color values.
2. The difference in File Formats
Inkscape will store the images in .svg format. Gimp will store the images in .bmp, .png, .jpeg format. Here let me point out that GIMP also converts between file formats. Out of the lot.jpeg is the most openly accepted file format. So one can design the logo in Inkscape and then save it as.joeg in GIMP to be circulated online.
3. Interface and Tools
Inkscape has an interface that has very drawing friendly tools while Gimp has an interface that has very editing friendly tools.
4. Utility in Real Life
So we can go ahead and create logo designs, posters, product design samples, architectural layouts, almost anything that will involve a lot of manual drawings and shapes in INKSCAPE.
GIMP shows amazing performance for creating designs for websites and online ads. Professional photographers can easily edit their pictures without compromising on the image quality. Due to the usage of common file formats, this software is more accessible for opening and editing a variety of images.
Inkscape vs GIMP Comparison Table
Let’s discuss the top comparison between Inkscape vs GIMP as shown in the below table.
| Basis of Comparison | Inkscape | GIMP |
| General Information | Used for creating vector graphics. | Used for creating raster graphics. |
| File Support | Mainly supports and creates a .svg file format. | Mainly accepts and edits formats like .bmp, .jpeg, .png |
| Scalability | Can scale the vector graphics. | Cannot scale raster images. |
| Tools | Main emphasis and availability of drawing tools like shapes etc. | The main emphasis on editing tools like selection, effects, etc used for image editing. |
| Software Alternative | It’s an alternative to Photoshop Illustrator and Adobe Corel Draw. | It’s an alternative to Adobe Photoshop. |
| Image Appearance | The image will not look blurry or torn when zoomed. | The image will look blurry or torn when zoomed. |
| File Size | File size less because it only stores axial values of the nodes. | The file size is higher as the color values of each pixel are stored in it. |
| Usage | logo designs, posters, product design samples, architectural layouts, almost anything that will involve a lot of drawings and shapes. | creating designs for websites, and online ads. Photograph editing professionally. |
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