Tweak GIMP To Resemble Adobe Photoshop
You can now enjoy most of the Photoshop features (if not all) using GIMP, an open source application which can be a good substitute for Photoshop. However, switching from Photoshop to GIMP might cause some difficulty to people who are very much used to the Photoshop interface as there is a vast difference between their menu structures.
Nevertheless, you may make GIMP interface to look almost similar to that of Photoshop by using some simple tweaks. Follow the below mentioned steps.
1) Open the GIMP application.
2) To start with, you need to first open an image. To do so, go to the File menu and select “Open”. Click on “Pictures”, select a preferred image and click on “Open” button.
3) Next, go to Edit menu and select “Preferences”. Go to “Themes” and set it to “Small”. Also expand “Image Window” option and choose “Appearance”. You need to disable a few image window preferences such as layer boundary, rulers and scrollbars by de-selecting the respective checkboxes. Click on “OK” button.
To make the settings for the current page, go to view and deselect “Show layer boundary”, “Show Rulers” and “Show Scrollbars”.
4) You would be starting from scratch and hence need to delete the panels on the right-hand side. You need to also delete the tool options placed under the toolbox.
5) Next, resize the length and width of the toolbox so as to make it as small as possible, so that it looks a bit like the Photoshop toolbox.
6) Now, you need to add the panels. Let’s start with the bottom panel. Go to Windows Menu > Dockable Dialogues and then select “Layers”. Place the “Layers” panel at the right-bottom corner. Hide button bar.
7) Again, go to Windows Menu > Dockable Dialogues and then select “Channels”. Drag the panel and drop it into “Layers” panel. Now you need to make the panel tabs to show text name similar to Photoshop. You may do so by changing the Tab Style from “Icon” to “Text”. Repeat the same procedure to add the “Paths” panel.
8) Now, you need to add the middle panel starting with the “Tool Options” by going to Windows Menu > Dockable Dialogues > Tool Options. Place the panel on top of the bottom panel and hide button bar. Drag and drop the “Histogram” panel into the “Tool Options” panel. Remember to change the Tab Style from “Icon” to “Text”.
9) Finally, add the top panel starting with the “Colours” panel. Subsequently, drag the “Palettes”, “Patterns” and “Navigation” panels into it. Hide button bars to save space. Every time you add a panel, remember to change the Tab Style from “Icon” to “Text”.
10) Adjust the position of each panel so as to avoid overlapping.
11) You can move the image under the toolbox and the panels. It is possible to adjust the image position by holding the middle mouse button.
The layout of GIMP is now set-up to resemble Photoshop. The top horizontal toolbar present in Photoshop however cannot be brought in GIMP.
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