GIMP Vs. Krita

Both GIMP and Krita are the open-source graphic designing software. There are several open-source graphic designing software available in the market in which the GIMP and Krita are the leaders among all of them. So, choosing between these two Softwares is a little complicated task for beginners. In this topic, we will compare different features of both the software so that you can get a clear view while choosing any of them.

Before comparing, let's have an overview of GIMP and Krita.

What is GIMP?

GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program, which is the cross-platform image editor software. It is freely available for the users, and they can also make any changes to the source code as it open source for all. GIMP software is available for any operating system such as GNU/Linux, OS X, Windows, etc.

It can perform various tasks such as Photo retouching, image composition, image editing, and image authoring. It provides various capabilities and tools to the users, whether you are using it as a graphic designing software, photographer, illustrator, or scientist.

GIMP also Provides various customization options to enhance productivity.

What is Krita?

Similar to GIMP, Krita is also the Open-source painting program, which is mainly used for digital paintings and 2D animation. It provides various painting features such as OpenGL-accelerated Canvas, advanced brush engine, vector artwork support, group-based layer management, etc. It is freely available for Linux, MacOS, and Windows operating systems.

Krita also provides additional tools to configure the software to offer a personalized experience to the user.

Some popular features of Krita are:

• It provides a wide range of painting tools.
• There are various filters and effects available for image processing.
• A large number of configure settings.
• It also supports various image formats and color patters.

Features comparison between GIMP and Krita

• Open-Source & Free: Both GIMP and Krita are open-source software, and hence they are freely available to the users. You can also freely add any additional tools or functionality to this software.
• Compatibility: The GIMP software is available for all the major operating systems, including Linux, MacOS, and Windows. Whereas, the stable release of Krita is only available for Windows and Linux. For the MacOS, only the testing version is available.
  Apart from the OS support, compared to the GIMP, Krita provides better support for drawing the tablets. Whereas, GIMP shows some issues for the configuration for these tablets.
• File Format Support: Comparing both apps, Krita provides more intuitive file format support for the working files. For example, to open the Photoshop PSD files, GIMP needs to import/convert them, whereas Krita can directly open these files.
  GIMP also does not support the RAW files without the help of Plug-ins.
  To export the files, GIMP provides more options compared to Krita. But, both have the basic export options, such as JPG, GIF, and PNG.
• Painting Features:
  The main difference between the software is not how many features they provide, but how efficiently those features are used and implemented.
  For example, Krita provides tools such as brush and pop-over to create images from scratch easily. But more generic features, such as filling the outline area using the particular color, are not much efficient as the GIMP.
  On the other hand, GIMP contains various painting tools such as pens and brushes, but these tools are not efficiently configured as the Krita's tools.
• User Interface:
  GIMP can be taken as the alternative of Photoshop with a mixed user interface. It has the familiar Floating Palette metaphor, with many controls available on the left-hand panel.
  Krita has a comparatively simple user interface. The additional tools can be taken from the menu structure or additional dialogs.

Conclusion

By understanding the different features of both the software, we can conclude that if someone needs software to perform a wide range of image editing and graphic designing work, GIMP will be an excellent option.

On the other hand, to create digital arts, Krita is the best option.