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Affinity vs GIMP

Two free alternatives to Adobe Photoshop, side by side.

Side by side

Affinity vs GIMP: facts
FactAffinityGIMP
LicenseLicense: FreewareLicense: Open sourceGPL-3.0-or-later
MaintenanceStatus: VerifiedStatus: Active
WindowsYesYes
macOSYesYes
LinuxNoYes
Self-hostableNoNo
Works offlineYesYes
No account neededNoYes
Parity with Adobe Photoshop75%50%

License classes: Freeware and Open source. Status rules: Active means a commit in the last 90 days. See the methodology.

Feature parity with Adobe Photoshop

Feature parity with Adobe Photoshop
FeatureAffinityGIMP
Editing
Layers, masks and blend modesYesYes
Adjustment layers and smart filtersYesNote 1PartialNote 2
Selection
Subject selection and edge refinementPartialNote 3PartialNote 4
Retouching
Healing, clone and content-aware fillYesNote 5PartialNote 6
AI
Generative fill and expandNoNote 7No
Design
Editable type and vector shapesYesNote 8PartialNote 9
Photo
RAW development (Camera Raw)PartialNote 10PartialNote 11
Output
CMYK and print color managementYesNote 12PartialNote 13
  1. Affinity, Adjustment layers and smart filters: Live filters and adjustment layers
  2. GIMP, Adjustment layers and smart filters: Non-destructive filters since GIMP 3.0; no adjustment layers yet
  3. Affinity, Subject selection and edge refinement: Selection and refine tools are free; Select Subject needs a paid Canva plan
  4. GIMP, Subject selection and edge refinement: Foreground Select and paths; no AI subject selection
  5. Affinity, Healing, clone and content-aware fill: The Inpainting brush works like content-aware fill
  6. GIMP, Healing, clone and content-aware fill: Heal and Clone are built in; content-aware fill needs the Resynthesizer plug-in
  7. Affinity, Generative fill and expand: Generative Fill and Expand need a paid Canva plan
  8. Affinity, Editable type and vector shapes: Vector and layout tools are built into the same app
  9. GIMP, Editable type and vector shapes: Text layers; no editable vector shape layers
  10. Affinity, RAW development (Camera Raw): Separate RAW develop step with fewer tools than Camera Raw
  11. GIMP, RAW development (Camera Raw): Opens RAW files through darktable or RawTherapee
  12. Affinity, CMYK and print color management: CMYK, ICC profiles and PDF/X export
  13. GIMP, CMYK and print color management: Soft-proofing and CMYK export since 3.0; editing stays in RGB

All free alternatives to Adobe Photoshop

File formats

Affinity vs GIMP: file formats
FormatAffinityGIMP
.psdOpens and savesNote 1Partial fidelityOpens and savesNote 2Partial fidelity
.psbOpens onlyNote 3Partial fidelityOpens and savesNote 4Partial fidelity
.tiffOpens and savesFull fidelityOpens and savesFull fidelity
.pngOpens and savesFull fidelityOpens and savesFull fidelity
.jpgOpens and savesFull fidelityOpens and savesFull fidelity
.webpOpens and savesFull fidelityOpens and savesFull fidelity
  1. Affinity, .psd: Layers and adjustment layers import; smart objects are rasterized unless smart-object import is turned on
  2. GIMP, .psd: Layers, groups, masks and CMYK carry over; adjustment layers and smart objects do not
  3. Affinity, .psb: Opens PSB files
  4. GIMP, .psb: PSB import since 3.0 and export since 3.2