𝗧𝗿𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗢𝘂𝘁 𝗣𝗵𝗼𝘁𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗮

So...

In order for you guys to see exactly how convenient and extraordinary it is to have a photo manipulation tool that is so much more powerful than you can imagine, I am going to show you a cover I did on GIMP vs. Photopea.

Now, I'm not discounting any software. Both GIMP and Photopea are stupendous and downright wonderful to learn on. Both are wonderful for Wattpad books, though I've heard professionals have used them as well.

Without further ado, here's a GIMP book design.

This is a photo manip.

Here's the Photopea cover (mind you, I'm new to this program and my design is shoddy at best):

Photo manip using more renders than natural photos

Do you see the difference?

Both covers are bad, yes. But the Photopea one looks more professional.

While that may be because of the photos/fonts used, I highly doubt it.

Yes, my Photopea design is horrible at best, but only because I'm learning!

Give me a few weeks, let me understand the Photopea manual, and my skills should massively improve!

However, to really test this out, I want to create the same cover separately on both programs and see what happens.

To be fair...

GIMP is my first love and always will be — but it's limited, in a sense. Photopea is also limited, in a sense.

Both have steep learning curves.

What you can't do with GIMP, you can do with Photopea and vice versa.

Which is why I will still be using both for my book designing needs.

The reason I love Photopea so much is because I can access some really professional looking fonts that I'll otherwise have to pay for and install on my computer.

Installing fonts is ultimately the best move but it can be a hassle, especially if you hoard like me.

Another reason I like Photopea so far is, the uncanny similarity to Photoshop. I wasn't expecting it to be so akin to Photoshop. It's outstanding.

Oh, and I get to install some amazing text effects and get access to font swashes and flourishes as well.

Compared to GIMP, manipulating the layers is going to give me the greatest headache so, ultimately, I may use GIMP for more photo manip and utilize Photopea for the fonts I'm too lazy to install.

But I'm undecided and stubborn which means I may very well learn how to overcome the finicky handling of layers.

We'll see.

Stay tuned!

Have you used either of these programs? How did you like them and what have you stuck with now?

Let me know in the comments :)