Other Freeware image editing

i work at a college and we have just replaced about 15 macs with PCs (yay)

i should point out that the classes i teach are Entry level 3, this is basically marquet tool, brush tool, eraser tool. very VERY basic stuff. it could almost get away with teaching it using MS paint.

the old macs had Photoshop on them ranging from CS2 to CS4, we need to replace this and i was wondering, does anyone know of any freeware out there which would do the basics, like i said above, we dont need anything even nearly as complex as photoshop and it seems like a waste to be spending that kind of money.

thanks for any advice in advance

 

paint.net

 

If you can bear living with the "Great God Google" you could have a look at Picasa; there are plenty of other alternatives.

 

The GIMP?

 

GIMP, definitely.

 

had a quick look at gimp, looks like it may be a bit complicated for the students im teaching, does it have basic functionality aswell as the more advanced stuff?
sorry for the dump question iv only ever used adobe stuff

 

The GIMP is an open source version of Photoshop.
If you can use Photoshop then it should be straight forward for you to use it.

 

As barndoor suggested, Paint.net. We use it in our graphics department alongside CS4.

As a Brucey bonus, it doesn't interfere with network security policies. We found that GIMP's use of the GTK framework tends to ignore security policies and allows kids to access local drives. Not ideal in a school environment.

 

Inkscape is quite nice

 

Yep it's good.

 

thanks ill put the ideas forward to the boss i think ill try and push GIMP, one curiosity, if gimp is so good why are we still paying for PS?

 

because it's not that good.....

PS still has many more features that Gimp.

 

plus GIMP is way harder to use than PS - the interface is all over the place.

thats why i recommended paint.net - if you dont need that much more than regular paint, then its probably your best choice as the learning curve is much shallower.

 

GIMP

 

Gimp would be a complete waste for what you need, Yes it may be more functional than paint.net, but its also far harder to use.

If you want a free photoshop alternative go for GIMP
If you just need some basic tools paint.net is by far the better bet.

 

gonna try and talk the boss into paint.net, took a look at GIMP and it was waaay too much for most of my students. really apreciate the advice, thanks

 

Unless you're going to install it locally on each machine, either you or your IT guys might want to read this:
http://eecs.wsu.edu/paint.net/doc/2.6/Help/en/UnattendedInstallation.html

You can use the /auto and /createMsi switches to make an unattended install for network distribution.

 

thanks mate, appreciate it

 

Personally, I think that paint.net is probably the best freeware image editor, for its simplicity.

 

I like both GIMP and paint.net, though i think GIMP might be a bit too advanced for this application.