New frustrated OS X user paint alternative? (IT guy coming from windows/linux)

[SpatiallyAware]

I need to do some very simple photo editing - create circles around a couple of things, add a text block, etc. Simple paint stuff. Is there not an OS X alternative?? It's annoying that apple seemingly provides three progs to make your photo black and white or reduce redeye but nothing for simple editing!!

I'm assuming there's an OS X release for gimp but it isn't support by the same crew..


Thoughts?

 

[TheStu]

There is GIMP, but I can't stand that, for the same reason why I can't stand PhotoShop, for what you are looking to do, GIMP feels like using a Bazooka (an indecipherable bazooka with 17 triggers) when all you need is a pop gun.

Skitch is well regarded, not sure if it is still in beta or not though (if yes, then you should be able to get it for free then). Otherwise, Paintbrush should do what you want, and frankly, depending on the version of OS X that you have I think that Preview (included with the OS) can do it as well.

Out of curiosity, how much googling was done before you came here?

 

[SpatiallyAware]

There is GIMP, but I can't stand that, for the same reason why I can't stand PhotoShop, for what you are looking to do, GIMP feels like using a Bazooka (an indecipherable bazooka with 17 triggers) when all you need is a pop gun.

Skitch is well regarded, not sure if it is still in beta or not though (if yes, then you should be able to get it for free then). Otherwise, Paintbrush should do what you want, and frankly, depending on the version of OS X that you have I think that Preview (included with the OS) can do it as well.

Out of curiosity, how much googling was done before you came here?

About 5 minutes worth. Enough to determine that there are a million companies out there pushing their shareware and a ton of people recommending gimp (with just as many hating x11)

Preview won't do any type of editing like I'm talking (adding squares/circles or text)

 

[Parasitic]

PaintBrush would work for very basic things:

http://paintbrush.sourceforge.net/

 

[Gooberlx2]

Seashore looks like a stripped down version of Gimp. Somewhere between paint and gimp....probably closer to paint.net

 

[umrigar]

going to try :

inkscape http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/18954/

ToyViewer http://homepage.mac.com/t_ogihara/software/OSX/toyv-eng.html

 

[Kmax82]

Try out Acorn. It has a free mode that will activate after the 14 day trial and you won't have to pay. You lose a few features, but nothing that you probably can't live without.

http://flyingmeat.com/acorn/

Here's the list of differences between paid and free:
http://flyingmeat.com/acorn/acornfree.html

 

[Kmax82]

I need to do some very simple photo editing - create circles around a couple of things, add a text block, etc. Simple paint stuff. Is there not an OS X alternative?? It's annoying that apple seemingly provides three progs to make your photo black and white or reduce redeye but nothing for simple editing!!

Oh and Preview will do this.. once you have your document open click on Annotate and you can create text, arrows, circles and squares. You can also adjust the normal iPhoto settings for the document if you go to Tools/Color..

It's pretty powerful if you get into it.

 

[VinylxScratches]

Seashore!

 

[alfa147x]

Oh and Preview will do this.. once you have your document open click on Annotate and you can create text, arrows, circles and squares. You can also adjust the normal iPhoto settings for the document if you go to Tools/Color..

It's pretty powerful if you get into it.

Cool did not know this!

 

[TheStu]

Oh and Preview will do this.. once you have your document open click on Annotate and you can create text, arrows, circles and squares. You can also adjust the normal iPhoto settings for the document if you go to Tools/Color..

It's pretty powerful if you get into it.

That was what I was referring to, yes. The annotation gives you very simple modification ability, but if all you need to do is draw an arrow or circle something, then really, what more do you need?

 

[secretanchitman]

Try out Acorn. It has a free mode that will activate after the 14 day trial and you won't have to pay. You lose a few features, but nothing that you probably can't live without.

http://flyingmeat.com/acorn/

Here's the list of differences between paid and free:
http://flyingmeat.com/acorn/acornfree.html

this. acorn is the best image editor ive used on osx. i love it so much that i dumped photoshop for it since it does 95% of what i need it to do.

 

[MotionMan]

Originally Posted by Kmax82
Oh and Preview will do this.. once you have your document open click on Annotate and you can create text, arrows, circles and squares. You can also adjust the normal iPhoto settings for the document if you go to Tools/Color..

It's pretty powerful if you get into it.

Cool did not know this!

Nor did I. This opens up a lot of things for me. Thanks!

MotionMan