Usually, I spend most of my time praising the GIMP and other open source projects for their dedication to giving us all an opportunity to create at a high level. This praise is completely deserved and should not be tempered by what I am about to say – Adobe is amazing. Adobe is so progressive and forward thinking that sometimes I can’t even believe it. Adobe is the Apple and the Microsoft of the digital creative industry, by that I mean they are every bit as trendy, cool, and innovative as Apple but they are also the gold standard in consistency and market share. I tell you this only so that I can talk about Adobe’s pushing of non-destructive editing as the way of the future.

This example has not yet been integrated into the GIMP, but I hope soon will be. A layer style affects the content of the layer without polluting the content of the layer. For example, If I were to want to color text in photoshop with a gradient, it is just a matter of double clicking the layer, which brings up the layer style dialog, selecting gradient, and editing the settings. Then I can change it as many times as I want, change the text, add an additional pattern overlay, and add a bevel effect. Then, I can turn it all or any of it off, reverting back to the original image. If I were to do this in the gimp I would have to rasterize the text, and then apply the gradient. This is actually changing the layer and cannot be undone by anything except the clunky undo function. Try it, live it, love it.