For those who don’t already know, the Gimp is a powerful, open source image editing application. For more info on the Gimp visit gimp.org. GIMPshop is essentially the same program with some cosmetic changes.

If you’ve never used Photoshop before, you may not appreciate the GIMPshop hack. What Scott Moschella’s done is renamed and reorganized GIMP’s tools, options, windows, and menus to closely resemble Adobe Photoshop’s menu structure and naming conventions. Many of the menu options and even whole menus were recreated to faithfully reproduce a Photoshop-like experience. After running this GIMPshop hack, you’ll find that Photoshop and the GIMP are strikingly similar.

The latest version is available for Linux and Mac, and there’s also an earlier release available for Windows users. Updates are frequent so a Windows version should be available soon. So for all of you designers and photo enthusiasts that can’t afford to buy Adobe Photoshop this is a fantastic solid and free alternative.

For more information, screenshots and downloads visit plasticbugs.com.