drawbacks to being a GIMP...user

I have long been an advocate of the GIMP. It is a free alternative to elite photo editing software like Adobe Photoshop. It features many of the same features and a similar interface, but is available absolutely free. Unfortunately, there are some limitations to it, though. For one thing, you can't work in CMYK color mode, which is print-industry standard for many types of media. In addition, I recently discovered that it is also restricted to 8-bit color. This means that your color gradients aren't going to look quite a nice as they would in 16-bit. Of course, the novice probably wouldn't notice the difference any more than they would notice the difference in audio between a CD and a DVD. But it is there, and if you plan on being a graphics or digital photography professional, you have to take these limitations into account.