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Gimp prefers the absolute most surprising and unexpected behavior given all available options. Krita designers should be hired to redesign Gimp. If Krita supp

Gimp prefers the absolute most surprising and unexpected behavior given all available options. Krita designers should be hired to redesign Gimp. If Krita support image editing slightly better, I'm pretty sure no one would use Gimp again. Inkscape is excellent at surfacing options. Even a novice can discover how to use it simply by reading options available at any time.

lillesvin 10y ago
I hear this complaint a lot and it always surprises me. I guess I'm just used to it after using it as my primary raster image editor for more than 15 years. What is it that's particularly unintuitive?
- floopidydoopidy 10y ago
  It's not like the other unintuitive program he learned before and therefore it's bad.
- frik 10y ago
  Last time I tried Gimp (1 year ago), I searched for an option to rotate an image a few degrees. All I found, was rotate by 90 degrees - like in pre-v5 Photoshop. I went back to Paint.net, which is good enough most the times (sadly it's closed source nowadays and gets little updates) - I open use Paint from Win7 too, for really simple things it's very fast.
  - cozzyd 10y ago
    That's because image formats are (usually?) constrained to be rectangular. You want to use layer->transform rather than image->transform for what you want (and then probably want to crop so you don't have nothing in the background on the edge).
  - mohaine 10y ago
    Not really sure what you are talking about. "rotate" is on the main tool box and exactly how to do it was first google result. https://docs.gimp.org/en/gimp-tool-rotate.html https://docs.gimp.org/en/gimp-tool-rotate.html https://docs.gimp.org/en/gimp-layer-rotate-arbitrary.html https://docs.gimp.org/en/gimp-layer-rotate-arbitrary.html Tools you know will always be faster then ones you don't know but that doesn't help people who don't yet know any of the tools.
- open_bear 10y ago
  Every time I need to use Gimp to make a collage of two screenshots to file a bug report I want to smash my monitor and throw it out of the window. Gimp workflow/UI just does not stick in my brain. I can get back to using Photoshop after skipping a year and it will feel like I've left yesterday. With Gimp it is always a painful 15-minute struggle to figure out the right combination of controls to press.
  - veli_joza 10y ago
    Inkscape is actually perfect tool for these tasks. You can also use it to add some annotations while you're at it.
  - Symbiote 10y ago
    For something that simple, why not use KColourPaint, or some other basic editor?
  - nitrogen 10y ago
    I am the opposite. I can work with Gimp effortlessly, but Photoshop is endlessly frustrating. Why can't I access the things I want to do with the right click menu?
- probably_wrong 10y ago
  As a user of Gimp of 10+ years and counting, here's some thing that have bitten me several times: * The multi-window interface. I know you can change this, but there's no good reason for not being the default since the beginning. God help you if you close the layers window and don't know how to bring it back. * That you cannot save to any format that it's not XCF, but that you have to export to them. * The sliders to select tool properties, such as brush width. I can slide them (but not all the way from 100 to 0, that requires 6 slides!), I can use the up-down arrows, and I can type a value. But if I want to slide and I click it wrong, I have to enter a number. So now I have to click somewhere else first, and try again. It's frustrating. * Overlap in functions between different tools. For instance, the perspective tool and the cage tool. * Fine-tuning a digital tablet. I doubt anyone knows the difference between "screen", "window", and "deactivated".
  - miffe 10y ago
    > The sliders to select tool properties, such as brush width. I can slide them (but not all the way from 100 to 0, that requires 6 slides!) Sliders are split, so the top slides over the full range and the bottom is for fine adjustments.
    - nine_k 10y ago
      This is totally not obvious. No visual clue hints at this, except maybe the changing cursor shape, not very helpful.
  - AgentME 10y ago
    >God help you if you close the layers window and don't know how to bring it back. Assuming you even know you need to bring it back! I've had the experience of starting up GIMP for the first time, realizing I want to use it later instead, while trying to close it I close each individual panel first, and then the next time I opened it, it apparently remembered that I had closed all of the panels last time and helpfully didn't open them again. Took me a long time to figure out how I was supposed to do anything because I didn't realize anything was missing. I hope whoever has decided that UIs should be in many accidentally-closable-and-forgettable panels has seen the error of their ways or retired by now. See also: every single IDE...
mandioca 10y ago
Gimp is never going to change radically, since it has already fixed an user base from people that surprising likes that horrible usability (they are everywhere read some of the comments in this thread), the right thing to do is to leave that software with them. Therefore keeping users with bad usability habits in their own little bubble, that being said, Qt developers could join forces to create a proper open source image editing app that makes sense for MOST users.
- pessimizer 10y ago
  In my experience, GIMP-hating seems to have a similar lack of specificity to Linux-hating in general. I generally suspect that people underestimate how much Photoshop has them trained.
- prokoudine 10y ago
  > Qt developers could join forces to create a proper open source image editing app that makes sense for MOST users. Do you also believe in vampires and zombies? :)

lillesvin 10y ago

I hear this complaint a lot and it always surprises me. I guess I'm just used to it after using it as my primary raster image editor for more than 15 years. What is it that's particularly unintuitive?

floopidydoopidy 10y ago
It's not like the other unintuitive program he learned before and therefore it's bad.
frik 10y ago
Last time I tried Gimp (1 year ago), I searched for an option to rotate an image a few degrees. All I found, was rotate by 90 degrees - like in pre-v5 Photoshop. I went back to Paint.net, which is good enough most the times (sadly it's closed source nowadays and gets little updates) - I open use Paint from Win7 too, for really simple things it's very fast.
- cozzyd 10y ago
  That's because image formats are (usually?) constrained to be rectangular. You want to use layer->transform rather than image->transform for what you want (and then probably want to crop so you don't have nothing in the background on the edge).
- mohaine 10y ago
  Not really sure what you are talking about. "rotate" is on the main tool box and exactly how to do it was first google result. https://docs.gimp.org/en/gimp-tool-rotate.html https://docs.gimp.org/en/gimp-tool-rotate.html https://docs.gimp.org/en/gimp-layer-rotate-arbitrary.html https://docs.gimp.org/en/gimp-layer-rotate-arbitrary.html Tools you know will always be faster then ones you don't know but that doesn't help people who don't yet know any of the tools.
open_bear 10y ago
Every time I need to use Gimp to make a collage of two screenshots to file a bug report I want to smash my monitor and throw it out of the window. Gimp workflow/UI just does not stick in my brain. I can get back to using Photoshop after skipping a year and it will feel like I've left yesterday. With Gimp it is always a painful 15-minute struggle to figure out the right combination of controls to press.
- veli_joza 10y ago
  Inkscape is actually perfect tool for these tasks. You can also use it to add some annotations while you're at it.
- Symbiote 10y ago
  For something that simple, why not use KColourPaint, or some other basic editor?
- nitrogen 10y ago
  I am the opposite. I can work with Gimp effortlessly, but Photoshop is endlessly frustrating. Why can't I access the things I want to do with the right click menu?
probably_wrong 10y ago
As a user of Gimp of 10+ years and counting, here's some thing that have bitten me several times: * The multi-window interface. I know you can change this, but there's no good reason for not being the default since the beginning. God help you if you close the layers window and don't know how to bring it back. * That you cannot save to any format that it's not XCF, but that you have to export to them. * The sliders to select tool properties, such as brush width. I can slide them (but not all the way from 100 to 0, that requires 6 slides!), I can use the up-down arrows, and I can type a value. But if I want to slide and I click it wrong, I have to enter a number. So now I have to click somewhere else first, and try again. It's frustrating. * Overlap in functions between different tools. For instance, the perspective tool and the cage tool. * Fine-tuning a digital tablet. I doubt anyone knows the difference between "screen", "window", and "deactivated".
- miffe 10y ago
  > The sliders to select tool properties, such as brush width. I can slide them (but not all the way from 100 to 0, that requires 6 slides!) Sliders are split, so the top slides over the full range and the bottom is for fine adjustments.
  - nine_k 10y ago
    This is totally not obvious. No visual clue hints at this, except maybe the changing cursor shape, not very helpful.
- AgentME 10y ago
  >God help you if you close the layers window and don't know how to bring it back. Assuming you even know you need to bring it back! I've had the experience of starting up GIMP for the first time, realizing I want to use it later instead, while trying to close it I close each individual panel first, and then the next time I opened it, it apparently remembered that I had closed all of the panels last time and helpfully didn't open them again. Took me a long time to figure out how I was supposed to do anything because I didn't realize anything was missing. I hope whoever has decided that UIs should be in many accidentally-closable-and-forgettable panels has seen the error of their ways or retired by now. See also: every single IDE...

mandioca 10y ago

Gimp is never going to change radically, since it has already fixed an user base from people that surprising likes that horrible usability (they are everywhere read some of the comments in this thread), the right thing to do is to leave that software with them. Therefore keeping users with bad usability habits in their own little bubble, that being said, Qt developers could join forces to create a proper open source image editing app that makes sense for MOST users.

pessimizer 10y ago
In my experience, GIMP-hating seems to have a similar lack of specificity to Linux-hating in general. I generally suspect that people underestimate how much Photoshop has them trained.
prokoudine 10y ago
> Qt developers could join forces to create a proper open source image editing app that makes sense for MOST users. Do you also believe in vampires and zombies? :)