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I agree with you, and it's disappointing people are downvoting you. I ended up having beers with several core GIMP developers a few years ago, and they outright

I agree with you, and it's disappointing people are downvoting you. I ended up having beers with several core GIMP developers a few years ago, and they outright stated that improving usability was not a goal for them, in fact they would rather not have the burden of users who expected it to be easier to use. Speaking for myself, I've found other graphics programs were very intuitive and helped me be very creative, yet I've tried to stick with GIMP over the years and have never felt comfortable with it. I think it's a shame it has been promoted as the go-to graphics package for the free software world (it's the one that's always mentioned). There are now better alternatives that should be promoted.

Joeboy 9y ago
When was this? I remember getting a similar impression like a decade or so ago but I think now GIMP definitely has devs that are interested in usability. And usability has certainly improved in the last few years, although it still has some serious annoyances (for my workflow / taste).
- davidy123 9y ago
  Close to a decade ago. But I haven't noticed any usability improvements. I feel like the time spent with GIMP was time wasted compared to other software where I could easily get what I needed done yet progressively gained aptitude for productivity and creativity. vim for example supports this. This is not to completely slam GIMP, it can be fine for software to demand users learn it deeply before doing simple things (draw a filled shape, draw over layers, consistently remove backgrounds, all typical things a user wants to do that are far from straightforward in GIMP), and to be appreciated by some people for its scripting ability and filters, but it's not a good go-to graphics software and more user friendly software should be promoted. Its name should be the first clue to this status.
  - Joeboy 9y ago
    Yeah, I think GIMP has this "open source best in class" status that it maybe deserved ~20 years ago but now it's kind of punching above its weight in terms of popularity. That said, I actually think the current devs are doing good work, usability has totally improved and I'm somewhat optimistic that once this big, important, multi-year development branch is out of the door we'll see continued improvements.
    - prokoudine 9y ago
      Can't reply to your other comment about WONTFIX for MDI, because the thread went too deep. I get your point about having to wait for 7 years, but let's just scroll down to the bottom: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=7379#c118 https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=7379#c118 "...we should finally close this report as WONTFIX. This has been discussed to dead and there are plans for a user interface that will solve the problems that the MDI approach is supposed to solve." and then: "We are currently working on changes to the user interface that will solve the problems that the MDI approach is supposed to address. Window-in-window is definitely not part of this plan. It's not going to happen." So it wasn't just closed as WONTFIX, it was closed as WONTFIX, because users requested MDI, and instead tabbed interface was introduced.
      - Joeboy 9y ago
        Fair enough, although I'll counter that GIMP didn't actually get single-window mode until 2011 (a full 10 years after that bug report), and it seems like the GIMP devs spent a lot of the intervening period trying to claim lack of single-window mode as a feature. Like I say, ancient history now. But some of us are good at holding onto grudges :-)
  - prokoudine 9y ago
    "Close to a decade ago." We started working with Peter Sikking, professional UX architect, around 2006. He departed three years ago or so. That puts your claim roughly in the time when Pete was extremely active and wrote several functional specs that were implemented to make UI better. Now tell me, do you feel like you remember 10 years old stuff correctly after several beers?
    - davidy123 9y ago
      Yes, I remember it very well, and it's been reinforced nicely by other comments. It does seem GIMP developers have their own idea of reality. Congratulations on having the most heralded open source graphics editor, by the way.
slantyyz 9y ago
Is GimpShop still actively maintained to keep up with the latest Gimp (the Gimpshot site is a little vague on these details)? Didn't that provide a decent migration path for PhotoShop users to GIMP?
- nkkollaw 9y ago
  Looks like it's not maintained anymore, and gimpshop.com is a scam website from someone else (looks like, I might be wrong).
  - prokoudine 9y ago
    Yep, it _is_ a scam website now. The previous owner lost it and then failed to get it back.
- seba_dos1 9y ago
  Aren't most of GimpShop modifications actually easily achievable now in the vanilla GIMP?
pbhjpbhj 9y ago
I too found The GIMP easier than Photoshop to pick up, but that was well over a decade ago. The problem for devs with established UI is when there are significant changes you risk alienating your current user base who have got used to the UI. Like MS Word getting rid of the ribbon UI. I tend to use Inkscape for creating, GIMP for modifying (eg photoshopping). What are the other better FOSS alternatives to The GIMP?

Joeboy 9y ago

When was this? I remember getting a similar impression like a decade or so ago but I think now GIMP definitely has devs that are interested in usability. And usability has certainly improved in the last few years, although it still has some serious annoyances (for my workflow / taste).

davidy123 9y ago
Close to a decade ago. But I haven't noticed any usability improvements. I feel like the time spent with GIMP was time wasted compared to other software where I could easily get what I needed done yet progressively gained aptitude for productivity and creativity. vim for example supports this. This is not to completely slam GIMP, it can be fine for software to demand users learn it deeply before doing simple things (draw a filled shape, draw over layers, consistently remove backgrounds, all typical things a user wants to do that are far from straightforward in GIMP), and to be appreciated by some people for its scripting ability and filters, but it's not a good go-to graphics software and more user friendly software should be promoted. Its name should be the first clue to this status.
- Joeboy 9y ago
  Yeah, I think GIMP has this "open source best in class" status that it maybe deserved ~20 years ago but now it's kind of punching above its weight in terms of popularity. That said, I actually think the current devs are doing good work, usability has totally improved and I'm somewhat optimistic that once this big, important, multi-year development branch is out of the door we'll see continued improvements.
  - prokoudine 9y ago
    Can't reply to your other comment about WONTFIX for MDI, because the thread went too deep. I get your point about having to wait for 7 years, but let's just scroll down to the bottom: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=7379#c118 https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=7379#c118 "...we should finally close this report as WONTFIX. This has been discussed to dead and there are plans for a user interface that will solve the problems that the MDI approach is supposed to solve." and then: "We are currently working on changes to the user interface that will solve the problems that the MDI approach is supposed to address. Window-in-window is definitely not part of this plan. It's not going to happen." So it wasn't just closed as WONTFIX, it was closed as WONTFIX, because users requested MDI, and instead tabbed interface was introduced.
    - Joeboy 9y ago
      Fair enough, although I'll counter that GIMP didn't actually get single-window mode until 2011 (a full 10 years after that bug report), and it seems like the GIMP devs spent a lot of the intervening period trying to claim lack of single-window mode as a feature. Like I say, ancient history now. But some of us are good at holding onto grudges :-)
- prokoudine 9y ago
  "Close to a decade ago." We started working with Peter Sikking, professional UX architect, around 2006. He departed three years ago or so. That puts your claim roughly in the time when Pete was extremely active and wrote several functional specs that were implemented to make UI better. Now tell me, do you feel like you remember 10 years old stuff correctly after several beers?
  - davidy123 9y ago
    Yes, I remember it very well, and it's been reinforced nicely by other comments. It does seem GIMP developers have their own idea of reality. Congratulations on having the most heralded open source graphics editor, by the way.

slantyyz 9y ago

Is GimpShop still actively maintained to keep up with the latest Gimp (the Gimpshot site is a little vague on these details)? Didn't that provide a decent migration path for PhotoShop users to GIMP?

nkkollaw 9y ago
Looks like it's not maintained anymore, and gimpshop.com is a scam website from someone else (looks like, I might be wrong).
- prokoudine 9y ago
  Yep, it _is_ a scam website now. The previous owner lost it and then failed to get it back.
seba_dos1 9y ago
Aren't most of GimpShop modifications actually easily achievable now in the vanilla GIMP?

pbhjpbhj 9y ago

I too found The GIMP easier than Photoshop to pick up, but that was well over a decade ago. The problem for devs with established UI is when there are significant changes you risk alienating your current user base who have got used to the UI. Like MS Word getting rid of the ribbon UI. I tend to use Inkscape for creating, GIMP for modifying (eg photoshopping). What are the other better FOSS alternatives to The GIMP?