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From 2004 to 2009, Krita was strongly focusing on being a generic image manipulation/painting application in the style of Photoshop or GIMP. Since 2009, the foc

by natex 8y ago

From 2004 to 2009, Krita was strongly focusing on being a generic image manipulation/painting application in the style of Photoshop or GIMP. Since 2009, the focus is squarely on painting: the Krita community aims to make Krita the best painting application for cartoonists, illustrators, and concept artists. -- https://krita.org/en/about/history/ https://krita.org/en/about/history/ I was a user when the Krita team focused on painting. I admit that I was among those disappointing at that time because I naively wanted Krita to become open source Photoshop. I thought they were making a mistake in the direction they took. I'm happy I was wrong about that.

beetwenty 8y ago
In practice I never went away from GIMP for most Photoshop-like tasks. Which isn't a signal that GIMP is great, but that I grew used to its deficiencies many years ago. And it has gradually improved: It has single-window UI now, after all. For the two very most common bitmap editing tasks(color remapping and selection-based edits) it's OK and it even boasts some fancy features these days. For drawing, it has a workable set of brushes and fills, though I think Krita is the better app here now. For graphic design things(typography, layout, layers of procedural effects) too many things still involve a slow, indirect workflow, but there are signs of this problem being chipped away at. (The single best tip I have for GIMP is: get in the habit of using the "/" key quick search instead of using the dropdown menus)
- dpg23 8y ago
  Do you have tips for text manipulation? Whenever I make dumb memes it's a pain to move around text on GIMP.
  - enobrev 8y ago
    I personally prefer inkscape for working with text. It's imperfect, to be sure, but I like it a hell of a lot better than GIMP.
  - themodelplumber 8y ago
    Experiment with the move tool setting that moves the active layer rather than moving the layer you select with the move tool. This can be really helpful with text. This one is more obvious maybe: I also found learning the keyboard shortcuts really useful when working on a web comic.
- fiddlerwoaroof 8y ago
  I liked the multi-window ui of Gimp.
synthmeat 8y ago
I was soloing a 2D game just after those decisions you mention and hung out on #krita a bit during the period, as I was using it to paint the cut scenes etc... I don't have anything but praise about level of thought that went into modelling the UI and considering different use-cases, by author(s) himself. Extremely open and inclusive (in the best sense of the word). These people know what they're doing and do it well.
danmaz74 8y ago
This also shows the power of focus in marketing: it's much better, from a branding point of view, to be the best in a smaller market, than a "me too" in a bigger one.
zamalek 8y ago
It's not open source, but if you're still looking for something that isn't as much of a rip as Adobe is, have a look at Affinity (Mac and Windows, possibly WINE?). I've had to re-learn a bunch of Photoshop habits, but it has been worthwhile.

by natex 8y ago

beetwenty 8y ago

In practice I never went away from GIMP for most Photoshop-like tasks. Which isn't a signal that GIMP is great, but that I grew used to its deficiencies many years ago. And it has gradually improved: It has single-window UI now, after all. For the two very most common bitmap editing tasks(color remapping and selection-based edits) it's OK and it even boasts some fancy features these days. For drawing, it has a workable set of brushes and fills, though I think Krita is the better app here now. For graphic design things(typography, layout, layers of procedural effects) too many things still involve a slow, indirect workflow, but there are signs of this problem being chipped away at. (The single best tip I have for GIMP is: get in the habit of using the "/" key quick search instead of using the dropdown menus)

dpg23 8y ago
Do you have tips for text manipulation? Whenever I make dumb memes it's a pain to move around text on GIMP.
- enobrev 8y ago
  I personally prefer inkscape for working with text. It's imperfect, to be sure, but I like it a hell of a lot better than GIMP.
- themodelplumber 8y ago
  Experiment with the move tool setting that moves the active layer rather than moving the layer you select with the move tool. This can be really helpful with text. This one is more obvious maybe: I also found learning the keyboard shortcuts really useful when working on a web comic.
fiddlerwoaroof 8y ago
I liked the multi-window ui of Gimp.

synthmeat 8y ago

I was soloing a 2D game just after those decisions you mention and hung out on #krita a bit during the period, as I was using it to paint the cut scenes etc... I don't have anything but praise about level of thought that went into modelling the UI and considering different use-cases, by author(s) himself. Extremely open and inclusive (in the best sense of the word). These people know what they're doing and do it well.

danmaz74 8y ago

This also shows the power of focus in marketing: it's much better, from a branding point of view, to be the best in a smaller market, than a "me too" in a bigger one.

zamalek 8y ago

It's not open source, but if you're still looking for something that isn't as much of a rip as Adobe is, have a look at Affinity (Mac and Windows, possibly WINE?). I've had to re-learn a bunch of Photoshop habits, but it has been worthwhile.