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Did you learn Photoshop before playing with Gimp?

by Xurinos 15y ago

pvarangot 15y ago
I'm not parent, but I learnt GIMP before Photoshop (actually really got into Photoshop in CS1) and I agree with him. GIMP just really doesn't cut it. It's kind of cute the first week or so you are into it, with it being opensource and sort of fun, but really a usability nightmare after that first impression. Also, its handling of big raster images (like 500mg tiffs which I handle really often) is really disappointing. Disclaimer: My main use is photography. I have friends more into drawing that have different opinions.
- Xurinos 15y ago
  Thank you. It tells me there is a significant enough difference. You mentioned a technical issue, the handling of big raster images. Does it run out of memory quickly in comparison to Photoshop? What is the issue? I thought I remember gimp not being able to handle 16-bit tiffs or something along those lines.
  - pvarangot 15y ago
    > You mentioned a technical issue, the handling of big > raster images. Does it run out of memory quickly in > comparison to Photoshop? What is the issue? I thought I > remember gimp not being able to handle 16-bit tiffs or > something along those lines. Its memory usage gets high enough for Windows to start trashing on my box with 4 gigs of RAM, and brings everything to a halt. It's not only GIMP's problem BTW, I have to disable thumbnails on the folders with big TIFFs because Windows itself trashes. I don't know how Photoshop avoids this lame behaviour but it does. I haven't tried on Linux but was told it has the same problem. I won't try it because color management in Linux is a PITA even if you are only interested in calibrating your monitor, which is my only need as a hobbyist without money for a decent printing setup. I believe support for 16bit TIFFs is already built into yet-unreleased GIMP 3, but yes, having only 24 bit colour is also another huge problem with GIMP, and totally a dealbreaker once you get serious with photography. Most prosumer flatbeds or DSRLs already take measurable advantage of 48bit colour. I didn't comment on that because the original post was on usability.

Did you learn Photoshop before playing with Gimp?

by Xurinos 15y ago

Did you learn Photoshop before playing with Gimp?

I'm not parent, but I learnt GIMP before Photoshop (actually really got into Photoshop in CS1) and I agree with him. GIMP just really doesn't cut it. It's kind of cute the first week or so you are into it, with it being opensource and sort of fun, but really a usability nightmare after that first impression. Also, its handling of big raster images (like 500mg tiffs which I handle really often) is really disappointing. Disclaimer: My main use is photography. I have friends more into drawing that have different opinions.

Xurinos 15y ago
Thank you. It tells me there is a significant enough difference. You mentioned a technical issue, the handling of big raster images. Does it run out of memory quickly in comparison to Photoshop? What is the issue? I thought I remember gimp not being able to handle 16-bit tiffs or something along those lines.
- pvarangot 15y ago
  > You mentioned a technical issue, the handling of big > raster images. Does it run out of memory quickly in > comparison to Photoshop? What is the issue? I thought I > remember gimp not being able to handle 16-bit tiffs or > something along those lines. Its memory usage gets high enough for Windows to start trashing on my box with 4 gigs of RAM, and brings everything to a halt. It's not only GIMP's problem BTW, I have to disable thumbnails on the folders with big TIFFs because Windows itself trashes. I don't know how Photoshop avoids this lame behaviour but it does. I haven't tried on Linux but was told it has the same problem. I won't try it because color management in Linux is a PITA even if you are only interested in calibrating your monitor, which is my only need as a hobbyist without money for a decent printing setup. I believe support for 16bit TIFFs is already built into yet-unreleased GIMP 3, but yes, having only 24 bit colour is also another huge problem with GIMP, and totally a dealbreaker once you get serious with photography. Most prosumer flatbeds or DSRLs already take measurable advantage of 48bit colour. I didn't comment on that because the original post was on usability.