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Indeed. I really want to like GIMP, but it doesn't hold a candle to my old copy of Photoshop CS4 from ten years ago. From what I can recall, the GIMP UI has h

Indeed. I really want to like GIMP, but it doesn't hold a candle to my old copy of Photoshop CS4 from ten years ago. From what I can recall, the GIMP UI has hardly changed since then too. I suppose they're probably constrained by what is possible with GTK? Basically it seems like Linux needs a better standard for user interfaces -- I can't think of a GTK app that doesn't have awkard position/spacing/layout issues.

glandium 5y ago
Pretty ironic, considering GTK was originally created for GIMP (that's even what the G stood for back then: the GIMP ToolKit).
- daptaq 5y ago
  I always smile when thinking about the fact that GTK stands for "GNU is not Unix ... is not Unix Image Manimulation Program ToolKit"
daptaq 5y ago
> From what I can recall, the GIMP UI has hardly changed since then too. There have actually been changes, and even if they aren't major, someone like me who has never used anything but GIMP was annoyed/slightly confused by them. I don't know what the issue with GIMP is, besides tools that Photoshop appears to have or has better implementations for. My impressions is that it is mostly Photoshop users, that are expecting something else, or am I mistaken?
- michaelt 5y ago
  > My impressions is that it is mostly Photoshop users, that are expecting something else, or am I mistaken? I use GIMP for my (modest) editing needs, and I like it. But some of the behaviour is.... weird. For example, if you've got a region selected and you use the flood fill tool, it will only fill pixels within that region. OK, that's logical enough, a tool only applies to selected pixels, right? But if you've got a region selected and you use the move tool, it'll move the entire layer. If you want to move only the pixels in the selected region, you gotta convert it to a floating selection. And after you've moved your floating selection, you want to select a different region to move, so you drag out a new selection. Not so fast, your floating region has now vanished. You gotta defloat the selection by selecting nothing. But you can't do that by choosing 'None' in the 'Select' menu, that's greyed out for some reason. I'm sure these behaviours all make sense to a developer or expert user - but nobody's going to be telling their friends that GIMP is easy to pick up :)
  - numpad0 5y ago
    I think I’ve seen GIMP’s “move tool moves the frame” behavior on somewhere else, perhaps in ancient versions of Photoshop. Back in the time GIMP UI was close enough to those, like in the legendary CS2 or v5.5 days.
jcelerier 5y ago
Did you try Krita ? https://krita.org/en/features/highlights/ https://krita.org/en/features/highlights/ (the doc is great too: https://docs.krita.org/en/user_manual/getting_started/navigation.html#interface https://docs.krita.org/en/user_manual/getting_started/naviga...)
- raxxorrax 5y ago
  Krita has a different focus though. What photoshop is to Illustrator, is GIMP to Krita. I use both and I think GIMP is really usable and the UI isn't that bad. There were some changes though, so people should take a look at the latest version.
  - jcelerier 5y ago
    > Krita has a different focus though. What photoshop is to Illustrator, is GIMP to Krita. I mean, that's the theory, but I just find photo editing to be all around much more comfortable in Krita despite using GIMP for years. Also one of Photoshop's main domain is digital painting (https://www.google.com/search?q=making+digital+painting+with+photoshop https://www.google.com/search?q=making+digital+painting+with...) which is what Krita focuses on. You don't really draw with Illustrator.
    - raxxorrax 5y ago
      True, they have overlapping functionality. I meant Fresco instead of Illustrator, I forget the names of Adobe apps constantly.

glandium 5y ago

Pretty ironic, considering GTK was originally created for GIMP (that's even what the G stood for back then: the GIMP ToolKit).

daptaq 5y ago
I always smile when thinking about the fact that GTK stands for "GNU is not Unix ... is not Unix Image Manimulation Program ToolKit"

daptaq 5y ago

> From what I can recall, the GIMP UI has hardly changed since then too. There have actually been changes, and even if they aren't major, someone like me who has never used anything but GIMP was annoyed/slightly confused by them. I don't know what the issue with GIMP is, besides tools that Photoshop appears to have or has better implementations for. My impressions is that it is mostly Photoshop users, that are expecting something else, or am I mistaken?

michaelt 5y ago
> My impressions is that it is mostly Photoshop users, that are expecting something else, or am I mistaken? I use GIMP for my (modest) editing needs, and I like it. But some of the behaviour is.... weird. For example, if you've got a region selected and you use the flood fill tool, it will only fill pixels within that region. OK, that's logical enough, a tool only applies to selected pixels, right? But if you've got a region selected and you use the move tool, it'll move the entire layer. If you want to move only the pixels in the selected region, you gotta convert it to a floating selection. And after you've moved your floating selection, you want to select a different region to move, so you drag out a new selection. Not so fast, your floating region has now vanished. You gotta defloat the selection by selecting nothing. But you can't do that by choosing 'None' in the 'Select' menu, that's greyed out for some reason. I'm sure these behaviours all make sense to a developer or expert user - but nobody's going to be telling their friends that GIMP is easy to pick up :)
- numpad0 5y ago
  I think I’ve seen GIMP’s “move tool moves the frame” behavior on somewhere else, perhaps in ancient versions of Photoshop. Back in the time GIMP UI was close enough to those, like in the legendary CS2 or v5.5 days.

jcelerier 5y ago

Did you try Krita ? https://krita.org/en/features/highlights/ https://krita.org/en/features/highlights/ (the doc is great too: https://docs.krita.org/en/user_manual/getting_started/navigation.html#interface https://docs.krita.org/en/user_manual/getting_started/naviga...)

raxxorrax 5y ago
Krita has a different focus though. What photoshop is to Illustrator, is GIMP to Krita. I use both and I think GIMP is really usable and the UI isn't that bad. There were some changes though, so people should take a look at the latest version.
- jcelerier 5y ago
  > Krita has a different focus though. What photoshop is to Illustrator, is GIMP to Krita. I mean, that's the theory, but I just find photo editing to be all around much more comfortable in Krita despite using GIMP for years. Also one of Photoshop's main domain is digital painting (https://www.google.com/search?q=making+digital+painting+with+photoshop https://www.google.com/search?q=making+digital+painting+with...) which is what Krita focuses on. You don't really draw with Illustrator.
  - raxxorrax 5y ago
    True, they have overlapping functionality. I meant Fresco instead of Illustrator, I forget the names of Adobe apps constantly.