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How does Krita compare to Gimp at this point? (Since someone on the comments here said it can be a Photoshop drop-in replacement)

mschuetz 5y ago
I've never been able to do anything meaningful in GIMP, but Krita is relatively nice to use. It's much more intuitive than GIMP, and even things you have to look up and learn are easier to get used to and remember, because the UI actually makes sense.
Kliment 5y ago
There's exactly one thing I still prefer to do in Gimp - splitting a single image into multiple images, one per RGBA/HSL channel. There's also some image formats that Gimp supports that Krita does not. But that's it. There's nothing else I miss, and Krita is just incredibly far ahead on usability.
- CanceledAccount 5y ago
  Krita’s Python API should have everything you need to do this automatically.
- hallarempt 5y ago
  Layer->Split Layer got some love for this release, too, but I'm not sure whether it even made it into the release notes.
  - raghukamath 5y ago
    I think they are talking about Image > Image split
- raghukamath 5y ago
  > splitting a single image into multiple images There is Image menu > Image split in Krita
imachine1980_ 5y ago
It depends gimp have more photo editing features but is a mess, and krita is more of painting app who have features of photo editing( more than not professionals tends to need)
lmm 5y ago
The things I noticed: Nicer UI. Better colourspace support. Less good tablet support.
oAlbe 5y ago
To me, the thing that brings me back to Krita over and over is that fact that it's intuitive to use. I've been trying to use GIMP for the past 10 years and still have no idea how to resize an image/canvas or where the heck the crop tool is. In Krita those things are exactly where I end up looking for them.
- raffraffraff 5y ago
  Wife still uses Photoshop CS 2 on Windows, and I've basically told her that when her computer dies, she's getting Linux and open source software, or she's gonna have to figure out Windows 11 by herself and pay the subscription for Adobe. "Fine with Linux" she says, since it's installed on other computers in the house, "... but what can I use instead of Photoshop?". "Use Gimp, of course!" I say, and install it on her computer. Then I watch her get increasingly frustrated for an hour before rage quitting. It's not lack of features, it's UI, UX, workflow.
  - otherme123 5y ago
    There are a lot of paths that are unique to each of them. I bet the reverse (from Gimp to PS) feels the same. My wife asked to make a logo and a leaflet, and I never offered other thing than Inkscape. She ended up using it for almost anything. After a couple of years I bet that she will find Illustrator frustrating.
    - CanceledAccount 5y ago
      The difference is that after a week of serious Photoshop training you will have at your fingertips a world class, incredibly powerful piece of software with modern ML tools for smart image manipulation, collaborative tools and cloud infrastructure for syncing documents, plus a massive ecosystem of plugins and assets available to purchase. I say this as someone who strongly dislikes Photoshop. I wish I had a viable alternative.
      - hazza_n_dazza 5y ago
sharikous 5y ago
I think the only real advantage of GIMP at this point is its age and stability. Gimp was around 20 years ago and it is more likely to be there 20 years from now than Krita. EDIT: my error - Krita is much older than I thought. Moreover stability is important if you access it programmatically. And yes, even that is not guaranteed by any means. It's just the area where Krita does not beat Gimp totally.
- hallarempt 5y ago
  Krita was started in the previous millenium, too. I've been Krita's maintainer since 2004... If I have to think about what I did with my life, https://krita.org/en/about/krita-releases-overview/ https://krita.org/en/about/krita-releases-overview/ comes to mind :-)
  - fault1 5y ago
    Wow, this guy really sounds like a winner: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%BCnter_Freiherr_von_Gravenreuth https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%BCnter_Freiherr_von_Grave...
    - hallarempt 5y ago
      Heh,those were "fun" times, and they even predate my own involvement!
      - Shared404 5y ago
        Any chance you could drop a tl;dr for those of us who don't read German? Poked around a bit at Wikipedia, but didn't find anything. Also, thanks for all you do with Krita! It's one of the programs that I don't think I've ever not had installed on my daily driver.
        fault1 5y ago
        here is google's autotranslation: https://de-m-wikipedia-org.translate.goog/wiki/G%C3%BCnter_Freiherr_von_Gravenreuth?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en https://de-m-wikipedia-org.translate.goog/wiki/G%C3%BCnter_F...
whatshisface 5y ago
Krita has an amazingly frustrating text handling experience. It's the one major thing that makes me open GIMP. The font size never seems to stick.
- johnny53169 5y ago
  They fixed the font handling in this release
  - whatshisface 5y ago
    They fixed a font size bug that made it inconsistent between computers, but did they change the user interface for font styling? It's the second that makes it annoying - I never got far enough to notice the bug.
dagmx 5y ago
Krita is a better painting and animation program than GIMP. It also has much better scripting and color space support. GIMP is easier/better at 8 bit image editing though.
BeetleB 5y ago
In terms of photo editing, Gimp is far more featureful. I give some examples here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29664606 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29664606

mschuetz 5y ago

I've never been able to do anything meaningful in GIMP, but Krita is relatively nice to use. It's much more intuitive than GIMP, and even things you have to look up and learn are easier to get used to and remember, because the UI actually makes sense.

Kliment 5y ago

There's exactly one thing I still prefer to do in Gimp - splitting a single image into multiple images, one per RGBA/HSL channel. There's also some image formats that Gimp supports that Krita does not. But that's it. There's nothing else I miss, and Krita is just incredibly far ahead on usability.

CanceledAccount 5y ago
Krita’s Python API should have everything you need to do this automatically.
hallarempt 5y ago
Layer->Split Layer got some love for this release, too, but I'm not sure whether it even made it into the release notes.
- raghukamath 5y ago
  I think they are talking about Image > Image split
raghukamath 5y ago
> splitting a single image into multiple images There is Image menu > Image split in Krita

imachine1980_ 5y ago

It depends gimp have more photo editing features but is a mess, and krita is more of painting app who have features of photo editing( more than not professionals tends to need)

lmm 5y ago

The things I noticed: Nicer UI. Better colourspace support. Less good tablet support.

oAlbe 5y ago

To me, the thing that brings me back to Krita over and over is that fact that it's intuitive to use. I've been trying to use GIMP for the past 10 years and still have no idea how to resize an image/canvas or where the heck the crop tool is. In Krita those things are exactly where I end up looking for them.

raffraffraff 5y ago
Wife still uses Photoshop CS 2 on Windows, and I've basically told her that when her computer dies, she's getting Linux and open source software, or she's gonna have to figure out Windows 11 by herself and pay the subscription for Adobe. "Fine with Linux" she says, since it's installed on other computers in the house, "... but what can I use instead of Photoshop?". "Use Gimp, of course!" I say, and install it on her computer. Then I watch her get increasingly frustrated for an hour before rage quitting. It's not lack of features, it's UI, UX, workflow.
- otherme123 5y ago
  There are a lot of paths that are unique to each of them. I bet the reverse (from Gimp to PS) feels the same. My wife asked to make a logo and a leaflet, and I never offered other thing than Inkscape. She ended up using it for almost anything. After a couple of years I bet that she will find Illustrator frustrating.
  - CanceledAccount 5y ago
    The difference is that after a week of serious Photoshop training you will have at your fingertips a world class, incredibly powerful piece of software with modern ML tools for smart image manipulation, collaborative tools and cloud infrastructure for syncing documents, plus a massive ecosystem of plugins and assets available to purchase. I say this as someone who strongly dislikes Photoshop. I wish I had a viable alternative.
    - hazza_n_dazza 5y ago

sharikous 5y ago

I think the only real advantage of GIMP at this point is its age and stability. Gimp was around 20 years ago and it is more likely to be there 20 years from now than Krita. EDIT: my error - Krita is much older than I thought. Moreover stability is important if you access it programmatically. And yes, even that is not guaranteed by any means. It's just the area where Krita does not beat Gimp totally.

hallarempt 5y ago
Krita was started in the previous millenium, too. I've been Krita's maintainer since 2004... If I have to think about what I did with my life, https://krita.org/en/about/krita-releases-overview/ https://krita.org/en/about/krita-releases-overview/ comes to mind :-)
- fault1 5y ago
  Wow, this guy really sounds like a winner: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%BCnter_Freiherr_von_Gravenreuth https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%BCnter_Freiherr_von_Grave...
  - hallarempt 5y ago
    Heh,those were "fun" times, and they even predate my own involvement!
    - Shared404 5y ago
      Any chance you could drop a tl;dr for those of us who don't read German? Poked around a bit at Wikipedia, but didn't find anything. Also, thanks for all you do with Krita! It's one of the programs that I don't think I've ever not had installed on my daily driver.
      - fault1 5y ago
        here is google's autotranslation: https://de-m-wikipedia-org.translate.goog/wiki/G%C3%BCnter_Freiherr_von_Gravenreuth?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en https://de-m-wikipedia-org.translate.goog/wiki/G%C3%BCnter_F...

whatshisface 5y ago

Krita has an amazingly frustrating text handling experience. It's the one major thing that makes me open GIMP. The font size never seems to stick.

johnny53169 5y ago
They fixed the font handling in this release
- whatshisface 5y ago
  They fixed a font size bug that made it inconsistent between computers, but did they change the user interface for font styling? It's the second that makes it annoying - I never got far enough to notice the bug.

dagmx 5y ago

Krita is a better painting and animation program than GIMP. It also has much better scripting and color space support. GIMP is easier/better at 8 bit image editing though.

BeetleB 5y ago

In terms of photo editing, Gimp is far more featureful. I give some examples here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29664606 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29664606