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I now find myself using Photopea more than GIMP. Photopea is a browser-based photoshop clone. From what I understand it was built by just one guy, and it is in

I now find myself using Photopea more than GIMP. Photopea is a browser-based photoshop clone. From what I understand it was built by just one guy, and it is in some ways better than GIMP. Pretty amazing work.

dankwizard 4y ago
I'm always worried with browser based editors that they are sending home a copy of the image.
- vore 4y ago
  What's stopping GIMP from doing the same thing? It has more access to the network than your browser.
  - leipert 4y ago
    Firewalls.
  - ungamedplayer 4y ago
    unshare -n gimp
  - alimov 4y ago
    The difference is that it’s Open source, so you could certainly verify if you wanted to.
    - alophawen 4y ago
      - bisRepetita 4y ago
        Yes, but the website owner can change its source code at any time, and even serve differently JS for each user, puting the entire responsibility on the user shoulder to check the code behavior all the time. It's not as demanding with an open source app with distributed source code and versioning. So I don't understand the snark, and how it is helpful.
        httpsterio 4y ago
        Same goes for open source builds, you have to either build it yourself or trust the supplied builds.
        SemanticStrengh 4y ago
        reproducible builds are a thing but yeah no easy solution out there for binary/code authenticity
        Hallucinaut 4y ago
        Those aren't really the only two options though, are they? If you don't trust software you can run it air-gapped or in an internet-free sandbox. Moreover good luck trying to verify that everything a website does on the server side is unchanged compared to a binary that's been built locally once.
        pabs3 4y ago
        It is also possible to trust anyone who has verified the build is reproducible: https://reproducible-builds.org/ https://reproducible-builds.org/
      - woojoo666 4y ago
        I wonder how often people are monitoring these things. If the photopea author decided to start collecting people's images, how soon would people catch on? And on the flip side, if the main Gimp author releases a binary that is different from the one built from source, how fast would people notice?
      - justinclift 4y ago
        Hmmm, "web tech" includes DRM stuff these days. So that's not 100% always true any more.
      - alimov 4y ago
        Don’t know if you want to be checking it with every launch, but enjoy.
      - mejutoco 4y ago
        If this is the bar, disassembling the binary should work too for Photoshop or any other software.
  - sva_ 4y ago
    OpenSnitch
- piaste 4y ago
  With Photopea, you can let the application load, then disconnect from the internet (or otherwise firewall the app) before loading your image. I just gave it a try and I could load the image, edit it in various ways, and save it just fine. If there are any features that require being online, I didn't find them.
- Smoosh 4y ago
  Same with me, slight paranoia, but there's nothing to stop a native app from doing it either.
kristopolous 4y ago
Gotta be real, Gimp's not that far off from just one guy (https://github.com/GNOME/gimp/graphs/contributors https://github.com/GNOME/gimp/graphs/contributors) We all assume there's a vast army of dedicated people behind these things. Most people do just a tiny bit and don't stick around. The reality is the core ranks are thin and the troops are exhausted. If you've got the time, they could use a hand (this is for all open source projects) They people behind them are also usually effectively invisible when compared to the effort they put in so if you're thin on time, hunting down an email to send a sincere personal thank you would really make their day.
- MarcellusDrum 4y ago
  Which is their own fault. They have more than a million dollars in bitcoin donations that haven't been touched in years (Its around 620k now since bitcoin is crashing). That could have easily funded 3 full-time developers for a decade to come.
  - Arainach 4y ago
    Since when is $30K a full time developer's salary? Presumably anyone good enough to work full time on GIMP could make at least an order of magnitude more at Adobe etc.
    - MarcellusDrum 4y ago
      Since countries other than US/some European countries existed. Godot developers get paid in the $30-40k range. I live in Lebanon, and it is normal for talented senior developers to be paid $15-25k a year.
- rob74 4y ago
  Yeah, it's a bit better for projects with corporate sponsors who can fund a (small) army of dedicated people to work on the project, but application software (especially if it has a widely used commercial competitor) tends to not fall into this category. I imagine OpenOffice/LibreOffice is in a similar position.
cehrlich 4y ago
Photopea is great and I’ve been using it a lot lately. But while it’s getting close to feature parity with Photoshop, the fundamental algorithms are significantly worse. One example to test this: create a new layer, select a rectangular area, fill it with the paint bucket tool. Then use free transform to rotate that rectangle 45 degrees. The edges will be a mess. Its even worse at other angles. I don’t want to slander Photopea because as I said I use it a lot, but I’d suggest to spend a while with it before deciding that you’re ready to ditch Photoshop/GIMP/Affinity.
bambax 4y ago
Affinity is also great. (I never got Gimp at all.)

dankwizard 4y ago

I'm always worried with browser based editors that they are sending home a copy of the image.

vore 4y ago
What's stopping GIMP from doing the same thing? It has more access to the network than your browser.
- leipert 4y ago
  Firewalls.
- ungamedplayer 4y ago
  unshare -n gimp
- alimov 4y ago
  The difference is that it’s Open source, so you could certainly verify if you wanted to.
  - alophawen 4y ago
    - bisRepetita 4y ago
      Yes, but the website owner can change its source code at any time, and even serve differently JS for each user, puting the entire responsibility on the user shoulder to check the code behavior all the time. It's not as demanding with an open source app with distributed source code and versioning. So I don't understand the snark, and how it is helpful.
      - httpsterio 4y ago
        Same goes for open source builds, you have to either build it yourself or trust the supplied builds.
        SemanticStrengh 4y ago
        reproducible builds are a thing but yeah no easy solution out there for binary/code authenticity
        Hallucinaut 4y ago
        Those aren't really the only two options though, are they? If you don't trust software you can run it air-gapped or in an internet-free sandbox. Moreover good luck trying to verify that everything a website does on the server side is unchanged compared to a binary that's been built locally once.
        pabs3 4y ago
        It is also possible to trust anyone who has verified the build is reproducible: https://reproducible-builds.org/ https://reproducible-builds.org/
    - woojoo666 4y ago
      I wonder how often people are monitoring these things. If the photopea author decided to start collecting people's images, how soon would people catch on? And on the flip side, if the main Gimp author releases a binary that is different from the one built from source, how fast would people notice?
    - justinclift 4y ago
      Hmmm, "web tech" includes DRM stuff these days. So that's not 100% always true any more.
    - alimov 4y ago
      Don’t know if you want to be checking it with every launch, but enjoy.
    - mejutoco 4y ago
      If this is the bar, disassembling the binary should work too for Photoshop or any other software.
- sva_ 4y ago
  OpenSnitch
piaste 4y ago
With Photopea, you can let the application load, then disconnect from the internet (or otherwise firewall the app) before loading your image. I just gave it a try and I could load the image, edit it in various ways, and save it just fine. If there are any features that require being online, I didn't find them.
Smoosh 4y ago
Same with me, slight paranoia, but there's nothing to stop a native app from doing it either.

kristopolous 4y ago

Gotta be real, Gimp's not that far off from just one guy (https://github.com/GNOME/gimp/graphs/contributors https://github.com/GNOME/gimp/graphs/contributors) We all assume there's a vast army of dedicated people behind these things. Most people do just a tiny bit and don't stick around. The reality is the core ranks are thin and the troops are exhausted. If you've got the time, they could use a hand (this is for all open source projects) They people behind them are also usually effectively invisible when compared to the effort they put in so if you're thin on time, hunting down an email to send a sincere personal thank you would really make their day.

MarcellusDrum 4y ago
Which is their own fault. They have more than a million dollars in bitcoin donations that haven't been touched in years (Its around 620k now since bitcoin is crashing). That could have easily funded 3 full-time developers for a decade to come.
- Arainach 4y ago
  Since when is $30K a full time developer's salary? Presumably anyone good enough to work full time on GIMP could make at least an order of magnitude more at Adobe etc.
  - MarcellusDrum 4y ago
    Since countries other than US/some European countries existed. Godot developers get paid in the $30-40k range. I live in Lebanon, and it is normal for talented senior developers to be paid $15-25k a year.
rob74 4y ago
Yeah, it's a bit better for projects with corporate sponsors who can fund a (small) army of dedicated people to work on the project, but application software (especially if it has a widely used commercial competitor) tends to not fall into this category. I imagine OpenOffice/LibreOffice is in a similar position.

cehrlich 4y ago

Photopea is great and I’ve been using it a lot lately. But while it’s getting close to feature parity with Photoshop, the fundamental algorithms are significantly worse. One example to test this: create a new layer, select a rectangular area, fill it with the paint bucket tool. Then use free transform to rotate that rectangle 45 degrees. The edges will be a mess. Its even worse at other angles. I don’t want to slander Photopea because as I said I use it a lot, but I’d suggest to spend a while with it before deciding that you’re ready to ditch Photoshop/GIMP/Affinity.

bambax 4y ago

Affinity is also great. (I never got Gimp at all.)