3 ms·

It would not shock me to learn that GIMP has been a multi decade study to find out how bad a UX has to be before the FOSS community starts to care.

rchaud 3y ago
UX affordances are different when the price is zero. I learned GIMP the hard way, first because of Photoshop's pricing, and second because Photoshop's UX wasn't that much cleaner when it came to doing anything outside of trivial layer operations.
torstenvl 3y ago
GIMP has one of the best user interfaces of all community driven open source software. I frankly can't think of any that are better, now that Firefox followed Chrome in hiding all its most important features.
- EspressoGPT 3y ago
  > GIMP has one of the best user interfaces of all community driven open source software. /s
- Clamchop 3y ago
  Um... what? That would be terribly unfortunate for FOSS but thankfully it's not true.
- Euphorbium 3y ago
  Ummm, have you used ANY software ever?
- pessimizer 3y ago
  The UI to Photoshop is horrific (and unbelievably old and crufty, though not as bad as Illustrator.) I used to be convinced that the reason people think it's reasonable is Stockholm Syndrome. Now I'm convinced it's because most Photoshop users only ever use Photoshop/Illustrator/InDesign, and simply aren't familiar with other software. It's bizarre that a search bar that unfolds a vertical menubar when highlighted but unfilled is supposed to be a great advance. It's so unimpressive that I 1) don't mind it at all, and 2) think the menu aspect is useless. It's just a menu command search bar; a good UI library could construct one automatically. Stick it in a corner, or automatically open it when people start typing with no obvious object. It's a triviality. What bugs people about the GIMP is that it's not Photoshop. All of the GIMPs menu options are placed in eminently logical places. although it's a grammar that probably makes sense over time. Photoshop options are mostly placed randomly, and some of them turn out to be ads. That's not a huge dig at Photoshop, because it's pretty amazing that they ever fix or move anything with so much industry adoption, and adding things has to be a nightmare. But the GIMP puts things in places because they make sense there. They don't have the base that would get enraged if they moved things. It's extremely telling that when put to specify improvements that could be made, the suggestions are either trivial, like 1) a search bar, or 2) an extra statusbar above the statusbar (in case they want instructions over their instructions), or 3) to make it single-window (because just not moving things is not enough, they have to be prevented from moving things), or they're just: 4) "Make it more like Photoshop! When I use Photoshop I know where things are, and when I use GIMP, I don't!" The GIMP is wonderful and its problems are technical: it has lacked some of the ability of Photoshop, but that gap slowly but surely continues to close. edit: I can't believe I forgot the worst one: "Why when I click Save does it save my project, but when I want to export a file based on my project, I have to pick Export?"
  - ohdannyboy 3y ago
    I'll admit I'm a novice with Photoshop, I've never used it for more than a moderately complex task. Usually simple cuts and meme making type stuff. I also once designed a poster that required me to make a vector background and arrange some ripped svg elements from a old swf file. Every time I try GIMP it's a nightmare. Even the simplest thing usually makes me find a video to explain where to find it. Cutting, pasting and layer management is a pain. For super simple stuff I use Pinta and anything marginally complex I use photoshop and it's always felt easy. I know that's hardly scientific but I've always seen photoshops interface as good.
    - mackrevinack 3y ago
      i used to have a lot of trouble finding things as well until i discovered the command pallette (the / key opens it). now i do nearly most things just by fuzzy searching for them
kazinator 3y ago
GIMP has a problem on MS Windows whereby newly opened windows don't activate to the foreground. It's been there for over 20 years. Six-year-old Reddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/GIMP/comments/7esx08/even_with_latest_gimp_windows_open_in_background/ https://www.reddit.com/r/GIMP/comments/7esx08/even_with_late... I don't think it's fixed yet.

rchaud 3y ago

UX affordances are different when the price is zero. I learned GIMP the hard way, first because of Photoshop's pricing, and second because Photoshop's UX wasn't that much cleaner when it came to doing anything outside of trivial layer operations.

torstenvl 3y ago

GIMP has one of the best user interfaces of all community driven open source software. I frankly can't think of any that are better, now that Firefox followed Chrome in hiding all its most important features.

EspressoGPT 3y ago
> GIMP has one of the best user interfaces of all community driven open source software. /s
Clamchop 3y ago
Um... what? That would be terribly unfortunate for FOSS but thankfully it's not true.
Euphorbium 3y ago
Ummm, have you used ANY software ever?
pessimizer 3y ago
The UI to Photoshop is horrific (and unbelievably old and crufty, though not as bad as Illustrator.) I used to be convinced that the reason people think it's reasonable is Stockholm Syndrome. Now I'm convinced it's because most Photoshop users only ever use Photoshop/Illustrator/InDesign, and simply aren't familiar with other software. It's bizarre that a search bar that unfolds a vertical menubar when highlighted but unfilled is supposed to be a great advance. It's so unimpressive that I 1) don't mind it at all, and 2) think the menu aspect is useless. It's just a menu command search bar; a good UI library could construct one automatically. Stick it in a corner, or automatically open it when people start typing with no obvious object. It's a triviality. What bugs people about the GIMP is that it's not Photoshop. All of the GIMPs menu options are placed in eminently logical places. although it's a grammar that probably makes sense over time. Photoshop options are mostly placed randomly, and some of them turn out to be ads. That's not a huge dig at Photoshop, because it's pretty amazing that they ever fix or move anything with so much industry adoption, and adding things has to be a nightmare. But the GIMP puts things in places because they make sense there. They don't have the base that would get enraged if they moved things. It's extremely telling that when put to specify improvements that could be made, the suggestions are either trivial, like 1) a search bar, or 2) an extra statusbar above the statusbar (in case they want instructions over their instructions), or 3) to make it single-window (because just not moving things is not enough, they have to be prevented from moving things), or they're just: 4) "Make it more like Photoshop! When I use Photoshop I know where things are, and when I use GIMP, I don't!" The GIMP is wonderful and its problems are technical: it has lacked some of the ability of Photoshop, but that gap slowly but surely continues to close. edit: I can't believe I forgot the worst one: "Why when I click Save does it save my project, but when I want to export a file based on my project, I have to pick Export?"
- ohdannyboy 3y ago
  I'll admit I'm a novice with Photoshop, I've never used it for more than a moderately complex task. Usually simple cuts and meme making type stuff. I also once designed a poster that required me to make a vector background and arrange some ripped svg elements from a old swf file. Every time I try GIMP it's a nightmare. Even the simplest thing usually makes me find a video to explain where to find it. Cutting, pasting and layer management is a pain. For super simple stuff I use Pinta and anything marginally complex I use photoshop and it's always felt easy. I know that's hardly scientific but I've always seen photoshops interface as good.
  - mackrevinack 3y ago
    i used to have a lot of trouble finding things as well until i discovered the command pallette (the / key opens it). now i do nearly most things just by fuzzy searching for them

kazinator 3y ago

GIMP has a problem on MS Windows whereby newly opened windows don't activate to the foreground. It's been there for over 20 years. Six-year-old Reddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/GIMP/comments/7esx08/even_with_latest_gimp_windows_open_in_background/ https://www.reddit.com/r/GIMP/comments/7esx08/even_with_late... I don't think it's fixed yet.