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Finally updated UI! I really hope it inspires more updates and brings in even more people, just like when Blender revamped their UX a few years back and saw an

Finally updated UI! I really hope it inspires more updates and brings in even more people, just like when Blender revamped their UX a few years back and saw an amazing boost in popularity.

rkharsan64 2y ago
Does this change include any UX improvements? The article only mentions updated visuals and theming. From the discussions I've read, it's the UX of GIMP that holds it back.
- pessimizer 2y ago
  It's just Photoshop addicts needing the UI to be identical to Photoshop because when they use GIMP their muscle memory is broken. To be fair, though, all industry professionals are forced to be Photoshop addicts. But Photoshop's UI is objectively awful; it's the 10,000 hours you spent in it that makes it seem sane. You could have learned Thai in 10,000 hours, too. The real weaknesses in GIMP have been in its lack of some necessary functionality, especially some that is necessary for print. The great thing about being GPL is that when the stuff is eventually added, you own it forever.
  - cameronh90 2y ago
    Photoshop's UX is poor, but everyone is used to it. GIMP's UX is even worse, and nobody is used to it. And based on those screenshots in the article, it has, if anything, got even weirder and less intuitive. I'd probably try and power through if there was even close to feature parity, but it's only just now catching up with where Photoshop was in 1994.
    - KaiserPro 2y ago
      Gimp's UX was ok in 0.9, same with photoshop. GIMP was meant to be a drop in replacement for early photoshop, so it makes sense that it follows that UX idea.
  - inferiorhuman 2y ago
    It's just Photoshop addicts needing the UI to be identical to Photoshop because when they use GIMP their muscle memory is broken. Nah. Sometimes I just want to edit something without having to do the export song and dance.
- cmyk_student 2y ago
  I'd say so. Non-destructive editing means you don't have to Ctrl-Z over and over again when you want to change a filter, which is a better user experience. Same with built-in text outline features, which makes that process much easier than in GIMP 2.10. Multi-selection instead of the chain tools is another nice UX improvement. Not to say that there isn't more work to be done, but I think there's a lot of good work done by volunteers already.
ginko 2y ago
I hope you can still configure it to have all the different toolboxes in separate windows like before. Also who thought putting stuff like "Cancel" and "OK" into the title bar was a good idea?!
- exe34 2y ago
  I hate this buttons-in-the-title-bar thing with a passion. It takes ages to find a safe place to click and drag a window around without accidentally causing something else to happen.
- squarefoot 2y ago
  > Also who thought putting stuff like "Cancel" and "OK" into the title bar was a good idea?! That's one of the things I dislike more in GTK3. It seems dictated by the false belief that everyone is running software on a tablet screen in which windows don't need to be dragged around and open always at full screen, so the more space is used for widgets and input/output the better.
- hulitu 2y ago
  > Also who thought putting stuff like "Cancel" and "OK" into the title bar was a good idea?! Windows and Google fanboys ? A titlebar is a titlebar. If you are not able to draw your "OK/Cancel" dialog box somewhere else, just don't do it.
blueflow 2y ago
Yeah, but now it has the GNOME/GTK thing. I internally threw up upon seeing the screenshots.
somat 2y ago
With no disrespect to the blender team they are doing a bunch of good high quality ui work. As a longtime casual blender user(since the late 90's version 1.7 on irix) that was less a "complete ui change" than it was a "we released a press release saying we did a complete ui change" the biggest actual difference was to swap the mouse buttons. See, blenders ui was always good, it was designed as a professional tool, that is, designed to be used for many hours a day. it had a very quick and smooth operating interface flow. However it did have a reputation, deserved, as having a bit of a learning cliff. when your primary design paradigm can be best described as having a 101 button mouse. there is a bit of learning involved. but two things changed, one, blenders ui flow started being copied in other 3d programs and became more mainstream and acceptable. and two, the blender team kept working backwards, adding slower, but more discoverable paths to the tools. Now I am not a member of the dev team, actually not involved in the community in any way so I am probably wrong, but the way I see it, there was a sort of very sticky reputation blender had that it was "too hard", this was mentally blocking a lot of potential users, so the only solution was to loudly say "hey we redid the whole ui to make it a lot easier", coughs, adds dark mode. it is still just as "hard" as it always was, but because people think it is easier they will take the time to learn it.

Finally updated UI! I really hope it inspires more updates and brings in even more people, just like when Blender revamped their UX a few years back and saw an amazing boost in popularity.

rkharsan64 2y ago

Does this change include any UX improvements? The article only mentions updated visuals and theming. From the discussions I've read, it's the UX of GIMP that holds it back.

pessimizer 2y ago
It's just Photoshop addicts needing the UI to be identical to Photoshop because when they use GIMP their muscle memory is broken. To be fair, though, all industry professionals are forced to be Photoshop addicts. But Photoshop's UI is objectively awful; it's the 10,000 hours you spent in it that makes it seem sane. You could have learned Thai in 10,000 hours, too. The real weaknesses in GIMP have been in its lack of some necessary functionality, especially some that is necessary for print. The great thing about being GPL is that when the stuff is eventually added, you own it forever.
- cameronh90 2y ago
  Photoshop's UX is poor, but everyone is used to it. GIMP's UX is even worse, and nobody is used to it. And based on those screenshots in the article, it has, if anything, got even weirder and less intuitive. I'd probably try and power through if there was even close to feature parity, but it's only just now catching up with where Photoshop was in 1994.
  - KaiserPro 2y ago
    Gimp's UX was ok in 0.9, same with photoshop. GIMP was meant to be a drop in replacement for early photoshop, so it makes sense that it follows that UX idea.
- inferiorhuman 2y ago
  It's just Photoshop addicts needing the UI to be identical to Photoshop because when they use GIMP their muscle memory is broken. Nah. Sometimes I just want to edit something without having to do the export song and dance.
cmyk_student 2y ago
I'd say so. Non-destructive editing means you don't have to Ctrl-Z over and over again when you want to change a filter, which is a better user experience. Same with built-in text outline features, which makes that process much easier than in GIMP 2.10. Multi-selection instead of the chain tools is another nice UX improvement. Not to say that there isn't more work to be done, but I think there's a lot of good work done by volunteers already.

ginko 2y ago

I hope you can still configure it to have all the different toolboxes in separate windows like before. Also who thought putting stuff like "Cancel" and "OK" into the title bar was a good idea?!

exe34 2y ago
I hate this buttons-in-the-title-bar thing with a passion. It takes ages to find a safe place to click and drag a window around without accidentally causing something else to happen.
squarefoot 2y ago
> Also who thought putting stuff like "Cancel" and "OK" into the title bar was a good idea?! That's one of the things I dislike more in GTK3. It seems dictated by the false belief that everyone is running software on a tablet screen in which windows don't need to be dragged around and open always at full screen, so the more space is used for widgets and input/output the better.
hulitu 2y ago
> Also who thought putting stuff like "Cancel" and "OK" into the title bar was a good idea?! Windows and Google fanboys ? A titlebar is a titlebar. If you are not able to draw your "OK/Cancel" dialog box somewhere else, just don't do it.

blueflow 2y ago

Yeah, but now it has the GNOME/GTK thing. I internally threw up upon seeing the screenshots.

somat 2y ago

With no disrespect to the blender team they are doing a bunch of good high quality ui work. As a longtime casual blender user(since the late 90's version 1.7 on irix) that was less a "complete ui change" than it was a "we released a press release saying we did a complete ui change" the biggest actual difference was to swap the mouse buttons. See, blenders ui was always good, it was designed as a professional tool, that is, designed to be used for many hours a day. it had a very quick and smooth operating interface flow. However it did have a reputation, deserved, as having a bit of a learning cliff. when your primary design paradigm can be best described as having a 101 button mouse. there is a bit of learning involved. but two things changed, one, blenders ui flow started being copied in other 3d programs and became more mainstream and acceptable. and two, the blender team kept working backwards, adding slower, but more discoverable paths to the tools. Now I am not a member of the dev team, actually not involved in the community in any way so I am probably wrong, but the way I see it, there was a sort of very sticky reputation blender had that it was "too hard", this was mentally blocking a lot of potential users, so the only solution was to loudly say "hey we redid the whole ui to make it a lot easier", coughs, adds dark mode. it is still just as "hard" as it always was, but because people think it is easier they will take the time to learn it.