3 ms·

GIMP. How do you feel about it? i know people were sometimes quite critical, it has different workflow than PS, but it seems it gets the job done.

by harvie 3mo ago

whywhywhywhy 3mo ago
World would be in a better place if GIMP hadn't ever existed, the existence of GIMP is part of why we don't have an actual viable alternative. Constant claims of "good enough", 20+ years to implement adjustment layers after dismissing their value for many years a team that doesn't really care at all about it. If GIMP had never existed maybe the Blender team or someone else who actually has passion for the problem would have made the Linux image editor and we'd be in such a better place.
- DonHopkins 3mo ago
  Here, here. I wish Blender would just grow an image editor, with pie menus and visual programming nodes. It already has a video editor!
- dsego 3mo ago
  I share the sentiment, a lot of open source alternatives can't decide whether they want to be a replacement, a professional tool, a beginner user-friendly tool or just a playground for software devs. GIMP is awkwardly in the middle and has been stuck for a long time, it never met expectations, but became the default answer to any questions involving photoshop alternatives.
  - cmyk_student 3mo ago
    I think the challenge is that there are so many expectations. From reading and responding to issue reports, it seems like a group of people expect us to be Photoshop and another group expects us to be MS Paint - and making one group happy (non-destructive editing, for instance) annoys the other group. :) GIMP is meets a lot of people's needs though (though we can always do that better). I'm in the process of transcribing interviews by GIMP's maintainer from professional artists who use GIMP and other free/libre software in their workflows, and it's really interesting to see what they're able to do.
    - swiftcoder 3mo ago
      > it seems like a group of people expect us to be Photoshop and another group expects us to be MS Paint - and making one group happy (non-destructive editing, for instance) annoys the other group This feels like it would behoove the project to pick a lane and tell the users which one of these it is supposed to be. You have a worse experience for all by trying to keep both camps happy, and also ceding one of these verticals would open up mindshare for another open-source project to step in and cover that instead
      - cmyk_student 3mo ago
        We do - we state exactly what GIMP is and what we aim for. That doesn't stop people from having their own conceptions. The "more like MS Paint" group tends to be longtime users who often prefer the destructive editing approach of GIMP 2. We try to respect people who currently use the software, while also trying to implement new features as intended on the roadmap. Given the number of great open source art programs today, I don't think we're keeping anyone from doing anything. :)
        swiftcoder 3mo ago
        > We do - we state exactly what GIMP is and what we aim for Respectfully, I just re-read the gimp.org homepage, about page, and FAQ. The only relevant passage I found is the FAQ where it states that GIMP is not trying to be a photoshop replacement (but that people regularly misinterpret it as such).
        cmyk_student 3mo ago
        The first section after the recent news on the home pages says "High Quality Photo Manipulation: GIMP provides the tools needed for high quality image manipulation. From retouching to restoring to creative composites, the only limit is your imagination." That seems clear enough to me about our focus, though one thing I've learned since I've started contributing is that whatever you think is clear enough, probably isn't! (Hopefully that doesn't come across as sarcastic - I mean it sincerely. I've helped out with writing news posts and been amazed at seeing how people interpret sections I thought were perfectly clear. It's been a learning experience!)
- deleted 3mo ago
  [deleted]
- 1313ed01 3mo ago
  Krita, not GIMP, has been the FOSS flagship 2D bitmap editor for many years, the way Blender is for 3D. Can't remember when I last used GIMP for anything.
  - whywhywhywhy 3mo ago
    Krita is way better, but yeah this is part of the issue GIMP is so established many never suggest Krita. It even passed my mind writing my response.
- freedomben 3mo ago
  > World would be in a better place if GIMP hadn't ever existed, the existence of GIMP is part of why we don't have an actual viable alternative. Wow, that's a wild statement. I think you might be right. Though GIMP was responsible for GTK, which is now a critical part of most linux systems. I wonder where we'd be if not for GTK? Qt everywhere maybe?
  - Chu4eeno 3mo ago
    > Qt everywhere maybe? As someone who picked the KDE side decades ago, I have to say that would be for the best.
- deleted 3mo ago
  [deleted]
- tokai 3mo ago
  GIMP haters needs to be studied. The amount of extreme petty vitriol that project gets is completely out of proportions.
  - hilbert42 3mo ago
    There's good reason why people are annoyed with GIMP/GIMP developers. For example, I used to use GIMP and became quite expert at it and would often swap between it and Photoshop. That changed when GIMP's developers removed the Fade feature (similar functionality as in Photoshop). The result is that they turned a perfectly functional program into a clunky mess that was ergonomically horrible to use. Using it was now like going from a modern auto gearbox back to a clunky manual. Their rationale was that fading was better done by layers and such. Technically that's likely so (depending on what one's doing) but for the rest of us who were happy with the Photoshop-like Fade GIMP suddenly became useless. GIMP's developers are more interested in some strange notion of technical purity than providing good ergonomic software that ordinary users can use. In short, GIMP's just a play toy for them, benefitting the opensource world isn't on their horizon. Sure, as GIMP's developers they have the right to fuck up their software, what they don't have the right to do is fuck up bona fide users who've spent a large investment in learning the product by essentially making the product unusable. Keep away from GIMP, as others have said there are much better alternatives now available.
    - cmyk_student 3mo ago
      Hi! I dug through issue report archives to try and learn more about Fade. From what I understand (https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gimp/-/work_items/3558#note_786088 https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gimp/-/work_items/3558#note_7...), it seems like it was reimplemented as "Blending Modes" directly in the filters themselves. If you're willing to test, is that comment correct - do the blending modes for filters work for you like Fade use to? If not, I'd be interested in learning more about what is lacking in the current version. Thanks!
  - whywhywhywhy 3mo ago
    Read the adjustment layer feature request thread from 20+ years ago
- cmyk_student 3mo ago
  For what it's worth, there's been a lot of turnover in developers in the last 20 years. I've read some comments on older issue reports, and it made me understand why people think GIMP developers are abrasive (even though that hasn't been my experience with the current developers) I'll say that I got a lot of encouragement and help when I started working on non-destructive editing - there was definitely no one on the team dismissing it (except for some users, oddly enough)
- poulpy123 3mo ago
  Knowing how much open source likes to fork or reinvent the wheel, I don't think gimp is any reason of the mack of viable alternative
mghackerlady 3mo ago
GIMP is very good if you never touch photoshop. It seems using photoshop for any significant amount of time ties you to that software, much like how using emacs for any amount of time ties you to emacs
- nextaccountic 3mo ago
  Just use https://github.com/Diolinux/Photogimp https://github.com/Diolinux/Photogimp in this case
- hilbert42 3mo ago
  Unfortunately, Photoshop is easier to use than GIMP, it's ergonomically more functional. This is lost on GIMP's developers (see my other post).
  - deleted 3mo ago
    [deleted]

GIMP. How do you feel about it? i know people were sometimes quite critical, it has different workflow than PS, but it seems it gets the job done.

by harvie 3mo ago

GIMP. How do you feel about it? i know people were sometimes quite critical, it has different workflow than PS, but it seems it gets the job done.

whywhywhywhy 3mo ago

World would be in a better place if GIMP hadn't ever existed, the existence of GIMP is part of why we don't have an actual viable alternative. Constant claims of "good enough", 20+ years to implement adjustment layers after dismissing their value for many years a team that doesn't really care at all about it. If GIMP had never existed maybe the Blender team or someone else who actually has passion for the problem would have made the Linux image editor and we'd be in such a better place.

DonHopkins 3mo ago
Here, here. I wish Blender would just grow an image editor, with pie menus and visual programming nodes. It already has a video editor!
dsego 3mo ago
I share the sentiment, a lot of open source alternatives can't decide whether they want to be a replacement, a professional tool, a beginner user-friendly tool or just a playground for software devs. GIMP is awkwardly in the middle and has been stuck for a long time, it never met expectations, but became the default answer to any questions involving photoshop alternatives.
- cmyk_student 3mo ago
  I think the challenge is that there are so many expectations. From reading and responding to issue reports, it seems like a group of people expect us to be Photoshop and another group expects us to be MS Paint - and making one group happy (non-destructive editing, for instance) annoys the other group. :) GIMP is meets a lot of people's needs though (though we can always do that better). I'm in the process of transcribing interviews by GIMP's maintainer from professional artists who use GIMP and other free/libre software in their workflows, and it's really interesting to see what they're able to do.
  - swiftcoder 3mo ago
    > it seems like a group of people expect us to be Photoshop and another group expects us to be MS Paint - and making one group happy (non-destructive editing, for instance) annoys the other group This feels like it would behoove the project to pick a lane and tell the users which one of these it is supposed to be. You have a worse experience for all by trying to keep both camps happy, and also ceding one of these verticals would open up mindshare for another open-source project to step in and cover that instead
    - cmyk_student 3mo ago
      We do - we state exactly what GIMP is and what we aim for. That doesn't stop people from having their own conceptions. The "more like MS Paint" group tends to be longtime users who often prefer the destructive editing approach of GIMP 2. We try to respect people who currently use the software, while also trying to implement new features as intended on the roadmap. Given the number of great open source art programs today, I don't think we're keeping anyone from doing anything. :)
      - swiftcoder 3mo ago
        > We do - we state exactly what GIMP is and what we aim for Respectfully, I just re-read the gimp.org homepage, about page, and FAQ. The only relevant passage I found is the FAQ where it states that GIMP is not trying to be a photoshop replacement (but that people regularly misinterpret it as such).
        cmyk_student 3mo ago
        The first section after the recent news on the home pages says "High Quality Photo Manipulation: GIMP provides the tools needed for high quality image manipulation. From retouching to restoring to creative composites, the only limit is your imagination." That seems clear enough to me about our focus, though one thing I've learned since I've started contributing is that whatever you think is clear enough, probably isn't! (Hopefully that doesn't come across as sarcastic - I mean it sincerely. I've helped out with writing news posts and been amazed at seeing how people interpret sections I thought were perfectly clear. It's been a learning experience!)
deleted 3mo ago
[deleted]
1313ed01 3mo ago
Krita, not GIMP, has been the FOSS flagship 2D bitmap editor for many years, the way Blender is for 3D. Can't remember when I last used GIMP for anything.
- whywhywhywhy 3mo ago
  Krita is way better, but yeah this is part of the issue GIMP is so established many never suggest Krita. It even passed my mind writing my response.
freedomben 3mo ago
> World would be in a better place if GIMP hadn't ever existed, the existence of GIMP is part of why we don't have an actual viable alternative. Wow, that's a wild statement. I think you might be right. Though GIMP was responsible for GTK, which is now a critical part of most linux systems. I wonder where we'd be if not for GTK? Qt everywhere maybe?
- Chu4eeno 3mo ago
  > Qt everywhere maybe? As someone who picked the KDE side decades ago, I have to say that would be for the best.
deleted 3mo ago
[deleted]
tokai 3mo ago
GIMP haters needs to be studied. The amount of extreme petty vitriol that project gets is completely out of proportions.
- hilbert42 3mo ago
  There's good reason why people are annoyed with GIMP/GIMP developers. For example, I used to use GIMP and became quite expert at it and would often swap between it and Photoshop. That changed when GIMP's developers removed the Fade feature (similar functionality as in Photoshop). The result is that they turned a perfectly functional program into a clunky mess that was ergonomically horrible to use. Using it was now like going from a modern auto gearbox back to a clunky manual. Their rationale was that fading was better done by layers and such. Technically that's likely so (depending on what one's doing) but for the rest of us who were happy with the Photoshop-like Fade GIMP suddenly became useless. GIMP's developers are more interested in some strange notion of technical purity than providing good ergonomic software that ordinary users can use. In short, GIMP's just a play toy for them, benefitting the opensource world isn't on their horizon. Sure, as GIMP's developers they have the right to fuck up their software, what they don't have the right to do is fuck up bona fide users who've spent a large investment in learning the product by essentially making the product unusable. Keep away from GIMP, as others have said there are much better alternatives now available.
  - cmyk_student 3mo ago
    Hi! I dug through issue report archives to try and learn more about Fade. From what I understand (https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gimp/-/work_items/3558#note_786088 https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gimp/-/work_items/3558#note_7...), it seems like it was reimplemented as "Blending Modes" directly in the filters themselves. If you're willing to test, is that comment correct - do the blending modes for filters work for you like Fade use to? If not, I'd be interested in learning more about what is lacking in the current version. Thanks!
- whywhywhywhy 3mo ago
  Read the adjustment layer feature request thread from 20+ years ago
cmyk_student 3mo ago
For what it's worth, there's been a lot of turnover in developers in the last 20 years. I've read some comments on older issue reports, and it made me understand why people think GIMP developers are abrasive (even though that hasn't been my experience with the current developers) I'll say that I got a lot of encouragement and help when I started working on non-destructive editing - there was definitely no one on the team dismissing it (except for some users, oddly enough)
poulpy123 3mo ago
Knowing how much open source likes to fork or reinvent the wheel, I don't think gimp is any reason of the mack of viable alternative

mghackerlady 3mo ago

GIMP is very good if you never touch photoshop. It seems using photoshop for any significant amount of time ties you to that software, much like how using emacs for any amount of time ties you to emacs

nextaccountic 3mo ago
Just use https://github.com/Diolinux/Photogimp https://github.com/Diolinux/Photogimp in this case
hilbert42 3mo ago
Unfortunately, Photoshop is easier to use than GIMP, it's ergonomically more functional. This is lost on GIMP's developers (see my other post).
- deleted 3mo ago
  [deleted]