7 ms·

Who is the target user for GIMP? Professionals are almost all heavily invested in Adobe and it's interface is much too hard for a casual user?

by jiggy2011 14y ago

rplnt 14y ago
There's also amateur pro - usually people using it for a hobby. And of course people on Linux that don't want to switch for various reasons.
- stevekemp 14y ago
  I'm an amateur[1] and I use rawtherapee to process my RAW images to JPG, then the gimp to process the JPGs a little. I've been using Linux since 96, or so, and GIMP is about the only image editor I've ever used. [1] - http://edinburgh-portraits.com/ http://edinburgh-portraits.com/
  - hnriot 14y ago
    For family photos the GIMP is perfectly adequate, overkill even, editing on an iPad would give you just as good results. It's only if you need a professional workflow that the Adobe tools would be necessary.
coffeeaddicted 14y ago
My guess: Casual users who don't think the interface is too hard and people liking free software. I seem to fall into both groups. But more generally - a lot of people I know which are starting out with game programming work with The Gimp. Also pretty much anyone who wants to learn serious image manipulation, but not willing to either make illegal copies or spend hundreds of dollars on such an application (don't know, maybe that's not much money for you, but for most people it is a lot). And certainly people on Linux where PS simply isn't available.
- onli 14y ago
  No. Gimp recently - or by now some time ago - defined their target group and work with a HCI-expert to get the software in shape for them. The target users are pretty much professional users (or "for intense use", like they put it), see http://gui.gimp.org/index.php/User_Scenarios http://gui.gimp.org/index.php/User_Scenarios and http://gui.gimp.org/index.php/Vision_briefing http://gui.gimp.org/index.php/Vision_briefing. Casual users are no longer the target.
  - bwanab 14y ago
    Target or not, that's what I am and I've been using Gimp for all my photo work for over 10 years.
  - coffeeaddicted 14y ago
    Thanks, I had not heard about that before. Although a little sad, as I know a lot of casual users using it right now (even including some young kids). But I guess at least the "Creating Original Art" can be seen as targeting people like game developers.
    - bitwize 14y ago
      Casual users (including kids) have been creating art with Photoshop for some time now. At any rate, there are multiple free software packages that can do the "creating art" job at least as acceptably as GIMP. Consider MyPaint or Krita.
      - wollw 14y ago
        MyPaint and Krita are actually both great programs for digital painting. David Revoy is an artist who uses both (and also created one of the brush sets for MyPaint) and his work is worth looking at: http://www.davidrevoy.com/2-portfolio.html http://www.davidrevoy.com/2-portfolio.html He has a number of tutorials available on his site too: http://www.davidrevoy.com/4-tutorials.html http://www.davidrevoy.com/4-tutorials.html I believe he also uses Gimp with the Gimp Paint Studio presets for some things: http://code.google.com/p/gps-gimp-paint-studio/ http://code.google.com/p/gps-gimp-paint-studio/
Already__Taken 14y ago
There's also people who need the tools of photoshop but have no intention of creating anything with it I.E Web devs working with designers.
jaymzcampbell 14y ago
We use it at the agency I work at. The developers all use Linux (2 as 'main os', 2 via VMs on their windows 7 & os x boxes). We use GIMP to take what are finished designs produced in Photoshop CS6 & CS3 and make the assets for our sites and applications out of it from the designers exported PNGs. One of us (the windows user) has a copy of CS6 which if needs be he can use to make any minor amends before exporting out PNGs etc. If a designer has forgotten to export out a certain layer on it's own too - that sorta thing. For everything that _we_ need to do - (eg cropping out, making sprites, minor color amends, some blending) it is absolutely perfect and just as good as Adobes offering in that regard. I would go so far as to say the selection tools are actually _much better_ than in photoshop. I find selection transformation a lot more intuitive and easier to do in Gimp. As an added bonus we've saved ourselves at least £3,000 at last count on license fees. I have also found as a side affect that because we can't open the PSDs there and then (usually), we're more likely to get totally complete assets from the design team that we can get to work with. Beforehand we'd just get dumped on with several PSDs as is. We have applied a similar workflow when it comes to office documents too - making heavy use of Libreoffice for all but a few users that really do need to edit and send out docx "exactly". Finally, for what it's worth I have never seen the big deal about it's UI either. It follows the same sort of paradigms as many graphics tools so I've never saw that as a barrier to use. I appreciate you aren't suggesting this at all, I always saw the "Gimp is for amateurs or is rubbish compared to Photoshop" argument as arrogance or snobbery. Especially in office environments - I think (some) people associate the cost of the PS license with a validation of their skill.
- hnriot 14y ago
  For an agency this seems insane. Saving £3,000 seems like nothing, it's like a professional photographer buying a point & shoot camera for a pro job. Incompatibility with clients and numerous other inadequacies of GIMP would make saving Adobe licensing fees seem like a really bad business decision to me. I can't imagine any designer I know joining a design agency that didn't provide professional tools, which in today's world means a fast Mac, a big cinema display and the Adobe CS.
  - threedaymonk 14y ago
kabell 14y ago
I use it all the time to create, reformat, and resize images for websites. I don't need to do that frequently or elaborately enough to require Photoshop, and Gimp does a fine job. It may be hard to use for casual users, but not for technical users. And there are lots of resources an tips online.
mongol 14y ago
I don't know if I am a target user, but I "photoshopped" my LinkedIn photo (removed some stuff from the background, touched up my hair, made it black and white) with it. Worked well, and a I didn't want to buy a Photoshop license to do it.
zmmmmm 14y ago
Is there anything else that is a) free, b) cross platform, and c) has the powerful features of GIMP? I use GIMP because of those three factors (and to be clear, I would happily purchase Photoshop, but I switch OSes all the time and want something I can use everywhere).

Who is the target user for GIMP? Professionals are almost all heavily invested in Adobe and it's interface is much too hard for a casual user?

rplnt 14y ago

There's also amateur pro - usually people using it for a hobby. And of course people on Linux that don't want to switch for various reasons.

stevekemp 14y ago
I'm an amateur[1] and I use rawtherapee to process my RAW images to JPG, then the gimp to process the JPGs a little. I've been using Linux since 96, or so, and GIMP is about the only image editor I've ever used. [1] - http://edinburgh-portraits.com/ http://edinburgh-portraits.com/
- hnriot 14y ago
  For family photos the GIMP is perfectly adequate, overkill even, editing on an iPad would give you just as good results. It's only if you need a professional workflow that the Adobe tools would be necessary.

coffeeaddicted 14y ago

My guess: Casual users who don't think the interface is too hard and people liking free software. I seem to fall into both groups. But more generally - a lot of people I know which are starting out with game programming work with The Gimp. Also pretty much anyone who wants to learn serious image manipulation, but not willing to either make illegal copies or spend hundreds of dollars on such an application (don't know, maybe that's not much money for you, but for most people it is a lot). And certainly people on Linux where PS simply isn't available.

onli 14y ago
No. Gimp recently - or by now some time ago - defined their target group and work with a HCI-expert to get the software in shape for them. The target users are pretty much professional users (or "for intense use", like they put it), see http://gui.gimp.org/index.php/User_Scenarios http://gui.gimp.org/index.php/User_Scenarios and http://gui.gimp.org/index.php/Vision_briefing http://gui.gimp.org/index.php/Vision_briefing. Casual users are no longer the target.
- bwanab 14y ago
  Target or not, that's what I am and I've been using Gimp for all my photo work for over 10 years.
- coffeeaddicted 14y ago
  Thanks, I had not heard about that before. Although a little sad, as I know a lot of casual users using it right now (even including some young kids). But I guess at least the "Creating Original Art" can be seen as targeting people like game developers.
  - bitwize 14y ago
    Casual users (including kids) have been creating art with Photoshop for some time now. At any rate, there are multiple free software packages that can do the "creating art" job at least as acceptably as GIMP. Consider MyPaint or Krita.
    - wollw 14y ago
      MyPaint and Krita are actually both great programs for digital painting. David Revoy is an artist who uses both (and also created one of the brush sets for MyPaint) and his work is worth looking at: http://www.davidrevoy.com/2-portfolio.html http://www.davidrevoy.com/2-portfolio.html He has a number of tutorials available on his site too: http://www.davidrevoy.com/4-tutorials.html http://www.davidrevoy.com/4-tutorials.html I believe he also uses Gimp with the Gimp Paint Studio presets for some things: http://code.google.com/p/gps-gimp-paint-studio/ http://code.google.com/p/gps-gimp-paint-studio/

Already__Taken 14y ago

There's also people who need the tools of photoshop but have no intention of creating anything with it I.E Web devs working with designers.

jaymzcampbell 14y ago

We use it at the agency I work at. The developers all use Linux (2 as 'main os', 2 via VMs on their windows 7 & os x boxes). We use GIMP to take what are finished designs produced in Photoshop CS6 & CS3 and make the assets for our sites and applications out of it from the designers exported PNGs. One of us (the windows user) has a copy of CS6 which if needs be he can use to make any minor amends before exporting out PNGs etc. If a designer has forgotten to export out a certain layer on it's own too - that sorta thing. For everything that _we_ need to do - (eg cropping out, making sprites, minor color amends, some blending) it is absolutely perfect and just as good as Adobes offering in that regard. I would go so far as to say the selection tools are actually _much better_ than in photoshop. I find selection transformation a lot more intuitive and easier to do in Gimp. As an added bonus we've saved ourselves at least £3,000 at last count on license fees. I have also found as a side affect that because we can't open the PSDs there and then (usually), we're more likely to get totally complete assets from the design team that we can get to work with. Beforehand we'd just get dumped on with several PSDs as is. We have applied a similar workflow when it comes to office documents too - making heavy use of Libreoffice for all but a few users that really do need to edit and send out docx "exactly". Finally, for what it's worth I have never seen the big deal about it's UI either. It follows the same sort of paradigms as many graphics tools so I've never saw that as a barrier to use. I appreciate you aren't suggesting this at all, I always saw the "Gimp is for amateurs or is rubbish compared to Photoshop" argument as arrogance or snobbery. Especially in office environments - I think (some) people associate the cost of the PS license with a validation of their skill.

hnriot 14y ago
For an agency this seems insane. Saving £3,000 seems like nothing, it's like a professional photographer buying a point & shoot camera for a pro job. Incompatibility with clients and numerous other inadequacies of GIMP would make saving Adobe licensing fees seem like a really bad business decision to me. I can't imagine any designer I know joining a design agency that didn't provide professional tools, which in today's world means a fast Mac, a big cinema display and the Adobe CS.
- threedaymonk 14y ago

kabell 14y ago

I use it all the time to create, reformat, and resize images for websites. I don't need to do that frequently or elaborately enough to require Photoshop, and Gimp does a fine job. It may be hard to use for casual users, but not for technical users. And there are lots of resources an tips online.

mongol 14y ago

I don't know if I am a target user, but I "photoshopped" my LinkedIn photo (removed some stuff from the background, touched up my hair, made it black and white) with it. Worked well, and a I didn't want to buy a Photoshop license to do it.

zmmmmm 14y ago

Is there anything else that is a) free, b) cross platform, and c) has the powerful features of GIMP? I use GIMP because of those three factors (and to be clear, I would happily purchase Photoshop, but I switch OSes all the time and want something I can use everywhere).