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GIMP 2.9.4 and our vision for the future

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Re: GIMP 2.9.4 and our vision for the future

#21

Post by gotofritz »

oggedintocom wrote: post #2

GIMP is an icon of open-source software, but do any professional designers use it full-time over Photoshop? Compare with Sketch, which has taken scores of users from Illustrator.

It depends on the context. In my experience in advertising / agencies, graphic designers (or "creatives" as they insist on being called) are spoilt brats who found even "responsive design" too technical and "beneath" them, so much that the whole field of UX as we know it today was born to fill the gap. Expecting them to even consider using any tool other than Photoshop or Illustrator is just a waste of time. But in smaller, more "startuppy" enviroments you find some who do use Gimp. Still, the ratio in my personal experience is something like 98 - 2.

TL;DR ADobe has it pretty much sewn up

Re: GIMP 2.9.4 and our vision for the future

#22

Post by jorams »

imurray wrote: post #20

Gimp 2.8 frustrated me: I could no longer open a .png, edit it and easily resave it back to .png. The Gimp developers knew better and made the UI strongly favor saving as .xcf, which makes sense in some use-cases, but not mine. I found this fix, which made quick uses of GIMP less painful for me: http://shallowsky.com/software/gimp-save/ I'm assuming the new save behavior persists in Gimp 2.9.x, but I don't know.

That was initially confusing to me as well, but it isn't that bad. If you open a .png (or similar) and edit it, there's a button in the File menu (I believe shortcut ctrl-shift-e) that exports directly to the original filename.

Re: GIMP 2.9.4 and our vision for the future

#23

Post by Joeboy »

Freak_NL wrote: post #8
oggedintocom wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not a designer - purely curious.

I get aoloe 's reaction though. Whenever someone posts something cool about Gimp, invariably a bunch of “yeah it's free, but it's not Adobe Photoshop is it?” comments pop up. Why should we care? Why not judge it on its own merits? This reminds me of how a lot of people used to respond to the notion of using GNU/Linux distributions as free operating systems suitable for day-to-day desktop use. Sure, I get why not ever…

> why does every bit of positive news or cool achievement have to get accompanied by dozens of comments by authors directly comparing it to a commercially available alternative, stating that they'd use it if only it did this and if only it looked more like that?

In this case, it's because Gimp is frequently claimed to be a Photoshop alternative. For most Photoshop users, that isn't really true, and it's very reasonable to point out that it isn't true.

I gave up Windows over a decade ago, and I gave up doing any serious graphics work at the same time, because the best available replacement for Photoshop was Gimp. I still don't think Gimp's up to the standard of the last PS I used (7?).

I'm happy that Gimp exists and I'm excited about the GEGL stuff. I wish people would stop pretending it's an alternative to Photoshop. If you can replace your Photoshop usage with Gimp usage, Photoshop probably wasn't the right program for you in the first place.

Re: GIMP 2.9.4 and our vision for the future

#24

Post by imurray »

jorams wrote: post #22
imurray wrote: post #20

Gimp 2.8 frustrated me: I could no longer open a .png, edit it and easily resave it back to .png. The Gimp developers knew better and made the UI strongly favor saving as .xcf, which makes sense in some use-cases, but not mine. I found this fix, which made quick uses of GIMP less painful for me: http://shallowsky.com/software/gimp-save/ I'm assuming the new save behavior persists in Gimp 2.9.x, but I don't know.

That was initially confusing to me as well, but it isn't that bad. If you open a .png (or similar) and edit it, there's a button in the File menu (I believe shortcut ctrl-shift-e) that exports directly to the original filename.

After ctrl-shift-e I have to hit enter in response to different pop-up dialogs three times, and then still answer a fourth confirmation when I quit gimp. If I'm editing a bunch of files that's not fun. With the Saver plugin I have it set up so I just hit ctrl-s like I used to, and can exit without being bothered.

Re: GIMP 2.9.4 and our vision for the future

#25

Post by qwertyuiop924 »

imurray wrote: post #20

Gimp 2.8 frustrated me: I could no longer open a .png, edit it and easily resave it back to .png. The Gimp developers knew better and made the UI strongly favor saving as .xcf, which makes sense in some use-cases, but not mine. I found this fix, which made quick uses of GIMP less painful for me: http://shallowsky.com/software/gimp-save/ I'm assuming the new save behavior persists in Gimp 2.9.x, but I don't know.

>The Gimp developers knew better and made the UI strongly favor saving as .xcf, which makes sense in some use-cases, but not mine.

Well, remember, GTK originally stood for GIMP ToolKit. The GNOME DNA is strong within GIMP.

And make no mistake, that's a very GNOMEy thing to do.

Re: GIMP 2.9.4 and our vision for the future

#26

Post by nzjrs »

imurray wrote: post #20

Gimp 2.8 frustrated me: I could no longer open a .png, edit it and easily resave it back to .png. The Gimp developers knew better and made the UI strongly favor saving as .xcf, which makes sense in some use-cases, but not mine. I found this fix, which made quick uses of GIMP less painful for me: http://shallowsky.com/software/gimp-save/ I'm assuming the new save behavior persists in Gimp 2.9.x, but I don't know.

I liked the new behaviour personally

Re: GIMP 2.9.4 and our vision for the future

#27

Post by imurray »

nzjrs wrote: post #26
imurray wrote: post #20

Gimp 2.8 frustrated me: I could no longer open a .png, edit it and easily resave it back to .png. The Gimp developers knew better and made the UI strongly favor saving as .xcf, which makes sense in some use-cases, but not mine. I found this fix, which made quick uses of GIMP less painful for me: http://shallowsky.com/software/gimp-save/ I'm assuming the new save behavior persists in Gimp 2.9.x, but I don't know.

I liked the new behaviour personally

I totally see that it makes sense for some work flows, including the ones Gimp is probably most meant for. It was frustrating that for the people whose workflows were messed up, the developers were totally opposed to doing anything about it though. Kudos to the plugin author for rolling up her sleeves and providing a way out. Also kudos to the gimp developers for providing a plugin architecture that made such a customization an option.

Re: GIMP 2.9.4 and our vision for the future

#28

Post by qwertyuiop924 »

GIMP is a handy tool: I use it for a lot of my image editing needs, for when very basic tools won't do. I rarely need the power of PS, and can't afford it anyway (although I do miss that magnetic lasso: GIMP's magic scissors don't quite have a good enough algorithm). All of this talk about the future is exciting.

However, yes, GIMP is quite rarely an acceptable replacement for PS, and I find this unlikely to change any time soon.

Also, GAP is really, REALLY, REALLY awkward and unwieldy to use. I would reccomend Synfig Studio for animation instead.

Re: GIMP 2.9.4 and our vision for the future

#29

Post by damptowel »

oggedintocom wrote: post #2

GIMP is an icon of open-source software, but do any professional designers use it full-time over Photoshop? Compare with Sketch, which has taken scores of users from Illustrator.

Sketch use case is different though, its more layout oriented whereas illustrator is mainly a vector editing powerhouse. Layout is a pain in illustrator because it was never meant as a layout program. I use sketch, illustrator and indesign regulary and all have their relative strenghts and weaknesses even though theres a lot of feature overlap.

Re: GIMP 2.9.4 and our vision for the future

#30

Post by damptowel »

aoloe wrote: post #14
oggedintocom wrote: post #2

GIMP is an icon of open-source software, but do any professional designers use it full-time over Photoshop? Compare with Sketch, which has taken scores of users from Illustrator.

Ok, you want the longer answer? I know several professional designers who only (or mostly) use free software. Gimp inclusive. They do this as a matter of choice. And there are many more professional designers, who use free software for parts of their workflow. They do it, for many different reasons, but mostly because it just happens to fit their needs. Some of them use Gimp. If you would have read the article linked…

Well, only a shoddy craftsman blames his tools, but if you work in a design or ad agency everyone uses the Adobe monoculture because no one wants to deal with potential asset pipeline hickups when under tight deadlines. I'm sure there's freelancers who prefer gimp, but in the industry it's far from accepted, most designers will only know it exists but won't bother trying because they've been cosy with PS for over a decade.
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