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GIMP 2.10.0 Release Candidate 1 Released

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31–40 of 174 posts

Re: GIMP 2.10.0 Release Candidate 1 Released

#31
post #3

So still no GTK3? I think when GTK4 is released in a few months, it would be a good time to move to GTK3 as they can still be outdated. I know I am being a bit bitter for an open source project with less funding, but GIMP was supposed to be a poster boy GTK application in the first place.

It's the other way around: GTK was created by Gimp -- it was originally the "Gimp Tool Kit". Obviously, the project went separate ways since.

Re: GIMP 2.10.0 Release Candidate 1 Released

#32
post #14
post #3

So still no GTK3? I think when GTK4 is released in a few months, it would be a good time to move to GTK3 as they can still be outdated. I know I am being a bit bitter for an open source project with less funding, but GIMP was supposed to be a poster boy GTK application in the first place.

This is just a myth. You make it sound like there was some purposeful intention to gimp and gtk. There was not. Gimp was created by some kids at berkeley who created gtk because at the time qt and motif had untenable cost and or licensing, or sucked. When the gnome project started years later gtk was chosen due to licensing considerations since ironically qt was “too free” ie pure gpl which limited its use in closed…

> gtk was chosen due to licensing considerations since ironically qt was “too free” ie pure gpl which limited its use in closed source software without licensing

This is wrong. GNOME was already well underway when Qt switched to GPL. Before that it used QPL and before that yet another license.

Re: GIMP 2.10.0 Release Candidate 1 Released

#33
post #27
post #6

Downvote all you want--I know open source can't handle criticism, but as much as I want to love GIMP, it's completely unusable. First, it's still in GTK2 so on my monitor it looks zoomed out at 50%. Then, the UI is the least intuitive thing I've ever seen. To resize and move a layer takes 4 times the steps compared to Pinta (or of course Photoshop). Shortcuts are the weirdest thing, completely different compared to a…

You can install Photoshop's keyboard shortcuts into Gimp, takes like five minutes. And Photoshop doesn't have an intuitive UI either, no way for a newcomer to start using it on the spot, takes time to learn it. So, no, UI is not the problem, Gimp is roughly on the same level as Photoshop when it comes to UI. And spreading this silly myth doesn't help anyone. Gimp's biggest problem is performance. Then features.

My problem isn't that the UI isn't "intuitive", it's that it's bad - eg. the annoying "layer boundary" thing and the tendency for shortcuts to do different things depending on where you focused last.

I don't know if UX people have a name for it, but I get particularly infuriated by the feeling that I'm being punished for learning shortcuts. Youtube is the other thing that continually annoys me like this.

Edit: In the interest of balance, GIMP's UI has got much better in recent years (single window mode being a particularly massive improvement).

Edit2: I note that fixing the layer boundary issue is on their roadmap so, although it continues to be annoying for now, they can't be reasonably be accused of being dogmatic or intransigent about it.

Re: GIMP 2.10.0 Release Candidate 1 Released

#34
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you stop to think that perhaps GIMP's developers are in fact its users? I'm an engineer and I draw as a hobby. I don't mind developer-oriented features in my drawing program. If I wanted Photoshop, I would be using that.

That’s all well and good, but if GIMP is targeting devs first who are also artists, Linux remains an OS without an image editor targeted at artists first. IMO that’s an important hole in the software library that prevents wider adoption.

Krita (https://krita.org) is 12 years old, and just released version 4.0 last week. HN comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16647445

Re: GIMP 2.10.0 Release Candidate 1 Released

#35
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know, I must be slow but many, many times I _forced_ myself to learn it, and there's just no way. I've finally come to the conclusion that it isn't me, but it's the usability that is completely flawed. Unfortunately, when one tries to say anything the response is "you go fix it then, asshole!" but I don't know how to develop desktop apps, so...

> Unfortunately, when one tries to say anything the response is "you go fix it then, asshole!" but I don't know how to develop desktop apps, so... There are other ways you can help! As someone with experience using graphics applications, you could look into making UI mockups of the changes / improvements you have in mind. Seeing the mockups might get someone interested enough to start work on user-testing, prototypin…

People already did that for years only to be completely ignored (or worse) by the GIMP developers.

Re: GIMP 2.10.0 Release Candidate 1 Released

#36
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you, and it's disappointing people are downvoting you. I ended up having beers with several core GIMP developers a few years ago, and they outright stated that improving usability was not a goal for them, in fact they would rather not have the burden of users who expected it to be easier to use. Speaking for myself, I've found other graphics programs were very intuitive and helped me be very creative, ye…

When was this? I remember getting a similar impression like a decade or so ago but I think now GIMP definitely has devs that are interested in usability. And usability has certainly improved in the last few years, although it still has some serious annoyances (for my workflow / taste).

Close to a decade ago. But I haven't noticed any usability improvements. I feel like the time spent with GIMP was time wasted compared to other software where I could easily get what I needed done yet progressively gained aptitude for productivity and creativity. vim for example supports this. This is not to completely slam GIMP, it can be fine for software to demand users learn it deeply before doing simple things (draw a filled shape, draw over layers, consistently remove backgrounds, all typical things a user wants to do that are far from straightforward in GIMP), and to be appreciated by some people for its scripting ability and filters, but it's not a good go-to graphics software and more user friendly software should be promoted. Its name should be the first clue to this status.

Re: GIMP 2.10.0 Release Candidate 1 Released

#37
post #6

Downvote all you want--I know open source can't handle criticism, but as much as I want to love GIMP, it's completely unusable. First, it's still in GTK2 so on my monitor it looks zoomed out at 50%. Then, the UI is the least intuitive thing I've ever seen. To resize and move a layer takes 4 times the steps compared to Pinta (or of course Photoshop). Shortcuts are the weirdest thing, completely different compared to a…

Maybe i'm an outlier, but with zero prior experience in image editing software, i've found GIMP UI much more approachable than Photoshop. With PS i felt that the UI was much more tailored to experts or at least to people that knew what they were doing, whereas with GIMP i found the UI to be more beginner-friendly and discoverable. So yeah, YMMV. What a shocker! :) > Downvote all you want--I know open source can't han…

> Do you genuinely think that the GIMP developers don't want or don't try to make it usable or to improve it as much as they can?

Ten years ago they made a call to artists to find out what they could improve, then didn't like the feedback they got and told the artists they were wrong. I guess that's how they got such a user hostile reputation.

Re: GIMP 2.10.0 Release Candidate 1 Released

#38
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When was this? I remember getting a similar impression like a decade or so ago but I think now GIMP definitely has devs that are interested in usability. And usability has certainly improved in the last few years, although it still has some serious annoyances (for my workflow / taste).

Close to a decade ago. But I haven't noticed any usability improvements. I feel like the time spent with GIMP was time wasted compared to other software where I could easily get what I needed done yet progressively gained aptitude for productivity and creativity. vim for example supports this. This is not to completely slam GIMP, it can be fine for software to demand users learn it deeply before doing simple things (…

Yeah, I think GIMP has this "open source best in class" status that it maybe deserved ~20 years ago but now it's kind of punching above its weight in terms of popularity.

That said, I actually think the current devs are doing good work, usability has totally improved and I'm somewhat optimistic that once this big, important, multi-year development branch is out of the door we'll see continued improvements.

Re: GIMP 2.10.0 Release Candidate 1 Released

#39
post #6

Downvote all you want--I know open source can't handle criticism, but as much as I want to love GIMP, it's completely unusable. First, it's still in GTK2 so on my monitor it looks zoomed out at 50%. Then, the UI is the least intuitive thing I've ever seen. To resize and move a layer takes 4 times the steps compared to Pinta (or of course Photoshop). Shortcuts are the weirdest thing, completely different compared to a…

Note: you are likely being downvoted not for what you said, but for saying you will get downvoted. It's a frequent enough thing that it gets mentioned in the HN guidelines, last I checked.

Re: GIMP 2.10.0 Release Candidate 1 Released

#40
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you stop to think that perhaps GIMP's developers are in fact its users? I'm an engineer and I draw as a hobby. I don't mind developer-oriented features in my drawing program. If I wanted Photoshop, I would be using that.

That’s all well and good, but if GIMP is targeting devs first who are also artists, Linux remains an OS without an image editor targeted at artists first. IMO that’s an important hole in the software library that prevents wider adoption.

mypaint (http://mypaint.org) is like krita but for the hobby painters...
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