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GIMP 2.10.0 Release Candidate 1 Released

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Re: GIMP 2.10.0 Release Candidate 1 Released

#91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My guess is the reason they haven’t overhauled the UI is they build GIMP for themselves and their own mental model. Having used Photoshop forever, I can’t make the transition to GIMP because it feels unintuitive. Unless Linux is your desktop OS, there are plenty of other cheaper options (than Photoshop), for example Pixelmator (OS X) or Paint.NET (Windows) that feel way more familiar.

Paint.NET is by far the best the best picture editor I've seen. Not nearly as feature-reach as GIMP or Photoshop so not an option for graphics professionals but for casual usage - it's bloody amazing, extremely intuitive in particular. I use Pinta on Linux and Mac - it's not as great as the original Paint.NET but still very handy while GIMP is like vim - you have to study it before you can use it (and you are going t…

> Paint.NET is by far the best the best picture editor I've seen.

That's quite a statement. I would only say it with the following qualifiers:

Paint.NET is by far the best free picture editor I've seen for Windows.

I've seen plenty of non-free (some very affordable, some less so) editors for Mac and Windows that are way better than Paint.NET.

Re: GIMP 2.10.0 Release Candidate 1 Released

#92
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…

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…

I too found The GIMP easier than Photoshop to pick up, but that was well over a decade ago. The problem for devs with established UI is when there are significant changes you risk alienating your current user base who have got used to the UI. Like MS Word getting rid of the ribbon UI.

I tend to use Inkscape for creating, GIMP for modifying (eg photoshopping).

What are the other better FOSS alternatives to The GIMP?

Re: GIMP 2.10.0 Release Candidate 1 Released

#93
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You may not mind developer-oriented features, but the vast, vast majority of artists do . This is why Photoshop wins. Adobe has customers , and Photoshop's devs have to either listen to the customers, or be fired.

Last time I checked, Photoshop and most of adobe's products barely function on a 4k device, yet Gimp works nicely. It's astounding that a company that makes graphics software can't support modern hardware at all. But I guess they are the company that can't fix the tremendous piece of shit known as flash

> Last time I checked, Photoshop and most of adobe's products barely function on a 4k device, yet Gimp works nicely.

That's a surprise and nice to hear! I thought the support wasn't too great and it requires GTK+3.x or newer. It still uses GTK+2.x (see https://wiki.gimp.org/wiki/Roadmap).

Re: GIMP 2.10.0 Release Candidate 1 Released

#94
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…

The thing is Adobe users will tend to want to copy that UI, which is easier because they're familiar with it. But if you're familiar with nothing, or familiar with The GIMP then that's likely to be an impediment.

Squaring that particular circle isn't easy IMO.

There are people who still prefer the separate window system, I've always liked the unified one. Simple differences like this can become divisive and split your developer and user groups.

You should try Blender! Some applications are just complicated and need time to learn.

Re: GIMP 2.10.0 Release Candidate 1 Released

#95
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I presume it's not free software. It's a deal breaker for many, including myself.

It's a bit of a dilemma, isn't it. I would love an alternative to Photoshop or Affinity that actually offers the same features and has a nice UI (let's be real, it's something most free applications really lack... and the look and feel of the software I'm using has high priority for me) but those who actually want these things aren't the ones developing, and the ones developing apparently don't place a lot of importa…

> It's a bit of a dilemma, isn't it.

I like free software. It doesn't have to be free as in price. Various small free software developers are supported by its users, e.g. Liberapay / Patreon / Tipeee. Various things were contributed by ZeMarmot. This project is supported by its users using above methods.

> We really need more interdisciplinary developers and free software enthusiasts.

It seems just having people contribute by paying a small amount per week/month is also pretty good method. This allows the existing developers to dedicate more of their time to the project.

Re: GIMP 2.10.0 Release Candidate 1 Released

#96
post #44

Side note: GIMP user here that has recently moved to a new image editor called Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer, that is super cheap and I highly recommend it to anyone who's looking for a good quality Photoshop and Illustrator alternative, with new ideas and concepts; They are doing an amazing job!

I haven't tried Affinity products, but in recent times, I have started actually buying software.

I realized that I am willing to pay around 60$ for a marvelous editor (Sublime Text) or audio recording program (Reaper), in a non-subscription model, with non-cumbersome licence handling. I wish there was something similar for CAD software - something like Fusion 360, but where I can pay 60$ and be sure to be able to use it for the next 5 years.

Re: GIMP 2.10.0 Release Candidate 1 Released

#97
post #29

GIMP was the first advanced image editor I have used. I grew quite fond of it and its tools. Nowadays I have moved away from it because it does not play well with macOS, but still return to it when I am on a Linux box. For me, GIMP has always excelled in making simple actions simple. Even today I am quite surprised that other software has not taken some of the ideas for interface that gimp has. Mainly: - The selectio…

I'm another native GIMP user. GIMP was all I had (I couldn't afford Photoshop, not that it worked in Wine around 2000) and it let me do some interesting work in high school art and photography classes. GIMP's script-fu (Guile Scheme) was some of the first code I really understood and modified.

I still use GIMP to this day, largely because I've never ran into limitations that a little scheme or python didn't solve. I've never had a reason to use something else. I still install GIMP as one of the first apps on Windows or Mac OS machines I need to use for any length of time.

Re: GIMP 2.10.0 Release Candidate 1 Released

#98
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last time I checked, Photoshop and most of adobe's products barely function on a 4k device, yet Gimp works nicely. It's astounding that a company that makes graphics software can't support modern hardware at all. But I guess they are the company that can't fix the tremendous piece of shit known as flash

> Last time I checked, Photoshop and most of adobe's products barely function on a 4k device, yet Gimp works nicely. That's a surprise and nice to hear! I thought the support wasn't too great and it requires GTK+3.x or newer. It still uses GTK+2.x (see https://wiki.gimp.org/wiki/Roadmap ).

There are some shortcomings on the UI side (you need to take care of DPI setting for starters, and you also need to configure some details separately to have usable button sizes for instance), but I'm using it on GNU/Linux with 3200x1800 13" screen and works just fine.

Re: GIMP 2.10.0 Release Candidate 1 Released

#99
post #57

I've tried to use GIMP over several years but never got used to it. Things like resizing and transforming layers, applying filters, etc. are too cumbersome. Many tools also don't have a live preview, which means there's many attempts before getting the needed result. Now I'm back to Photoshop CS3 from 11 years ago, yet many years ahead of today's GIMP. It has smart objects and filters, layer effects, live previews an…

Well, Gimp was never a replacement for photoshop.

It was for me. I'm not a professional photographer and I learned GIMP first (because it was free and worked on Linux). GIMP was never lacking anything I needed for some light amateur work or web dev work. Photoshop might be easier to use from 0, but anything that was moderately complicated or repetitive I simply scripted away. I have almost 18 years of script-fu plugins written in Scheme and Python.

Re: GIMP 2.10.0 Release Candidate 1 Released

#100
post #44

Side note: GIMP user here that has recently moved to a new image editor called Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer, that is super cheap and I highly recommend it to anyone who's looking for a good quality Photoshop and Illustrator alternative, with new ideas and concepts; They are doing an amazing job!

I haven't tried Affinity products, but in recent times, I have started actually buying software. I realized that I am willing to pay around 60$ for a marvelous editor (Sublime Text) or audio recording program (Reaper), in a non-subscription model, with non-cumbersome licence handling. I wish there was something similar for CAD software - something like Fusion 360, but where I can pay 60$ and be sure to be able to use…

I thought ViaCAD was pretty good and have had it around for 6 years. I guess it does depend on what you need though.
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