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Gimp is 25 years old today

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Re: Gimp is 25 years old today

#241

Post by executesorder66 »

rozab wrote: post #197
megameter wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way I would put it is: GIMP has features, not workflow. There are a lot of things that are possible, but not by combining the basic tools and metaphors in sensible ways: each time is more like diving into the command line options of a GNU tool, finding the exact thing, and if you really, really need to automate it, it goes in a script where it can be safely forgotten. Which is, certainly, a way of doing, but not…

I really, really wish there was a paint.net clone for Linux. Paint.net is windows freeware, closed source since an early release, which is both feature rich and a pleasure to use. It covers 99% of use cases ordinary people have. I believe the author closed the source after some other projects tried to use it commercially. It still gets regular updates. There's an attempt at a clone, Pinta, which was based off the ear…

You can also try this: https://github.com/maoschanz/drawing

Re: Gimp is 25 years old today

#242

Post by [deleted] »

howlgarnish wrote: post #183
ghaff wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, I wouldn't pick Photoshop as a particularly shining example of UX. It's probably better than GIMP. But it's also a product that has accreeted features and ways of doing things over the years and is pretty squarely targeted at people who use it all the time professionally. There are lots of different ways of doing the same or similar things.

Having many ways to do a thing is arguably better than GIMP, where there's exactly one way to do a thing and you need to find the right option from the right menu under the right icon to use it.

[deleted]

Re: Gimp is 25 years old today

#244

Post by sunwukung »

pja wrote: post #137
ehsankia wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, the way I would put it is that GIMP is the perfect example of why companies hire UX designers. GIMP is textbook example of how software can technically have all the same features, but be insanely hard to use and utterly confusing to anyone without a guide. Compare it to Photoshop which does more or less the same things but anyone can naturally pick up and use.

Can they though? I'll admit it's a long time since I've sat in front of a Photoshop window, but I remember it being just as complex to use. Is this just partially a "what you're used to is easy & anything different is hard" thing? What exactly makes Photoshop easier to use in your opinion? This is a genuine question - I see this asserted so often, like it's a truism, but nobody ever seems to give specific examples.

I used PS and many other 3D graphics apps commercially for over 10 years, Gimp is sadly not a patch on it. UX is a thing, and Gimp doesn't have that. As a now software engineer, I can see the thought process behind the application, but it's workflow is treacherous. I switched out to Affinity a few years ago, because PS became too bloated/heavy, and Gimp just doesn't cut it for real work imho. I mention this because it was easier to pick up Affinity after a couple of hours than wrestling with Gimp. Same goes for Blender Vs Max/Maya. I hate to say this, because I would like these tool to be more accessible to all

Re: Gimp is 25 years old today

#245

Post by kazinator »

jobigoud wrote: post #238
shawnz wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Save" and "Export" used to be under the same function many versions ago. I am guessing they changed it to avoid data loss. Consider if someone "saved" into a format that does not actually support all the features of Gimp, like PNG. They might be surprised when they open their file and things like layers are missing.

Paint.NET solved this by prompting the user when this particular kind of destructive save happen: This format requires all layers to be merged, are you sure you want to merge all layers? yes/cancel.

But with GIMP's export, you can export a JPEG without merging all your layers. They are merged in the image only. Your default filename (like "myproject.xcf") is not affected; Ctrl-S save continues to save that.

GIMP's export is smart enough not to keep prompting you. You are prompted once to set the parameters, like compression and others. Then you can repeat the export operation with no prompting. You have a Ctrl-E hotkey to do that instantly, and Ctrl-S continues to save your project to the .xcf file.

Re: Gimp is 25 years old today

#246

Post by kazinator »

colejohnson66 wrote: post #234
kazinator wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Compare it to Photoshop which does more or less the same things but anyone can naturally pick up and use. Trolling is not appropriate in HN.

How is that trolling?

Feeding the flame war with obviously false bullshit.

"People are born with the ability to use the program that I offer in contrast to the impossible-to-use crap being discussed. Literally anyone. Even babies who couldn't latch on to a boob for the first two months of their life can use it, whereas that other monstrosity requires a Ph. D. in computer graphics or signal processing."

Come on; it's not 1995, and this is not comp.sys.os.advocacy.

Re: Gimp is 25 years old today

#247

Post by asddubs »

riidom wrote: post #192
asddubs wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still remember that time I tried selecting something and moving the pixels of my selection, rather than the whole layer in GIMP. I ended up having to google it and it was a 3-key combination shortcut. I don't remember how to do it in photoshop, but I'm pretty sure I didn't have to google "how to move a selection" that time I used it.

Well moving the selection is the 3rd thing you can do, what you meant probably is moving the content of the selection. It's controlled by 3 buttons on top of the tools window, and this plus a few other things are worth spending a bit time to learn the basic concepts. Which is a good advice for PS as well, btw.

i do remember figuring out how to move my selection without moving what's in it. it felt a little bit like gimp was playing a prank on me

Re: Gimp is 25 years old today

#248

Post by prokoudine »

wongarsu wrote: post #211
prokoudine wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your experience from 10-15 years ago is kinda irrelevant today :) No multiple windows, darktable or RawTherapee rather than UFRaw etc.

Single-Window Mode only became default in 2018 with Gimp 2.10. There are plenty of people around who haven't updated Gimp in that time and have yet to find out about this wonderful feature.

It always puts a smile on my face when people see a feature released in 2012 (as an option) and go, like, "wow, you finally did it!" :)

Re: Gimp is 25 years old today

#249

Post by prokoudine »

riidom wrote: post #196
usrusr wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quite similar situation here: it's the tool that I know but that I will never master. I'm not bothered much by the UI though, it gets the job done well enough for the occasional pixel task. What I mind much more is the atrocious startup time (might be a peculiarity of wingimp)

Check your version and likely you should update (if you don't rely on plugins that aren't ported yet). Startup time was increased by a huge amount some time ago (can't remember when exactly).

Summer 2018 when async fonts loading was introduced.
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