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GIMP is Now a Self-Contained Native App for Mac OS X

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Re: GIMP is Now a Self-Contained Native App for Mac OS X

#161

Post by bazzargh »

DenisM wrote: post #80

Any thoughts on this new GIMP vis-a-vis Photoshop Elements? I don't mind paying <$100 for a decent graphics editor. My primary use case is tweaking screenshots, app icons, buttons, and the like for my iOS apps and the web site. I want to get in and out as quick as possible, so I can get back to my other work.

I'm a gimp user. My mum (who has a mac, but isnt a confident computer user) asked for 'photoshop' for christmas after seeing what I'd done fixing up family photos.

I knew if I just gave her Gimp (or Photoshop for that matter) she'd just get stuck - they aren't very user friendly. I had a look at all the image editors I could - Acorn, Seashore, Pixelmator, etc and came to the conclusion that Photoshop Elements beat them all for ease of use.

Specific things that help are the guided actions (in the panel on the right) that act like wizards for performing common actions, but also teach you how to do these things; and the selection & healing tools are miles better than those in the other tools. Take a look at the demo on the top left here: http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop-elements/features.ht...

... it's talking about the smart brush, which I don't bother with, but what you're looking at is how well it manages to select within a picture.

I still prefer using Gimp, but for quick photo edits, I tend to use PE now. However, I tend to work with photos not eg icons as you do - not sure if PE is any use for that.

Re: GIMP is Now a Self-Contained Native App for Mac OS X

#162

Post by gosub »

mbell wrote: post #66
wtallis wrote: post #7

So, is this an app that bundles it's own X11, or is it using a Quartz/Cocoa backend for GTK? EDIT: I downloaded it, and the app bundle doesn't seem to have an X11, so that's nice. However, upon firing it up, it throws up a splash screen in front of all other applications. Who still thinks that's acceptable behavior on a multitasking operating system? Also, the app quits when the last window is closed, which isn't how…

What i find annoying in OS X is flipping over to a desktop, telling an app to start (with the hope that it starts in that desktop), then flipping over to another desktop to keep doing stuff while it loads, only to find that the app has decided to start on your current desktop, not the one you launched it in.

This also happens to me in GNOME (v 2.30.11, Debian 6.0.5).

Re: GIMP is Now a Self-Contained Native App for Mac OS X

#163

Post by bad_user »

activedecay wrote: post #156
bad_user wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment is bullshit and lacks substance, the kind of opinion born out of ignorance, sorry to say it. First of all, it is surprising because people put themselves at risk of fines or even jail by using unlicensed copies. If you don't like paying that much for software, then don't freaking use it and search for something cheaper. You don't freaking need all that functionality. Students and schools also get discoun…

I'm so sick of people like you who feel the need to defend GIMP. It's a fantastic piece of open source software that doesn't need your help and it shouldn't be compared to Photoshop. Photoshop provides art and design professionals with a vast amount of resources and extremely customizable tools, some of which GIMP does not offer or provides with less opportunity for modification. I'm not about to sit here and type ou…

     it shouldn't be compared to Photoshop.
But it is compared to Photoshop.

     However, it is NOT a Photoshop killer.
I don't think anybody here was talking about that. I also never argued against Photoshop having some advanced functionality that Gimp lacks or more resources available (it's a defacto standard after all). I don't like it when people are putting words in my mouth.

Re: GIMP is Now a Self-Contained Native App for Mac OS X

#164

Post by greggman »

zmmmmm wrote: post #107
mikeryan wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For anyone who's not doing graphics as their main job description it is a photoshop killer. Doing Graphics is not my main job description, far from it (somewhere between damage control and janitor is more like it), but I still do a lot of front end development, at my job I prefer to do all the graphics production work myself for the apps I'm building and have tried using GIMP a crap ton of times over the years - I've…

Gimp is like the 'vi' of image editors. I hated it too but I slowly learned all the keys and now I find I can work at such incredible speed with Gimp that anything else seems awkward and slow. My right hand is on the mouse which never has to leave the canvas / work area and my left hand is dancing on the keyboard. Using Gimp primarily with a mouse is certainly a disaster of usability though.

Watch any photoshop expert and they all use hot keys as well so I don't think gIMP is any faster in that area.

But otherwise I think it really depends on the features you use. I use Photoshop's layer effects all the time. Anytime I want to point something out on a map or a screenshot I drop it in photoshop, draw an arrow, add some text. Then set a layer effect that makes the arrow and text a bright color with a black outline and a drop shadow. If I need to add more arrows or more text they get automatically styled the same.

AFAIK that's not simple in gIMP or even available.

Similarly I use photoshop's non-destructive layer adjustments all the time. I don't know how I'd get by without them.

My understanding is gIMP will be adding those some day. 3.0 maybe?

Re: GIMP is Now a Self-Contained Native App for Mac OS X

#165

Post by DanBC »

sliverstorm wrote: post #18
DanBC wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For people who need to put some text on an image[1] or who need to tweak some minor stuff gimp is a "photoshop killer" - and it's nice to push people to legally free software rather than a pirate download of Photoshop. [1] But see this gimp document - the first returned hit in a search for [gimp drop shadow text] - which appears to be weirdly complex. http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/The_Basics/

Eh, the only reason it's a photoshop killer for really simple edits is because photoshop is really kind of the wrong tool for such jobs anyway.

Yes, photoshop is totally the wrong tool for most people. Photoshop is great for professionals and keen amateurs. It's overkill for most other users.

And yet photoshop is heavily pirated software.

By pushing other softwares, such as gimp, I'm not in anyway saying that photoshop is bad, or that gimp is a photoshop clone, or that the people who need to use photoshop should switch to a free open source alternative. I'm just trying to get people to move to a more suitable tool, and to stop using pirated software.

Re: GIMP is Now a Self-Contained Native App for Mac OS X

#166

Post by WickyNilliams »

mkup wrote: post #143
sbuk wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Photoshop is hardly a beacon of software done right. In my experience (been using Photoshop pretty much everyday since 1991) it has got considerably more bloated and unstable with each release, the exception perhaps being 5.5. The benefit that Photoshop has is familiarity and Adobe's pricing structure is that of an abusive monopoly - they know they can charge as much as they do because they have a monopoly. This mono…

Also there's Paint.NET on PC. It's fast, not bloated with useless functions (yet), and freeware. I've switched to it from Photoshop a few months ago and never regret my decision.

I recently switched over to mac and was saddened to discover there wasn't any viable open source alternative to GIMP a la Paint.NET. GIMP is functional, but barely usable. Paint.NET on the other hand is great, on top of all the things you mention, it also has quite a good UI with some interesting features.

Re: GIMP is Now a Self-Contained Native App for Mac OS X

#167

Post by activedecay »

bad_user wrote: post #163
activedecay wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm so sick of people like you who feel the need to defend GIMP. It's a fantastic piece of open source software that doesn't need your help and it shouldn't be compared to Photoshop. Photoshop provides art and design professionals with a vast amount of resources and extremely customizable tools, some of which GIMP does not offer or provides with less opportunity for modification. I'm not about to sit here and type ou…

it shouldn't be compared to Photoshop. But it is compared to Photoshop. However, it is NOT a Photoshop killer. I don't think anybody here was talking about that. I also never argued against Photoshop having some advanced functionality that Gimp lacks or more resources available (it's a defacto standard after all). I don't like it when people are putting words in my mouth.

That last comment wasn't directed at you specifically, just look at how many times the phrase "photoshop killer" is used in the comments on this article.

Yeah okay, you never argued against Photoshop having more resources available, but you criticized someone for saying there should be no comparison between GIMP and Photoshop because of "bullshit and lack of substance" while at the same time serving up your own steaming pile of bullshit: "The difference between Gimp and Photoshop is that while Gimp gives you all the tools you need, it doesn't have an idiot mode, so it expects of you to know what you're doing." I was just pointing out that there's a lot more differences than "idiot mode".

Re: GIMP is Now a Self-Contained Native App for Mac OS X

#168

Post by samuellb »

drivebyacct2 wrote: post #106
nsxwolf wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's odd. I don't think I've ever seen this behavior. I just tried it with Pages and the application remained open.

It seems to be one of non-Mac users biggest complaints but I love it. I can close my Chrome windows and remove the clutter without having to pay the cost of having it start up again. It's a good-bad habit because then I go to Linux and Ctrl+W all my tabs and then hit Ctrl+T and realize my mistake.

To prevent Firefox from closing, go to about:config and set browser.tabs.closeWindowWithLastTab to false. This is one of the first things I do when I (re)install a computer, I don't like the default behaviour either :)

Re: GIMP is Now a Self-Contained Native App for Mac OS X

#169

Post by _1 »

buu700 wrote: post #102
cmelbye wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Notice how most (all?) of those are single window applications.

So is Gimp, with the release of 2.8 (well, the option's there anyway).

But it's still a document-based application. Those, in general, stay active even if all the documents are closed.

Re: GIMP is Now a Self-Contained Native App for Mac OS X

#170

Post by randallsquared »

tuananh wrote: post #135
mbreese wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Worked for me... Mountain Lion 10.8.1. 1) Opened TextEdit 2) Started a document 3) Closed document (Cmd-W) 4) Switched to Chrome 5) *poof* TextEdit disappeared

exactly what i did. maybe it was changed in ML.

No, Lion exhibits this behavior for me. Close last TextEdit window, switch to another app, see TextEdit silently go away from the dock.
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