It's that phenomenon where people who endured trauma to attain something expect others to also endure the trauma.
I've tried learning GIMP, and it sucks. I'm not saying GIMP sucks, but you have to be crazy to not see that it's hard to learn.
Not vonly hard to learn, it lacks some really basic stuff like undestructive ediring (adjusment layers) and such.
I am using 2.99.18 (non release, unstable build). Non destructive editing has landed. You can make adjustments through the usual menus and then enable/disable the adjustment under layer effects.
Wow, that's greate!
OHH it even works with text layers!!! you can finally add drop shadow to a text without discarding the text information! ;A:
I’ve tried learning GIMP, and it sucks. I’m not saying GIMP sucks, but you have to be crazy to not see that it’s hard to learn.
I use GIMP for memes and here's my two favorite tips
Hit the forward slash key / to open a command palette and jump to any action
To remove backgrounds, use a layer mask. select around the object and paint a white/black section on the layer mask. Here comes the trick: use a Gaussian filter on the layer mask to create a transition from black to white and the crop job looks a lot less choppy.
My anti-tip
fuck, i neverthought of the gaussian blur thing, i always just traced over the edge with a soft edged brush...
Tux Paint is feckin awesome. Not even photoshop has sound effects when you use a tool.
anyone who has ever used image editing software professionally knows gimp's ui sucks very much.
we could have had an opensource photoshop killer if the developers werent adamant to keep the 90s workflow holding it back for so damn long.
"you are using it wrong!!" my ass.
I feel like the issue is that people expect a "Photoshop killer" to be Photoshop verbatim. Instead of focusing on making a good tool, people just constantly compare it to the commercial pack leader.
Most of the complaints I hear about GIMP are just "x isn't like Photoshop". I would take the complaints more seriously if any of the people voicing them could actually articulate what should be improved.
I mean, there's something to be said about adhering to an industry standard. Of course no project has to do so if they don't want to, but people trying to get on with their work don't want to spend a bunch of time relearning everything. I think Blender really thrived when they loosened up a little on their ideas of what a workflow should be and gave people industry standard options out of the gate.
Whether we like it or not, GIMP isn't going to be most people's first experience with image manipulation. Whether they had a free PS license through school/work, had a subscription at some point, or once got it through ahem alternative means, people will be coming into GIMP with certain expectation of what the workflow should look like and will get frustrated pretty quickly.
I kind of agree. I'm not a pro but I've been using gimp to do little bits of editing (mostly to make slack emojis and memes) for a few years, and I constantly encounter little things that seem like they should be simple and intuitive, but are not.
I haven't used Photoshop in over a decade, but I feel like I rarely felt the same frustration regarding basic tasks.
Lazpaint
Pinta
Krita
Asesprite
I honestly think it's unfair to judge someone for not putting significant time into learning another complex program. I've used Photoshop since it first existed, and it's basically a lifetime of knowledge. A combination of things has brought me to exploring other open source solutions, but GIMP is definitely unintuitive in comparison. I'm only putting the time in because there's literally no alternative that's as powerful and ubiquitous an image editing solution, but I'd also be the first to jump on alternatives that would make the transition easier. It's especially not fair to cast that judgement on professionals who don't really have the time to invest in learning a new tool from scratch.
I feel like it would be helpful to include the text of their post rather than just the title:
TL;DR Sorry if this is wrong group. GIMP = Epic POS. Do not use. Please recommend a decent alternative. Don't waste your time with GIMP help because I am done.
I hope the mods or the bots don't kill this post right away. It's a serious and legitimate question from a UX designer with several decades of experience, who doesn't want anyone else to suffer what I have. I didn't know where else to post it, so I'm trying here as a first-timer. I apologize if this is not in the spirit of the group.
I quit Adobe, can't afford the price any more (long story). I thought GIMP could replace Photoshop. But the user interface is horrible, and the app is full o' bugs.
Here's the straw that broke the camel's back.
I tried to make a meme. The font selection overlay was a tiny, pathetic, hard to read joke. Not even a font selection dropdown, let alone one that provided previews with every line item like PS does. Deep breath, continue. I type "Impact". Red text. I backspaced and typed "Im". All I got was Impact Condensed. (Yes, I have Impact, and have used it in PS). So I picked it anyway. Then I tried to find the outline font feature. In Photoshop, it's a simple "choose stroke" feature. GIMP? Hello?
I want to the Web to find a tutorial where it pointed out the feature. No luck. Searched again to find a workaround / hack. Mostly crap. Found one that was current and seemed decent. Followed it carefully. GIMP crashed.
While I appreciate the thoughts of anyone who may be compelled to point out a simple workaround or feature that I missed, don't bother. This is the last of many dozens of problems I have wasted my time working around while suffering many crashes, and I already uninstalled it.
So. Recommendations?
I think it’s also worth giving the correction that there is a font selection dropdown with previews in GIMP. It’s to the left of the font input box.
I use gimp but OP isn't wrong. Doing a stroke on text is mindless in Photoshop and very convoluted in gimp.
GIMP would be infinitely better if they just changed the name so we could talk about it around normal people without getting dirty looks
Just don't live in an English speaking country, easy!
Krita is great.
I feel like Krita is more focused on digital painting, rather than image editing
I mean, what exactly does gimp or photoshop do (besides the RAW editing tools--but if you're using those you're already a professional) that Krita doesn't?
I tried using Krita instead of gimp but found it hard to do color management: adjust levels, exposure, color curves and such. At the time I simply couldn't find any dialogs to do many of those tasks.
Yeah you're right, it's not meant for that
Right now I'm in a bit of a bind because part of my workflow relies on exporting particular layers and layer groups as separate images. GIMP has a plugin for it, but it uses Python 2, no longer developed, and likely won't work in GIMP 3. If Krita can do this, I'm switching immediately.
I dunno if it was you asking the question or not but ^^;; if you want some decent replacements for gimp I recommend krita, it's more Photoshop like and honestly it's my go-to however there is also photopea which is a browser editor that I heard is actually pretty good, and if you're on Mac or Windows (if so I dunno why you'd post here XD) I recommend the Affinity suit, it's cheaper than Photoshop and it's a one time payment instead of a subscription.
To be fair, you can’t exactly ask for a GIMP replacement on r/GIMP and not expect that reaction
I recently started having the bug again where Gimp crashes when changing text color. Apparently related to Wayland, but I can't change back to xorg just for gimp. Extremely frustrating as I've had that bug half a year ago, then it went away and now its here again.
Anyway, Krita and Photopea are pretty good replacements. Handling Text in Krita is horrible and working in a WebApp with Photopea is weird, but overall still better than crashing...
Jesus have my expectations for Linux software fallen over the years.
That has been my experience with wayland. A bug pops up then goes away in the next release of the software only to reappear later on. You can report the bug you have but it seems no one is finding the actual cause since the bug report never moves.
stuff like this is why i'm waiting a few years to move over to wayland properly.
I just don't have the time and energy for this kind of stuff, sure X is a dinosaur, and fucking ginormous, but it also just fucking works™ and i don't have to deal with updates, because it's literally feature complete.
Except when X doesn't fucking work ™ and hasn't properly worked in literal decades. I don't think I've ever managed to get rid of horizontal tearing with X. Calling X feature complete is pretty funny, but it isn't. So many things were never fully implemented, because it's just an impossible amount of work or would require some major rearchitecting. You don't have to deal with updates because literally no one wants to develop it any further or even maintain it. The devs have moved on to Wayland or other things.
It's fine if it works for you, but I'm getting tired of Linux conservatives projecting their own experiences on everyone else and declaring Wayland as "not ready yet" and handwaving all of X's obvious problems away because they're used to dealing with them. I've used Wayland as a default for all my machines for years. After a rough beginning where major features were still in development, now it works. XWayland works. Native Wayland apps work. I don't have tearing anymore. I'm not going to pretend that that's the universal experience, but a lot of people are using it just fine right now.
i switched to i3wm and picom, recently, initially had issues with tearing, but honestly, i just haven't seen tearing recently, and i'm not sure why.
It’s fine if it works for you, but I’m getting tired of Linux conservatives projecting their own experiences on everyone else and declaring Wayland as “not ready yet” and handwaving all of X’s obvious problems away because they’re used to dealing with them.
valid opinion i guess, but i just stated the reason why i'm waiting a few years until moving to wayland, if i were a linux conservative i would refuse to move off of X lmao.
It'd be nice to use wayland, but from what i've heard and what i've seen it sounds like it's going to be equally as annoying as X is, especially more so because i'm currently using nvidia, and wayland doesn't seem to support nvidia as well as X does, just due to development focus. Currently i just don't think the CBA is going to be significantly net positive enough to rip up my entire current install, transition from i3wm, to another one, and then start using/learning wayland, just yet.
Like yes major releases and distros are moving to wayland now, that just means they find it stable enough to start doing development on it. I'll wait a bit and then later move over once things settle down. I have years of experience using X, and significant familiarity with it. I have none with wayland, i'd simply prefer to wait a bit.
I've tried using GIMP and it absolutely sucks and I wish there was a good paint.net replacement.
Something I found about a lot of open source projects is that the UI is always terrible
I do get, why people dislike GIMP. It has a bit of a steep learning curve. And approaches things uniquely.
But for a FOSS paint equivalent: have you tried Pinta? It's much less complicated, and the UI isn't too bad.
Gimp isn't perfect. But neither is Photoshop. In fact Lightroom users grizzle that Photoshop is so much harder to use than Lightroom. It's a different animal.
I use Pinta or Paint.Net when I want a quick edit. But Gimp has the tools for serious editing. More tools, more hard to use.
Some Gimp things, yes! should be improved. And other things are being improved as we speak. And some things can be done on a photo much easier in Inkscape.
I hope the whiners donated to Gimp development? No? Then just please step back, and think for a bit. If thinking is too hard, then just take a deep breath.
Donating to GIMP will not likely make it user-friendly enough to make me use it unless absolutely forced to. I would much rather donate to Pinta or Paint.NET or something where development would actually benefit me.
Windows paint is actually better. Maybe that's why they banned his account
Linux users try not to be Apple fanboys but replace popular Apple product with popular Linux product challenge (impossible)
Wow! I have been looking for gimp alternatives or specific ways of doing things on gimp, compared to photoshop and most answers have been very honest and helpful!
Even gimp development team are open for suggestions but won't consider them before releasing version 3 that should release 'very soon'
Hint: :q!
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