Post
RE: https://mas.to/@zzt/116748965255528053
GIMP‘s hostility to users actually being able to productively use it is legendary as is its disdain for people showing concern about its name. It’s genuinely poisoned the well for the adoption of OSS creativity software.
(I need to try out Krita, though, which looks much more solid.)
@baldur I used to use PS, from version 2 or 3 up until about the days of CS2 I think. I didn't understand GIMP at all. One day someone in my office took ten minutes to show me around and explain the language of the thing and I switched.
Sometimes in modern times my partner asks me to help with something in PS, and I end up having to search the web because I can't intuit things in its UI.
The evangelists can be abrasive, but I don't think the gist is wrong. It's down to what you're used to.
@baldur Krita's pretty good. No AI policy, sane UX. A few gripes after switching from commercial software but they're largely minor (like why is erase and draw the same button?)
Major bonus: it's not lead and followed by tiresome people who think rape jokes and slurs against disabled people are funny.
@baldur krita IS much more solid and easy to use. Source: decades long user of drawing software such as art studio, deluxe paint, brilliance and Photoshop.
@baldur not a week go by without me saying “well yes, it has the look and feel of open source, but…”.
@baldur Gosh, my non-computer savvy wife, who I introduced to GIMP at least a decade ago, was explaining to me proudly just yesterday how she manipulated images to produce facsimiles of those on fabric that she then added to her art. I, on the other hand, not being particularly graphic editor-minded, do find its UI non-intuitive.
And as one who has limped for decades from a bad knee, getting worse with age,I always thought the name gave those of us with disabilities a bit more visibility.
@baldur Krita is fantastic. I use it regularly for illustration, and I'll probably start using it more than that other software for image correction since Krita's nondestructuve filter layers and masks give you a lot of flexibility.
@baldur if you need something less Illustrator...ive, I can recommend Pinta
@baldur My acid test is usually "can I do a white-balance by just pointing at an area I know is white / neutral grey" and my recollection of gimp is it failed miserably.
IIRC, none of the open source image editors do this properly. Even a video camera (dedicated kind) will let you point the cam at a white reference object and press a "WB" button and that's it. Not really interested in a WB that is only "automatic" since the program probably won't understand the composition properly.
Gimp is a wonderful peace of software but the acronym is just too thick in the head. Way in the beginning of its development someone should have said: "nope, that's not going to fly mainstream".
@baldur We're trying to change that - we now have a UX design site where we track UX issues, request user feedback, and try to make more thoughtful design decisions after discussion and testing.
If you're interested in contributing your thoughts (or just want to see the reported issues thus far), more information is here: https://gitlab.gnome.org/Teams/GIMP/Design/gimp-ux/-/work_items
We're also starting to document design decisions for future review: https://testing.developer.gimp.org/core/specifications/
@CmykStudent I mean, I hope that pans out, and that it pays off for the project
@baldur I believe it already has - we have some active design volunteers who have really contributed to implementing better UX going forward and pointing out existing improvements.
There's some "bigger" design work going on too which we hope to implement as it is finalized, but a lot of papercut UX issues (and larger) are being corrected already. :)
@CmykStudent Sounds good. 👍 I'll keep an eye on future releases then.
@baldur I learned the old GIMP UI after some years, and then theu changed it and made even more confusing...
It was programmer-oriented from the beginning.
