LWN: Comments on "Review: GIMP 2.99.14 (Libre Arts)"

Review: GIMP 2.99.14 (Libre Arts)

prokoudine — Mon, 28 Nov 2022 08:00:21 +0000

Yes, it's a pretty damn good analogy :)

Review: GIMP 2.99.14 (Libre Arts)

ms-tg — Sun, 27 Nov 2022 19:22:18 +0000

I am reminded of a time when in music editing programs, you could not do MIDI in the same tool as wave recording and editing. Is that a good analogy for the vector / bitmap divide in tooling?

Review: GIMP 2.99.14 (Libre Arts)

prokoudine — Sun, 27 Nov 2022 15:35:45 +0000

I don't know which features you are referring to, but my guess is that it would be outlined text and aligning multiple objects against a reference object. These are the things the actual, real users have been longing for for a very long time.

The vaguely "UNIX way" kind of approach (do the pixel things, leave non-pixel things to other applications) doesn't stand the test of real life scenarios. Nobody who makes a living off this really wants to use a vector graphics program just to add an outlined text caption to an image. Users were forced to use hackarounds just to get this seemingly simple job done. Nobody liked that.

I'm not even exaggerating. I've met a lot of GIMP users online and offline over the past 15+ years, and not a single one said "You know, what I like about GIMP? It's how difficult it is to add a text with an outline. It's the stress of doing unnecessary extra work that makes me feel like I'm living my life to its full potential" :)

In fact, I'll tell you more. There is a strong demand for vector layers and shape drawing tools in GIMP. And it will be done eventually (and old patchset for vector layers from 2006 was recently picked up and cleaned up from bitrot).

Review: GIMP 2.99.14 (Libre Arts)

coriordan — Tue, 22 Nov 2022 14:11:28 +0000

(I gave it a quick try just now in Inkscape with a photo; my results were not good.)

Review: GIMP 2.99.14 (Libre Arts)

coriordan — Tue, 22 Nov 2022 12:56:23 +0000

Free software used to be very far behind the state-of-the-art on that, but this tutorial seems to show Inkscape doing it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_m_xNaZxkI

Review: GIMP 2.99.14 (Libre Arts)

Wol — Tue, 22 Nov 2022 10:52:19 +0000

I was thinking along the same lines. If I've got a bitmap, and I want to convert it to svg (for example, cartoonize a photo), do I use a bitmap tool, or an svg tool?

Cheers,
Wol

Review: GIMP 2.99.14 (Libre Arts)

coriordan — Tue, 22 Nov 2022 08:20:35 +0000

I like having both in one tool. I've made a lot of posters and there's always a mix of bitmap images and vector texts/designs. It would be very complicated if I had to separate the two parts of the work and do a bit in one tool, then save and open in another tool, and I'd probably have to flatten the image and remove layer info when moving between tools, so that would definitely make the task more difficult.

But actually maybe the biggest improvement is being able to select multiple objects:

https://www.gimp.org/news/2020/11/06/gimp-2-99-2-released...

There were always ways to emulate this by adapting your workflow, but this will make things easier.

Review: GIMP 2.99.14 (Libre Arts)

mkbosmans — Tue, 22 Nov 2022 06:51:58 +0000

Most of these features look more in place at a vector editor like Inkscape or Illustrator.

I'm wondering: is there really a use for such a cross over between pixel and vector editing features? It seems to me that Gimp and Photoshop should really focus on pixel based tools and workflows and leave the vector stuff to other, more suited tools.

Review: GIMP 2.99.14 (Libre Arts)

coriordan — Fri, 18 Nov 2022 22:04:37 +0000

Looking great! More details and a few animations here:

https://www.gimp.org/news/2022/11/18/gimp-2-99-14-released/

I've being doing text outlines manually for many years. Good to hear they're now easier.