this post was submitted on 24 May 2024
839 points (95.4% liked)

linuxmemes

20880 readers
2 users here now

I use Arch btw


Sister communities:

Community rules

  1. Follow the site-wide rules and code of conduct
  2. Be civil
  3. Post Linux-related content
  4. No recent reposts

Please report posts and comments that break these rules!

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 263 points 5 months ago (16 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 79 points 5 months ago (5 children)

Not vonly hard to learn, it lacks some really basic stuff like undestructive ediring (adjusment layers) and such.

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] [email protected] 73 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (3 children)

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

  • Adding text and shapes sucks and I never found a way to make it better. Export your image and finish the job in Krita, Pinta, Photopea, ...
[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 months ago (3 children)

fuck, i neverthought of the gaussian blur thing, i always just traced over the edge with a soft edged brush...

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 53 points 5 months ago (6 children)

No, GIMP does suck.

It has the same problem as most FOSS packages that are too wide in breadth and have multiple contributors with their own hobby horses pulling in all different directions, and to this day does not actually provide a feature-complete whole, nor an interface that actually makes sense. And it's not a matter of the workflow just being different -- it categorically fails to replicate functionality that is core to its commercial competitors. Numerous other "big" productivity packages have the same problem including FreeCAD (boy does it ever), LibreOffice, etc. I say this as a staunch supporter of FreeCAD, by the way. It's the only CAD software I use even though it's a pain in my ass.

The shining exception to this I see is Inkscape, but it is still significantly less powerful than even early versions of CorelDraw.

For 2D graphics work these days, I hold my nose and just use Corel. I use it for work. Like, actual commercial work. That I get paid for. It is at least a lesser evil than doing business with Adobe.

And if you want to stick it to the man, it is easily pirated.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 5 months ago (8 children)

In FOSS most people can program, but only a hand full of people can design a decent UI.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

I always wondered if I could contribute/volunteer to a FOSS somehow with some UIX stuff, but I don't even know where to start. Would you just draw a concept ui for the team to work out or something?

Not that I'm great at it, but man, we gotta start somewhere, right?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 months ago

This is probably common. The people that work on UI often aren't the people who do pull requests. But I think if you want to contribute it would be best to get in touch with a maintainer on the chat of the project. Projects often have a matrix/irc/discord on the git page.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (7 replies)
load more comments (5 replies)
[–] [email protected] 31 points 5 months ago (6 children)

The Autodesk forums are 40% this, 20% "just learn to program, spend a few years getting good at it, then write yourself a custom script to do what you are struggling with", 20% "you are wrong for wanting that in the first place" or "you are wrong for having this issue", 15% "this has been brought up once at some point in the past two decades, try searching", 4% "OMG yes I have this issue too!"...

...and 1% split between actual helpful answers, and confirmation that it's a known issue.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 5 months ago

Yeah, I recently found a post there where a person wanted to modify a downloaded mesh. The first comment was telling them they would need years of experience to do it well. The OP responded that they had figured out a solution that they were happy with, to which someone told him that his results were shitty and then explained a way to do it better. When the OP got upset at this back to back dismissal, everyone unanimously decided they were an asshole.

load more comments (5 replies)
load more comments (12 replies)
[–] [email protected] 131 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (8 children)

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?

https://www.reddit.com/r/GIMP/comments/110opcc/can_anyone_recommend_a_suitable_replacement_for/?rdt=47111

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.

[–] [email protected] 65 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I use gimp but OP isn't wrong. Doing a stroke on text is mindless in Photoshop and very convoluted in gimp.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 5 months ago (2 children)

GIMP needs the Blender treatment honestly. Inkscape too. That would cover the vast majority of what I do art-wise.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 5 months ago

Inkscape has been a lifesaver many times, but it's packed like a shit in a bag.

I can't believe they still use the old file selection on windows without a path input box. I literally can not open a file from my network drive. It doesn't even remember the last path!
The easiest workflow I found is to just copy projects to downloads for editing.

Besides other things.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (7 replies)
[–] [email protected] 109 points 5 months ago (9 children)

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.

load more comments (9 replies)
[–] [email protected] 68 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (6 children)

Just run photoshop on linux.

I don't understand why nobody ever mentions that it just works.

https://github.com/LinSoftWin/Photoshop-CC2022-Linux

[–] [email protected] 21 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Linux just needs more competition in the image manipulation space.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (8 children)

There isn't even a real photoshop competitor in the broader market, but you want to further split the hobbyist devs effort on linux as well?

I think instead it would be better to focus all the effort on a single solution that strives to cover all of photoshops features, with at least equal or better usability. Like has been done with Blender and godot for example. (And GIMP is sadly faaar from it still)

load more comments (8 replies)
load more comments (5 replies)
[–] [email protected] 55 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

many such cases. good to call it out, and needs to happen more often and consistently as toxicity is the #1 barrier to the “year of the Linux desktop” in my experience

edit: also https://krita.org/

[–] [email protected] 20 points 5 months ago

Krita is really good for digital drawing and painting, but photoshop does cover a lot of other things, which krita can not do. In that sense Krita is more of a Corel PaintShop Pro alternative. While GIMP is the best, but still very bad, alternative to photoshop.

[–] [email protected] 49 points 5 months ago (12 children)

To be fair

  • GIMP is really good
  • GIMP is hella complex to use

For example there was a (now enshittified) tool on Android called "image attacher" or something, for making a long image from 2.

This is probably also pretty easy with some CLI tool.

I actually took the time to learn "how do I attach 2 images together" in GIMP.

Or "how do I create a textmarker".

And the stuff works, but its just very complex.

attach 2 images

  • Open 1 image
  • "open" "open as another layer" the second image
  • your canvas is as big as the first image. Guess how big it has to be when fitting them next to each other
  • know that there is a difference between "layer surface" and "canvas" for whatever reason
  • in the menubar, find the canvas options
  • find where to resize the canvas and make it bigger
  • click on the surface layer of the other image and move it so it fits where you want it
  • use "merge downwards" to make the 2 layer one. BE CAREFUL TO NOT USE ANY IMAGE PARTS
  • use the crop tool
  • crop the new combined images to the wanted size

This is sooo manual and seems very hacky. The difference between canvas and layer make no sense to me. The enlargement is "eyeballing". The cropping too. There is no snapping when placing next to each other. There is no "dynamically increase canvas size" option afafaik.

text marker / highlighter

Something with brush, make it bigger, yellow, reduce the opaqueness, change the paint mode to "only make darker"


GIMP is like using cat awk and tail to write an office document lol. It works but it is damn technical.

But if you know how to do it, you know how to do it.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 5 months ago

it's also damn slow and destructive if you're trying to fit it into a true professional workflow with deadlines. i work with programs like it professionally and I only use gimp when i find myself on a random computer that doesn't have anything else. it'll get the job done, pretty much any job, but it might be very slow and painful. as someone who DEFINITELY knows how to use gimp, i understand the op they're clowning more than i understand the 1 peer i know that's actually managing to make money with a fully foss workflow. I also happen to know he largely doesn't sleep to accomplish it.

gimp and darktable and similar projects are great, but workflow efficiency is what they do after they finish adding features. that just never happens. it's not the exciting work.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

This is probably also pretty easy with some CLI tool.

This is one of the few image tasks I do on the CLI xD

Stack two images horizontally (left and right)

convert a.jpg b.jpg +append horizontal.jpg

Stack two images vertically (top and bottom)

convert a.jpg b.jpg -append vertical.jpg

Images are not the same dimensions? Use gravity to align them at the center and make the unused space transparent

convert a.jpg b.jpg -background transparent -gravity center +append horizontal.png

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (10 replies)
[–] [email protected] 44 points 5 months ago (1 children)

To be fair, you can’t exactly ask for a GIMP replacement on r/GIMP and not expect that reaction

[–] [email protected] 19 points 5 months ago (5 children)
load more comments (5 replies)
[–] [email protected] 34 points 5 months ago (5 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 21 points 5 months ago

Krita is pretty good.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 31 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I've been using GIMP for so long and I don't know how to use Photoshop so all the "weird" things about GIMP is normal for me.

Also feel like if I learn Photoshop, I'll never touch GIMP again. D:

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 30 points 5 months ago (6 children)

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.

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] [email protected] 29 points 5 months ago

Linux users try not to be Apple fanboys but replace popular Apple product with popular Linux product challenge (impossible)

[–] [email protected] 27 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (4 children)

GIMP would be infinitely better if they just changed the name so we could talk about it around normal people without getting dirty looks

[–] [email protected] 26 points 5 months ago

Just don't live in an English speaking country, easy!

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 24 points 5 months ago

I use Pinta. It's kinda like the Linux paint.net. Not too many features it's overwhelming, but just enough to do basic stuff.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 5 months ago (10 children)
load more comments (10 replies)
[–] [email protected] 23 points 5 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 5 months ago (3 children)

krita ai paint is pretty dope

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 20 points 5 months ago (9 children)

That’s literally what’s left of Reddit these days. Literally. Just brutal how bad the API affected them and how Reddit doesn’t give two fucks. It’s just a cess pool of ignorance.

load more comments (9 replies)
[–] [email protected] 19 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Online forums have not changed since the dawn of the online forum. Tho. Just look at any online forum (and dare I say a Lemmy forum). Same shit, different decade or even century or millenium! Just look at me. I'm drunk and bored and playing with my phone while watching crappy movies. Only time i turn to an online forum. Because i know better.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 19 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Tux Paint is feckin awesome. Not even photoshop has sound effects when you use a tool.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 months ago (1 children)

inkscape in my opinion is intuitive to use, maybe because before I was used to Photoshop

[–] [email protected] 17 points 5 months ago (4 children)

Isn't that more for vector graphics though? Not really an equivalent.

I may be wrong

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (11 children)

It looks like this was asked in a GIMP forum, so I’m not really surprised at the backlash. It’s super rude to ask that in that forum. Like, they shouldn’t be rude back, but I understand why they were.

load more comments (11 replies)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 months ago

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'

load more comments
view more: next ›