# Poll: Who uses GIMP?



## Mayfurr (Aug 3, 2010)

Just curious to see how many people use GIMP out these, and what people think of it as an artistic tool.

I've been using GIMP for over five years now, and really like it. Does what I want it to do, and costs nothing to use. The under interface is a bit weird, but I've gooten used to it (and would probably have problems transitioning back to apps like Photoshop).

http://www.gimp.org/


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## artfan1987 (Aug 3, 2010)

I use GiMP sometimes to cut and paste my drawings to a photo.
Works great. I've first used GiMP on XP, then on Mac (which I currently own. Looking to get one with 10.5.6 or 10.6.4...) works good on both platforms.


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## Runefox (Aug 3, 2010)

I use it from time to time, but I don't usually use it. I normally use Paint Shop Pro 7 for most of my raster graphics editing, and for vector, Illustrator and Inkscape.


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## Aden (Aug 3, 2010)

Used it once or twice, long enough to determine that it's a competent little program. I'd recommend it to others for their image manipulation needs, but I'm sticking to Photoshop for intensive tasks.


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## Zydala (Aug 3, 2010)

I like it better than photoshop, but I like other programs more than GIMP, too (artrage, painter, SAI, etc). It's great for image manipulation, but if/when I color on the computer, I usually need something that's designed around that purpose a tad more.


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## Jw (Aug 3, 2010)

I use it constantly-- it's the backbone of my "I'm too cheap to buy Photoshop" collection of programs. I do my most intensive work with this program as well as some basic cropping and whatnot. 

I use are things like Autodesk's Sketchbook Pro (excellent program, but not free) for getting down 100% digital drawings. I've puttered around in SAI and a few other programs, so I'll switch it up if a program can work better than Gimp for that particular task. Yes, I've used Photoshop in the past at my college, and found Gimp to be a pretty nice back-up if you don't have the money to spend on it.

If you say "you can't create anything artistic in Gimp", then you've obviously not tried to do so.


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## Arshes Nei (Aug 3, 2010)

It's only worth using as a painting program when you add in the GPS and Gimp Painter. But it tends to be too fussy with certain tablets. I usually end up using other programs that have better painting tools.


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## Mayfurr (Aug 4, 2010)

Arshes Nei said:


> It's only worth using as a painting program when you add in the *GPS and Gimp Painter*.


 
Hmmm - haven't heard of either of those. What's the difference between these and the regular GIMP?
(I did a Google search on "Gimp Painter", but I still remain unenlightened.)


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## SwingandaMiss (Aug 4, 2010)

Mayfurr said:


> Hmmm - haven't heard of either of those. What's the difference between these and the regular GIMP?
> (I did a Google search on "Gimp Painter", but I still remain unenlightened.)


 
It's a package of presets and brushes that supposedly make painting with gimp a hundred times easier.

As for GPS... never heard of it...


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## Zydala (Aug 4, 2010)

GPS is Gimp Paint Studio I believe. It's mostly comprised of a bunch of preset brushes. I've tried it and I do like it a lot. Haven't tried Gimp for Painter but I probably will soon enough


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## Arshes Nei (Aug 4, 2010)

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=167429 here you go


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## sunandshadow (Aug 4, 2010)

I particularly like Gimp's function for previewing animation frames and exporting animated gifs.


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## Jw (Aug 4, 2010)

Arshes Nei said:


> http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=167429 here you go


 
Thanks for the link.


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## Riv (Aug 4, 2010)

I prefer GIMP to the CS versions of Photoshop, and use GIMP for everything most things that blender isn't suited for.



Arshes Nei said:


> http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=167429 here you go


 
Thanks for the links. In reference to your post there, Mac OSX is a *nix system (UNIX freeBSD).

Edit: I also use Illustrator 10 still, for vector work. Can you believe it still works 10 years later in Snow Leopard? Backwards compatibility ftw.




Runefox said:


> Re Mac OS - *NIX-_based_. It's different enough that it's its own entity.


 
It's UNIX certified, as of 10.5...


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## Lobar (Aug 4, 2010)

I use it for all my image editing, but I'm not an artist or anything.


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## Willow (Aug 4, 2010)

I tried installing GIMP on my computer, but it would crash every time I tried to open it.


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## Arshes Nei (Aug 4, 2010)

Riv said:


> Thanks for the links. In reference to your post there, Mac OSX is a *nix system (UNIX freeBSD).


 
Yes I know that, but people tend to pull Macs into a different category than regular *ix based systems.


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## Runefox (Aug 4, 2010)

Re Mac OS - *NIX-_based_. It's different enough that it's its own entity.


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## VoidBat (Aug 4, 2010)

I've used GIMP since '08 and I can't say that it has dissapointed me.


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## Arshes Nei (Aug 4, 2010)

Runefox said:


> Re Mac OS - *NIX-_based_. It's different enough that it's its own entity.


 
And I always say *ix based vs *Nix cuz you know there was irix.  but that's O/T


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## Mayfurr (Aug 4, 2010)

Arshes Nei said:


> http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=167429 here you go


 
Thanks!

I've downloaded and installed the GPS brush presets - will be good to see how they go in my next art project.


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## Arshes Nei (Aug 4, 2010)

Enjoy, his blog is pretty good too.  It looks like he updated it with more FX presets too with version 1.4.


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## savageorange (Aug 4, 2010)

I use it a fair bit, but not directly as an artistic tool. Though the brush control is much improved in 2.7+, I find it less comfortable for quick easy drawing than, say, MyPaint.
If I'm pixelling then I prefer Grafx2, but since Grafx2 doesn't yet support animation,
I will use the GIMP-GAP suite to animate stuff (*sunandshadow: you'll probably like this even more than the built in animation support. Hopefully your jaw will drop. Mine did.*); it's quite amazingly powerful.
I do appreciate things like G'MIC's anisotropic smoothing filter, for making linework nice and smooth, and various other filters like the LAB mixer and Water distortion. It's also good for vector-ish sketching, because of the flexible Free Select tool. 
In general I tend to transfer stuff back and forth through the various programs 
Inkscape, MyPaint, GIMP, Grafx2, and some of my own graphics processing software to achieve my final results. GIMP has a prominent role in tweaking things
(for example, MyPaint intentionally does not have a Cut+Paste to move parts of a layer, so I do this kind of adjustment in GIMP. I really appreciate the recently added .ORA support, since that's the format MyPaint mainly uses -- it allows me to just save in either app and then refresh/revert in the other, and see the new version just like that.)


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## Drake_TigerClaw (Aug 5, 2010)

I tried GIMP when I first started messing around with linux. I don't know if it's that it didn't like my tablet or that I needed to spend more time figuring out how the program worked, but mostly I just hated it. I couldn't get it do what I wanted it to do, I couldn't even draw in it properly. I ended up just ignoring it and compiling a wine beta so I could use Open Canvas. Maybe it's gotten better but I was turned off by it.


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## Runefox (Aug 5, 2010)

There is a bit extra you need to do to set up your tablet in GIMP - You need to head into the Preferences, then go to Input Devices. Click on Configure Extended Input Devices, choose your tablet (and eraser and what have you) and make sure everything is set for Screen and save your settings. That should get it working as long as Linux picks up your tablet OK. From there, you can set the pressure sensitivity options under the Brush Dynamics section of the Tool Options window.


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## Arshes Nei (Aug 6, 2010)

I think the GUI is one of the worst things about Gimp, Painter is also confusing (but less so) Twisted Brush Studio pro is wtf. 

http://freewarelinker.com/2010/06/download-twistedbrush-open-studio-16-24/

Great brushes though.


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## Runefox (Aug 6, 2010)

Arshes Nei said:


> I think the GUI is one of the worst things about Gimp



The funniest thing about that is that people have been saying that since day one, and since day one up to today, people have been responding with "You just can't comprehend the advanced design because you're so used to the archaic MDI model! GIMP's interface is state of the art and better than Photoshop!"

Yet here we are over a decade later, and they're rolling out a brand spanking new MDI interface, as illustrated on the front of the Wiki article for MDI.


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## Jw (Aug 6, 2010)

Arshes Nei said:


> I think the GUI is one of the worst things about Gimp, Painter is also confusing (but less so)


 
Yeah, I'm often looking forever to find a tool that's actually hidden somewhere in one of the toolboxes. Every now and then I'll find it-- it's too complicated for its own good.



Runefox said:


> The funniest thing about that is that people have been saying that since day one, and since day one up to today, people have been responding with "You just can't comprehend the advanced design because you're so used to the archaic MDI model! GIMP's interface is state of the art and better than Photoshop!"
> 
> Yet here we are over a decade later, and they're rolling out a brand spanking new MDI interface, as illustrated on the front of the Wiki article for MDI.


 
Any move to make GIMP closer to a free version of photoshop has all of my support. Especially streamlining it a bit and aiding in the easy movement between windows like Photoshop seems to be able to manage.


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## savageorange (Aug 6, 2010)

jwmcd2 said:


> Yeah, I'm often looking forever to find a tool that's actually hidden somewhere in one of the toolboxes. Every now and then I'll find it-- it's too complicated for its own good.


What? GIMP certainly has UI flaws, but having more than one toolbox is not one of them.
Do you mean menus? Or dockables?

I do not support any program trying to directly imitate another. The creators of each program have a different vision of what their software should do -- If another program does something we want in this one, it still need adaptation and integration so that it suits our vision for this program. 
(in the case of GIMP, the vision is outlined here. As you can see, some of it overlaps with Photoshop in intent, some of it does not.). Additionally, there is a danger of copying things that are just plain bad design -- in the case of Photoshop, the 'Adjustment Layers' concept is an example of such a design.


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## Riv (Aug 6, 2010)

Runefox said:


> The funniest thing about that is that people have been saying that since day one, and since day one up to today, people have been responding with "You just can't comprehend the advanced design because you're so used to the archaic MDI model! GIMP's interface is state of the art and better than Photoshop!"
> 
> Yet here we are over a decade later, and they're rolling out a brand spanking new MDI interface, as illustrated on the front of the Wiki article for MDI.


 
Ew. The GIMP is moving to MDI? Why? Photoshop 7 wasn't MDI. Illustrator 10 wasn't. I loved both pieces of software with a passion. I hate the Creative Suite software... with the freaking tabs. It's so unwieldy. It renders all the clever window management tools in osx useless and forces me to use some crappy menu. I hope we'll get the option to change it back...


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## Runefox (Aug 6, 2010)

Riv said:


> Ew. The GIMP is moving to MDI? Why? Photoshop 7 wasn't MDI. Illustrator 10 wasn't. I loved both pieces of software with a passion. I hate the Creative Suite software... with the freaking tabs. It's so unwieldy. It renders all the clever window management tools in osx useless and forces me to use some crappy menu. I hope we'll get the option to change it back...


 
Note that it's going to be optional.


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## Mayfurr (Aug 7, 2010)

Runefox said:


> The funniest thing about that is that people have been saying that since day one, and since day one up to today, people have been responding with "You just can't comprehend the advanced design because you're so used to the archaic MDI model! GIMP's interface is state of the art and better than Photoshop!"
> 
> Yet here we are over a decade later, and they're rolling out a brand spanking new MDI interface, as illustrated on the front of the Wiki article for MDI.



To be fair, there's been a GIMP plug-in for an MDI-like function around for a while. 

The funny thing is, after getting frustrated with the original SDI for a while, I would up tossing the MDI plug-in out because I'd unconsciously gotten used to the GIMP way of doing things...


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## Runefox (Aug 7, 2010)

Mayfurr said:


> To be fair, there's been a GIMP plug-in for an MDI-like function around for a while.


 
Yeah, GIMPShop, but it hasn't been updated in a few years and as I understand it only provides an MDI-like UI under Windows.


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## Mayfurr (Aug 7, 2010)

Runefox said:


> Yeah, GIMPShop, but it hasn't been updated in a few years and as I understand it only provides an MDI-like UI under Windows.


 
Actually, I was thinking of the "Windows Gimp Deweirdifyer" plugin rather than GIMPShop release.
Same basic thing though, and only works under Windows.


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## Kirbizard (Aug 7, 2010)

Lobar said:


> I use it for all my image editing, but I'm not an artist or anything.


 
Pretty much this.
I'm not going to spend God-knows to buy photoshop for a few cheesy image mashes. GIMP works well for everything I need it to.


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## Jw (Aug 7, 2010)

savageorange said:


> What? GIMP certainly has UI flaws, but having more than one toolbox is not one of them.
> Do you mean menus? Or dockables?
> 
> I do not support any program trying to directly imitate another. The creators of each program have a different vision of what their software should do -- If another program does something we want in this one, it still need adaptation and integration so that it suits our vision for this program.
> (in the case of GIMP, the vision is outlined here. As you can see, some of it overlaps with Photoshop in intent, some of it does not.). Additionally, there is a danger of copying things that are just plain bad design -- in the case of Photoshop, the 'Adjustment Layers' concept is an example of such a design.


 
Well, I'm more used to fairly simple designs, and that's one thing I love about Sketchbook Pro. No, it cannot do all the things Gimp can, but it is streamlined a good deal. I have no problems with the menus. Literally, there's 2 toolboxes on my screen, and the dockables that seem useful to me are all added to those 2 menus. But I remember as a beginner how difficult it was to find certain items in the "file" string of menus up top. thankfully, I've gotten some hotkeys down-pat, making my work more efficient. 

One quam I have with gimp is the control over the palette system. There's a dock for selecting it, and another dock to view the current palette-- something that's a little strange for me. Why not have the 2 together? 

I wasn't specific enough in what I said earlier-- I was talking about the SDI interface. Being that it's mildly more difficult to work with that window style, it's a little more time consuming and doesn't feel natural. Not everything is laid out better in PS. I actually like the fact Gimp has more control over undoing changes (though you might be able to get more than 3 undos in PS with some preference tweaking). No, I don't want a perfect copy of PS--if that was so, I'd go buy it. But, I've always been pretty flexible, so none of these "problems" are deal-breakers for me.


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## savageorange (Aug 7, 2010)

jwmcd2 said:


> Well, I'm more used to fairly simple designs, and that's one thing I love about Sketchbook Pro.


Sounds like why I like MyPaint. It's both powerful and good at getting out of the way to let me just drawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww...



> No, it cannot do all the things Gimp can, but it is streamlined a good deal. I have no problems with the menus. Literally, there's 2 toolboxes on my screen, and the dockables that seem useful to me are all added to those 2 menus.



Aaaah I see! You're talking about dockbooks when you say toolboxes (and also when you say menus the second time??? (?))! (The toolbox is the part with all the icons arranged in a grid. there is a dockbook attached to the bottom of it, and you can have however many more you want.
(a dockbook is really just a ..docking bay for dockables ). Having 2 dockbooks is not mandatory either -- if it is in your version of GIMP, I suspect a bug. You should be able to close (or drag+drop) each tab in the second dockable and when there are no tabs it will disappear.
I personally have one dockbook (the one attached to the toolbox), with two rows
((tool options, layers, dynamics, patterns, palettes, channels, palette editor),
(Colors, dynamics editor, error console, colormap, paths, histogram)).
It's still true (IIRC) that the default setup in gimp uses 2 dockbooks. But that is only the default - it's readily changed.
Then again, I'm not sure anymore whether you were identifying '2 toolboxes' as a flaw. So YMMV.



> But I remember as a beginner how difficult it was to find certain items in the "file" string of menus up top. thankfully, I've gotten some hotkeys down-pat, making my work more efficient.


Yes, the file menu could use some trimming, that's for sure.
Though I do rather <3 the new Save/Export distinction.



> One qualm I have with gimp is the control over the palette system. There's a dock for selecting it, and another dock to view the current palette-- something that's a little strange for me. Why not have the 2 together?


The second is an editor. (although there is also a color selector module that you can access through the Colors dockable which *does* provide just a view of the current palette that you can pick colors from... so you need not have the Palette Editor dockable up in order to pick colors from your palette.). You only need to click once on a palette to make it active.




> I wasn't specific enough in what I said earlier-- I was talking about the SDI interface. Being that it's mildly more difficult to work with that window style, it's a little more time consuming and doesn't feel natural.


I can sympathize. I don't like the raising/lowering windows stuff (but these days I just use the keyboard to cycle between windows and don't have to worry about it much).
Mind you, I don't like the tabbing stuff either -- but it is somewhat more managable.



> Not everything is laid out better in PS. I actually like the fact Gimp has more control over undoing changes (though you might be able to get more than 3 undos in PS with some preference tweaking).



Only 3 undos? Unpossible!
Aha! Not strictly limited, but more undo levels inflate the size of your PSD files.
.. That seems like a pretty odd limitation, actually 



> No, I don't want a perfect copy of PS--if that was so, I'd go buy it.


Okay, I misunderstood you then. Sorry.


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## Gnome (Aug 10, 2010)

I played around with it, 
but I had been using photoshop for several years before hand... so im bias  
=\


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## kuwaizair (Aug 23, 2010)

I just downloaded it. making photos color-edited (saturation, brightness, more or less red) is looking like it damages image resolution.

otherwise I have coral painter 10 and 8. I DL'ed the other for editing my photos and make stamps for DA


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## savageorange (Aug 30, 2010)

kuwaizair said:


> I just downloaded it. making photos color-edited (saturation, brightness, more or less red) is looking like it damages image resolution.


I'm pretty sure that isn't what you meant ('damages image resolution'?!? That would be like running the 'pixelate' filter to convert consecutive pixels into single colored rectangles.)

If you mean data is lost, yes, this is the case for 99% of all possible modifications to 24bits/pixel images. Even for 48bits/pixel or 128bits/pixel (not handled by GIMP yet, but GIMP 3.0 may handle them) , this happens. It mostly shouldn't be obvious, though. If it is, you may have found a bug or just be doing something strange.


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