can one live on the GIMP alone?

[JimmyJazz]

I wear many hats but probally the most important one I wear is that of a web/graphic designer, the only problem is right at this point the GIMP doesn't seem to have the profesional tools I need to do this job. My question is what experience have other users had out there using the GIMP for high quality professional designs? This is a big deal for me because it is really the one thing that may make booting into my UBUNTU an impossiblilty. Just to note I used photoshop in Windows before switching to UBUNTU.

[Mike_N]

Nothin' wrong with a dual boot system, i prefer Photoshop too but i'd like to be more skilled with GIMP, free is good...!

[endersshadow]

Yeah, I find the GIMP more than adequate for my graphics needs. Have you tried the GIMP yet? There's a Windows port for it, as well, that works exactly as it does on Linux.

http://www.gimp.org

[aysiu]

Well, I don't know much about this, but I would list what tools you think GIMP doesn't have but that you need, and people can either verify that those features don't exist in GIMP or show you where they are in GIMP.

If GIMP isn't your cup of tea, but you still want to use Ubuntu, consider running Photoshop on Crossover Office.

[poptones]

I wonder what photoshop can do that gimp cannot as well. Unless you need the cmyk and pantone support (a legit need for anyone doing print work) there's just nothing in one that cannot be done in the other.

The gimp, imagemagick, mplayer/mencoder and and inkscape are very powerful tools. You can do things with these tools that require thousands of dollars worth of software to do in windows.

[JimmyJazz]

Well to start off I should have stated that I have been using the GIMP hardcore for the last three months.
its not what PS can do that the GIMP can't, its the quality.
For example font support is terrible in the gimp (at least compared to PS).
I figured people would be asking this question so I am working on showing (with pictures) the fallbacks of the GIMP (at least when compared to PS).

[JimmyJazz]

Well, I don't know much about this, but I would list what tools you think GIMP doesn't have but that you need, and people can either verify that those features don't exist in GIMP or show you where they are in GIMP.

If GIMP isn't your cup of tea, but you still want to use Ubuntu, consider running Photoshop on Crossover Office.

I tried using PS in WINE except it crashed almost non stop and it was much slower than working in regular Windows.

[aysiu]

I tried using PS in WINE except it crashed almost non stop and it was much slower than working in regular Windows. Crossover Office may work better with Photoshop.

[Brunellus]

I wonder what photoshop can do that gimp cannot as well. Unless you need the cmyk and pantone support (a legit need for anyone doing print work) there's just nothing in one that cannot be done in the other.

The gimp, imagemagick, mplayer/mencoder and and inkscape are very powerful tools. You can do things with these tools that require thousands of dollars worth of software to do in windows.
agreed, poptones...the GIMP is very powerful, but might not be for someone doing hard-core print work.

I often feel a lot of anti-GIMPness is because the GIMP isn't Photoshop, and not so much about its actual usefulness as a tool. I have such limited experience in photoshop that I'd struggle with it, so it's not a major problem for me.

@ the original poster--what do you mean font support? You do know that it is possible to import truetype fonts into your linux system and use them as well, right?

[JimmyJazz]

thinking about this more it has inspired me to run test and document them on the GIMP and PS including performance speeds.
I will work on this for the next few day and post links to my findings.

[poptones]

I don't understand the problem with fonts. Perhaps there's something wrong with your video driver? Gimp and gnome have excellt graphic support if the machine is setup properly - far better, in fact, than anything windows can presently offer. I have about 2000 fonts on my machine and I've never encountered a problem with properly created fonts.

gimp, like photoshop, is not intended as a drawing tool. Inkscape is great for producing drawing and they can be imported into the gimp at incredibly high resolution. I've never tried it but I'm wagering you could produce professional quality billboards combining these tools with a quality printer (or even a cheap one if you have the patience to assemble a few thousand A-size panels)

[JimmyJazz]

I don't understand the problem with fonts. Perhaps there's something wrong with your video driver? Gimp and gnome have excellt graphic support if the machine is setup properly - far better, in fact, than anything windows can presently offer. I have about 2000 fonts on my machine and I've never encountered a problem with properly created fonts.

gimp, like photoshop, is not intended as a drawing tool. Inkscape is great for producing drawing and they can be imported into the gimp at incredibly high resolution. I've never tried it but I'm wagering you could produce professional quality billboards combining these tools with a quality printer (or even a cheap one if you have the patience to assemble a few thousand A-size panels)


Why is there no kerning support in the gimp (or inkscape) then?

[Malphas]

I agree with JimmyJazz (assuming I'm interpreting him correctly), lines and text aren't up to the same standard on GIMP as they are in Photoshop. This is a common complaint and has nothing to do with video drivers.

http://www.wpdfd.com/editorial/images/helvetica.png

[JimmyJazz]

also for the record I love the GIMP and even more Inkscape. I am just concerned that using it as my primary IMP may hinder my future work as a graphic designer, I admidt I very well may be somewhat brainwashed by Adobe and a large part of the design community that seems well chained to PS.
Perhaps someone could show me some result of things done in the GIMP that may change my mind.

[poptones]

Well... pango has "auto kerning" built in but there is admittedly no little widget (or pango support) for setting this in the apps. However, that isn't to say it won't be here real soon now once the Inkscape folks and the Xara folks (http://www.xaraxtreme.org/news/11-10-05.html) start cranking out some fresh code.

I get around it now pretty well (I think) by just fudging it with spaces. Here's some cd jacket mockups (http://photobucket.com/albums/y4/trancealbumart/) done in the gimp. Not terribly sophisticated, but it does show some of the things you can do with fonts with only some minor tweaking.

[JimmyJazz]

yeah I defintly look foward to seeing what the inkscape/xara people come out with.
those CD covers a are a little disturbing but, I like that in my music

[sapo]

You want to take a look here:
http://plasticbugs.com/index.php?p=241

[SolidAndShade]

I wonder what photoshop can do that gimp cannot as well. Unless you need the cmyk and pantone support (a legit need for anyone doing print work) there's just nothing in one that cannot be done in the other.

The gimp, imagemagick, mplayer/mencoder and and inkscape are very powerful tools. You can do things with these tools that require thousands of dollars worth of software to do in windows.

Unfortunately, GIMP is not adequate for photo postprocessing at anything beyond the most basic level. Along with no CMYK color, there's no Lab color, no support for 16-bit color depth (though you can get 16-bit depth with CinePaint), and the sharpening and noise reduction tools aren't nearly as good as the ones in Photoshop (although Photoshop's noise tool isn't as good as the third-party plugins, either). One of GIMP's biggest failings is that you're limited to a set of non-resizeable brushes for all your work, many of which are far too small for work on large images.

[gonçalo]

The diference I feel is more on the way of working and thinking. I can do what I did in Photoshop in terms of creative process. I confess that now whenever I face Photoshop I get lost now that I'm so used to the way of gimp working. If gimp lacks in support for [another kind of] proprietary things like pantone it excels at other things.

The only thing that really makes me sad in Gimp and Inkscape is the kerning, that really makes me weep every time I have to hand kern a big text. There was a plugin that did that almost perfectly but it was left behind in 2.0.

But any way, it's just a matter of time till we get perfect pitch graphic design tools on gnu/linux. Right now it's *only* possible to do fine things with what we have.

Gimp 2.4 will bring fantastic stuff and it will be a greater jump than 2.0 to 2.2. Maybe we get the kerning together with it?We can wish :)

[nocturn]

Well, I too have a graphical designer role. Mainly for use on websites but also for anything for our shop (ranging from paper-ads to a small static TV-ad).

The Gimp and Inkscape have served me just fine so far. Maybe photoshop would do a little better or easier, but as it is not available for Linux and it costs a huge amount of money, I'm happy with the alternatives.

[poptones]

"Noise reduction?" I never used those anyway as I can do it better with my own methods. Ditto for sharpening: it's a matter of learning to use the tool rather than letting the tool do things the way someone else says is best.

Brushes are the same. I dunno what you mean by being limited to a set of too small brushes - you can adjust brush size from 1 pixel all the way up to 1000 pixels.

I'm not saying this to bust your chops over the processing - it's just that those one-click filters are all built from primitives that already exist in both photoshop and gimp. Once you learn to construct these yourself you can apply that anywhere - like spewing out a single command line that will use imagemagick to apply complex layering and filtering tools across entire folders of images. You can then apply that very same knowledge to video simply by splitting the frames via mplayer, filtering via imagemagick and then republishing the video via mencoder.

[-Rick-]

I haven't tried it personally, but maybe you can try Pixel Image Editor (http://www.kanzelsberger.com/pixel/?page_id=12)

[fuscia]

for what it's worth: if all you ever do is put your friends' heads on the bodies of shemales, gimp is the equal to, if not better than, photoshop.

[Naglfari]

Actually, I'm quite happy with Gimp. I found that a great many of the tools that are in photoshop are indeed found in Gimp, but with simply a different title (i.e. grayscale = desaturate). It looks to me for the most part of just getting accustomed to it. :)

[Malphas]

for what it's worth: if all you ever do is put your friends' heads on the bodies of shemales, gimp is the equal to, if not better than, photoshop.
Ahahah! Yes, that is probably main reason for requiring an image manipulation program.

[maruchan]

Many of the problems I see mentioned here are resolved in the latest version of the GIMP (2.3.5, I think), which I just installed. Really, if you are using 2.2.8, you're missing a lot of new features.

If you are a graphics professional, and work for an ad agency or alongside other designers, the biggest (IME) problem you will experience is having to work on random PSD files that show up in your mailbox. These guys can make use of any of a hundred Photoshop features that just don't exist in the GIMP yet. This is especially true if you are getting a PSD file from a Photoshop veteran who attends graphics conferences all the time and is bent on using all the latest features.

If you're just working on your own, it's pretty easy to figure out if the GIMP will do what you need. Working with others is a different story, though.

[gonçalo]

kerning? Is kerning solved? Even if it's just a tad better I'll install it. Tell us please, maruchan!

[ssam]

for text try inscape.

have a look at help -> Tutorials -> advanced

there is rather powerful manual spacing. you can shift each letter in any direction. also has good text on a path tools.

you may also want to read the linux font howto (http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Font-HOWTO/). there are patent issues with the bytecode interpreter in FreeType. if you turn it on you may get better hinting.

[BatsotO]

Personally, I think they are more people volunteering their self on building gimp than volenteering on teaching on how to use gimp. Try googling up, you will find a massive amount of sites that dedicated on sharing works done with PS, how it done step by step to give other some understanding on how it works so they can make some works of their own. I havent find one site dedicated to teach gimp that have same level with , say, goodtutorials.com (where i learn to works with PS).
I also notice that gimp have many plugins. The way I think is, plugins are more technical oriented (making codes for a software) than artistic oriented (making art with the software). Coding is an art too but gimp suppose to be a graphical art tool.
People on PS mostly do their works with standard PS and less using plugins so IMHO they have more concentration on how to use the program than adding something to it.
I'm not an antigimp, but I feel like PS people have done better job on sharing their knowledge on how to make digital arts. It's just easier to learn when there is someone who gives example.

[JimmyJazz]

Personally, I think they are more people volunteering their self on building gimp than volenteering on teaching on how to use gimp. Try googling up, you will find a massive amount of sites that dedicated on sharing works done with PS, how it done step by step to give other some understanding on how it works so they can make some works of their own. I havent find one site dedicated to teach gimp that have same level with , say, goodtutorials.com (where i learn to works with PS).
I also notice that gimp have many plugins. The way I think is, plugins are more technical oriented (making codes for a software) than artistic oriented (making art with the software). Coding is an art too but gimp suppose to be a graphical art tool.
People on PS mostly do their works with standard PS and less using plugins so IMHO they have more concentration on how to use the program than adding something to it.
I'm not an antigimp, but I feel like PS people have done better job on sharing their knowledge on how to make digital arts. It's just easier to learn when there is someone who gives example.

I agree but I think the main reason is because the design world just hasn't embraced the gimp much. Anyone have ideas on how to change that?

[curuxz]

Im a professional designer (web mainly with some graphical, moving into Arch) and I find everything I need in GIMP. Once you take the time to learn it you should like it more, esp when you get your head around batch scripting and python/script-fu features in my view it kicks the windows alternatives without the nasty price tag.

If they were all the same price I realy would buy GIMP :)

[MetalMusicAddict]

Personally, I think they are more people volunteering their self on building gimp than volenteering on teaching on how to use gimp. Try googling up, you will find a massive amount of sites that dedicated on sharing works done with PS, how it done step by step to give other some understanding on how it works so they can make some works of their own. I havent find one site dedicated to teach gimp that have same level with , say, goodtutorials.com (where i learn to works with PS).
I also notice that gimp have many plugins. The way I think is, plugins are more technical oriented (making codes for a software) than artistic oriented (making art with the software). Coding is an art too but gimp suppose to be a graphical art tool.
People on PS mostly do their works with standard PS and less using plugins so IMHO they have more concentration on how to use the program than adding something to it.
I'm not an antigimp, but I feel like PS people have done better job on sharing their knowledge on how to make digital arts. It's just easier to learn when there is someone who gives example.
I think this is a big factor for lots of people. I would love to buy a up-to-date book with tutorials. A "The GIMP - Classroom in a Book" :)

"Noise reduction?" I never used those anyway as I can do it better with my own methods. Ditto for sharpening: it's a matter of learning to use the tool rather than letting the tool do things the way someone else says is best.Could you write a tutorial on this?

Brushes are the same. I dunno what you mean by being limited to a set of too small brushes - you can adjust brush size from 1 pixel all the way up to 1000 pixels.
Is there a way to do this on-the-fly? I know you can create a new brush and define its size but to resize you need to edit it again. It would be nice to have keys to shrink or enlarge the brush/pencil. Is there? I cant find up-to-date documentation for the GIMP.
I would like to get away from PS but the money invested and some other little quirks I cant find answers to slow my transition.

[poptones]

I'm not an antigimp, but I feel like PS people have done better job on sharing their knowledge on how to make digital arts. It's just easier to learn when there is someone who gives example.

Thing is, much of those same tutorials apply to gimp. Yes, there are scads of photoshop tutorial sites and I agree it might be good to have some more dedicated to gim specifically, but the thing is a layer is still a layer, lighten/darken/add/multiply etc still work pretty much the same way, etc. As an example if you hit a photoshop site that explains how to make "mercury" type 3d effects using layers and compositing (as opposed to "install this fx plugin and hit the "mercury" tool) you should be able to apply that same tutorial, pretty much verbatim, to gimp. The keystrokes may not be the same but the operations are virtually identical.

I also think 16 bit capabilities are needed and perhaps once gstreamer is a little more developed that will be an avenue. I'm anxious to contribute to that project myself but my cpp talents are very limited and I'm more anxious at present to get this filesystem interface (where I can work in bash and python) working.

I will consider putting up some tutorials on image processing in linux. Suggestions for specific actions would be welcome.

[MetalMusicAddict]

Suggestions for specific actions would be welcome.
Noise reduction and sharpening. :)

[poptones]

Oh yeah... MMA, I think you are looking for the brush tool.

There needs to be a way to link the various parameters (like radius, hardness, aspect ratio and so forth) to the pressure sensitivity on a pad, but even without that you can vary these things easily with the mouse and without having to keep opening and closing dialogs.

[MetalMusicAddict]

I have a pad and that works great. Pressure sensitivity and all. Really what Im looking for is a way to just change the static brush size with out a dialog box. ie: In PS its the [ and ] keys to reduce or enlarge the brush/pencil radius.

The sizes in the pallet go from 1px to 19px. It looks to me that is what I have to use unless I make a new brush and setting multiple variables. Not just use some keys or a scroll on a mouse to change the size beyond what is in the pallet.

[majikstreet]

gimp and inkscape seem great, I just can't find any good tutorials for them :(

[poptones]

The sizes in the pallet go from 1px to 19px. It looks to me that is what I have to use unless I make a new brush and setting multiple variables.

The reason I posted a screencap instead of just showing you the brush editor tool is so you could see how to do it. Just make a new brush and select it. Leave the dialog open and you can vary anything dynamically.

The "brush palette" is another of those "prefab" things I was talking about. Why screw with selecting 3,5,7,9 etc diameters when you can just vary the diameter with the slider? I almost never use the brush palette - I just select the "custom" brush at the bottom of the brush selector and change the settings in the editor as I need them... stick your mouse over the setting you want to change, turn the scrollwheel to adjust it, and go back to the drawing.

[ssam]

The sizes in the pallet go from 1px to 19px. It looks to me that is what I have to use unless I make a new brush and setting multiple variables. Not just use some keys or a scroll on a mouse to change the size beyond what is in the pallet.

make a new brush.
save it
select it
double click to get back to the brush editor

now you can make a edit the brush and use it at them same time

[MetalMusicAddict]

The sizes in the pallet go from 1px to 19px. It looks to me that is what I have to use unless I make a new brush and setting multiple variables.

The reason I posted a screencap instead of just showing you the brush editor tool is so you could see how to do it. Just make a new brush and select it. Leave the dialog open and you can vary anything dynamically.

The "brush palette" is another of those "prefab" things I was talking about. Why screw with selecting 3,5,7,9 etc diameters when you can just vary the diameter with the slider? I almost never use the brush palette - I just select the "custom" brush at the bottom of the brush selector and change the settings in the editor as I need them... stick your mouse over the setting you want to change, turn the scrollwheel to adjust it, and go back to the drawing.
I got what your sayin. Learned a couple of things. You might be missing me if you havnt used PS though.

Say Im using the pencil tool. In the window I see a little 10px circle. Without moving to a settings box I can vary the size of the tool by hitting the [ and ] keys on-the-fly. This works for multiple tools. Eraser, brush, pencil, clone tool, healing brush and a couple of others.

Look. In the end I know that GIMP isnt PS. I dont want it to be. Its just hard to switch when documentation is out-of-date. ie: "Grokking The GIMP"

Learning The GIMP has been like me trying linux over the years. I never had much luck till Ubuntu. There was help to learn things and I had success. Its been harder to find that help with The GIMP. Im still tryin to find good fourms.

[poptones]

I've used ps plenty, although not since 5.5 :)

thing is when I used it I never had the shortcuts memorized. I use the cli on my desktop all the time but I have never had the sort of mind that memorizes shortcut keys beyond the most basic - I never even look for them and only notice them by accident. So it's not that I'm unsympathetic, it's just I never worked that way so it's harder to relate - it's not a feature I ever used so I never miss it.

Linux and gimp and pretty much everything else needs some decent documentation - no doubt about that. I've written docs professionally and taught classes so you'd think I'd be jumping on the opportunity to sell a few ebooks on Amazon, huh?

[MetalMusicAddict]

Hell. If I knew there was a new edition of "Grokking The GIMP" out now I'de leave this second to buy it. Maybe a idea for ya?

[JimmyJazz]

I downloaded and installed GIMP development version 2.3.5 today it cleared up alot of issues that I was having with the GIMP before even kerning seems to work relativly well. Looks like I might stick with the GIMP for a little longer.

[MetalMusicAddict]

I downloaded and installed GIMP development version 2.3.5 today it cleared up alot of issues that I was having with the GIMP before even kerning seems to work relativly well. Looks like I might stick with the GIMP for a little longer.
Did you make a .deb for this? Could you post it if you did?

[endersshadow]

Here's the deb package for the GIMP 2.3.5:

http://www.politicalcrossfire.com/temp/enderavsig/ubuntu/gimp_2.3.5-1_i386.deb

[MetalMusicAddict]

Nevermind. I got it.

[MetalMusicAddict]

There was talk in this thread about resizing the brush dynamically. I found a way. Look HERE (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=585586#post585586) if interested.

[Enter]

ok i didnt search...
do you know if you can add custom brushes like in PS in gimp?
and are there like blending options thing?

[poptones]

LOL. Did you read any part of this thread?

[John.Michael.Kane]

this may help

http://registry.gimp.org/index.jsp
http://gimp-plug-ins.sourceforge.net/
http://www.manucornet.net/Informatique/Texturize.php
http://www.vic.uklinux.net/software/gimp/plugins.html
http://www.pgd-design.com/gimp/br.php
http://www.pixel2life.com/tutorials/Gimp/Brushes_and_Brushing/

[MetalMusicAddict]

Nice SD-Plissken. ;)

[John.Michael.Kane]

I hope those links helps thoes who need a little more punch from the gimp..

[Enter]

LOL. Did you read any part of this thread?
only the first posts

[bonzodog]

it's worth noting that now Macromedia and adobe are one, it is possible we could see PS for linux..that would be cool.

[brother_of_jared]

Greets!

I'm new here, to Linux/Ubuntu, and to GIMP. I too have done most of my work in Photoshop and have found this thread to be rather interesting.

Forgive me if this is not the proper thread for this question, but I do have a question about Palettes. I have downloaded the Ubuntu Gimp Palette and found that it could not be imported. So, I simply downloaded an image version of the palette and re-built it. My question is this: Are there any examples of the intended uses of the colors contained in the palette? There are accents and base colors as well as environmental colors.

I guess I am looking for a specific example, something more than "Use it in logo creation" something to the liking of "The Environmental Blue Accent is often used when creating ________"

Any thoughts on this?

(Hope that made sense...)

[JimmyJazz]

Greets!

I'm new here, to Linux/Ubuntu, and to GIMP. I too have done most of my work in Photoshop and have found this thread to be rather interesting.

Forgive me if this is not the proper thread for this question, but I do have a question about Palettes. I have downloaded the Ubuntu Gimp Palette and found that it could not be imported. So, I simply downloaded an image version of the palette and re-built it. My question is this: Are there any examples of the intended uses of the colors contained in the palette? There are accents and base colors as well as environmental colors.

I guess I am looking for a specific example, something more than "Use it in logo creation" something to the liking of "The Environmental Blue Accent is often used when creating ________"

Any thoughts on this?

(Hope that made sense...)

I'm not really sure what you are talking about maybe you could try to be more specific.

[brother_of_jared]

I'm not really sure what you are talking about maybe you could try to be more specific.

Ok, I had hoped I was being specific. Let's try this way. I grabbed a copy of the color palette for Ubuntu here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuArtwork

The one for GIMP wouldn't import so I simply re-built it. The question being, what are some examples of the intented uses for these colors. From the site you will read the following "When you are designing icons for Ubuntu, here's a colour palette to assist you in a variety of formats:"

When you look at the palette you will find each color with a specific name which suggests a usage. I'm simply unsure of the usage for each color.

[JimmyJazz]

Ok, I had hoped I was being specific. Let's try this way. I grabbed a copy of the color palette for Ubuntu here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuArtwork

The one for GIMP wouldn't import so I simply re-built it. The question being, what are some examples of the intented uses for these colors. From the site you will read the following "When you are designing icons for Ubuntu, here's a colour palette to assist you in a variety of formats:"

When you look at the palette you will find each color with a specific name which suggests a usage. I'm simply unsure of the usage for each color.

oh I see hmmm well really the color palette on that page is provided to help keep the color scheme of UBUNTU artwork a little more inline, how you use the colors is really just up to you though.

[benplaut]

ok, i have to say it...

"One cannot live on the GIMP alone, but one can live on GNU/Emacs alone!"

[Brunellus]

ok, i have to say it...

"One cannot live on the GIMP alone, but one can live on GNU/Emacs alone!"
get it right.

"man does not live by the GIMP alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of RMS"

[benplaut]

get it right.

"man does not live by the GIMP alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of RMS"

-_-

[brother_of_jared]

If this question has been coverd, I apologize.

How do I set my tools to recognize my WACOM Tablet sensitivity?

[MetalMusicAddict]

You really need to search. I even put together a FAQ on it. Search and you will get the info you need. Im telling you to search because my 1 link might not fit your problem. ;)

[brother_of_jared]

You really need to search. I even put together a FAQ on it. Search and you will get the info you need. Im telling you to search because my 1 link might not fit your problem. ;)

I've read through your how-to.. I'm too much of a noob on this OS... you may as well have used Japanese or something. Sorry... I'm certain the How-to is amazing for those who know what they are doing.

[exclipy]

In response to the original question, I am a web developer and have been happily living on Linux (Mandriva and now Ubuntu), using The Gimp. I tried using Photoshop once and couldn't work on it as fluidly as I do with The Gimp.

[Madpilot]

gimp and inkscape seem great, I just can't find any good tutorials for them :(

For Inkscape, there's some good basic (and not-quite-as-basic) tutorials included right in the program - in Inkscape, just go Help menu --> Tutorials, and there's seven or eight.

One cool thing is that the tutorials themselves are giant SVG files, so you're reading the tutorial right inside the app you're learning, and you can manipulate the entire tutorial if you want to practice!

[brother_of_jared]

You could try gimptalk.com or gimpbattledome.com

[fuscia]

thanks for dragging this old thread up. it answered something (brush size) that has bothered me for a long time.

[mips]

There is also Krita, Xara and hopefully soon Cinepaint Glasgow.

[craig552]

I used a combination of Paint shop Pro and MS Paint in windows, now I'm just a GIMP guy. But a quick little paint style program for linux would be handy, any suggestions?
I'm also dipping my toes in to Inkscape when I get a spare few minutes, I've never really given vector graphics much attention in the past, now I'm changing my mind...

[FISHERMAN]

...But a quick little paint style program for linux would be handy, any suggestions?
gpaint?

[lapsey]

No. GIMP is horribly rough. And I'm not just saying that because I'm used to photoshop.

The filters are sloppy.
The interface is annoying and unintuitive
Measurements are imprecise
Tasks are overcomplicated
Hotkeys are illogical
Jpeg compression is really really poor

It's great if you like to make rough photomanipulations in your ample spare time, but I would NOT use GIMP professionally yet.

The worst thing about all this is that the people that maintain it only listen to the hobbyists that have the time and inclination to put up with The Gimp's interface.

Anyone else can be blown off with a 'oh you just need to get used to it', until they give up and go back to a professional image editing suite.

If anyone has a good argument for GIMP over PS in a professional context I'd love to hear it

[bruce89]

If anyone has a good argument for GIMP over PS in a professional context I'd love to hear it
It's free.
You might be insterested in GIMPshop (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GIMPshop), although its site is down.
I have to say that the fact that the GIMP doesn't do colourspaces is a big problem for professional use.
I also think the interface is a nightmare, but things are being improved for 2.4.x

[fuscia]

I used a combination of Paint shop Pro and MS Paint in windows, now I'm just a GIMP guy. But a quick little paint style program for linux would be handy, any suggestions?
I'm also dipping my toes in to Inkscape when I get a spare few minutes, I've never really given vector graphics much attention in the past, now I'm changing my mind...

try xpaint.

[jeremy]

I do web design/development, and Gimp does pretty well everything I need. The on thing that I can't find out how to do is the equivalent of photoshop's Edit-> Transform-> Distort (the one that lets you pull the edges out or in).
Can this be done?

[jeremy]

Can this be done?
Having posted I found what I wanted; the Perspective (Shift + P) tool.

[MetalMusicAddict]

Having posted I found what I wanted; the Perspective (Shift + P) tool.
Thanx man. I was also wondering about this. ;)

[GuitarHero]

Are there any gimp tutorial sites like good-tutorials?
I guess the problem is that good-tutorials doesnt host tutorials they just link to them, and there arent many gimp sites to link to.

[John.Michael.Kane]

gimp tutorials/ (http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/)
gimp-savvy (http://gimp-savvy.com/)
gimp/Tutorial/ (http://www.netads.com/~meo/gimp/Tutorial/)
tutorials/gimp/ (http://www.cooljeba.com/tutorials/gimp/)