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Thread: What's so bad about GIMP?

  1. #1
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    What's so bad about GIMP?

    Hello everyone,

    On this and other forums, I often see people expressing dislike of the GIMP. People often say that it's horrible, or nasty, has a bad interface, amongst other things.
    Myself, I use it for some things and I find it OK. But before I used GIMP, I never really used any other things except MS paint and an old version of Corel Photo-paint, so I have little experience of other image editors.

    What do you dislike about the GIMP? Explain it in detail, and show some examples of it. I want to see if people dislike it because it really is poor, or because everyone's used to photoshop and don't like GIMP simply because it is different.

  2. #2
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    Re: What's so bad about GIMP?

    I've used both GIMP and Photoshop CS extensively, and I must say that each of them have features that I appreciate.

    GIMP seems to be more powerful, though not as easy to use. The right-click context menu-driven interface is superb, giving quick access to every function in the program. A big complaint that I've heard from some friends who use GIMP for basic photo-editing is the lack of an automated red-eye fix tool. You can still use GIMP to fix red-eyes, it just takes several steps and a handful of minutes - and the results come out looking better and more natural than any automated tool that I've seen.

    Photoshop is the industry standard for image editing, and there is a reason for that. The interface is natural and easy to use; the program is powerful enough to accomplish most everything that a user could want to do; and it has plenty of automated tasks for touching up photos in a hurry.

    My general analysis is that Photoshop is easier to use, while GIMP is a more powerful editor.

  3. #3
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    Re: What's so bad about GIMP?

    Thanks for the reply, codesplice.
    I assume you work as a graphics designer? Just curious.

  4. #4
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    Re: What's so bad about GIMP?

    Ummm, in most cases I've seen its really just people are used to PS layout and get culture shocked that people would use a different layout and not just copy Adobe's... some people get the same shock when first opening up Ubuntu and seeing its default gnome layout. GIMPshop was created for those people, but I don't think I like it that much personally... I'm sticking it out with regular GIMP.

    The only real complaint about GIMP I think, is they are still lacking (though not for long) CMYK editing support which many professionals enjoy using. Its not a major feature though for the average user.

    I think the only thing that GIMP needs is better support from sites. Look at pixel2life for instance. Its a good index of public tutorials... Adobe Photoshop has 323 pages, GIMP has 6. I've also looked around, and while there are some sites they really don't offer complete instruction from basic to advanced (I looked at groking the gimp which isn't bad, it is a bit dated though and thus not always accurate/complete).

    People just need to approach Ubuntu/GIMP with an open mind, if their not interested in learning something new and spending time on it, they should stick to whatever OS they have and PS.

    Oh and yes, I'ved used both too, only a year and a half of really active use of PS, and a few months with GIMP.

  5. #5
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    Re: What's so bad about GIMP?

    I think gimp.org needs something like gnome-look.org's wallpaper section for tutorials and to display the results so people can browse by thumbnails etc.. for nice effects and scripts or whatever.

    I don't really use the gimp much but that's my 2 cents and excuse anything I've said which might sound stubid.

  6. #6
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    Re: What's so bad about GIMP?

    I've used Photoshop for several years, and Gimp for several months. Although I'm not a professional designer/photo editor, I've done quite a bit of design over the years. So far, I haven't found much that Photoshop could do that Gimp couldn't do. The major problem with Gimp seems to be that it isn't intuitive. For someone new to Gimp it can be incredibly frustrating.

  7. #7
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    Re: What's so bad about GIMP?

    the biggest problems for me with the gimp is the lack of background removal tools that remove accurately above the edges of objects. The one in the latest versions of Paint Shop Pro is nearly flawless. THe gimp takes a lot more effort to cut out shapes.

    I also dislike the fact you can't resize brushes easily in the gimp and that you have to make new brush sizes. Again, in PSP you just use the mouse wheel to enlarge or make the brush smaller.

    Finally, resizing and rotating layers leaves the original layer in full view and it's difficult to gauge. there is a trick to make it work differently, but its cumbersome and i seldom remember the technique.

    There are other annoying things about it but on the whole I really like the program and it is very powerful.

  8. #8
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    Re: What's so bad about GIMP?

    I prefer the Gimp over Photoshop, despite the fact that it lacks features (mainly CMYK support, and decent typesetting tools).

    The Gimp starts up way faster, and I actually prefer the GUI.

    The Gimp still has room for improvement, but it's quite decent. Most of the flak it gets is just because it's not Photoshop, which is a shame.

    Stuff I'd like to see in the gimp are the following:
    -cmyk support
    -better pdf import (some files just fail, while Krita handles them fine, although that's more of a ghostscript thing)
    -better psd support (i sometimes get psd's that i need to fire up photoshop for)
    -adjustment layers and generally being able to do more non-destructive operations (in the Gimp I end up undoing and retrying things until i get them right, in Photoshop you can just alter the layer params)
    -being able to lay out text in a sane way

    But the Gimp already is pretty decent (especially if you're just doing web gfx), and is certainly not the piece of crap some make it out to be.

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    Re: What's so bad about GIMP?

    Quote Originally Posted by PatrickMay16 View Post
    Hello everyone,

    On this and other forums, I often see people expressing dislike of the GIMP. People often say that it's horrible, or nasty, has a bad interface, amongst other things.
    Myself, I use it for some things and I find it OK. But before I used GIMP, I never really used any other things except MS paint and an old version of Corel Photo-paint, so I have little experience of other image editors.

    What do you dislike about the GIMP? Explain it in detail, and show some examples of it. I want to see if people dislike it because it really is poor, or because everyone's used to photoshop and don't like GIMP simply because it is different.
    Part of the reason I do not like The GIMP is because of it's design... Why on earth does my taskbar need to be dominated by windows when I run a single application? The instant you start doing something in the GIMP you have 3 windows open... need to take bits and bobs from other artwork? Even more. It's a serious PITA to do that.

    I also dislike GIMP because it lacks a lot of functionality and polish that I can find in other suites. I have had the gimp crash on me consistently while trying to create a 1 px stroke around a selection. The GIMP lacks feature layers (Color Balance layers, etc.) which make it a lot easier to try different effects and what not on a photo. Also, it's 8-bit whereas most other editors are 16-bit which makes a difference in quality.
    "Freedom is the right of all sentient beings"- Optimus Prime

  10. #10
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    Re: What's so bad about GIMP?

    Quote Originally Posted by PatrickMay16 View Post
    Thanks for the reply, codesplice.
    I assume you work as a graphics designer? Just curious.
    Negative. Just a photography enthusiast

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