James G. Sack (jim) wrote:
Christoph Maier wrote:
By the way, how does GIMP compare to Photoshop? In my not too competent
opinion, quite favorably ...
Well, I've been learning more about gimp in recent months, and a lot of
what I run into of a tutorial nature comes from the photoshop community.
Here's my evaluation.
[snip]
Just considering photoshop, I have indeed seen features missing from
gimp that would unquestionably be useful to a moderately experienced
gimp user -- things like selection "refinement", layer style, and object
selection, and some tool workings that help discriminate highlights and
shadows when doing various photo enhancing operations. Also photoshop
does have some (perhaps limited but better than nothing) support for
16-bit color channels. Oh yeah, they do a better job of integrating HSV
(and LAB, etc) for those special cases where in gimp you need to
decompose, edit, and then recompose.
From some reading I did a couple of years ago as research for how
professional artists thought The Gimp fared against Photoshop (PS), it
turns out (according to those discussions) that the main reason so many
features, tools, and a specific color space capability (I don't remember
which one - HSV?) are missing from The Gimp is fundamentally because of
software patents:
It turns out that Adobe's biggest asset is patents. Lots of them
practically applied in PS. Most of the really cool tools in PS depend on
very complex algorithms - on which Adobe has patents. It's not that FOSS
devs don't know /how/ to code those features, they legally /can't/.
That also applies to the missing color space support - it also has legal
encumbrances on its use.
I'm sure I haven't yet seen features that skilled photoshopper consider
valuable.
Nevertheless, I would say that the overwhelming majority of the features
/I/ want are adequate in gimp. I think it provides a lot of
photo-editing power. But that's me. In all fairness, I have heard
someone say that gimp isn't even up to PaintShopPro (an inexpensive
Windows prog -- used to be <= $100, and you could even get a trial/nag
version free). For me, I still think gimp is grreat! Others may have
specific needs --maybe even simple ones-- that gimp misses the boat on. YMMV
Yes, The Gimp seems to be an adequate lighter-weight photo editing tool
for the non-production artist, for those who have the patience to learn it.
And a good part of the things I wish for will probably come "next year"
(or so). I would guestimate gimp is probably 5-years behind photoshop in
the higher-end features.
I think there has been some new blood, or at least fresh thinking
applied to its development in the last couple of years. It seemed that
for the longest time there was a NIH attitude among the primary dev
team. Especially regarding its UI.
Gimp is most certainly a serious photo-editing tool. Whether it meets
"professional" needs is arguable. I think it's a very nice and fun tool.
I think so. While not as capable as PS, it's powerful, and therefore,
complex enough to have a steep enough learning curve for to put off the
casual user.
BTW there is a new version 1.6 coming out "real soon now" (my guess: a
couple more months). They say it is mostly preparatory for the real-nice
user-impressive features promised to come [more quickly?] in 2.8 -- but
I do believe there will be significant improvements in 2.6. They are
doing serious UI analysis using real UI experts; they are eliminating a
bunch of annoyances; and they are making things more consistent. I
haven't run a beta (2.5) but have seen demos that satisfy me as
impressive. We shall see.
The Gimp's UI has probably been the biggest area of criticism over the
years. Apparently a "Love it or hate it" thing. Part of it seems unfair
in that people with experience using PS think that everything else
should look/work/feel like PS. Of course that pretty much describes most
people who grew up using exclusively only one OS (or class of app, or
one side of the cockpit, etc.) and never peeked out the window, so to speak.
Aside to CM: I've even gotten a little better at photogimping; see
http://www.kernel-panic.org/wiki/VirtualReality
Regards,
..jim (I'd rather keep the $650-2500)
Hear! Hear!
--
Best Regards,
~DJA.
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