MX Linux Forum

If there is ONE thing that I miss in Linux, then it is a decent photo editor.

There is The GIMP, of course (and Pinta, and a few other smaller ones), but I think that the real meaning of GIMP is "Greatly Irritating Miserable Program", because, ghaaaa.

Sure, it gets things done (well...), but I would have a whole list of things that are wrong with GIMP (having to close an edited photograph before being able to continue working with it? Every single time having to click No-I-don't-want-to-save-the-picture, after I already "exported" it?).

In Windows I something get simple things done faster in MS Paint (for Tux's sake!) than in GIMP. I find it very unbelievable that the GIMP developers use their own software, for they surely would run into the same "issues" that I have with GIMP (unless they have never ever ever used any other photoeditor software and do not know any better?).

I have been using CorelDRAW PhotoPAINT for a very long time, and I love it. If it existed for Linux, I'd buy it without hesitation. (If any CorelDRAW programmer reads this... please, port your Suite to Linux...). I could go into a rant about The GIMP, but I shouldn't do that...

Are there any other people who use The GIMP regularly (by lack of anything better), and who find it a Greatly Irritating Miserable Program?

It depends on your own ideas about what you have to do and what you want to do.
I haven't used Photoshop under Windows since 1999, I didn't get it on my computer as a gift (or pirate copy). No more Adobe products, the only exception was my Wacom Tablet, which came with Lightroom 5.x on CD. The tablet with the CD was cheaper than a Lightroom CD alone ;-)

I shoot in RAW with RawTherapee and LightZone as primary converters. For the rest of the JPG I use the JPG Illuminator, for which there is NO equivalent replacement under Linx and which fortunately runs under Wine (at least the essential 95% I need)

Retouching beyond sensor spots and small "bumps" is something I rarely do, I don't need a Gimp for that.
I also don't work with layers, so any small image editing is enough for me.
Whereby I have as "reserve" Krita as appimage on the computer.
But as I said, it depends on your own viewing habits and goals.
I photograph the world as I see it and 95% of all image manipulations have no place there, so I don't need any software for that (although LightZone could be used creatively in this respect).
My customers (i.e. in the past, I haven't worked in this field for a long time) probably saw it the same way, otherwise they would never have been my customers ;-)

I don't do much with software, but I have >20 lenses and I know why I use which and when.

+1

I been using GIMP since it's release. Since I couldn't afford Photoshop. So I been using GIMP, even when I was using Windows. Been using Linux for the past 17 years and still using GIMP. But I don't just use GIMP for all my Photo Editing. Here are the others that I been using under Linux.

https://www.tecmint.com/best-image-phot ... for-linux/

As for MS Paint.. These are my alternatives;;;

MyPaint on the top of that list for me.

https://itsfoss.com/open-source-paint-apps/

Just keep playing around, until you find the best for you or learn them all. Especially GIMP as a Pro. Many YouTube tutorials how to use GIMP as a Pro. I have no trouble editing my photos with Linux tools. But I been doing it for years, even with open-source applications while I was on Windows as well.

There is a commercial photo editor that works with Linux call Corel® AfterShot™ 3. The free open-source Linux photo editor tools work for me, so I never try this pay application out. Maybe it's worth the shot for you.

https://www.aftershotpro.com/en/product ... /standard/

For the usual crop -> adjust contrast/brightness/saturation -> sharpen type of manipulations, the editor in Digikam is easy & quick.
For assembling an image from multiple images/text I usually revert to running Paint Shop Pro (using wine) because the way Gimp deals with layers (especially those with transparency) just won't stick in my brain so it takes me 3 times as long.
Mind, Gimp does layers well if you can just remember how the heck it to do them.

What Gimp needs is a simple "Paste as transparent layer" selection similar to PSP's "Paste as transparent selection". If PSP could do it in 1997, you would think the Gimp devs could add something like it for us non-pros.

I see GIMP can be a hassle as it takes extra steps to get the results you want. Plus you have to know how to do those steps as well. There are even times I use three photo editing software applications, because I know the easy way of doing them and sometimes GIMP isn't the answer for those easy task.

GIMP transparent layer in 5 steps;

https://www.instructables.com/id/Adding ... sing-GIMP/

I still love Linux and I get by editing all my photos using Linux tools. I don't complain, I just learned them and move along. 17 years using Linux, you got to know a thing or two by now.

GIMP can be a pain, especially when dealing with lots layers Imho.

Have you looked at darktable for some of what you are trying to do?
https://www.darktable.org/about/features/

gimcrack,

Those 5 "easy steps" to make a transparent layer in gimp are really 19 steps ! Each of the 5 steps has many sub-steps.

So, yes, I see the OP's point.

I use Gimp regularly and for most things I do it is easy to use. But layers and transparency are very difficult.

Skara_Brae wrote: Thu Jul 09, 2020 6:58 am I find it very unbelievable that the GIMP developers use their own software, for they surely would run into the same "issues" that I have with GIMP (unless they have never ever ever used any other photoeditor software and do not know any better?).

Exactly what I asked wondered myself over the years. ( Almost something as: in what for a ..... do they live?)

Are there any other people who use The GIMP regularly (by lack of anything better), and who find it a Greatly Irritating Miserable Program?

I use Gimp as LESS as possible. Missing any form of "intuitive" as a example Inkscape is "intuitive". Most cases Shotwell helps me with small editing. And YES I find it a Greatly Irritating Miserable Program!

Thanks Crojav

If you're really that irritated by it, then uninstall is just one click away.

Bingo!

but don`t use apt autoremove after deinstalling gimp, like I did.
after that none of my image and video edits could export to the webm format.
I had to install Gimp again, after that it worked again.

Inkscape & Pinta, check them out.

I use GIMP as my goto bitmap image editor. It's is a killer program. The default settings in MX kind of stink. They gray theme and unified windows are particularly crippling. But, as with any other super powerful program, there is a learning curve those of you who are complaining have been unwilling to undertake. https://2chronicles36.org/screenshot.jpg

Ha oh boy I agree with this thread.. All I usually want to do is resize an image, maybe crop it, maybe draw an arrow on it and put some text on it. MS Paint is great for this, GIMP is really complicated.

Install Hotshots, open the image in the editor. Arrow easily done.

Resize an image: open the image in Nomacs, same for cropping. You can do the resize and cropping in the Hotshots editor as well, just checked.

Another option for making quick image changes is ImageMagick. It's amazing what you can accomplish with that suite.

Snod Blatter wrote: Thu Jul 09, 2020 3:17 pm Ha oh boy I agree with this thread.. All I usually want to do is resize an image, maybe crop it, maybe draw an arrow on it and put some text on it. MS Paint is great for this, GIMP is really complicated.

If that's all you want to do and don't want to use GIMP. Then use a MS Paint alternative like MyPaint or something similar. Like I suggested earlier.

https://itsfoss.com/open-source-paint-apps/

Awwww...using a Krita appimage when we have the current 4.3.0 release in main? Is there something wrong with our version?

PSP under Wine still works for me, especially with the thumbnail browse capacity.

figueroa wrote: Thu Jul 09, 2020 1:42 pm But, as with any other super powerful program, there is a learning curve those of you who are complaining have been unwilling to undertake. screenshotthumb.jpg https://2chronicles36.org/screenshot.jpg

Unwilling? More as to make a decent decision witch other powerful program needs my attention first, second - and start with there learning curve. Not much time and attention left for Gimp. In that scenario it's handy to have a intuitive program witch helps you.

For your interest? I work with Krita with Xp-pen. Most of my other work is done in Inkscape. And use scripts to handle all kind of action from out of Inkscape. I realy like to mention Inkscape, it's more or less also a powerful program, but is has a direct intuitive starting point. The same for Krita.

My complain to Gimp, for me it's not intuitive.

Thanks Crojav

Stevo wrote: Fri Jul 10, 2020 12:08 am Awwww...using a Krita appimage when we have the current 4.3.0 release in main? Is there something wrong with our version?

No, nothing wrong.
Usually I use programs that are "lighter". But I like to try and only for testing I prefer appimages, they are easier to remove :-)
(after my experiences with apt autoremove I became more careful)

Whether Pinta or Krita will make the race, I don't know yet.
Most of the work I do in the raw converter

For simple scribbling and drawing, you can also try azpainter in the repos.

I recall Stevo used to specially package it because it was a surprisingly small package for its capabilities.

https://github.com/Symbian9/azpainter

I think it's not too difficult to work out how to use it. Right clicking on various options/tools does bring up usage hints.

asqwerth wrote: Fri Jul 10, 2020 5:57 am For simple scribbling and drawing, you can also try azpainter in the repos. ...

... Yes nice light image tool too.
I use here, Gimp, (MTpaint , and probably AZpainter too now for light tasks), and for photo: XnwiewMP.

I'm very surprised to not see darktable being mentioned. This is a very well appointed RAW file developer/editor - once one gets past the learning curve.

But, this is only really applicable if one is shooting RAW format. Yes, you can manipulate JPG (and other format) images, but it is designed for working with RAW format data.

Before I got out of the business, I shot, developed, and delivered wedding photographs using darktable. Very stable, very powerful. And, many of the development steps can be scripted and applied to groups of photos (as large a group as you like).

Finally, all edits are saved as meta data - the RAW file is not touched by darktable. Must like Lightroom (from Adobe), darktable exports it's product as the result of applying operations to the data in the RAW file and writing the result to another file.

I have used (and still have a valid license for) AfterShot. Good product and very fast (faster than darktable) and also works by applying operations against RAW file data and writing the result of a different file - not touching the RAW file.

The Raw Converter in Aftershot is the former Bibble, was purchased. So as with Adobe Lightroom, until v4 the raw converter was the competing product rawshooter, which was bought from the market. To be more precise, Adobe did not have a separate raw converter in 2006.
I found xxxxx, I had a rawshooter license ;-)
Luckily, RawTherapee, a powerful successor, at that time still closed source and windows only (but free to use), was released soon. Potent regarding the possibilities and the quality of the results, the processing speed was between very slow and catastrophic until v3.x. Just like with LightZone even today, when more than 10-15 more complex processing modules are active in the processing stack.
If you're satisfied, that's good. I was going to buy Bibble, but then they were taken over by Corel. My experiences with Correl products, stability, support, were ambivalent. May have changed of course, my experiences are older than 10 years

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Crojav wrote: Fri Jul 10, 2020 3:15 am For your interest? I work with Krita with Xp-pen. Most of my other work is done in Inkscape. And use scripts to handle all kind of action from out of Inkscape. I realy like to mention Inkscape, it's more or less also a powerful program, but is has a direct intuitive starting point. The same for Krita.

My complain to Gimp, for me it's not intuitive.

Fair enough. If you use Inkscape, a powerful vector graphic program, you're no slouch. I use it too, when I need to work with vector graphic images, which I find not intuitive, but manageable, yet still frightening. GIMP and Inkscape complement each other. I agree, GIMP has a learning curve, kind of like vi. You have to figure out it's conventions to get started. But after using GIMP since near it's beginning (circa 1998), it is obviously intuitive to me. Twenty years ago when I had to use Photoshop under Windows, I found IT difficult and counter-intuitive with so many choices in the menus that I didn't understand. But now, I wouldn't use Photoshop if it was free and open source.

GIMP probably has the most on-line help of ALL programs, with an exhaustive manual, tutorials, and too-many-to-count third party sites with GIMP examples, hints, tricks and other helps. I'm definitely a GIMP fan-boy. I also use Imagemagick from the command-line many other command-line image processing tools for big production jobs. Imagemagick is, literally, magic, but no native GUI. That said, a fair number of other image programs use Imagemagick tools to do their heavy lifting.

When smaller drawing or image editing programs suit your needs, they are totally appropriate. But, when they run out of the features or tools that one needs to work with bitmap images, GIMPS is Swiss Army knife of Linux image editing and the learning curve is worth the investment.

Eadwine Rose wrote: Thu Jul 09, 2020 3:43 pm Install Hotshots, open the image in the editor. Arrow easily done.

Resize an image: open the image in Nomacs, same for cropping. You can do the resize and cropping in the Hotshots editor as well, just checked.

The editor for Hotshots actually looks great, it's almost a shame it's hidden behind a screenshot utility!

Many alternatives being suggested here, I'll have a look at azpainter as well..

srq2625 wrote: Fri Jul 10, 2020 9:14 am I'm very surprised to not see darktable being mentioned. This is a very well appointed RAW file developer/editor - once one gets past the learning curve.

It was mentioned by me awhile ago here.

But this just goes to show you there are actually so many applications to cover everything and fill the void, we’re already repeating ourselves in the thread too.

asqwerth wrote: Fri Jul 10, 2020 5:57 am For simple scribbling and drawing, you can also try azpainter in the repos.

I recall Stevo used to specially package it because it was a surprisingly small package for its capabilities.

https://github.com/Symbian9/azpainter

I think it's not too difficult to work out how to use it. Right clicking on various options/tools does bring up usage hints.

Yes! Interesting how easy you can configure brushes
https://github.com/Symbian9/azpainter/wiki/Brushes

Thanks Crojav

The one thing I miss in Linux is when running a desktop PC connected to a UPS and the power fails, trying to hurry and do a graceful shutdown of the machine before the UPS battery dies only to be greeted with "Windows is installing your updates. Do not turn off your computer." (I actually had that happen once.)

What I miss are the extra-long boot up times. I no longer have the time to shovel the snow or paint the kitchen.