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GIMP goes SVG
An anonymous reader writes "The GIMP developers released a new snapshot in the development series. Version 1.3.21 (aka the path to excellence release) features an improved path tool with superb path stroking and adds SVG support. You can now export your GIMP paths to SVG and the new SVG import plug-in not only renders Scalable Vector Graphics for you at the desired resolution, it also imports SVG paths as GIMP paths."
I wonder what the Sodipodi developers are going to do with this. Hopefully, there will be lots of cooperation. Sodipodi is rapidly maturing into a truly great vector graphics app for Linux and Windows (and OS X over X11, I'd guess). If the two projects cooperated, we could have an Illustrator killer on our hands!
1) Did they waste time writing it all themselves, or are they interworking with SodiPodi? SodiPodi is an excellent piece of software if you want to edit SVG.
2) Does it just import them and make paths, or is it a full-featured SVG editor? Someone else commented on it now being Photoshop+Illustrator, but that's a whole different thing. Photoshop also supports importing SVG and AI format, it just doesn't edit them. (see question three)
3) Does it make this simple? I've tried to figure a way to do both Vector and Raster editing in one program before, and had some ideas, but nothing that would truly make it easy. The reason Illustrator and Photoshop are separate is not for the chance to sell two products (although I suspect that influences the idea a bit) but because there isn't a way to do vector and raster editing in a well mixed manner. At best, you end up with something that changes back and forth between being a vector editor and a raster editor depending on what is selected.
V1.2.4 does not support this which make it an inconvenient choice to edit pictures taken with a digital camera. All JPG properties like date the picture was shot and other parameters get lost when saving.
The new improved GUI, complete with easier menus, new docking system, frendlier help.
CMYK support!
Now uses GTK 2, no more ugly fonts, no more GREY, its all in the colour you want!
Hundreds of new plugins, and there is the excellent plug in registry as well. If there isn't a filter you wan't then it can easily be created due to the GIMP's API
Support for standards from the freedesktop project, including thumnails.
The new Docking gui, which allows you to reduce your screen clutter! Just drag and drop those tabs!
Much faster, starts in around 3 seconds, and it uses MMX extentions to accelerate your graphics filters.
Simply put, gimp 1.3.x is really powerful, and Adobe should start to become worried. Remember, if the feature you wan't isn't there, it will be soon due to the extremly rapid development. Even a 0.01 increment == TONS of features!
Also, the "gimp" himself looks a lot cuter in SVG.
I don't know. My girlfriend had never used a computer graphics program before Gimp, but was quite an artist. After learning all about it, translating "Grokking the Gimp" into Thai, and teaching courses in it, she says that Photoshop is very confusing for her. So why, again, should Gimp change its interface? Because it's not what you're used to? I find the interface quite refreshing, but I don't use it professionally.
Goy does, though, and she agrees with me.
Put identity in the browser.
IE doesn't support flash either, and it's wide-spread. All you need is to embedd a link to the SVG active-X control and users will pick it up on the fly. No big deal. Average Joe's don't even know flash isn't supported natively. They still use it.
Don't look for any new features in IE for the next several years. By integrating it tightly into the OS and killing it as a standalone product, Microsoft has effectively eliminated all potential innovation in the browser area, since browser releases now equals OS releases. IE 7 won't be out until Longhorn (at least a year away), and even then it won't be widely used as most people will never migrate off XP for the life of their machines.
This is an unprecedented opportunity for Mozilla to win the browser war. Being a standalone installable app (that can run on win98 and up), Mozilla can add new features and support new standards. Just spread the word. Tell your friends. Talk to your favorite web developers.