Slashdot Mirror
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."
Gimp now Works like Photoshop AND Illustrator.
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The addition of vector graphics definitely pushes Gimp over the edge. I used to use Gimp for all sorts of little images, but occasionally had to opt for something commercial because many print corporations only use vector graphics.
Way to go Gimp! If doing practically everything photoshop can do for free didn't put Gimp on the map. The addition of SVG ought to.
Slashdot Syndrome: the sudden, extreme urge to correct someone in order to validate one's self.
The look of www.gimp.org will be changing.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
Get an SVG enabled Mozilla build and start playing with it. It's fun.
How small a thought it takes to fill a whole life
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.
So what does the GIMP use to render SVG and how good is it?
In particular, is it different from the libart that Mozilla has been using?
The world really needs a high quality open source SVG renderer. Adobe's plugins don't exist for every platform and Batik, AFAIK, relies on Java 2D.
"Provided by the management for your protection."
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.
Your message is nothing but a sea of errors.
First, it's "layman's." (Lamens? Is that a brand of ramen noodles or something?)
Secondly, no, this announcement does NOT mean GIMP works like Photoshop AND Illustrator. Nothing of the sort, not even close. ALL this means is that GIMP can now save into a scalable vector format designed for the web. The decidedly low- to mid-tier GIMP project still has a long way to go before it even touches Photoshop, let alone Illustrator (although, so as not to seem like *too* much of a troll, I will say that GIMP is pretty darn good as a basic image editor. Can't beat the price, for sure).
I understand it's exciting to post on Slashdot and all, but, you seriously just posted a message that does not contain a single correct statement. That's pretty... err, lame.
There is also a rudimentary plugin now which handles CMYK color separations here. Also, the MacGIMP site had a story on the SVG changes as well before it was posted on Slashdot.
http://tinyurl.com/4ny52
The GIMP is on the road for a 2.0 release that shall happen this year. Actually, this 1.3.21 release shall be the last one before the 2.0pre release series.
Do not miss the new GIMP site, taht will soon replace the contents in www.gimp.org: mmaybe.gimp.org .
-><- no
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.
A barrier for me using SVG is that the graphics I make are not importable into the (MS) tools the people I work with use. If I was pointed to a good SVG2something tool, I'd be more excited.
Not until it's supported by Internet Explorer.
This is not a troll, this is the truth. Joe Average doesn't care; a new vector graphics format is only exciting to geeks. Joe Average only cares about "images", regardless of the underlying technology.
Unless either IE supports SVG natively, or everybody has an SVG plugin, SVG will never become popular.
CMYK is now supported in this version. By the time this branch becomes "stable", it should have almost all of the features that people have been complaining about.
http://mmmaybe.gimp.org/ has more info.
This is not flamebait, but why instead of focusing development efforts on stuff that has marginal appeal at best, the developers don't try to implement the #1 missing feature in GIMP (for photo retouching, IMHO of course)
Adjustment layers! (with masks)
and no, you can't really 'emulate' them with the currently available toolset unfortunately (remember that they have masks and are non-destructive).
I love GIMP but the absence of this feature (which is not exactly a new thing, even PSPro has it!) is really killing me...
-- the cake is a lie
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.
There was an OS/2 program (forget its name) which mixed vectors and layers, and also had the unique ability to layer EFFECTS...for example, I could do black text, put a blur effect layer over that, and then colored text over that to achieve a drop shadow with very little effort. Of course, you could then put an effect layer over the text for texturizing, etc. You could combine effects to your hearts content, and if you didn't like the way it worked, it was trivial to back out, or move the effect elsewhere.
Vector support seems like the necessary first step to this type of thing and I hope that the GIMP developers discover this cool and unique way to manipulate images.
no. GUI are about beeing used to some or some other kind of logic. I think GIMP pute the things where you might expect them you you wouldn't be used to them beeing somwehere completle else - where they might or might not belong. It's easy to make a better user interface, that no one can work with cause the commands are where they belong and not where MS put them.
bickerdyke
1.3.20.
I periodically try out the development releases and admire the pretty widgets if the thing will compile or load. As a matter of fact, I built one this morning; compiled fine but crashed within 5 minutes of loading.
Personally, I would be much more impressed if the developers decided on a feature-freeze and cleaned up their mess. I can't remember off-hand how long stable has been at 1.2.5, but it's beginning to look a bit incongruous with GTK-1.x widgets and non-antialiased fonts on a modern desktop. I haven't been keeping track of dates, but it seems to me that stable has been at 1.2.x for years now.
Sooner or later they're going to have to decide what gets put into 1.4 and what gets left out. I would be happy to accept what they've implemented so far if it can be made stable and have all the scriptability put back.
It's a development release - it'll probably get fixed fairly soon.
Wow, that would be a neat idea. If only we had an open color management solution for X11 ... we could call is "Xcms" ... when we're done, we'll roll it into a system called "X11R5"! Gosh, it could even support ICC profiles. That would be swell.
(Sorry, unnecessary snarkyness. I agree that there is no good UI, nor tools, for color management in X11. However it should be noted that X11 has complete color management support built-in. It's just that nobody uses it on Linux. I bet if I peeked in SGI's X distribution, it would be loaded with color management features.)
Bah! I tried to submit to them a Script-Fu scheme script to export SVG months ago, back at the beginning of the year to export indexed images to SVG. I never heard back from anyone.
If anyone would like, I'm making it available here. Save it in your shared/scripts directory with the other scm files. Then flatten your images to indexed and go Script-Fu -> File -> Export SVG. Enjoy! (And if any of you have any weight with the GIMP team and still want to include it in the distro, you're welcome.)
And if you still want to use Mozilla and try out Adobe's SVG plugin it is now possible with the 6.0 beta plugin.
Since it don't install itself automatically you have to copy the files from some "shared files/adobe" directory to "Mozilla/plugins", just search for "NPSVG6.dll" and "NPSVG6.zip"
I then installed The GIMP. I found its GUI confusing.
I then bought Paint Shop Pro on the recommendation of a digital photography book I respected. Again, I found the GUI confusing, but at least the book got me started on what I should be looking for. I think if I had read such a book about Photoshop earlier I'd probably be a Photoshop fan right now.
I now switch back and forth between The GIMP and Paint Shop Pro. The GIMP does some things better (script-fu is really slick) and PSP does some things better (scratch and dust repair, contrast enhancement.) But I still have to hunt through confusing menus, pop-up toolbar things, etc. I've simply come to expect that any powerful photo editing program is going to have a confusing interface, and that any program is going to take an investment of time to learn. Paint Shop Pro has some hand-holding tutorials that I found to be excellent at getting me up to speed. I'm sure these things exist for the other programs as well.
Anyway, it's all still easier than the old days with a camelhair brush and hand spotting negatives and prints.
John
But Paintshop Pro is a prosumer level product. GIMP is far beyond that. This is why you have so many neophytes who hate the GIMP. They are expecting the usability of PaintShop Pro with the power of Photoshop. That ain't gonna never happen. GIMP is squarely aimed at pros which is why I use it. I am a professional. I wouldn't touch PaintShop Pro with a ten foot pole.
Anyone?
Note: there seems to be no agreement here, but I'd assume the users' community (or better the project's developers) would have it right - I'm not trying to start a war.
I have always pronounced it with a hard G, both becase it is the G(uh)nu Image Manipulation Program and because the word gimp is pronounced that way. That said, it is yet another example of why the free software movement suffers from poor marketing. Gimp is a *very* politically incorrect term with derogatory connotations. I don't understand why they chose that acronym..
Whoa, has anyone else been freaked out by that slashdot icon for The Gimp? I never noticed it before, but the eyes twitch every now-and-then. I thought I was seeing things at first and then when I thought I saw it move again, I just assumed that I've been reading too much from my computer monitor over the past several years...
Karma: NaN
Offering some kind of MDI interface for the GIMP has been suggested several years ago. This may be a good solution, as long as it is optional because some people prefer the current interface.
You can find some discussion about that in bug report #7379. The feature may be implemented in GIMP 3.0, or earlier if I find enough spare time to implement it or (more likely) if someone else takes the job and implements this feature.
Note that version 1.3.x and the upcoming version 2.0 offer the option of displaying a menu bar in the image windows, if this is what you are interested in. But if you want a shared menu bar on top of a big container window and a shared status bar at the bottom of that window, then you will have to wait until someone implements a real MDI solution.
-Raphaël
I don't know why you're angry at The GIMP for that. Pantone won't license the trademark/relevent patents for The GIMP to (lawfully) implement Pantone support.
You can certainly make GIMP palettes with pantone color names for RGB approximations, but don't distribute them to anyone or Pantone, Inc.'s lawyers will come down on you HARD.
DNA just wants to be free...
A hard G is like the G in "garage", whereas a soft G is like the G in "garage".
Those who sacrifice security to condemn liberty deserve to repeat history or something. - Benjamin Santayana