Integrating OSS Graphics Apps

erikharrison writes "Newsforge had an article recently which proposed an interesting way to make an integrated OSS graphics "suite" - namely, get existing apps to standardize their look and feel. Now, in a short and insightful article, Bryce Harrington (of Inkscape fame) responds with specifics on the advantages and problems with this approach, and where development should go next in the pursuit of a complete OSS stack for graphic artists."

Comments

Do this first:

[melted]

1. CMYK and LAB color mode support in GIMP
2. Complete color management support throughout the app
3. High bit depth graphics support - 48 bit and floating point (to stay a bit ahead of Apple/Microsoft).

That's all I want. I couldn't care less about how things look and feel if they do what I want. Well, at least if we're not talking about Mac apps, where look and feel are more important.

Re:I never found that disturbing...

[isolationism]

If I find an application worth using, it seldom has to do with the UI in itself.

You've obviously never used Sodipodi, Inkscape's parent project. Its interface is enough to make mothers abort and milk curdle; it's why Inkscape exists at all.

Re:What I think should be focused on first

[MenTaLguY]

Actually the stupid open dialog is GTK's fault, not the GIMP's. The most recent versions of GTK removed it from the standard dialog.

The only reason Inkscape has a text entry widget in its file dialog was that we very painfully hacked a text input field back into the standard widget using evil methods.