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A Gimp In Photoshop's Clothing
comforteagle writes "Scott Moschella, from Attack of the Show!, set out to make The Gimp a little friendlier with a simple UI make-over, creating GimpShop. Despite an outcry from some developers, users have picked it up with passion. Howard Wen has interviewed Scott about why he did this. From the interview: 'I've always thought that GIMP was just as powerful as Photoshop. My way of proving it was to make GIMP work as close to Photoshop as I possibly could, given my limited programming experience.' As more Windows/Mac users discover powerful open source applications are they bound (slashdot disc.) to make more discoveries of this kind?" Update: 09/16 18:48 GMT by Z : Some users have pointed out this is basically an update to a previous discussion we've had. Link added for the sake of completeness.
The only reason I don't use the gimp is because I can't be bothered to learn a new interface. I keep hitting Photoshop's shortcut keys expecting them to work and its frustrating not knowing where all of the menu & tool bar items are.
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If you want something lower level even, there's the GD library. There are lovely GD bindings for PHP, Perl and others.
Happy command-line drawing!
std::disclaimer<std::legalese> sig=new std::disclaimer; sig->dump(); delete sig;
Wow, way to pimp out your own website when you could have just direct linked to the Paint.NET Website.
I mean really, if your app is going to look, feel, and function, like a Windows one, why should I use yours??
Cause it's free?
Anybody that's been using Corel PHOTOPaint for a while will tell you that it has an option in viewing preferences to make it look like photoshop... IDENTICAL to photoshop actually - including buttons, tool groups, and even context menus.
To me, the show-stoppers for using Linux/Gimp for my photo work are the following:
* Color management. Not aware of ICC color profiling. Can I calibrate my monitor with nVideo and ATI Linux drivers? Can Gimp load an ICC profile of my output device to proof my print?
* Multi-processor support. Photoshop takes advantage of my dual-core machine.
* Large files. Photoshop loads and processes 1 GB image files much faster than Gimp. With my 4x5" large-format camera and a 2400dpi film scanner, my image files are 100 megapixels.
The GIMP has none of the important features that Photoshop has. It can't do CMYK, it doesn't work with the millions of Photoshop plugins, an industry standard, yada yada found in google, etc
yes, that's about gimpshop
no, it's not about this interview
For those not aware, you can change the shortcuts in gimp to whatever you want. Some people have already made the photoshop shortcuts for you. So all you have to do is download the gimp-photoshop shortcut file and you're set.
cl
Reply . . . let's get it over with.
Go write a better UI; don't copy Adobe.
In my experience, creating good UIs is the one thing the open-source community doesn't do well. When a large group of designers start contributing to open software projects, this problem will evaporate. But something tells me that isn't going to happen.
This is old news. Everyone on OSX has moved on to using Seashore which is the GIMP is a nice slick OSX package, native Aqua/OSX windows, and overall just a better program. Check it out.
It's been a few months since I've seen this on Slashdot (please correct me if this isn't the same gimp-photoshop hack).
Despite an outcry from some developers, users have picked it up with passion.
As I recall, the developers were upset because of the way he went about makeing Gimp look like Photoshop. Rather than making changes to the data files that are used to create the menus, he changed to programing itself. This (going by memory) broke foreign language support. As I recall, Scott wrote the Gimp team and sent his suggestions. The Gimp team wrote back and invited him to join a discustion group. However, Scott decided to fork Gimp and make the changes himself. This of course leaves maintenance up to Scott. I hope he's up to it.
Request a Linux Shockwave player here: http://www.macromedia.com/support/email/wishform/
Hey, this has absolutely helped out!! My mother (63 years old) had been using Photoshop for about ten years under Windows. In wanting to upgrade her from XP to Linux, I decided I needed to get her used to her main app - Photoshop - or the alternative, GIMP. I had her use GIMP for awhile, but she quickly was frustrated. After seeing GIMPShop, I loaded it on for her and she's been a happy Linux camper ever since. No more virus or spyware issues for her.
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Some of the reactions:
I don't think "compatible UIs" have been tested in court.
Apple v. Microsoft.
KFG
Which is a damn shame. Photoshop has so many hateful little ass-backwards bits (e.g. the braindead layer transparency model that hides layer alpha from the user entirely) that it's incredibly frustrating nobody's gotten it better.
I want the GIMP (or anything else) not to reach feature parity with PS, but to surpass it so I can get my work done better and faster.
Multiple layer masks/clipping paths.
Filters as adjustment layers.
nodal rather than layer-based hierarchy.
transforms saved as effects and copyable to other layers.
ALL functionality working in 16 bit/HDR/Float color spaces.
reasonable handling of alpha channels.
and the list goes on and on and on...
The hompage referenced by Freshmeat appears to have been bombarded from orbit... but there's a windows installer here: GIMPshot.exe
XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
none.
Our "computer programs law" explicitly excludes "similarity from a preexisting program functionality" from copyright protection, and our patents law explicitly excludes computer programs, methods and algorithms, from patent protection.
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
GIMP isn't a clone of anything; the developers pretty firmly do their own thing and work on improving the application. This story is actually an endorsement of this approach. The GIMP developers didn't waste any effort on chasing Photoshop, and then some random TV producer takes care of the Photoshop UI. From this example, you could guess that, if you've got any developers working on the UI, you're wasting effort; that job should be done by a user with limited programming experience. (For that matter, he was probably better situated to do the redesign than any of the developers, who aren't likely to be heavy users of Photoshop.)
For that matter, Linspire seems to me like a bunch of non-programmers who configure Linux to match Windows. It's unlikely that they'd be helpful working on applications.
Why not have the gimp frame work able to go from a basic Paint application to a full featured artisic tool.
Because gimp was never meant to be a basic Paint application, it is a image manipulation program and has been since the dawn of its development. That's also why you don't have the basic tools such as line in the toolbox.
Because when you switch to PhotoShop or Gimp from another application on a Mac, ALL the pallette windows come with it. In Windows, every toolbar and pallette hangs there by itself and disappear behind your browser or other window, and you have to either bring them all to the front again, or hunt through them until you find the one you want. its a pain in the neck, and made me give up on Gimp on Windows at work.
May you be touched by His Noodly Appendage. RAmen.
I should also note that MDI is an ugly, wonky kludge that was added to Windows because of Mac superiority. On a Mac, you can have an app open with NO windows, or have multiple Windows that share the Apple menu bar. MDI is an attempt to replicate this, with a dull gray background, blech!.
May you be touched by His Noodly Appendage. RAmen.
http://gimp-savvy.com/BOOK/
It's the best book out there to explain how Gimp works to a novice. It actually explain the image manipulation concepts and how to use them. For exemple, it will explain to you *why* a picture look bad.
It was made for version 1.2 of The Gimp but the interface still works the same way.
Except for bezier paths (check Gimp online help by pressing F1 when you get there) and the author tell you that intelligent scissors is broken but it works pretty well in 2.0+ versions.
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I agree completely. Seperating the parts is critical.