Krita 2.8 Released

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday March 5, 2014 @09:00PM from the check-it-out dept.

JDG1980 writes "Krita, an open-source graphics editor, has been around since 2005, but no stable version existed for Windows users — until today. With the release of Krita 2.8, full and stable support for Windows users is finally a reality, thanks to input from KO GmbH and Intel. Krita brings some things to the table that GIMP does not: 16 bit per channel color support, adjustment layers, and a name that won't set off red flags at HR, just to list a few. You can download the Windows version here. Might be worth looking into, if you're tired of the lack of progress on GIMP and don't want to pay monthly "cloud" fees to Adobe."

75 comments

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

Paint .NET by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-05 21:17 · Score: 0, Insightful

nuff said
1. Re:Paint .NET by nemasu · 2014-03-05 21:23 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  pff, ascii art, nuff said.
  
  --
  I made an app! Shoutium
Why so Anti-Gimp? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-05 21:25 · Score: 5, Informative

Krita is not competing with Gimp. Gimp is an image manipulation program like Photoshop. Krita is an image creation software like Illustrator. They are slightly different categories of software. Has the author, JDG1980, even looked at Krita's website? Since the author clearly has not read the site, please read "What are Krita's Development Goals?" for yourself here.
1. Re:Why so Anti-Gimp? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-05 21:32 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  Well, not Illustrator. More Corel Painter. Illustrator does vectors, Krita does raster and vectors.
2. Re:Why so Anti-Gimp? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-05 21:49 · Score: 1
  
  yeah, looking at Krita's website, the anti-Gimp stance comes entirely from the submitter and not from TFA ... some (anti- ?) fanboyism in action I guess ...
3. Re:Why so Anti-Gimp? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-05 21:52 · Score: 0
  
  Why? Controversy generates page views (even if it's fake controversy). Page views generate ad impressions. Ad impressions generate revenue.
  Dice wants to monetize Slashdot, so controversy in the summary is worth +1 in the story queue.
4. Re:Why so Anti-Gimp? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-05 23:07 · Score: 0
  
  You realise photoshop is used by a huge number of artists for exactly the same reason people use krita don't you? Or do you think you can only use photoshop to manipulate photos?
5. Re:Why so Anti-Gimp? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-06 00:32 · Score: 0
  
  Indeed you cannot compare raster software with vector they're two entirely different things and it is obvious the poster knows nothing about either. If he is going to compare it should be with Inkscape not gimp.
6. Re:Why so Anti-Gimp? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-06 09:41 · Score: 0
  
  I always wonder why people like to post things like photoshop is only for manipulating existing images.
  Ever heard of Bert Monroy? He makes art entirely in photoshop.
  I'm sure there are many other people like him. The entire point of having all those different kind of brush strokes, and support for pressure and angle in the paint tools is so you can create images, not just manipulate existing ones.
  I think it's because people just use magic wand and some layer filters to combine images and they assume that's all photoshop can do.
Re:HR ? by kayoshiii · 2014-03-05 21:33 · Score: 1

Human Resources
CinePaint? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-05 21:35 · Score: 0

I thought CinePaint, previously known as Film Gimp, is what people use that need more than 8 bits per component.
1. Re:CinePaint? by fromhell091 · 2014-03-05 21:53 · Score: 1
  
  CinePaint is a dead project for years http://www.ohloh.net/p/cinepai...
2. Re:CinePaint? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-06 03:10 · Score: 0
  
  Not quite dead maybe?
  http://www.cinepaint.org/2013/...
Re:HR ? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-05 21:36 · Score: 0

Hans Rudolf (H.R. Giger). See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._R._Giger
He is a famous artist, hence the connection to this submission about a paint program. He is also the guy who employs people and generally oversees compliance with various company policies all over the world.
Re:HR ? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-05 21:42 · Score: 1

... and why would Gimp set off red flags at HR? TFA assumes we all know about all the gossip about the Gimp, but the author must be an insensitive clod, because I don't.
Re:HR ? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-05 21:46 · Score: 0

Thanks !
Anyway I still don't get the joke... never mind.
Best open source program for Digital Painting by fromhell091 · 2014-03-05 21:50 · Score: 5, Interesting

Krita is the best and most powerful open source program for digital painting. Period.It has a amazing brush engine. You can use other tool as your brush (for example, clone mode). In this version, the brushes were created by artist like Timothée Giet, Ramon Miranda, Wolthera or David Revoy. Also has handy tools for painters like rotate canvas, perspective tools, symetric and mirror modes, pseudo infinite canvas, stabilizer helpers, a lot of palette dokers, and now includes some tools for games developers like Clone Array or Wrap Around mode to create tiles. If you didn't give a try before to Krita, this is the moment. It's one of the best pieces of open source progams out there.
1. Re:Best open source program for Digital Painting by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-06 01:56 · Score: 0
  
  Does "pseudo infinite" qualify as an oxymoron?
tired of the lack of progress on GIMP by Chrisq · 2014-03-05 21:53 · Score: 2

tired of the lack of progress on GIMP
GIMP is very feature-rich already and to me seems to be in the stage where change is more incremental. Even so it seems steady. Looking at the Krita site I get the impression it is aimed more at anime/comic book artists than the general-purpose GIMP. Does anyone know how they compare?
1. Re: tired of the lack of progress on GIMP by postglock · 2014-03-05 23:18 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  GIMP is very feature-rich already and to me seems to be in the stage where change is more incremental.
  The single feature that prevents my wife from moving from Mac/Photoshop to Linux/GIMP is the lack of adjustment layers. This is the ability to non-destructively modify brightness/contrast/colour/etc. In GIMP, if you edit the contrast, then edit in another way, there is no way to re-manipulate the contrast again without losing information. As per the summary, Krita does have this capability. Apperently it's in development for GIMP.
2. Re: tired of the lack of progress on GIMP by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-06 01:39 · Score: 0
  
  It gets worse. GIMP also has an atrocious, screen hogging interface that was clearly designed by someone who doesn't really understand the workflow of most professional users. It's also slow. Very slow. For example, a 64 pixel Gaussian blur takes twice as long in GIMP to compute as it does Photoshop, the same for most other operations. The text tool is awful too. GIMP is way over-promoted by FOSS zealots who usually can't accomplish much more than cropping a picture and applying a few filters to the entire image.
3. Re: tired of the lack of progress on GIMP by twdorris · 2014-03-06 01:58 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  GIMP is way over-promoted by FOSS zealots who usually can't accomplish much more than cropping a picture and applying a few filters to the entire image.
  This. I really, REALLY want to use GIMP; I do. And I've tried; several times. But I just can't. It's just too clunky and slow and not well thought out in any reasonable manner. Windows pop up in wrong places with wrong Z order, making them impossible to find sometimes. *Common* features (like adjustment layers) are simply missing or work in horrible, horrible ways (like drawing a @#$!@%$ line with an arrow point end).
  No, GIMP is not what some people make it out to be. I'd rather use an old Paintshop Pro 6 release than anything GIMP related. And I would except Corel does a better job at screwing up their own products than any other company I've seen in ages. I've actually bought and paid for several versions of Paintshop Pro in the past decade only to have my license mysteriously stop working. "Too many installations" they say. But this message comes up randomly when I haven't done any new installation in months. And then, suddenly, my workflow is halted in its tracks and I'm back to trying GIMP one more time.
  My requirements are not steep. I'm not a pro graphics artist by any means. But there doesn't seem to be any good open source graphics editors out there and Krita doesn't seem to fit the bill either. Bah.
4. Re: tired of the lack of progress on GIMP by Chrisq · 2014-03-06 02:08 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  It gets worse. GIMP also has an atrocious, screen hogging interface that was clearly designed by someone who doesn't really understand the workflow of most professional users.
  I agree it has a strange interface, which seems to be different to almost any other app, but I would not say screen-hogging. In fact one of the advantages of the wirerd design is that you can have a full-screen image and float the various toolboxes in front as you need them.
  
  It's also slow. Very slow. For example, a 64 pixel Gaussian blur takes twice as long in GIMP to compute as it does Photoshop, the same for most other operations.
  I don't know how it compares with other apps but a 64 pixel Gaussian blur on a large image takes just under 3 seconds.
  
  The text tool is awful too.
  It's a fair cop - yes it is pretty awful - difficult to position text, size at anything apart from a point size, etc.
  
  GIMP is way over-promoted by FOSS zealots who usually can't accomplish much more than cropping a picture and applying a few filters to the entire image.
  There are some real artists using it.
5. Re: tired of the lack of progress on GIMP by graphius · 2014-03-06 03:15 · Score: 2
  
  I too have tried to use GIMP over the years. GIMP can be good for some things, and can even be great for a subset of things, but the overall workflow is very convoluted and difficult. I seem to be trying to do things in spite of the program. I know there are some people who do great things with GIMP, and I have sung the praises of specific features (they had a resynthesize before Photoshop for example) but overall, Photoshop, with all its warts (and there are many) is just more cohesive. Back on topic, I have never really been able to get much out of Krita. I am a photographer and quite tech savvy, but I do not "get:" Krita. Maybe I will have to try again...
6. Re: tired of the lack of progress on GIMP by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-06 05:12 · Score: 1
  
  Not open source, but PhotoPlus is cheap and feature-filled. And it has adjustment layers. The little bit of professional graphics work I do gets done with Serif products.
7. Re: tired of the lack of progress on GIMP by Curunir_wolf · 2014-03-06 05:35 · Score: 1
  
  No, GIMP is not what some people make it out to be. I'd rather use an old Paintshop Pro 6 release than anything GIMP related. And I would except Corel does a better job at screwing up their own products than any other company I've seen in ages.
  Tell me about it. The one I've been using for years (because I just couldn't find any OSS that really worked for me) is Photo Impact. But then Corel bought the company (Ulead), and completely dumped PhotoImpact (after releasing a final version which seemed to involve just replacing ULead with Corel and introducing a few bugs), and started pushing Paintshop at their users. It is a far inferior product, even though they stripped some of the good features out of PhotoImpact and plopped them into Paintshop. They should have done the opposite.
  
  --
  "Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
  --- Jerry Garcia
8. Re: tired of the lack of progress on GIMP by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-06 05:48 · Score: 0
  
  The problem there is that Krita is not for photographers. It's a digital painting program, not an image manipulation program. Photoshop and Gimp sort of try and mix the two things together, but the focus is quite different.
9. Re: tired of the lack of progress on GIMP by MrEricSir · 2014-03-06 06:56 · Score: 1
  
  Even if you aren't fazed by its quirky workflow, GIMP is buggy as hell and based on a toolkit that's no longer maintained.
  
  --
  There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
Re:HR ? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-05 22:01 · Score: 0

Image-Google "gimp man". That's what the HR department sees when you mention the word "Gimp" to them.
Re:HR ? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-05 22:12 · Score: 0

Never heard of that joke, good to know, thanks !
GIMP has 16 and 32 bit editing support since 2.8 by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-05 22:42 · Score: 4, Informative

So I don't know if the author entirely knows what he's writing about.
Re:HR ? by invictusvoyd · 2014-03-05 22:48 · Score: 2

Her Royal Majesty .. The queen ofcourse ..
Re:HR ? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-05 22:56 · Score: 0

I've decided that HR people have a dodgy taste in porn.
Re:Did shitheads get involved? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-05 23:38 · Score: 0

No, shitheads are not involved.
I realize it's not the same as Gimp, however... by wjcofkc · 2014-03-05 23:58 · Score: 2

I realize this is not a replacement or even a competitor to the GIMP. The audience and goals of the two projects are completely different. However, I did notice that it supports importing GIMP native file format. If I can import GIMP files, then export in another file format and use CMYK, which it appears to support, then this is getting added to my workflow. Time to download and find out!

--
Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
Krita is used for "digital painting". by Futurepower(R) · 2014-03-06 00:04 · Score: 4, Informative

From the top of the Krita documentation page: "The first thing to remember is that Krita is a 2D paint application. Photoshop, for example, is an image manipulation program. Krita has tools that are relevant to digital painting -- concept art, creation of comics and textures for rendering." [Edited for clarity.]
Conflict of interest? "Volunteer and commercial" by Futurepower(R) · 2014-03-06 00:25 · Score: 1, Insightful

More about Krita:

Krita is is both a community project development by volunteers and a commercial project supported by KO GmbH. The Krita Foundation supports the non-commercial development of Krita. Commercial support is offered by KO GmbH.
My experience has been that software that is both supported by volunteers and commercially supported suffers from conflict of interest. Limitations can be arranged that push people toward paying.
Workflow Issues by Akratist · 2014-03-06 00:25 · Score: 2

I spend a lot of time (too much time) creating and editing textures for meshes. I downloaded Krita and messed with it for a few minutes, to see how it compared to Gimp. One thing that immediately jumped out is the archaic (i.e. 1980's) method of drawing a straight line. In Gimp, this is super-easy...the last place you were drawing is where the origin of a straight line is. In Krita, it looks like you're stuck having to do it the old-fashioned way of dragging the line from one point to another (I moved to Gimp from Paint.NET for this reason, among others). It seems like it is a very feature-rich tool, but seems lacking in usability in some areas (based on 20 minutes of searching, it seems like others have found some "pain points" of their own with it). It does look like a good tool for doing illustrations, though, so it's worth a look for people who tend more toward that type of work, but for editing/creating textures, I'm not sold.
1. Re:Workflow Issues by fromhell091 · 2014-03-06 01:11 · Score: 2
  
  If they could move it to Krita for texturing their game 'Super City'.. you can also do it! :)
2. Re:Workflow Issues by Qzukk · 2014-03-06 02:17 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  One thing that immediately jumped out is the archaic (i.e. 1980's) method of drawing a straight line. In Gimp, this is super-easy...the last place you were drawing is where the origin of a straight line is. In Krita, it looks like you're stuck having to do it the old-fashioned way of dragging the line from one point to another
  I'm guessing this is what you're looking for? http://userbase.kde.org/Krita/...
  
  --
  If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
3. Re:Workflow Issues by Akratist · 2014-03-06 02:55 · Score: 1
  
  That's helpful, if not quite the same thing. Is there an option to make it snap to an angle when doing that? Looked a little, didn't run across anything.
At first I was all "OH neat!" by Arith · 2014-03-06 00:29 · Score: 0

.. then I saw screenshots and was all "So.. it's basically a skinned version of Inkscape?"
1. Re:At first I was all "OH neat!" by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-06 00:55 · Score: 1
  
  Why do people persist in thinking krita is like inkscape or illustrator? Those are vector drawing applications, Krita is mainly a raster drawing application, like Corel Painter, Photoshop or MyPaint.
Re:GIMP has 16 and 32 bit editing support since 2. by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-06 00:48 · Score: 3, Informative

No; 2.8 had the 16-bit GEGL engine, but the ability to import all the bits of a 16-bit TIFF and save in a 16-bit XCF is pending 2.10 - although you can check it out from git now.
Re: HR ? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-06 00:54 · Score: 0

The term gimp means someone with a handicap and has been a (I assume) slang term for that for at least as long as I've been around and I'm 34 years old
HR will be so pleased by sideslash · 2014-03-06 01:24 · Score: 1

Yeah, get rid of GIMP. It has an offensive name.

Krita, on the other hand, has a logo of a voluptuous female squirrel with a highly visible... vagina???? *facepalm*
1. Re:HR will be so pleased by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-06 02:04 · Score: 0
  
  That's not the logo, it's some artwork done in Krita. This is the logo: http://krita.org/images/logo.png
2. Re:HR will be so pleased by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-06 03:27 · Score: 0
  
  a highly visible... vagina
  I'll have to try that as a pickup line on the next girl "hey babe, the fly on your pants really accentuates your highly visible vagina!"
  Maybe when I'm drunk and desperate.
3. Re:HR will be so pleased by WheezyJoe · 2014-03-06 07:37 · Score: 1
  
  Not a vagina, just a camel-toe.
  
  --
  Take it easy, Charlie, I've got an Angle...
Works under Wine? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-06 01:28 · Score: 0

Great news for Windows users, but I'm on a Mac. Anyone know if it will run under Wine if I put in the time?
1. Re:Works under Wine? by WheezyJoe · 2014-03-06 07:13 · Score: 1
  
  From Krita's FAQ page
  
  We have acquired a Mac Mini and are looking into packages for OSX. There hasn't been much success to date, though you can use the beta ports file for mac ports.
  
  --
  Take it easy, Charlie, I've got an Angle...
Full suite by jones_supa · 2014-03-06 01:40 · Score: 5, Informative

GIMP, Inkscape, Blender, Darktable, Krita.
Complete amateur/semi-professional graphics artist toolkit.
Free of cost. Source code also available. Enjoy.
1. Re:Full suite by sqorbit · 2014-03-06 02:33 · Score: 2
  
  Exactly. Those arguing above about GIMP vs Krita are arguing Illustrator vs Photoshop. Just as Adobe releases a full sweet of products with a lot of overlap there is going to be overlap between Krita and GIMP. They are still each useful in their own ways. A digital artist often uses multiple programs to handle different tasks.
  
  --
  Sent from my TARDIS
2. Re:Full suite by nmr_andrew · 2014-03-06 07:30 · Score: 1
  
  I don't know about that. I'm far from a power user, and can usually badger GIMP or Inkscape into doing what I need if I'm on a Linux box or at home, but they're nowhere near Photoshop and Illustrator in terms of features or interface. And it pains me to say that, because I'm not a huge Adobe fan and their non-cloud software is way overpriced.
3. Re:Full suite by cheesybagel · 2014-03-06 08:56 · Score: 1
  
  I used to use Inkscape exclusively. Its great for a lot of things, can do a lot of things Illustrator cannot, but the handling of fonts and color is simply atrocious.
Re:HR ? by Zimluura · 2014-03-06 02:33 · Score: 2

i think HR might be more miffed about some of the definitions here:
http://dictionary.reference.co...
gimp3 [gimp] Show IPA Slang.
noun
1. a limp.
2. Usually Disparaging and Offensive. a term used to refer to a person who limps or is lame.
Open source eh? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-06 02:35 · Score: 0

Why no link to source code on web site?
1. Re:Open source eh? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-06 03:35 · Score: 0
  
  It is right on the download page.
2. Re:Open source eh? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-06 05:52 · Score: 0
  
  Not on my download page (the download page at http://kritastudio.com/desktop.html as in the article.
  There are three installers, one for 32bit, once for 64bit and one for XP.
  Then there is links to their support page.
I hear you, brother. by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-06 02:52 · Score: 0

The whole "GIMP is not enterprise ready because it's named after a grotesque character in a movie" meme is so incredibly retarded, you can actually use it as a hiring filter.
"Would you use a tool named GIMP?
"No, of course not, the name's offensive."
"Next candidate please!"
Nobody with any real creative ability will care, and the people who do care are not results-oriented.
Re:Did shitheads get involved? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-06 03:08 · Score: 0

Maybe we can persuade Lennart Poettering to write the One True Graphics Mangling Daemon.
Re: HR ? by larry+bagina · 2014-03-06 04:00 · Score: 1

If you've ever seen Pulp Fiction, visited San Francisco, or been to a LUG or LinuxCon, you've probably seen a leather-clad gay sex slave, aka gimp.

--
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
Re:Did shitheads get involved? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-06 04:14 · Score: 0

Currently there are no shitheads in the Krita community.
However that may change if the AC who authored parent post involves himself with Krita.
Gimp is getting worse by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-06 05:00 · Score: 0

I'm anti-Gimp because I've been using Gimp for 14 years. It sucks.
And with more recent versions it sucks even more; no longer can we "Save As" whatever image format we want, we now have to "Export" the image.
1. Re:Gimp is getting worse by cheesybagel · 2014-03-06 08:50 · Score: 1
  
  That is moronic. They don't need to slavishly copy the Adobe UI including the stupidity.
Re:Conflict of interest? "Volunteer and commercial by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-06 05:22 · Score: 3, Insightful

More about Krita:

Krita is is both a community project development by volunteers and a commercial project supported by KO GmbH. The Krita Foundation supports the non-commercial development of Krita. Commercial support is offered by KO GmbH.
My experience has been that software that is both supported by volunteers and commercially supported suffers from conflict of interest. Limitations can be arranged that push people toward paying.
Yeah, just like how the existence of paid versions of Linux ruined it for the rest of ... oh, wait...
Re:Conflict of interest? "Volunteer and commercial by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-06 05:53 · Score: 0

Why is this modded up as insightful? Krita is GPL.
Re:Conflict of interest? "Volunteer and commercial by AlphaWolf_HK · 2014-03-06 06:21 · Score: 1

If that's true, then there should have long since been limitations in the Linux kernel that you have to pay a premium for in order to get.

--
Careful with names containing L slashdot.org/~AiphaWolf_HK slashdot.org/~AlphaWoif_HK slashdot.org/~AiphaWoif_HK
Not a relevant objection. by Futurepower(R) · 2014-03-06 14:49 · Score: 1

Not relevant to this case. The problem of conflict of interest occurs when there is only one supplier of the software in question.
Not a relevant objection. See the comment above. by Futurepower(R) · 2014-03-10 13:47 · Score: 1

Not relevant to this case. See the comment above.

The problem of conflict of interest occurs when there is only one supplier of the software in question.