[plug] Gimpshop - Good or Bad

[Alex Nordstrom]

On Fri, 1 Apr 2005 14:35, Craig Ringer wrote:
> On Fri, 2005-04-01 at 13:47 +0800, Carl Gherardi wrote:
> My personal view is that _experienced_ _photoshop_ _users_ don't like
> the GIMP's interface because it's not what they're used to. Mac users
> generally hate Photoshop/win's MDI and Windows users generally hate
> Mac photoshop's individual windows and floating palettes for much the
> same reason.

Incidentally, that's also goes a long way to explain why some users 
don't like Open Office (it's not MS Office) and so on. Users without 
prior experiences tend not to see the "unintuitiveness" that switchers 
see.

> > I assume Adobe has spent the time and research in usability to make
> > their interface both user friendly and useful to power users.
>
> The interface is pretty usable considering the incredible complexity
> of the program, yes. I think they've done a pretty good job.

Yes, I think the main issue is that the underlying concepts are too 
complex for most people.

> I actually think the GIMP 2.x does a rather good job too, my only
> real complaint being the layout of the menus (I find it hard to find
> the right palettes in the menus) and the fact there's no quickmask
> button in the main palette.

I agree about the menus. The Layer menu contains a lot of things that 
don't belong there. The Tools menu is a cobweb of tools available from 
the toolbox and things that aren't, such as the Colour Tools submenu. 
Incidentally, since the Colour picker *is* available through the tool 
box, it's can't go into that submenu, but instead it sits directly in 
the Tools menu. Colour picker not a colour tool? What the? Granted, 
version 2 was a big improvement.

As for the quickmask button, I'd say quickmask is more of a special 
editing mode than a tool, so it makes sense not to have it in the 
toolbox. In case you didn't realise, to toggle it, it's the little 
dashed square in the bottom left of any image window.

> The current GIMP UI is also somewhat odd in the modern world - you
> don't seem many apps driven by context menus. That alone might be an
> issue, simply because it can be somewhat offputting initially.

That was my main annoyance with the 1.x series. Version 2 nicely leaves 
that as an option but also gives you menus at the top of the window.

> > What does gimp do better than photoshop with regards to interface?

Dynamic keyboard shortcuts that you can assign on the fly by hovering 
your mouse over the menu item and pressing a key. (You may need to turn 
this on under Preferences/Interface.)

Dockable dialogues. Apart from the images, my Gimp is a single window.

I could also think of a few functional requirements fulfilled by the 
Gimp and not immediately by Photoshop and vice versa. Doing a bit of 
digital photography ending up as black and white, I would really like 
to see a feature for manipulating the colour balance when converting to 
monochrome in Gimp. Once I get the time and bandwidth back, I might 
have a look at Cinepaint and see if it meets my needs.

-- 
Alex Nordstrom
http://lx.n3.net/
Please do not CC me in followups; I am subscribed to plug.
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