Opinions are strong and heavily varied with many people saying GIMP lacks the Photoshop features.
In my experience, I would say that GIMP lacks the user friendliness and mapping of Photoshop, while still providing powerful editing features. Indeed, professionals use it and have used it in mind boggling art, as I pointed out above with an example of Pixar.
But... This does not mean that it will work for you. My aim is not to defend GIMP, which... I have my own complaints about and arguments with; but rather to help overcome obstacles that prevent your progress.
It's not about arguing about how good or bad GIMP is as much as, "I see this is a roadblock for you. If we remove it, will it help the situation?"
For the majority of what I want to do; GIMP can do it pretty easily. But, there have been times where i had my nose buried in a guide or manual, studying College style; only to react when finished with "Why was that so convoluted?"
What I have admittedly not done is edited existing Photoshop files. I either begin with a raw image or I begin by creating an image... So I am quite ignorant about where GIMP may fall short on editing an existing Adobe Photoshop file.
From the git-go, I got the impression that GIMP is not configured for editing PSD files. If you can (for example) enlighten me on how to select text with the select tool, so that existing text can be edited by backspacing and retyping.
In GIMP the text tool behaves as though it were trying to edit rasterised text (by typing) which is impossible. But the text in the PSD is not rasterised.
Also, how is it that selecting an area with the select tool does not enable clearing, copying, or transforming that area (?) Something which is so simple and basic in Photoshop.
The built in GIMP text tool can and will change the text by typing, including with backspace and other key functions. When you export the file, it is rasterized.
There are several factors that play into this:
Layers: Saving the text as a layer allows the text to be edited open opening the file. This will work for most common formats including .psd, provided that the font used in that text layer is installed on your system. If it is not working, you may need to check that the font is installed.
Rasterizing: Once the text is converted to Raster, whether in Photoshop or in GIMP, it cannot be edited as text, but only as an image. This is true in both and why saving the text as a text layer is your go-to method in both.
I must assume that you are referring to this not functioning as expected in .psd files only?
You might check your Layers option under Image and ensure that the layer is not locked.
The .psd files should operate the same - but how they were saved may cause some issues, for example a locked layer. Or the layer priority causing the working layer to not be the active layer.
Also, you may need to ensure that the psd plugin is installed in GIMP.
I tried clearing a selected area of an unlocked layer in a psd file, yet there was no change on hitting delete. It should have left an empty void with no background colour, but the area remained unchanged.
Yes, every alternative keystroke gives the same result.
also, paintbucket had no effect - that is a white paint bucket
against a black surrounding field.
Regrettably -- there are far too many differences between GIMP UI and PS UI.
GIMP may well be just as good as you say it is, but after decades of working in Photoshop.. force-of-habit prevails over teaching a penguin new tricks.
At some point I will undoubtedly get around to studying a GIMP manual to see what features it actually has, and how to access those features.
I may even find some specialised use for GIMP. We shall see.
I can tell you - I am not thrilled about paying Adobe 700, € per annum for a subscription service. Photoshop has ceased to be a product one can buy and own, and has become a cloud service, which can be revoked in an instant. Subscribers are also forced to adopt the latest version, even if they prefer an earlier version. That choice has been taken away.
I'm hoping one day a private company will release a Linux programme which works like Photoshop, and feels like Photoshop, so I can take my leave of Windows.
Here is an app that you can use to supposedly make the GIMP menu much more like Photoshop. It was created for user switching from Photoshop to GIMP. You need to scroll down towards the bottom of the page for information about it and for instructions for installing it.
Did you read the instructions near the bottom of the page? I haven't tried it, but it appears you don't actually "install" Photogimp. After you have unzipped the files, you manually replace some of the files in the GIMP folders with the files you have unzipped.
Edit: You may have to click on the show hidden files button to see the files in the GIMP folder.
If you can give us a hand with installing photoGIMP
I promise to give GIMP another try - and if it's closer to Photoshop's UI
I will even consider using it full time!
I had to look this up. As far as I know, PhotoGIMP is a patch that enables making GIMP take on some Photoshop appearance.
So that means that you only need to move the files into the appropriate folder.
If you have not already, download the package from git: git clone https://github.com/Diolinux/PhotoGIMP.git
This will land in your home directory. So you only need to do a basic Change Directory command to enter it
cd PhotoGIMP
Copy the files into your home GIMP config directory: cp -r .var/app/org.gimp.GIMP/config/GIMP/2.10/* ~/.config/GIMP/2.10/
If the photogimp files replace existing gimp files (dont know if they replace or are extra) then would it be a good idea to copy the existing gimp files to somewhere safe in case of need to backtrack?
Not planning to do this myself, so just a thought. Zab
the first code went well..
but the second did not resolve - "no such directory"
I read that the latest verion of GIMP should be installed,
so perhaps I should start there.
is there a flatpak install code for GIMP 2.10.38 (?)
No problem there.. GIMP will only be needed if photoGIMP works as it should.
I am more and more at home and cosy in Linux-space - day by day.
Bit by bit, feeding the Terminal is becoming less daunting, and intimidating.
Your GIMPy optimism is gradually eroding my GIMPy pessimism,
and photoGIMP could be a semi-antidote for Photoshop depenency syndrome.
I'm willing to give it a second chance, and we shall see how it goes this time.
Aravisian has corrected a lot of misconceptions and false conclusions I had about GIMP.
Linux file paths obviously do not work in the same way as Windows file paths..
example: C:\Users\Name\Desktop...
where C is the local drive
Haven't a clue what the path reference point could be in Linux
The local drive has no drive letter it seems.
is 'Home' the reference point,? or 'Computer' ? something else?
