I dont really know photo editing, could someone explain?
It takes a while to figure out how selections in Gimp work.
It whenever you select you have created a mask and when you combine it with layers it can get very confusing.
If you accidentally select a small bit you cannot edit anything else. I think that is what OP is referring to.
There is a tool that shows you what you have selected that can help.
IMO Gimp isn’t very well documented so you can get stuck for a while before you understand what is going on.
Thanks!
I have no idea how selection works anywhere else, since I only ever used gimp.
For me, I don’t understand this meme, selection seems to work very intuitively, it seems to do what I expect it to do.
work very intuitively
I only ever used gimp
Lol, all these GIMP haters who don’t seem to understand the goal was being on par with Photoshop when it was a desktop application. It works exactly like Photoshop always did. And I agree, selection makes sense. There were many apps that worked the same… Paint Shop Pro as well.
I guess the kids have all grown up with some other tools and would rather call things they don’t understand stupid than try to grasp where the tool came from.
I’m not sure how Krita is different but then again I haven’t used it. I installed it, saw it looked like a fork of GIMP, and stuck with what I knew. Which is probably what anyone who hates GIMP should do.
It works exactly like Photoshop always did.
Unequivocally false (source: been a PS user since version 7)
I haven’t used Photoshop since version 4 so we can’t really compare notes here. I dropped Windows during the Blaster Worm attack in the early 2000s
I was using Mac OS 9 at the time! But PS 7’s workflow was already pretty similar to what it is today, and far more intuitive than GIMP which I tried for the first time in 2006-ish.
Interesting. I remember trying a copy of newer Photoshop a few years and being genuinely confused by how layers worked as they’ve always been part of my flow.
The old versions of photoshop and paint shop pro were heavily layer based and selections were automatically a mask of the current layer as in GIMP so GIMP was easy for me to transfer too at the time.
I also find that intuitive is a relative term. Relative based on your own experience.
Relative to what? You admitted you only ever tried GIMP fucking lmao.
I’ve used other stuff almost daily and I still don’t understand this meme.
why don’t people use krita? Gimp may be the most famous photoshop alternative, but I almost never hear anyone talk about others that may potentially be better.
Krita is better for some things but I find Gimp’s workflow easier for me in a lot of things
Krita’s Wacom tablet support, though, was way smoother and easier to get working with Krita, which is the main reason I even tried it out
Taking the time to learn gimp is worthwhile. Its really powerful once you know how to use it IMO
counterpoint, learn nondestructive editing and you can use any image tool you want that supports it. IMO this is a far nore useful skill than investing time into one app that can’t even do nondestructive🥲
Yes, people are handicapped and entrapped by using Adobe products.
My man GIMP is the only software I’ve ever seen that doesn’t use CTRL+D for deselect
Blender uses Alt+A.
It consistently uses Alt as a modifier to execute inverse operations. I to insert a keyframe, Alt+I to delete it. Ctrl+F to set a text filter/search, Alt+F to clear it. Ctrl+P to set parent, Alt+P to clear it. H to hide selected objects, Shift+H to hide unselected objects, Alt+H to unhide all. {G,R,S} to move/rotate/scale, Alt+{G,R,S} to reset transformations. It’s not exactly industry standard, but internally consistent that makes learning it easy.
Ctrl+D to deselect is stupid.
I know, its so hard to press F1 and change the keys to be whatever you want; even copying adobe’s keybindings. It takes a whole 15 minutes of setup, the horror.
Gimp sucks. That’s why people on Linux rather use krita to edit photos and it wasn’t even built to do that.
Gimp is a horrible mistake that should literally be killed off and it should be put into a failure museum to serve as a warning and a reminder how Foss can take a wrong turn and many free development hours are spent towards building the wrong things and continue to disappoint any user that tries it.
skill issue
I’m so sorry that you feel the $0.00 you’ve spent on GIMP’s development were not well spent
Just because something’s free doesn’t make it immune to criticism.
Is it really criticism if you just say “is bad I hate it”
Absolute you problem. GIMP is some of the best and most powerful FOSS ever made, and better than most proprietary applications. But this is probably just bait anyway.
I’ve used GIMP to create all of my memes. It’s just fine, even if the UI can be unintuitive.
It lacks features compared to Photoshop, which is a reference to the fact that 2 developers maintain the core features of it.
Gimp needs fixing. It’s definitely not beyond it. But sure go simp for Microsoft some more (yes I remember you from other threads)
You don’t get it.
If you’re not spending hours trying to figure out how to do the most basic shit then it’s not for you, pal. Ever heard the expression pressure turns coal into diamonds?
That’s right.
That’s because we’re not bitch ass pussies. Last night I spent five hours trying to merge some layers, and you know what? Worth it! I read the docu, had a back and forth with the developers and after they threatened to kill my family I got it. I’m now a proud member of the Gimp Club Tm (choker and gag ball not included).
Ya gotta give to get some, Shirley. Now move over, I need to block out the rest of the day so I can figure out how to export a PNG.
Haha
I literally use GIMP every day at my job. It’s a very powerful application that makes my life easier.
My condolences.
I like GIMP :)
Crtl shift a it’s so obvious right… Right?!
I never knew about it until now and I’ve used GIMP often enough, but if I was going to assign a keyboard shortcut, that makes sense. Ctrl +A select all. Ctrl + Shift + A select none.
Shift is the oppositer (reverser?). Tab goes to next field, Shift + Tab goes in reverse order. Ctrl + T open new tab in browser, Ctrl + Shift + T reopen last closed tab - OK that’s not exactly opposite but close enough.
These people who hate GIMP didn’t really practice with it all that much. I use for my day job, editing photos and making content for marketplaces. It works very well. The workflow may be different to PS, yes, but that does not make GIMP bad. Also, for those who hate the UI, two things. First, why don’t you help the dev team? And second, we’ll have GTK3 support soon (finally).
I tried. I really tried to like GIMP. The main reason I don’t like it is because it’s trying so hard to be a professional picture editor and the UI.
Why can’t I deselect things? Why does something need to be selected at all times? Let me just click a button and remove the selection outline and deselect things.
No. I won’t help the dev team because I can’t code to save my ass. I turn wrenchs and fix things for a living.
I use other, simpler pic editors. Why should I learn to fly a Boeing 747 when a Cessna 172 will get me where I need to go? I’m making a shit post once every three months, not professional art.
You can deselect all with CTRL + SHIFT + A and deselect a specific part by changing the selection mode from replace or additive to subtract.
imagine locking deselection behind a keybind nobody will know about
It’s literally at the top of the select menu
When I was learning about GIMP key shortcuts I was like “Ctrl+A selects everything, Ctrl+Shift+A deselects everything. Makes sense.”
And then I went to most of the other apps. “Ctrl+D? Well it’s one less keypress, but… WHY?”
To be fair, I get it now, I’ve used plenty of image editors and I remember the keybinds wherever I am. Just that I sometimes find it annoying that The Other Software hasn’t adopted logical keybindings.
(I find it particularly annoying that a lot of image editors try to be fancy and sophisticated and Photoshop-compatible and think it’s at all appropriate to use Ctrl+NumpadPlus and Ctrl+NumpadMinus for zooming. Just use what GIMP uses! NumpadPlus and NumpadMinus. It’s not hard! What are you using the plain plus and minus for, anyway? Absolutely nothing! I just checked, I need to use Ctrl in Affinity Photo. Plain plus and minus are useless. I see you. …oh I can just rebind these. Done.)
I just change certain keybinds to be GIMP-like whenever I switch drawing programs.
N is the pencil, CTRL-SHIFT-A is deselect. There’s something else, but I can’t remember right now.
GIMP is bad. If the problem was simply that it was “different to PS” then other apps like Krita and Affinity Photo would have the same reputation.
If a user goes looking for a tool or feature and it’s not in the first place they look, that’s a problem of “didn’t really practice that much”. If experienced people need to look up how to do basic operations and their reaction is “that’s fucking stupid”, then the software is bad.
To then say “well why don’t you help the Dev team then” is insane. I’m not spending hundreds of hours digging GIMP out of bad design decisions when I could just use better software and I haven’t seen any evidence that my PR would even be accepted.
Nobody needs excuses and apologism, they need Blender for image editing and GIMP just isn’t that.
I mean, I’ve been using GIMP as my primary photo editor for…over a decade. When I use other programs, nothing is where I expect it to be and I think “well, that’s fucking stupid”
So you open any other image editor, click the rectangle select button, draw a rectangle, then select a move button beside the rectangle select tool, then it moves the rectangle you just selected and you think “That’s fucking stupid, it should’ve moved the entire image, not the rectangle I just selected!”
Really?
Yes, really. If my move tool is set to layer move, dont change it just because I used the select tool for something completely unrelated. That is the typical dumbed down big colorful button approach that I hate in modern corporate software.
Look, that you’re used to the garbage UI doesn’t change that it’s garbage and in dire need of a fundamental revamp. If almost everyone here (and everywhere else) says that it sucks or is intransparent, then YOU may be the odd one out here ;)
Imagine hating usable software you don’t need a PhD for. It’s kinda pathetic to make this your point of pride.
Have you thought about applying for a job at Adobe and fixing it?
Getting a job at Adobe is not helping GIMP
No, but “fix it yourself” is apparently a completely acceptable response if someone criticizes GIMP.
Anyway, I don’t care how bad the tools you use are, but it’s time to stop acting shocked when industry professionals have no interest in GIMP and don’t take anyone who advocates it as a Photoshop alternative seriously.
Nobody is acting shocked. Least the people who learned to use GIMP.
The problem is people like you who are outraged, when asking for a free Photoshop alternative, that the next best thing is not to their likening.
And yes “consider fixing it yourself” is absolutely a valid response for GIMP issues because GIMP is made by volunteers For Photoshop it a bullshit response because it’s made by a billion dollar company which charges you for the development and use.
Nobody is acting shocked. Least the people who learned to use GIMP.
So the people who learn GIMP are fully aware why it gets zero industry use? Thanks, that was my point.
The problem is people like you who are outraged, when asking for a free Photoshop alternative, that the next best thing is not to their likening.
I’m not outraged in the slightest, nor am I asking for a free Photoshop alternative. But I’ve seen people claiming GIMP is a viable alternative to Photoshop for 20 years and for anything past the most basic use cases, it isn’t. You may as well be telling people to use Nano instead of Visual Studio and when they complain about the experience, tell them to code the features themselves.
GIMP has had literally decades of development and even with Photoshop in the worst state it’s ever been in, it isn’t competitive. There are clearly systemic issues with the project and I’m certain this “head in the sand” mentality is at least partly to blame.
‘help the dev team’ is a lunatics response. I use Linux but fuck the users man.
It’s a bit lunatic, but it’s arguably the only way forward. GIMP doesn’t have a multi billion dollar company behind - only volunteers.
Expecting the developers to have the capacity and skill to emulate the features and looks of Photoshop (and quickly, please) - in their free time - is even more lunatic.
I’m not expecting anything. But if your response to genuine criticism is “fix it urself in the code lol” then fuck off
Ok
I think what burns people the most is that after Photoshop 5 or so, GIMP stopped keeping up with all the improvements in the later Photoshop versions. People making the jump from 2024 Photoshop to 1996 Photoshop UI/UX are gonna have a bad time.
Edit: as a software developer I can say that I’ve never seen a user more frustrated, sometimes even irrationally so, when they are forced to re-learn muscle memory to perform a familiar task. I’ve also seen people practically riot at the mere suggestion that this will happen. If you wish to curry favor with your userbase, never ever, remove keyboard accelerators, move toolbars around, break workflow, etc.
Please teach to how draw good circles and eclipse And how to resize sollection by corner
good circles and eclipse
I assume “eclipse” is a typo of ellipse? Anyway, just use the ellipse select tool (keybind:
e) to make a selection in the shape that you want, then fill it in with the bucket tool (b). Hold shift while using the bucket tool to fill in the entire selection, ignoring anything that’s drawn inside it. If you want to draw a ring rather than a completely filled circle, use the “border” command from the “select” dropdown menu to replace the ellipse/circle selection with its border.how to resize selection by corner
I’m curious, what is your usecase for this? I’ve never had to do it myself. But if I had to, here’s how I would do it: first, convert the seleciton to a path. Make sure the path is visible from the “Paths” dialog (you have to explicitly show the paths dialog using the “window > dockable dialogs” option. From then on, you can use any of the usual transform tools (perspective, resize, roate, etc) on the path. You just have to select the path icon under "Transform: " in the “tool properties” dialog to make sure you’re transforming the path, not a pixel layer. Once you’ve transformed the path to your liking, you can turn it back to a selection, fill it with color, or stroke it with a brush by right-clicking on it in the “layers” dialog.
Also, bonus tip: never use the dropdown menus, it’s a huge waste of time. Just press
/to pull up for the command palette and search for the tool you need.EDIT: I love lovingly ranting about gimp, I can do it four hours on end. I’m not some sort of gimp guru, but I know a thing or two. If anyone has any more questions, feel free to reply to this comment and I’ll do my best to give advice.
I have used Gimp for years and I actually do not understand this meme. Like, do you not understand how image selection and/or layers work? What tf did you think would happen except for exactly what happens?
maybe its because of the thing where you select something and try moving it and it moves the whole layer? thats the only thing ive ever had a problem with in gimp
Ooohh, okay, I get how that could be unintuitive. Thank you.
It’s better to separate it to another layer so I do it without realizing. If you have trouble with outlines forming then use copy instead of cut.
