Anybody using Gimp?

[RacerX]

Because of your post, I was curious about Toyviewer and PixelNhance, since they were free and sounded interesting. Toyviewer is still around, and PixelNhance isn't available anymore because the company who made this freeware went under. However, I somehow managed to get a copy of it, and it's pretty amazing, so thanks.

Caffeine Software has given me permission to provide copies of their old software... I just haven't gotten around to making a page for their Mac OS X software on my site yet (I'll do that by the end of the weekend).

Caffeine Software's assets were bought by Apple Computer. The technology that was once the application TIFFany3 became CoreImage in Mac OS X.

While I was given permission to provide a license string for older NEXTSTEP/OPENSTEP versions of their software (TIFFany II), Apple has so far declined to let TIFFany3 (for Mac OS X, Rhapsody or OPENSTEP) to be provided for free (meaning I can't provide a license string for that software yet).

For a long time Apple provided PixelNhance with new hardware, but they built some of it's abilities into iPhoto... and of course it is not Universal.

ToyViewer is a great little application. I did a page on the Mac OS X version (here) a while back and just put up a page on the Rhapsody version (here) last week.

Of course one of the most important tools with ToyViewer is Apple's Colors Panel* which can be expanded with color services like Painter's Picker and Hex Color Picker.




* The Colors Panel hasn't changed much since it's introduction back in NEXTSTEP. The original designer's page is here and I have a small page on the Rhapsody version here.

 

[oblomow]

Has anyone been able to hack/adjust gimp so that it can read Canon
raw image (.CR2) from a Canon EOS350D?

 

[bowens]

I also use Gimp. I'm not going to pay $700 for PS. If I was in the graphics business then I probably would, but not to just tinker around with. I have tried trials of PS and I've found that Gimp has, in what I've done with it, been just as functional as PS. I know I haven't used either to their full potential and I'm sure that PS has a lot more power than Gimp, but for the simple stuff I do, Gimp works just fine.

 

[baleensavage]

I've been meaning to try Gimp out myself. I'm a big fan of the open-source movement and with Adobe's recent Microsoftish business practices, I find myself liking them less each day. With that said, I eat, sleep and breathe Photoshop. I use it all day at work, then when I'm home I use it for all the artwork on my comic and editing all my photos. The other app that I use a lot is GraphicConverter. GraphicConverter, I have found, never really gets its fair share (probably due to the name which does not do it justice). Photoshop has been ripping GraphicConverter off for years. Things like the File Browser (which evolved into Bridge) were around in GraphicConverter long before Photoshop had them. Two of my favorite features of GraphicConverter, which Photoshop can't even touch, are the ability to make useful contact sheets (Contact Sheet II has nothing on the catalog feature of GraphicConverter) and the ability to open anything that vaguely hints at being an image. If Photoshop won't open it, I try GraphicConverter which usually will.

 

[liberty4all]

Interesting... no surprise if Apple will release a Cocoa Photoshop competitor...

FYI, you can download the applications like TIFFany and PixelNhance made here:
http://caffeinesoft.com/

Caffeine Software has given me permission to provide copies of their old software... I just haven't gotten around to making a page for their Mac OS X software on my site yet (I'll do that by the end of the weekend).

Caffeine Software's assets were bought by Apple Computer. The technology that was once the application TIFFany3 became CoreImage in Mac OS X.

While I was given permission to provide a license string for older NEXTSTEP/OPENSTEP versions of their software (TIFFany II), Apple has so far declined to let TIFFany3 (for Mac OS X, Rhapsody or OPENSTEP) to be provided for free (meaning I can't provide a license string for that software yet).

For a long time Apple provided PixelNhance with new hardware, but they built some of it's abilities into iPhoto... and of course it is not Universal.

ToyViewer is a great little application. I did a page on the Mac OS X version (here) a while back and just put up a page on the Rhapsody version (here) last week.

Of course one of the most important tools with ToyViewer is Apple's Colors Panel* which can be expanded with color services like Painter's Picker and Hex Color Picker.




* The Colors Panel hasn't changed much since it's introduction back in NEXTSTEP. The original designer's page is here and I have a small page on the Rhapsody version here.

 

[ChrisA]

Just wondering. I see a lot of people mentioning that they use Photoshop, but are people also using Gimp on their macs? It is powerful, but I find the interface still clumsy. (although this is supposed to be a feature, not a bug).

And if you use it, what do you use it for? I use it mainly for simple cropping tasks, some sharpening. What do you people use it for when editing photo's?

If all you are doing is simple tasks like crop and other minor adjustments then Gimp has an overly complex user interface but then so does Photoshop. Both are designed to allow for much more complex tasks and so the screens are cluttred with hundreds of functions you don't use like the layers palet and all those tools and brushes.

For simple tasks like cropping and minor adjustments iPhoto is the way to go.

I used Gimp for years under Linux and Solaris. It is the only choise there. Now that I have a Mac at home (still using Linux and Solaris at work) I have PS CS3 on the imac. I think the people who complain about Gimp's user interface are photoshop users with a decade od experiance so of course what they have used for so long seems easy. They are biased by their experiance. In reality both are big complex programs that take a long time to master.

I've been meaning to try Gimp out myself. I'm a big fan of the open-source movement and with Adobe's recent Microsoftish business practices, I find myself liking them less each day. With that said, I eat, sleep and breathe Photoshop. I use it all day at work, then when I'm home I use it for all the artwork on my comic and editing all my photos.

What you will find is that Gimp has 90% of what photoshop offers but also brings in many things PS does not have. For example Gimp is very "scriptable" and yu can extend Gimp to add functions But Gimp does not work with 16-bit per channel color with is a deal breaker for many photographers and it doe not understand color management very well either.

You will think that Adobe's user interface is easier to use but that is only becuae of the time you have invested in it.

The best part about Gimp is that if yu don't like something, it is Open Source. It can be changed. Rather then whining about it you can fix it. OK you lackthe skills but I meant "you" as in "you all can get together and fix it."

Has anyone been able to hack/adjust gimp so that it can read Canon
raw image (.CR2) from a Canon EOS350D?

Look up DCRAW. It will convert most raw formats into something gimp can use.
http://cybercom.net/~dcoffin/dcraw/

There are several options for using gimp and dcraw together. some people have written plug ins to make it easy. Type in both gimp and cdraw to google and you will get a few hits.

 

[Techguy172]

I want to like GIMP I have tried but the interface is just so HORRIBLE once you use photoshop gimp looks like hell. You are very confused.