The GIMP – Almost fun but a pain in the arse!

02 Aug 2006

For those of you out there that have been using Photoshop for years you may well understand my dilema, I have just switched to to the Ubuntu operating system and can no longer use Photoshop. Now if I really wanted to I could do so by doing one of the following…

  1. Run Windows under a virtual machine and then install Photoshop on there.
  2. Try and get hold of an older copy of Photoshop and run it under although I have no idea how to get an older copy of Photoshop
  3. Install Windows on another partition of my hard drive and then install Photoshop
  4. Heck I reckon I could even connect to another windows box in my house and use remote desktop…

None of these seem really appealing although options 1 & 2 seem to be the most logical, there is however another option that although frustrating seem to me to be the most sensible…

  1. Ditch Photoshop and go with The GIMP Image Editor which is free, very powerful and a total conundrum to figure out after using Photoshop for years.

Guess which one I am doing?

Yep… It’s conundrum time… I have decided that seeing as I am living the open source life at the moment it would make sense to bite the bullet and reverse engineer my brain so I could start using what looks to be a very powerful tool if only I can get my head around it!

The first thing I encountered when I started delving into The GIMP was a little thing called GIMPShop which changes the way that menu options are named and also modifies keyboard shortcuts to mimic as closely as possible the shortcuts from Photoshop. Nice idea but I couldn’t get it running niether from source, nor from the debian package I downloaded. Maybe I will go back and try it again some time but I have things to get on with and don’t have any more time to mess about.

So where am I at with it? Well after much head scratching I think I am beginning to get somewhere and have made a little progress. Here are the first couple of things I have done to try and make my life easier, I thought I would share just in case any of you are in a similar boat.

  1. Turn of layer boundries as they are just confusing
  2. Maximize the image window I am working on
  3. Dock my tools, layers & swatches panel with the main file panel (I am still trying to figure out the swatches)
  4. Set reset a couple of main keyboard shortcuts: v = Move tool, Ctrl + d = Deselect, m = Rectangular Marquee

I know this is a short list but I will no doubt add to this and share my discoveries as I learn, this was at least enough to have me moving about and at least able to perform the most basic but essential tasks.

The downside to switching away from your comfort zone when it comes to operating systems and software is that you are stepping into a rather steep learning curve. I don’t mind getting into this as I made my decision probably 3 years ago I’d love to go open source but it still frustrates me when I come to hurdles like compiling software from source or having to learn new ways of doing things.

Anyway, I hope these little tips might have been of some use to you and if you have any for me then feel free to share…

Comments

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    Ara Pehlivanian
    August 3rd, 2006

    I feel your pain. I’m going through exactly that same problem. I’m so used to the subtleties of PhotoShop that I find myself having to relearn everything. Things as simple as replacing ctrl+d to deselect with ctrl+shift+a. But I’m getting better at it. It isn’t so bad once you start getting used to it. Hey, it’s just another Everest! Just another Everest.

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    Alan
    August 3rd, 2006

    I’m actually beginning to get into it, anything new can be frustrating but from what I have heard it is the ex-Photoshop crew that have the most difficulty learning The GIMP.

    Never mind, once I get the hang of it that’s just one more reason not to go back to pay for software and enjoy my freedom of expression with a very powerful image editing tool…

    Here’s to change ;-)

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    Lelia Katherine THomas
    August 4th, 2006

    This is why I fear switching to an open source OS for now. There are just too many little things that are problematic. For instance–not to make you feel bad or anything, because I admire your wanting to switch to open source, but–it takes a lot of time to find compatible things, as far as I’ve heard. Beyond that, then you have to learn the new way of handling it. You have to work around some things that haven’t been improved yet.

    The problem is that time is money, or at least something very valuable. I’m not sure if I’m ready to not be “evil” and switch, because time is important, and I think you end up having to waste a lot of it going through some of the motions you have already experienced while trying to use GIMPshop.

    What are some of the other programs you’re battling with? Are there many?

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    Alan
    August 4th, 2006

    I really do hear what you ae saying about time and money but at the end of the day there is never a good time to go through upheaval… What we as humans tend to do is deal with upheaval when it is thrown at us and that is what I have done to myself by forcing a switch. In all honesty I am not suffering too bad…

    I agree that I have probably wasted some time whilst trying to get a new development environment on the go and playing with my new operating system.

    On the other hand though, I made a choice that I wanted to stop using Windows, it is not the be all and end all to computing, in fact it is completely shit. Windows just breaks from time to time and I got fed up with it so made the switch.

    Yeah it take a little effort to get your head around but to me the benefits will soon outweight the inconvenience of having to learn some stuff. The concepts are slightly different but I know what I want to use my computer for and will make it do my bidding if it is the last thing I do!!

    As for packages, the image editing has been the biggest hanging point from a productivity standpoint but now I have decided what I am doing I can just get on with some learning… I am going to continue posting about my journeys in open source so please do come back and see how I am doing :D

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    Jon
    August 4th, 2006

    I can definitely relate to your frustration with the GIMP at first. GIMPShop is an excellent first step… the next would be to replace *most* of the keyboard shortcuts with Photoshop-like ones:

    http://gimpshop.blogspot.com/2005/11/photoshop-ish-keyboard-shortcuts-for.html

    That should help your transition even more, and I have to tell you, give yourself a solid month using GIMPShop and you’ll find your way around — trust me

  • Gravatar Icon

    Linux and Web Development Part 2 - Monday By Noon
    September 11th, 2006

    [...] First and foremost, layer boundaries should be hidden. I don’t quite get why they’re displayed by default but at least you can turn them off — their presence quickly clutters things and makes any file really confusing to work with. Alan White has written up a small list of some really great tips on starting out with the GIMP. One that I can whole heartedly support is making one big ‘toolbar’ out of the two windows put on display by default. To do this you can drag the various panels from place to place by clicking and dragging their title section as shown below: [...]

  • Gravatar Icon

    Alan White
    September 13th, 2006

    Nice one, thanks for the backlink to my site :D What a good article too, I will no doubt be referencing it for other people…

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    heathenx
    September 13th, 2006

    if people can force themselves to use open source solutions like gimp, for instance, that are platform independent than no matter the OS one will be able to use the same software.

    gimp
    inkscape
    scribus
    firefox
    thunderbird
    evolution
    vlc player
    nvu…just to name a few.

  • Gravatar Icon

    Alan White
    September 14th, 2006

    Very true, and something I keep trying to remind myself of… I didn’t actually realise that Inkscape was totally platform independant, that is quite cool!

    I have just set up a Windows 2000 box for dealing with any Photoshop files I am given (I get quite a lot) but have made a point after reading your post to install the same open source tools I am using on my main Ubuntu box.

    KVM switches are awesome, instead of dirtying my Linux box with Windows I can just run both machines + my local web server through the same keyboard, monitor and mouse…

    Unfortunately I still need to run a Windows box but your point is a good one and one I will try to advocate in future articles.

    Thanks for coming in past :-)

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