High bit depth support, non-destructive editing (so called "effect layers") and colour management. Three hot topics in photography editing - that users have been waiting for for a long time now to appear in GIMP. Today Linux & Photography blog features an exclusive interview with Martin Nordholts, one of the core contributors to GIMP. Nordholts speaks about the current state of affairs, explains what is going on deep inside the GIMP (and GEGL) and also lifts a corner of the veil about what is to come.
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Member since:2005-06-29
Further along in the interview, he does mention it. I summarised it like this in the OSNews article:
Member since:2006-01-01
Thanks for that! To me a tab-based single document interface is just as good as an MDI if not better. One thing they need to pay attention to is the menu bar. There needs to be one menu bar and everything should live inside a window. The Paint.Net concept isn't too bad. Put that toolbox/sidebar inside a window (docked to the side with the ability to undock it) and create a tab bar on the right side and for each window, a new tab is created. The tab index would correspond to the window/form index. You click on a window and the same tab as the window index gets activated and vice versa. This can easily be achieved by storing the address of each window in an array that would hold memory addresses. So, tab with index 0 would activate the address in the first element etc etc. Be creative! Make sure the tabs are good looking with nice bevels and when you maximize the window it does *NOT* cover the tab bar but it stretches until just under the tab bar. Once this is done, the GIMP might become the most popular painting application.
Edited 2008-12-29 00:40 UTC
Member since:2005-10-12
Sigh. One of the things I like about Photoshop CS3 is the efficiency of the UI. The narrower toolbox is an example of this. I mean Sweet Jesus can't GIMP actually save some screen real estate for the work area? That unnecessarily square toolbox in GIMP is an example of why I hate GIMP's user interface.
Here's an example:
http://gimp.org/screenshots/windows_crop.jpg
I bet there is some way to change this, but the default arrangement sucks.
Member since:2006-05-18
I'm no GIMP apologist, but you can resize the toolbox. What's disturbing is the clumsy looking interface design, with big controls just thrown around, and tens of not so little windows that leave little room to image editing.
CS3 for Windows is interface heaven. CS3 for Mac, I'm not so sure. The fact that there is no title bar or main window is really annoying, but still way, way, way better.
I don't know how almost every other image editing application has a sane UI, one you can actually work with from the first time you see it.
And I'm really sick of people saying that they work better with GIMP than with Photoshop. I'm a professional designer, I know other professional designers and neither them or me would touch GIMP with a ten foot pole. And, NO, it's not suitable for regular people either. Don't kid yourselves - GIMP aims much higher than the regular gradma who wants to crop her holiday pictures. And anyway, if gradma will try it, she won't make heads or tails of that UI.
Member since:2008-12-29
Member since:2005-11-12
You can resize the toolbox and make it thin, anyone who does graphic design doesn't usually stick with the default layout anyway.
I have GIMP layed out like this http://imagebin.ca/view/MVZWr9s.html
Adjust the layout to fit your needs, thats what it's there for.
Edited 2008-12-29 13:17 UTC
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Member since:
2006-01-01
This also asks for a question about UI design - image editing is a complex task and a simple UI for a complex task is not easy?
The UI team (mostly Peter Sikking) is giving valuable input. I know there are plans for a user interface to non-destructive features but I don’t remember any details right now.
So are they going to do something about the GUI? In my opinion this question was not clearly raised.
How about "One of users' biggest concerns is the GIMP GUI. You have probably read comments on forums where people winge about the GIMP not having a friendly GUI. Are the GIMP developers agreeing with this and if so are they addressing the issue, are they doing something about it?
Edited 2008-12-28 11:14 UTC