[Gimp-user] A Sad case of regression

[Grue <forums gimpusers com>]

> Hi all
>
> I not often write here, but I'm a regular user of gimp. But I slowly
> get upset by some mails here
> First: I am myself developer of open source projects as well as Debian
> developer, so not some casual user.
>
> These bullying emails are just plain rubbish. Software should be
> written with the users in mind. And
> - opening a jpg file
> - editing
> - saving
> should result in a saved version of yhe original file, because that is
> what practically all programs are doing, and what the user
> expectation, and natural behaviour is.

I can't believe nobody's brought this up yet, but if you're doing this, you're
doing it wrong. If you think this is a valid workflow of image editing (and
anyone else who does this), then you should really educate yourself on image
formats you're using.

There's another message by Helen, where she describes something that should
strike terror into the hearts of anyone who has ever worked with image files.

> My agent sends a jpg of the card she plans to mail out, asking me to edit.
> I edit, save to jpg becasue tha's what she wants, and it has now
> disappeared off my screen.
> I open it again to make sure I am satisfied with it, mail it to her.
> She mails it back with the changes I've asked for, I review and either make
> changes or don't, and
> start the circle again (export instead of save as, it disappears, I open it
> again for review, etc.)

Wow, just wow.

Here are the facts: every time you "save" your image as JPEG, you lose
information. It is by design a lossy image format that uses an algorithm to
conserve your disk space via throwing away some "insignificant" information
(which works well for photos, but ruins many other types of images). Worse yet,
if you edit a JPEG image and resave it, you lose even more information. This
results in very noticeable artifacts in the image. And GIMP actually tries to
prevent you from this destructive workflow, yet you keep doing it anyway, and
you're complaining about GIMP instead of your own ineptitude.

Please, if you work with images, learn about image formats and how they work.
The eyes of people who look at your images will thank you later.

-- 
Grue (via www.gimpusers.com/forums)