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Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2012 06:05:07 -0700 From: doodoodeedoo yahoo com To: gimp-developer-list gnome org Subject: [Gimp-developer] GIMP 2.8 less productive than GIMP 2.6 (too many dialogue boxes) ----------- To: GIMP devs and users Having recently made the upgrade to GIMP 2.8, it's immediately obvious to me as a long time user that GIMP is now a far less productive application. Some aspects that I find particularly obtrusive: -> The "Export" vs Save implementation: this alone already made me go back to 2.6, at least until this "feature" is made optional or removed from GIMP altogether. Previously, all I had to do to save an image in any desired format after editing it, was to use "Save as" exactly as I would in any other program; now I have to go through multiple dialogue windows and manually select the same options ALL THE TIME (such as the dreadful "Do Not write colour space information" for BMPs), since they aren't assumed by GIMP for future operations. Even something that should be as simple as a quick modification followed by a CTRL+S to overwrite the same image in its own native format has become an headache. ------------ I'm not particularly fond of the save/export distinction ... in its current form. I can agree that the distinction is generally a positive one, as in, used correctly there are decidedly fewer dialogues to wade through for writing a non-XCF file to disk than there were in 2.6. BUT I think there are some minor things that completely ruin productivity for certain styles of workflow. For example, the fact that "Export" (Ctrl+E) and "Overwrite" (no default shortcut) are two separate commands. I believe this is a horrible design decision when the only pertinent difference between them is whether or not the current image session originated from a non-XCF file. If I'm creating a single-layer composition and choose to store it on disk as a PNG. Okay, so Save is intended for XCF now, use Export instead, that is a bit of a speed-bump but the Export commands are on the same menu and they even have similar keyboard shortcuts set up. Ctrl+E it is, first it asks me for a filename (just as the Save command would with a new file), but subsequent uses just writes the file to disk in a single keystroke with no further prompts (also just like the Save command would do with an XCF). That is, UNTIL I come back later in a new GIMP session. Now it is considered an 'imported' image, so the 'Export' is replaced by 'Overwrite', and I have no keyboard shortcut for writing changes back to the file NQA. If I hit Ctrl+E (which for some reason still remains invokable) I have to go through all the usual Export prompts as if I've never exported the file before, but including a new prompt asking whether to overwrite the existing file. THIS is the real productivity-killer. It is not GIMP's place to judge the merits of its user's individual workflow. It is GIMP's job to do what they tell it to do, to the best of its ability (i.e. within the scope of its design vision). I always viewed GIMP as being able to accommodate a wide variety of different workflows ... is that now saying that GIMP has a multiple-personality disorder? I think not. -- Stratadrake strata_ranger hotmail com -------------------- Numbers may not lie, but neither do they tell the whole truth. |