Re: [Gimp-user] HATE the new save vs. export behavior

[Kristian Rink <kawazu428 gmail com>]

First off, I have been using Gimp ever since 0.9.something, it's still
my most used GNU/Linux desktop application, and I did quite some cursing
the very day the new save/export behaviour was introduced - but mainly
because, in the end, it broke a workflow I was used to.

Am 09.08.2013 21:09, schrieb Daniel:
> > > * Open your favorite spreadsheet application. * Load a CSV. *
> > > Create complicated formulas to compute more values. * Save as
> > > CSV, "naturally"
> > >
> > > Oops. What were these formulas again?

Well, actually, that's the very point in my opinion. The same way I used
to be nagged by the save/export, I then and now got annoyed by the
application repeatedly asking me "dumb"(?) questions ("flatten" and the
like) when trying to save an image making excessive use of layers and
channels to a JPG file.

> Sorry, but that's a really bad argument for Gimp.  After all, much
> metadata is lost when it imports photos and other images which
> contain metadata.

While I agree here, to me, this is a wholly different point and more
about, well, preserving image metadata and eventually doing so in xcf too.

> And if someone wants to be clever about it, then if there is data or
> format changes of the image for which data may be lost or the
> original format cannot handle, then XCF should be selected as the
> target format when saving.  (for example, the original image was RAW
> or JPEG and the image changes call for an alpha channel, or perhaps a
> layer has been added to the original image.)

Which, in the end, might make it hard to predict what will _actually_ be
saved as eventually channels and layers are added by plugins or
extensions without the user consciously aware of it. Personally, I
wouldn't like this very much... ;)


> And I understand not wanting the program to do too much thinking for
> the users because it can simply get in the way, but the new change
> already crosses that line by thinking for the user that every file
> should be saved into XCF format and of course, the user loses all
> metadata.


As stated above - this should be a different thing; losing metadata
without explicitely telling Gimp to dump them ain't a good thing but 
eventually should be treated differently; if the only reason not to, by 
default, save to xcf is metadata getting lost, then it should better be 
about preserving metadata at least while storing xcf or exporting a 
processed image. Yes, I also initially felt pretty offended by the new 
save/export, yet at the moment, it just makes things clearer, just as 
the csv/spreadsheet example, or saving .odt vs. exporting .pdf in 
LibreOffice - it makes more sensitive that storing to, say, JPG or PNG 
does not just write image output using a lossy compression but also 
means losing a lot of processing information, such as layers, channels, 
..., all along the way. It's simply clearer - and in situations in which 
I just want JPG, I just export without saving.

Just my $0.02 of course...
Kristian