Re: [Gimp-user] layers, new problem with old methods

[Steve Kinney <admin pilobilus net>]

On 01/22/2013 11:19 AM, Donald Miller wrote:
> Hello Experts
>
> Because I started this thread, I should comment.
>
> I once spent a year of intense image editing in photoshop. Now I
> only occasionally use PS or GIMP, so esoteric capabilities
> are far less important than ease of getting back into harness.
> Simply combining image snippets is now easier in PS.
>
> Keep all the features you want, but include easy startup for folks
> who are not, nor want to be, experts in the software.

I can see where you're coming from:  How much can I do with image
files today, without a substantial learning curve?  It's no surprise
that a commercial product may serve this need better than the GIMP
in many cases; it pays to meet this need, in the most literal sense
of cash on the barrel head.

"Ease of use" can have two meanings:

1)  Easy to figure out how to do a range of common, practical image
editing tasks.  A substantial part of the Photoshop user base is
looking for this and only this, and supporting them makes Adobe more
than enough money to pay their developers to make supporting these
users a "prime directive" in their design paradigm.

2)  Easy to do complex tasks including ones that the program's
developers did not anticipate, through access to flexible modular
tools and functions.  A substantial part of the GIMP user base is
looking for this, which is fortunate because the GIMP project does
not have a budget to support "make it easier for beginners" to the
extent that Adobe does.

Photoshop experts can do complex tasks "any way they want" to get
the results they are after; GIMP beginners can learn to do all the
most important photo editing basics in a few hours.  But the style
and design paradigm of these commercial & Free programs is
different, and these differences matter more to casual users than
"hard core image grinders" who spend whole workdays doing horrible
things to pixels.

Thing about the GIMP is, it's Free Software.  That does not mean you
can't charge money for it.  If someone wanted to take the GIMP and
rebuild it to for increased appeal to casual users, they could sell
their remixed version as a commercial product.  If Adobe was not
such a dominant player in the market, this would have happened already.

:o)

Steve