Re: [Gimp-user] newvie asks differences between Gimp and Photoshop



I'm sorry if you get this email twice, but it was returned to sender so I'm not sure which of the recipients haven't gotten it.

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Hello,

These are some things that make it hard for me. The tool menus unlike PS are not
a part of the main window and seem to be seperate windows on their own (2 of
them) that is annoying
You can turn on single-window mode mode by right-clicking -> Windows -> Single-Window Mode

everytime I create a new area, (layer) it opens in yet another window, as does
opening up another file. So if I'm trying to do a signature and I'm using 3 or
even four items, I have that many seperate windows open.
This isn't usual GIMP-behavior. You should check, whether you're actually creating new layers or new images. To do so, look at the layers-dialogue (usually located to the right of your canvas, you can also find it by pressing Ctrl+L). When you create a new layer (resulting in a new window being opened), are there two layers shown in the dialogue or is it actually a new stack of layers (= new image) with just one layer in it?

Also the rectangular selection tool seems to be on all the time whether I select
it or not. I've tried deleting the software and reinstalling but that doesn't
work
Do you mean all the time as in "I cannot select i.e. the paintbrush tool"? That would be some pretty serious bug, assuming you know basic point-and-click interaction.
However, seeing how you're already talking about adding signatures and stuff, it seems more likely that you're confused by the rectangular select being the default tool which is active upon startup and often becomes the active tool after a task is performed. In Photoshop, the default tool is the move tool and you have to select the rect. select if you want to use it, in GIMP it's the other way around. It may seem unnatural to you due to what you're used too, but it's not "better" or "worse" than Photoshop's way (at least there haven't been any user studies about it) and I can guarantee you, that it's just as hard learning Photoshop after using GIMP as the other way around.
Since there will be similar cases in the future, there is something that you should really try to understand: Despite being often described as such, GIMP is not "Photoshop for free" or "Photoshop but not as powerful" or otherwise "like Photoshop". It is a bitmap-manipulation-program (actually an xcf-manipulation-program, but let's not dive into that), that is separate and different from Photoshop and therefore, some of the operational concepts are different from Photoshop's. Sometimes things won't be were they "of course" (also called: where you've been trained to expect them by your prior program usage) should be, and sometimes you'll be pleasantly surprised by how they are arranged in the GIMP. Switching to GIMP isn't 1:1, but if you accept that GIMP may follow other premises than Photoshop, and that those premises aren't automatically bad just because of that, getting used to them isn't really all that hard.

So if everything goes right, this was at least a little helpful,

bw,
Tobias Lunte//Tobl


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