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Graphics Guru Analyzes The GIMP
Contributed by Kelly McNeill osOpinion.com August 21, 2001 The GIMP not only employs a nearly identical feature set to PhotoShop's, navigation is a cinch because both programs' floating palettes are similar in nature. I Along with running osOpinion.com, I have a work history that includes over six years of experience as senior art director in the advertising agency field. While working in that role, my responsibilities included concept and design as well as final production using a barrage of creative productivity applications. Among the most commonly used on my list was Adobe's PhotoShop photo manipulation software. While very few in the graphics field are aware of it, there is a highly regarded competitor to Adobe's PhotoShop named "The General Image Manipulation Program," or GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is most often referred to in acronym form as "The GIMP." Although The GIMP is most popular in Linux circles because it is available under the same GNU open source license, it quickly gained acceptance in other operating environments through ports of the XWindows system. Anyone who follows open source news has undoubtedly heard the proclamations from this community, suggesting that The Gimp -- among other open source graphics applications, -- has opened doors to operating systems such as Linux and BSD, as a means of expansion into the advertising and design sector. Despite being a great admirer of Linux and similar Unix operating systems, I took these proclamations from the open-source community with a grain of salt, as my experience with Adobe's products has given me a bias toward the company's incredible implementations of the graphics applications I use on a daily basis. GIMP to the Max After the recent release of XDarwin, an XWindows port for Mac OS X, and Mac Gimp, I finally had a means of comparative analysis between The GIMP and Adobe's PhotoShop on my OS X machine. Only a few months earlier, my wife had requested that her iBook, with its dual-boot OS 9 and Linux PPC configuration, be limited to only OS 9 as a means of conserving space. Before installation of the open-source graphics software, I admit my skepticism levels were extremely high, but after only an hour of experimentation with the software, I came away extremely impressed. The GIMP not only employs a nearly identical feature set to PhotoShop's, navigation is a cinch because both programs' floating palettes are similar in nature. I was surprised to learn that I could open native Photoshop files within The GIMP and retain a file's layers as well as most of its layer filters. Alpha Channels, layer masks, clipping paths, a slew of filters and almost all the features I've known in PhotoShop were all available and at my disposal. On the Other Hand Along with the good, a handful of things did leave me disappointed. While I do expect these issues to be addressed in the near future -- as is the case with all open-source software -- the thing I immediately noticed was a lack of CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) support. Until this issue is addressed, it will be the primary barrier to entry for acceptance in most mainstream graphics departments. The second most notable necessity is a common clipboard between a user's primary interface (in my case OS X) and that of XWindows/XDarwin. It would have been wonderful if I could copy and paste files between OS X and XWindows applications. The only way I found to transfer files between the two is by saving the document to a file and re-opening it in the alternative graphics application. A common clipboard would be a great time saver. Friendly Scripting And last, although far less concerning than the other two, there is a need for a more user-friendly scripting system. Most graphics professionals haven't yet learned Perl or Python and have come to greatly appreciate PhotoShop's action script record feature. The GIMP's Script-Fu and Perl-Fu are indeed powerful -- even more so than PhotoShop's implementation -- but as they are essentially a full scripting language, the power is all but entirely removed from most graphics professionals, who might be better suited to take advantage of easy-to-use scripting capabilities. Almost There While The GIMP may not yet be ready for the high demands of most advertising agencies, service bureaus or graphics production houses, due to its few high-end limitations, it's an ideal piece of software for the home user on a budget or a demanding art department with necessities involving Web or other monitor-only environments. And because open-source software is updated so frequently, we may see the issues I've addressed resolved in the coming months. If you haven't yet done so, or haven't done so in a while, check out the latest version of The GIMP. I'm confident that you'll be impressed, and your wallet will thank you. . .
