Gimp: text handling and fonts...

[Bikerdude]

Is it just me or is the text handling and fonts tool in Gimp just completely shit and cumbersome

 

In Windows Paint -

• create a text box,
• click on the list of fonts and then type the first few letters of the name of the font I want.
• I can see what the font is going to look like in the font name.
• see all of the windows fonts I have installed.

In Gimp -

• create a text box but can't change the font in the mini toolbar attached to the textbox.
• cant type-to-search in the font list.
• cant see what the font I want is going to look like in the font list, I have to type some text in my text box.
• dosent show all of the windows fonts.

How is such a basic function of a graphics application so user unfriendly...

[rich_is_bored]

There are a lot of usability issues with GIMP that keep me from making the jump. Layer boundries are a good example. Why does the end user care what size a layer is? Just expand the layer size as I paint outside it. It's unnecessarily complicated. Then there are features from Photoshop that I miss like layer groups, adjustment layers, proper color modes and yes the text editing tools in GIMP suck.

 

I end up using an collection of apps for whatever they do best. Inkscape for vector work. Mischief for sketching. I haven't settled on something for photo editing.

Edited April 8, 2015 by rich_is_bored

[Atomic]

.

Edited April 28, 2015 by Atomic

[OrbWeaver]

Inkscape is far better for working with text. GIMP is useful for tweaking images but I wouldn't try to use it for any non-trivial creative design work.

[Bikerdude]

Hmm might have to have a look at inkscape then.

 

And on the subject of PS, even the old version I have (CS2) saves .DDS files properly unlike the latest plug-in I was able to find for GIMP, which is another nail in its coffin.

[New Horizon]

I find Gimp to be rather wretched to work with for most things. I really want to like it but the interface is far too clumsy and clunky for my liking.

[Sotha]

+1 of Inkscape. I do my maps with that. Ultra-easy & intuitive.

[nbohr1more]

I recently went back to use GIMP to try to make some conceptual diagrams and found that the interface has

become more confounding than I remembered it from a few years ago. Then the default Paint app in Windows 8.1

is missing some options that were present in Windows XP so I've given up for a spell.

 

I figured since this topic was stirred, I would checkout the status of Gimpshop (a version of GIMP where the interface

was rearranged to look and act like photoshop) but found that it went stale a few years back and (worse) some

malware\adware outfit bought the gimpshop domain name and is hosting a version packaged with ads.

 

However, another enterprising developer has taken a stab at this type of functionality in a project called Gimphoto.

 

I'll be checking this one out shortly.

 

http://www.gimphoto.com/p/download-windows.html

[Bikerdude]

I'll be checking this one out shortly.

 

http://www.gimphoto.com/p/download-windows.html

Suffers from the same shit font/text control as gimp, uninstalled.

 

And Inkscape is also a non starter, the font control is non standard and lumpy and it dosent correctly recognise one of my windows fonts, so uninstalled.

 

Seems PS is the way to go, but even that is no mis behaving for some reason, I'm gettiing weird freezes atm.