The GIMP Strikes Again
I love free. That’s no secret. The thing I like more than free is free stuff that works better than the junk you have to pay for! A perfect example of this awesomeness is GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program). It’s been a couple weeks since they released their latest version of their Photoshop equivalent program but it’s still something worth shouting about. I’ve been running it in fully professional environment for these past few weeks and it’s performed incredibly! So here is my professional break down on it’s capabilities.
Startup
Finally a good looking startup image! More important than that though is the incredible speed improvement on loading the interface. It still has some to be desired on computers with around 1GB of memory but it’s definitely an improvement. I do have one warning for those who are thinking of installing over 1000+ fonts, brushes, or patterns - don’t! The startup is incredibly slow if you have alot of stuff you don’t use alot in the swap folders. Now, I did this and found that if you do move them to the Application Settings swap folder in the Documents & Settings directories then it does increase the speed but it’s an overall lag.
Interface
I love the Tango icons that they are using. It shows that even a free program is still trying to conform to standards. The interface has had a speed increase apparently too. Alot of new tools and shortcuts have been added for things like the Selection tools and Brushes which is very nice.
Brushes, Fonts, & More
Brushes finally have a Size selector which alows you to scale the brush bigger or smaller, useful for really big brushes made from PNGs. I’ve been Torrent downloading lately and found that it’s probably the best way to get your hands on 1,000s of fonts (some not so good and not so legal!). If you like to look at different font sets while selecting one then moving the Fonts Tab to your sidebar and you can easily Up/Dn key your way through previews. Another nice things with fonts is that you can now use the font type in the text editor window! Somethings are definitely to be desired around here though. One is that the jitter doesn’t have a rotational function and a tablet seems to be the only way to apply jitter based on time you remain in one area while brushing. PSD support of fonts and texts would be very nice as currently you can only achieve that with XCFs. Another pain is that the GIMP doesn’t allow you to set a text boundary for which the fonts will automatically wrap to. Layers have always been good but PSD support needs improvement as there is currently no support for folders or groupings yet. Something along the line of Photoshop’s Effects would be nice also for applying simple things like Drop Shadow or Bevel, etc.
Conclusion
The long and short of it all is that it’s freakin’ awesome! You can’t get a better, easier to use graphic program out there. It will do anything and is only limited by your understanding of color and design. It’s a definite must have for anybody who does anything personal or commercial in the graphic industry - it’s even good for moms and aunts (it’s a long story) who just want to scrapbook!
