[Discuss] excuse me?

[Brij Charan]

Ok, I have to disagree.

I do UI design for a living, my primary editor is not Photoshop, its
actually Fireworks.
I'm not against the gimp in anyway, It's a great app.
However, It simply cannot do the same things as photoshop, and especially
fireworks, as it just doesn't have that functionality.
(I used to use fireworks 8 in ubuntu btw, but then adobes new proprietary
licensing system screwes that up..and I actually purchased it!)

Here's why the gimp cannot match photoshop/fireworks:

*Gimp does not have real-time layer effects (these are extremely useful)
(and while you may say you can replicate these effects with filters, filters
in gimp are destructive, they apply and your bitmap has changed for good
unless you keep doing a ctrl-z)
(fireworks 8-CS3 support multiple layer effects, with duplication, even
photoshop can't do this.)
*Gimp does not support native vector manipulation, this includes vector
strokes which can be based off of tablet sensitivity.
(yes you can use paths, but they have no realtime color or stroke
manipulation capabilities, and again, no vector effects, paths simply do not
cut it).
(fireworks cs3 gives wysiwyg vectors, so when you design something it will
appear that way when rasterized, photoshop does not follow this methodology)
*Gimp has 'limited' tablet support, while it does allow for pressure
sensitivity, thats about it.
(Photoshop has gone a long way with digital painting support, but not nearly
as much as Corel Painter. Fireworks also has limited tablet support)
*Gimp does not have rapid prototyping/mockup capabilities (this is used for
UI design, if you don't know what this is...maybe you should go pick up a
book on UI design).
(photoshop has a limited set of rapid prototyping by coupling it with
imageready.
Fireworks cs3 has this feature and works quite well, allowing multi-os
widget designs in your mockups).
*Gimp does not have smart objects
*Gimp does not support multi-page layouts.
*Gimp does not have non-destructive scaling for bitmap objects
(fireworks feature, unsure on photoshop)

On 8/15/07, pw <p.willis at telus.net> wrote:
>
> Cody Swanson wrote:
> > 10-4, just chiming in on the free vs open debate side of things. This is
> > a pretty active list, gave me some entertainment today. :-)
> >
>
> Just for the record, I have used both photoshop  and gimp
> extensively. The gimp, if you know how to use it, kicks
> photoshop butt. Getting people to work long enough outside
> of their narrow range of experience is the problem there.
>
> People tend to learn one way of doing things and then
> stop learning. ie: windows, photoshop, dreamweaver, McDonald's,
> Pepsi (<---Stallman), Matlab, R, Octave, linux.... etc
>
> There are, of course, only so many hours in a day. It's
> impossible to try every package or know every package well
> enough to always get the best one, as opposed to the one you're
> used to using. It becomes more economical, at some point, to stick
> with the stone axe rather than spending the time to drop-forge
> a chainsaw.
>
>
> Peter
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>



-- 
Brij Charan
Software Developer, Specializing in UI Development.