Gimp 2.4.0 released

In case anyone hadn't been checking:

Gimp 2.4.0 has been released (the final version... others were release candidates):

Here's a link to the release notes page about what's new:
http://www.gimp.org/re​lease-notes/gimp-2.4.html

(For those of you who don't know, The Gimp is an open-source (community driven, available free for download) image editing application, most comparable to Photoshop... not as polished or as many features, granted, but very powerful, nonetheless.)

For those who cannot afford Photoshop or want access to a good editing application when not using your own computer, its definately worth taking a look!

Now supporting colour management, it seems

That takes it from "reject out of hand" to "worth investigating"...

gcogger wrote in post #4197933
Now supporting colour management, it seems

That takes it from "reject out of hand" to "worth investigating"...

Worked pretty well in the Release canditate I tried out too. That was definately a must after investing in a calibrator.

One big thing missing, of course, is 16-bit support... but that doesn't bother me much, as Elements 16-bit support is limted also.

davidcrebelxt wrote in post #4199335
One big thing missing, of course, is 16-bit support... but that doesn't bother me much, as Elements 16-bit support is limted also.

Slightly disappointing.

If you shoot RAW, I don't feel that its that big an issue as most important PP is done before conversion. I routinely make 12X18" prints & they look pretty good.

I used GIMP long ago & felt that it was an excellent app. Now I think that Elements has caught up with it, but that's a mostly uninformed & out of date opinion.

The two new features I was waiting for were the healing brush and colour management. Was using the LCMS command line tools but it was a little inconvenient .

Yes the 16-bit would be nice but I don't need it and combined with UFRaw it has everything I do need.

e-k

The things Gimp has over Elements IMO are:

1) TRUE curves control
2) Layer masking
3) Soft-proofing (haven't played with that yet, but I think that was added with color-management/)

On the other hand, Elements has support for PS plugins, some nice BW tools and filters... I used both interchangeably depending on what I was doing.

2.4.1 just released fixes problems that were discovered after the 2.4.0 release. I started playing with GIMP 2.2.17 when I was looking for a way to start watermarking my pictures. I liked that it is free but 2.2 did not have some things that I wanted, however in 2.4.X these have been added. Things such as; Scalable Brushes, Support for Photoshop ABR brush format, and Color Management. I am still a novice at best but I like what I am seeing.

Well, as someone who has used GIMP for a while in the past, and Photoshop (CS2) I would never go back to the GIMP. Sorry guys, but it's way off target imho...

That said, for the average photographer/user, it's pretty nice. Bonus that it runs on all major platforms. As a Linux geek, I was well aware of the release - I'd been using stuff from Debian Sid for a while

Dave

Well, I don't think anyone ever claimed it was as good as CS2... but as an alternative that is quite a bit cheaper <ahem, 100% cheaper>, I don't think it can be brushed off so lightly.

If I had CS2/3 I'd be using it too... no doubt... but I don't believe everyone has to spend $600 for PP software either.

In fact, even after I got Elements I didn't use the Gimp as much either, because I like the tools and plugins available there... but GIMP is still a standard piece of software I put on any new computer of mine or that I build for friends/family, and its good to see they are making advances in bringing some powerful image editing to the masses.

If Gimp had 16 bit support, worked with PS plug ins, and is 64 bit app,. then that might make me try it out as a PSCS alternative..

If PSCS worked with GIMP plug-ins, was cross-platform, and cost $0 then that might make me try it out as a GIMP alternative...

e-k

davidcrebelxt wrote in post #4239588
Well, I don't think anyone ever claimed it was as good as CS2... but as an alternative that is quite a bit cheaper <ahem, 100% cheaper>, I don't think it can be brushed off so lightly.

If I had CS2/3 I'd be using it too... no doubt... but I don't believe everyone has to spend $600 for PP software either.

In fact, even after I got Elements I didn't use the Gimp as much either, because I like the tools and plugins available there... but GIMP is still a standard piece of software I put on any new computer of mine or that I build for friends/family, and its good to see they are making advances in bringing some powerful image editing to the masses.

In all honesty, I firmly believe that Elements kicks the GIMPs behind.

And many open source advocates swear that the GIMP is a Photoshop killer, they'll openly state that as part of their envangelism. It's blatantly wrong, and blatantly false, but these zealots will spread the wrong information nevertheless to further their cause.

In all honesty, there's gimpshop, there's also Krita, which is coming along very nicely. Very nicely. It also has 16 bit support and non destructive layers. You might want to try Krita Jake - although it's really Linux only (I think that there's a OS X version of it, but you have to install the X11 windowing system on the Mac first before installing KDE and Krita etc).

Dave

What is it that you think the GIMP is missing that Elements has? Adjustment layers? I use both but find myself using the GIMP with UFRaw way more than Elements. I used to use Elements for the scaleable brushes and spot healing (both of which are in the latest version of the GIMP), but honestly I use the GIMP for everything else.

e-k