I've waited for this for YEARS: the Gimp is now finally available as a native OSX app! (Before, it was a clunky X-11 implementation). Even though most of the windows are non-standard and look a little awkward, this is a big step forward for Mac users.
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About the Author
Bart Veldhuizen
I have a LONG history with Blender - I wrote some of the earliest Blender tutorials, worked for Not a Number and helped run the crowdfunding campaign that open sourced Blender (the first one on the internet!). I founded BlenderNation in 2006 and have been editing it every single day since then ;-) I also run the Blender Artists forum and I'm Head of Community at Sketchfab.
37 Comments
Yeaaaaaaaaaaaah! Was waiting desperately for layer groups.. :)
... Layer groups exist in 2.8.
May be i sounded different.. but that is what I meant as well. :)
Ah, sorry. :/
For real? Great news!
Yay! I'm glad for the Mac owners.
That's good news!
I really, really want to go full open source, but until Gimp gets beyond 8-bit color depth, it's just not an option for professional work.
Gimp 2.8 can work in 16bit and 32bit per color channel mode, both integer and float.
Nice! I thought we would have to wait for 3.0 for that.
How do you use that? I don't see an option for these bit depths when I create a new image.
I don't have this option because my version is older, but try this:
http://www.gimpusers.com/system/news/422/16bit-4-precision_mode-original.jpg
(no actual need to see the picture, I can just tell you: it's Menu "Image" > Submenu "Precision")
I think only gimp 2.10 will have this ability.
In current gimp 2.8.2 it need plugin to convert to greater than 8 bit per channel.
according to: http://libregraphicsworld.org/blog/entry/gimp-2.8.2-released-what-is-up-with-2.10
No, thats not 2.8 thats the developer version 2.9. we will get it with the next stable release 2.10.
I think that if 20 people who bought PhotoShop had instead invested that money in developing the features they need in Gimp, that program would be just as cool as Blender very soon. The problem with projects like Gimp is that everyone just waits until something gets magically developed the way they want, and meanwhile they're continuing to spend money on the development of proprietary software (which is much less efficient in terms of progress divided by money spent on each program globally). We, the users, are responsible of development of open-source software in the same way as the core developers, because all the code is open.
But the devs decided to tackle the project first, so they should be the main engine to motivate the users to help them. They seem to be lacking that main force since 2.4x. And not everything that users make will officially get added (just like blender..). So that could end up being alot of wasted efforts, unless you want 830 different branches of a 100+ MB program where each has only 1 or 2 extra features.
The least they could do is listen to the communities* most requested features (some of which have been added, so thanks) such as Basic Shape Drawing which has been asked (begged) for since atleast 2004 (it could all be done in 1 Poly Draw tool. specify the # of sides, colors, outlines, other info. then draw!).
Or actual ALPHA colors in the color pickers. NOT the individual tools options. Heck, even Blender has Alpha in the color pickers. That way you can use alpha in all the plugins & filters & color tools.
* (does GIMP even have a main forum? not a 1970's mailing list system,
but an actual forum. GuG, last I was there, was full of trolls and was a
HORRIBLE community).
Apart from all that, I don't know of a free drawing tool that has as much handy features built-in. I've tried dozens of programs as an alternate. Nothing quite as good, IMO. Maybe in a couple years another program will surpass the snail-paced GIMP.
Yeay!
This is really a great step!
This is much better than with X11, but is Gimp using at least some hardware acceleration..? It seams very slow..
This kind of application should not need hardware acceleration to be fast. If it isn't there is something wrong (with the app, not your system).
I started the app, it crashed. I restarted the app load an image it crashed.
It seems still to be extremely buggy at least on OS X ML.
Ditto. Crashed when selecting a large image. That being said, good on the developer - this is a major milestone!
This is one fantastic news !
I used 2.8 on windows for 1,5 week, then i went back to 2.6
The only interrest in 2.8 is the mesh deform tool wich is pretty useless because buggy. everything else is drawbacks. slower display, no portrait/landscape choice, unconvenient progressbar values, new save/export system with no choice possile in setup. Gimp team makes choices for users and cannot imagine user don't like it. THEY are the good and users reclaiming are the bad.
At last but not least, i know 5 personnal and pros very frequent users of gimp. They all installed back the 2.6.
too bad gimp takes this way away from users.
It crashes every time I try to load it for me, then again I am just on lion. If it's meant to be used only on ML then when do we expect it to work for lion users?
On Snow Leppard it doesn't even open properly. All you get is the pop down menu, where you can hide or quit the app. That's it.
where is CMYK!!! =>
i love it, no matter which progress Gimp's team did, you have to . Between, you are on Blender 3D software creating image in RGB, show me an image/illustration you did and you have printed, pls.
this is a big step. Made my morning... Thanks for doing this (gimp crew). Keep it up....
Did you try it at all?
What is Gimp?
I can't find the Mac download. Is the download page customized to with what ever OS I'm viewing it? My mom has a Mac, I have Linux. I thought I download it for her.
Yeah I think they have a specific download page for your OS. You can grab the OSX version here:
ftp://ftp.gimp.org/pub/gimp/v2.8/osx/
It doesn't work at all on my computer. I regret installing a 500+GB app like XQuartz now.
500MB that is. Although the installed app has only 7MB. Where is the rest of it? Probably all over my library folders...
Danke!!!