Linux Lite Forums
Development => Linux Lite Software Development => Topic started by: Vera on January 19, 2018, 01:29:41 PM
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Hi @Jerry
My question relates to image and image manipulations. I love GIMP for advanced image processing and graphic design. It's great, and I was using it even before switching to LL.
But if all the user is seeking to do is crop or resize via GUI, the default ImageMagick package is not very user-friendly. I mean, it can be done but it's frustrating to use. Sometimes I even do that via Gimp instead, just because the GUI is so much better with GIMP, but for cropping and resizing I don't need the full functionality and long load time that comes with GIMP.
Finally, I decided to browse the Synaptic package manager to install an alternative for simple image manipulations on my machine. I installed gThumb. It is so much faster to use in the GUI than ImageMagick. It's a lot more intuitive, and certainly more modern-looking.
In a side-by-side comparison, I definitely feel that newbies would find gThumb so much easier to use as a GUI than ImageMagick when seeking to resize or crop and then save the result to file. Would you please consider evaluating gThumb for possible use in a future version of the LL distro? If not, I understand - you are very busy. I do feel it would make a positive change though.
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I uninstall gimp and imagemajick and just fly with mtpaint on my installs. I am not very artistic.
To each their own.
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I've been using Gimp for a very long time now too, since my Windows XP days back then in 2000 and find it to be a great app. I'm not a graphics/artist "genious" whatsoever, if anything I'm the opposite, nonetheless I use Gimp for different purposes. I also like krita and pinta which looks a lot like MS paint tool and while not a "image viewer" per se, it might be a good valid option too for those looking for a friendly-familiar image manipulation tool, specially users coming from windows given his resemblance to Paint.
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Gimp is unlikely to be unseated as the default image editor. We offer Pinta in Lite Software for those who prefer a much simpler alternative.
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mainly do minor photo editing and use Fotoxx, it's on a very easy learning curve.
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Gimp is unlikely to be unseated as the default image editor.
Did not want to unseat Gimp, sorry for the confusion. I was suggesting unseating the ImageMagick GUI in favor of gThumb. But still keeping GIMP.
I'm talking about the use-case where the user wants to do minor pic edits using the GUI without wanting the load-time or learning-curve of a more fully-featured program. I looked into Pinta - yes it would DO all of that and more, BUT also looks to have more of a learning curve than what should be expected for the very minor-edit use case.
If you do not wish to unseat ImageMagick in favor of gThumb, would you consider adding gThumb in the distro so that it appears as an option under Graphics in the Lite menu? Just a suggestion.
The reason I ask is that to a newbie, ImageMagick (when used via GUI) is very old-style and rather frustrating to use. ImageMagick via command-line on the other hand is fine. Still, I understand if this is not something that you feel would be of benefit to everyone.
gThumb GUI:
(https://pod.thomasdalichow.de/uploads/images/scaled_full_af0416a8e71b1d4f7680.png)
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If you have ImageMagick GUI it's because it is a dependency of another program. We do not provide ImageMagick GUI out of the box.
I do thank you for your suggestion Vera, but we won't be including gThumb. Don't let this dissuade you from making suggestions in the future. Many ideas that are a part of LL, came from the community :)
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To further explain our approach to software inclusions. We pick one piece of software for each category, so that choice has to cover a lot of ground. Take VLC for example, it plays video formats, DVDs, Blurays, you can rip music cd's the list goes on. We are a minimalist OS and as such, have to be very careful about what we add (if anything) on top of what we already offer.
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Thanks @Jerry for the explanation - I understand more where you're coming from with the philosophy of the distro. This was helpful information for me.
UPDATE: Also, for my use-case, I simply changed the default software for viewing JPG/JPEG/PNG to gThumb (instead of Image Viewer). This lets me configure my computer for my typical usage, which is what I love about Linux. At the same time I fully understand why adding extra software to the base distro itself would not be something that is right for LL because there is already software in that category. Your explanation was very helpful, Jerry, because without it I wouldn't have understood the philosophy behind it, and I can see it's important to keep Linux Lite, well, Lite. ;)