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(Emphasis in original. --Ed.)
GIMP is a longstanding project, first announced in November 1995. The name was originally an acronym for General Image Manipulation Program but this was changed to GNU Image Manipulation Program.
The new fork springs from a discussion on Gitlab, where the source code is hosted. The discussion has been hidden but is available on web archives here. A topic titled "Consider renaming GIMP to a less offensive name," opened by developer Christopher Davis, stated:
I'd like to propose renaming GIMP, due to the baggage behind the name. The most modern and often used version of the word "gimp" is an ableist insult. This is also the colloquial usage of the word. In addition to the pain of the definition, there's also the marketability issue. Acronyms are difficult to remember, and they end up pronounced instead of read as their parts. "GIMP" does not give a hint towards the function of the app, and it's hard to market something that's either used as an insult or a sex reference.
[...] The subject of the suitability of the name is not new, and is enshrined in the official FAQ:
"I don't like the name GIMP. Will you change it?"
With all due respect, no. We've been using the name GIMP for more than 20 years and it's widely known ... on top of that, we feel that in the long run, sterilization of language will do more harm than good. ... Finally, if you still have strong feelings about the name "GIMP", you should feel free to promote the use of the long form GNU Image Manipulation Program or maintain your own releases of the software under a different name.
The Glimpse project is therefore entirely within the spirit of open source. "We believe free software should be accessible to everyone, and in this case a re-brand is both a desirable and very straightforward fix that could attract a whole new generation of users and contributors," says the About page.
Is now the time to accept that, to get GIMP into the mainstream, it needs a rename?
(Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 31 2019, @01:38AM (7 children)
By "catch up," do you mean:
... as in access to new raw formats (GIMP and open source always beats Photoshop and proprietary apps)?;
... or as in Re-synthesize capability (Gimp had this feature years before it appeared with much fanfare in Photoshop)?;
... or as in being able to edit animated GIF (GIMP could do this years before Photoshop)?;
... or as in one-click/two-click wavelet frequency separation (GIMP has had two ways to do this for years, but the last time I checked, frequency separation was still an arduous manual process in Photoshop);
... or as in being able to edit in 32-bit (FilmGimp/Cinepaint could do this years ago, not sure if Photoshop has this capability yet)?
There are numerous other examples of cutting-edge features that appear in GIMP and open source software long before their proprietary counterparts catch on.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 31 2019, @03:09AM (1 child)
It's CMYK that will be the backstop to keep Photoshop important, because traditional physical printing processes will remain dominant forever. You don't shop on web sites with RGB images, do you? We all shop based on CMYK-derived Montomery Wards catalogs and physical printed signage in stores. Right? Right!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 31 2019, @05:42AM
Not sure what you are talking about.
There are several ways to convert an image to CMYK within GIMP, plus there are simple conversion commands/apps that will give you CMYK output, such as ImageMagick convert.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Saturday August 31 2019, @05:27AM
> By "catch up," do you mean:
I think GP means market share.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 31 2019, @06:16AM (1 child)
Some day GIMP will get Adjusment Layers. Or even full non destructive editing.
Such layers could have been implemented ages ago, before GEGL. They always looked like a PhotoShop hack, so it could be a GIMP hack ever since and, once GEGL fully replaces everything, properly coded to keep happy the "programmatically uber correct" zealots. We got layer groups some time ago, this is the other missing part that applies irrespective of RGB or CMYK or whatever color mode.
Non native English speakers should had been heard when there were resources (coders and artist contributions), as they cared about the features, speed and other important issues, and naming was irrelevant. When they had issues preaching GIMP arround them, there was no "name shock" excuse possible, only features. The "multiple window" was a non issue for Mac users, the single mode came from Windows users (or new crap window managers that copied that in Linux land since around GNOME 2).
That would mean years of people not complaining about Adjustment Layers (but using and praising), a real time saver as it lets you do some edits while keeping the full layer stack. They are (or the hack at least) just a layer that ignores own content and applies a color filter to the underlaying layer: a special blend mode Out = something(Below), instead of the common Out = something(Current, Below) for things like Darken Only or Add.
Another day we talk about Layer Effects, which indeed would be a bit more hacky as they don't operate in pixels stacks, but touch multiple pixels from Below to generate every one pixel in Out. That one is probably better done with GEGL.
BTW, PS has supported more than 8 bit per channel for some versions. I don't remember the dates, maybe earlier than GEGL, maybe not (the 5 legged goat is a slow one). At least some basic things in 16 bpc existed before the PS CS ones, and probably full 32 bpc earlier than GIMP, seeing the GEGL dates (initial release 2000, initial partial integration in GIMP 2.6... that is 2008!).
GIMP developers also pissed brush creators, so much that they went with Krita. Later GIMP also realized a good brush engine is important for photo editing (duh!), and their stance changed, but too late to avoid more damage. Similar to the monochromatic icons, only once they became a fashion they cared about icon themes like those, which now are the default (and colors to be mocked... similar story in Blender land). They also lost people when they decided Export is obligatory for every user (power users' speed does not matter). Now I think the project has a really small group behind it, and users probably go with Krita or whatever they have in their tablets. The time for "Linux Desktop" was years ago, now it's tablet/phone JS web framework over framework, and FOSS be damned.
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Sunday September 01 2019, @12:21AM
Which is my driver for keeping an eye on the forked version.
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 31 2019, @06:19PM (1 child)
gimp's fuzzy select is not as good as photoshop's similar feature (whatever it's called). magic select?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 31 2019, @06:22PM
no, it;s the path marker dealy, i think. photoshop's dealy sees the line very well and auto attaches to it while gimps is almost useless by comparison. i still use only gimp, but that feature would be nice.