I'm looking for something simpler. I need tools to transform, scale, crop and adjust images. Basic filters would be usefull, as well. I need to be able to set ratio of selection (Pinta doesn't qualify) and have multiple images open. It's not about processing files from a camera, so no Darktable etc. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Gimp alternatives
- Thread starter Tomedi
- Start date
Do you use Pinta? Do you know if there is an option to set the ratio for the selection tool in the newer versions? That was the only thing that's stopping me from using Pinta. I couldn't believe they had not implemented it. Or maybe I was doing something wrong?
D
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Photopea! It is an online service.
truckerDave
Well-Known Member
I installed Pinta on Mint just now.
I got as far as:
SHFT + CTRL + R opens "Resize Canvas"
Keep the Maintain Aspect box checked and adjust the percentage Or enter a width or height in pixels.
Click OK. The actual image stays the same size with a smaller canvas.
And that's where it crashed multiple times for me. One "should be able" to move the image around on the canvas. Or create a canvas of the size you want and paste the image on a new layer that can be moved around.
But no. I don't see a way to set your selection box to a certain size.
I got as far as:
SHFT + CTRL + R opens "Resize Canvas"
Keep the Maintain Aspect box checked and adjust the percentage Or enter a width or height in pixels.
Click OK. The actual image stays the same size with a smaller canvas.
And that's where it crashed multiple times for me. One "should be able" to move the image around on the canvas. Or create a canvas of the size you want and paste the image on a new layer that can be moved around.
But no. I don't see a way to set your selection box to a certain size.
Last edited:
MS Paint under WINE
Jokes aside GIMP is simple. Like any tool, you just need to bite down, suck it up and learn.
Image --> Transform
Image --> Scale Image
Image --> Crop to Selection [that'll be what you selected]
Image --> Crop to Content [If you have an alpha/transparent background]
Define "adjust"...
If you mean colours,
Colors -->
Filters -->
Not sure exactly what you mean, but if you mean the Select tool, there's a left-hand pane where you check the box for a fixed AR and then type in your preference, eg 16:9
Yes, you can have them neatly tabbed, too. Or if you mean the same canvas, yes, it supports layers
And now for something completely different...
ffmpeg -i "myphoto.jpg" -vf "scale=-1:720" myphoto_scaled.jpg -- I shite you not.And now for something completely the same...
Seems like it does...
Tomedi said:
Aaaand I'm spent.
More jokes aside, I hope that helps you a little. Good luck.
-J
Sorry, I should have been more clear. I've been using Gimp for years, but I really don't like its interface (it's slightly changed again in Gimp 3) and that's the main reason I'm looking for something else.
In Gimp. In Pinta there is no option to do it.
If I needed to use the terminal I would go for imagemagick or Ruby with mini_magick or Raylib, but that's a different story.
What I need is something with smaller, simpler and clearer interface. It can have all the Gimp's features, but doesn't have to as I don't use all of them. What I'm looking for is something like Paint.NET, but for Linux (no Wine, please). It possibly doesn't exist, but if you don't ask then you don't know.
Yes, I will agree it drives me insane when the UI changes. I'm still running 2.x so it's not an issue yet. Luckily Inkscape new UI can be swapped back to classic in a click. TBH, though, GIMP's UI always has been bad. That's why I try to remember the shortcut keys and menu items.
Which is why you likely have to bit the bullet.
I think you missed that. I was being flippant (explanation: you asked for an alternative, I gave the worst possible one, the punchline being that it works despite it being a joke)
I used Paint.NET for ages and I never found a replacement for it. Eventually I gave up, exported all my PDNs (layer by layer) to PNGs. For me it was bad because I was using it for map-making and relied of the 1px = 1M^2 or 1KM^2 for the base, before drawing the graphics over that. It was, if you check my history, the one app I struggled to move away from when transitioning to Linux. But I've had to learn to make do. Unfortunately that's the reality.
I no longer miss Paint.NET because I left it behind and learned to adapt. I'll be absolutely candid, I'm not happy with anything on Linux because stuff like Krita and GIMP are really too much for simple things, just like Photoshop would be on Windows. That's why back then I used both Photoshop and Paint.NET, each for different tasks... But on Linux, you use what's best supported and most likely never to be abandoned. A lot has probably changed since I completely gave up on Pain.NET so maybe there is something, but I doubt it for the simple fact that anyone with the know-how is going to add functionality to one of the big players, not started their own apps. And you'll notice many small graphics editors on Linux are crap. Which is why it may be in your interests to just deal with it, run a VM, or the W-word you said not to bring up.
You see, the more you go looking for something that's like Paint.NET (this goes for any program), the more energy you waste, the more time you lose, but most of all, it becomes like one of those weird break-ups where you still see each other, still have clothes and stuff at each other's apartments... all that'll do is box you in. But, as you say
so it'd be nice if that were the case, but I wasted a lot of time before just learning how to adapt my approach rather than looking for the perfect replacement.
Good luck all the same.
Gimp has lots of keyboard shortcuts. Print out the ones you need and temporarily tape them to your monitor. Then you can close all those command boxes and mainly use your keyboard.
The worst possible one has always been "This is open source, so if you don't like it then why don't you fork it and make it better by implementing missing features youreself!", but I must admit that yours was pretty bad, too.
I've been using XnConvert for years. It's a great tool. Not sure if XnView has all the features I need, but I will have another look at it. Thanx!
Interesting suggestion... That could actually work. Thanx!
Yup that's how it works. With OSS you're on your own because there's no corporation you can complain to, there's no support you can call. Everyone's a volunteer and a part of this ecosystem. In a way it's a reflection of both democracy and meritocracy; if enough people want a specific feature (or app), they'll work on it, which is democracy (with a sprinkle of do-ocracy), and then if the empowered folks do it because they're better coders than a thousand of you and I put together, it'll happen and there's the meritocracy... The greatest thing though, in this space, this "ecosphere", is that of self-reliance. For better or worst, one has great power to change everything, with the flip side being the responsibility when one botches things up (and thank goodness for version control, lol).The worst possible one has always been "This is open source, so if you don't like it then why don't you fork it and make it better by implementing missing features youreself!", but I must admit that yours was pretty bad, too.
@Tomedi :-
I did read somewhere about a method for using Paint.net directly under Linux using Mono, the open-source implementation of the .Net framework.....but I'm damned if I can find it ATM.
Graphic design is a long-standing hobby of mine. I switched to Linux full-time around 2014, and haven't looked back since. I'd already been using both the Photoshop CS2 suite (which I'd actually shelled out for back in the day) AND the Windows port of the GIMP under XP for some years before switching. Fortunately for me, CS2 is about the last version of PS that works more or less 100% under WINE.
I digress.
For more general messing around, I'd long been using a small Windows-only app called PhotoScape, produced by a South Korean outfit called Mooi Tech. This will actually do everything you've mentioned, including the aspect ratio stuff.....but of course, being Windows-only, it requires WINE to run. Like you, I see WINE as a necessary evil - sometimes, there's no way around using it - but it's not something you really want permanently on your system IF you can avoid it....
A few years ago, some folks began producing WINE in AppImage format. If you don't know what these are, they're self-contained applications, including everything they need to run, and are completely distro-agnostic (at least, in theory). Anyways, I did some experimetation, and, well; let's just say.......a plan began to hatch.
We'd been developing an eco-system of 'portable' applications for 'Puppy' Linux for at least 2-3 years at that point......essentially a Puppy version of the Windows PortableApps system. I did a lot of head-scratching, along with mucho experimentation, and eventually came up with a 'portable', self-contained version of PhotoScape, making use of the PortableApps build of PhotoScape and an up-to-date WINE AppImage, along with a handful of scripts to tie it all together. And you know what? It works.....really well, too!
I set it up with a pair of scripts that would permit adding or removing a Menu entry, simultaneously 'linking' only those bits of WINE into the system that were actually required to run it for the duration of the session. You launch it from the Menu, it's essentially running FROM its self-contained directory.....which you can put anywhere you want. I run it from a flash-drive, as & when required.
I'd be happy to share it, except there's a caveat. As it is, it probably wouldn't run for you without some permissions adjustment, since 'Puppy' - unlike most Linux distros - is NOT multi-user; she's a single-user 'hobbyist' distro, and runs as 'root' all the time. That said, the concept SHOULD work; general research at one point early last year unearthed the fact that some Canonical devs had put together a PhotoScape Snap package for Ubuntu that works in EXACTLY THE SAME WAY, utilising a self-contained build of WINE.
As it happens, my version was built around the same time as the Snap package.....yet I wasn't even aware of it until last year!
(shrug...)
snapcraft.io
The difference between theirs and mine is simple, however. Where the Snap package has to be installed, mine only ever 'links' into the system WHILE YOU'RE USING IT. And that's a huge, important difference.
(I'd gotten so handy with PhotoScape - which I'd been using since its early days (2007-8) - that I really wanted to be able to continue using it. Especially given that to obtain the same collection of functions under Linux, I found I had to use at least 3 or 4 apps at the same time. And that struck me as plain daft.)
Resource-wise, it took less to run PhotoScape under WINE than it did to have to run several Linux apps simultaneously. It might go against the grain for many Linux users, but it works for me.
Mike.
I did read somewhere about a method for using Paint.net directly under Linux using Mono, the open-source implementation of the .Net framework.....but I'm damned if I can find it ATM.
Graphic design is a long-standing hobby of mine. I switched to Linux full-time around 2014, and haven't looked back since. I'd already been using both the Photoshop CS2 suite (which I'd actually shelled out for back in the day) AND the Windows port of the GIMP under XP for some years before switching. Fortunately for me, CS2 is about the last version of PS that works more or less 100% under WINE.
I digress.
For more general messing around, I'd long been using a small Windows-only app called PhotoScape, produced by a South Korean outfit called Mooi Tech. This will actually do everything you've mentioned, including the aspect ratio stuff.....but of course, being Windows-only, it requires WINE to run. Like you, I see WINE as a necessary evil - sometimes, there's no way around using it - but it's not something you really want permanently on your system IF you can avoid it....
A few years ago, some folks began producing WINE in AppImage format. If you don't know what these are, they're self-contained applications, including everything they need to run, and are completely distro-agnostic (at least, in theory). Anyways, I did some experimetation, and, well; let's just say.......a plan began to hatch.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We'd been developing an eco-system of 'portable' applications for 'Puppy' Linux for at least 2-3 years at that point......essentially a Puppy version of the Windows PortableApps system. I did a lot of head-scratching, along with mucho experimentation, and eventually came up with a 'portable', self-contained version of PhotoScape, making use of the PortableApps build of PhotoScape and an up-to-date WINE AppImage, along with a handful of scripts to tie it all together. And you know what? It works.....really well, too!
I set it up with a pair of scripts that would permit adding or removing a Menu entry, simultaneously 'linking' only those bits of WINE into the system that were actually required to run it for the duration of the session. You launch it from the Menu, it's essentially running FROM its self-contained directory.....which you can put anywhere you want. I run it from a flash-drive, as & when required.
I'd be happy to share it, except there's a caveat. As it is, it probably wouldn't run for you without some permissions adjustment, since 'Puppy' - unlike most Linux distros - is NOT multi-user; she's a single-user 'hobbyist' distro, and runs as 'root' all the time. That said, the concept SHOULD work; general research at one point early last year unearthed the fact that some Canonical devs had put together a PhotoScape Snap package for Ubuntu that works in EXACTLY THE SAME WAY, utilising a self-contained build of WINE.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As it happens, my version was built around the same time as the Snap package.....yet I wasn't even aware of it until last year!
(shrug...)
Install PhotoScape on Linux | Snap Store
Get the latest version of PhotoScape for Linux - PhotoScape is a fun and easy photo editing software to fix and enhance photos.
snapcraft.io
The difference between theirs and mine is simple, however. Where the Snap package has to be installed, mine only ever 'links' into the system WHILE YOU'RE USING IT. And that's a huge, important difference.
(I'd gotten so handy with PhotoScape - which I'd been using since its early days (2007-8) - that I really wanted to be able to continue using it. Especially given that to obtain the same collection of functions under Linux, I found I had to use at least 3 or 4 apps at the same time. And that struck me as plain daft.)
Resource-wise, it took less to run PhotoScape under WINE than it did to have to run several Linux apps simultaneously. It might go against the grain for many Linux users, but it works for me.
Mike.
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A bit of a nitpick but all sorts of people, even at the kernel level, are paid to write and support OSS and are not volunteers.
Sorta meant more on the everyday software side of things like GIMP, Inkscape (mind you, I think they're wanting donations now to hire developers), etc... I guess the was a bit of an umbrella statement. Just like the "no support" I mentioned, there are paid-support distros.
I'd be surprised if those projects had only volunteer's code in them, especially at this level of maturity and popularity.
It could be as simple as Company A needed X feature and so Company A paid for X feature (in-house or hiring a developer) and now X feature has been merged into the software, which means more people benefit. They may then maintain said feature, fixing it as needed or adding additional features.
I'd also say that any project that gets so many donations that they no longer need to have a real job is actually them being paid for their work like a real job. If you get enough donations to stop working your real job, then that counts as being your job - it's just that you're being paid by different people.
And that's okay. (F)OSS has had provisions for paid-work (and paid code) and will continue to have such. The 'paid support' idea is a good example of ways to make money with OSS. Some have open sourced stuff - but only partially, leaving features behind a paywall. (I avoid such software, as a general rule - unless it's something I want to pay for.)
Anyhow, I think we don't want to dive too far into the weeds. This is pretty much all off-topic, or barely related to the topic.
A little bit to simple. Selection tool is very poor and adjustment tools are extremely limited. Thanx, anyway!
@MikeWalsh
Puppy was the first Linux distro I actually used (as opposed to "tried"). I've run it from USB, had a frugal installation on my hard disk and even tried the full installation. I don't really know what is the state of Puppies at the moment, but I would like to avoid Wine, anyway. But you know what? When I have a bit of spare time I'm gonna try one of the Puppies, again.
It looks like I'm stuck with Gimp. I've simplified the interface by removing many elements and it looks and feels much better. Thanx for your help!
Have you looked at MyPaint - https://github.com/mypaint/mypaintA little bit to simple. Selection tool is very poor and adjustment tools are extremely limited. Thanx, anyway!
@MikeWalsh
Puppy was the first Linux distro I actually used (as opposed to "tried"). I've run it from USB, had a frugal installation on my hard disk and even tried the full installation. I don't really know what is the state of Puppies at the moment, but I would like to avoid Wine, anyway. But you know what? When I have a bit of spare time I'm gonna try one of the Puppies, again.
It looks like I'm stuck with Gimp. I've simplified the interface by removing many elements and it looks and feels much better. Thanx for your help!
there is an AppImage available here - scroll down to the bottom pf page you will see it
Release MyPaint v2.0.1 (2020-05-29) · mypaint/mypaint
This is a bugfix release for v2.0.0. ❗ Important For those who primarily use the 2.x mode (the default mode), this is an important upgrade. A color conversion function in the v2.0.0 release has an ...
github.com
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