GIMP goes SVG

An anonymous reader writes "The GIMP developers released a new snapshot in the development series. Version 1.3.21 (aka the path to excellence release) features an improved path tool with superb path stroking and adds SVG support. You can now export your GIMP paths to SVG and the new SVG import plug-in not only renders Scalable Vector Graphics for you at the desired resolution, it also imports SVG paths as GIMP paths."

Re:OFFTOPIC - Alternate story

[Anonymous Coward]

saw it too - clicking got me this message:
"Nothing for you to see here. Please move along."

nice treatment.

What does this mean for Sodipodi?

[Chilltowner]

I wonder what the Sodipodi [sourceforge.net] developers are going to do with this. Hopefully, there will be lots of cooperation. Sodipodi is rapidly maturing into a truly great vector graphics app for Linux and Windows (and OS X over X11, I'd guess). If the two projects cooperated, we could have an Illustrator killer on our hands!

Three Questions

[Jameth]

1) Did they waste time writing it all themselves, or are they interworking with SodiPodi? SodiPodi is an excellent piece of software if you want to edit SVG.

2) Does it just import them and make paths, or is it a full-featured SVG editor? Someone else commented on it now being Photoshop+Illustrator, but that's a whole different thing. Photoshop also supports importing SVG and AI format, it just doesn't edit them. (see question three)

3) Does it make this simple? I've tried to figure a way to do both Vector and Raster editing in one program before, and had some ideas, but nothing that would truly make it easy. The reason Illustrator and Photoshop are separate is not for the chance to sell two products (although I suspect that influences the idea a bit) but because there isn't a way to do vector and raster editing in a well mixed manner. At best, you end up with something that changes back and forth between being a vector editor and a raster editor depending on what is selected.

JPG properties

[javatips]

Any news if GIMP now (or will) retain properties embeded in JPG images when saving as JPG?

V1.2.4 does not support this which make it an inconvenient choice to edit pictures taken with a digital camera. All JPG properties like date the picture was shot and other parameters get lost when saving.

Re:Three Questions

[Jameth]

Bezier paths alone do not a vector graphics program make.

Other goodies to look foward to in gimp 1.3.x

[Anonymous Coward]

The new improved GUI, complete with easier menus, new docking system, frendlier help.

CMYK support!

Now uses GTK 2, no more ugly fonts, no more GREY, its all in the colour you want!

Hundreds of new plugins, and there is the excellent plug in registry as well. If there isn't a filter you wan't then it can easily be created due to the GIMP's API

Support for standards from the freedesktop project, including thumnails.

The new Docking gui, which allows you to reduce your screen clutter! Just drag and drop those tabs!

Much faster, starts in around 3 seconds, and it uses MMX extentions to accelerate your graphics filters.

Simply put, gimp 1.3.x is really powerful, and Adobe should start to become worried. Remember, if the feature you wan't isn't there, it will be soon due to the extremly rapid development. Even a 0.01 increment == TONS of features!

Also, the "gimp" himself looks a lot cuter in SVG.

INACCURATE TERMS-GUI expert speaks.

[Anonymous Coward]

"A good GUI is the one with which most of the people are already familiar with."

Apple agrees with you. Up next MacWinLongsteer.

"Tweak it slightly and the customers will follow, but radical changes will only serve to annoy people. "

DOS-->Win3.0
Win3.1-->Win95

"If you want to develop your GUI do it like you'd boil a frog - slowly."

MacOS 9-->MacOS 10.1

SVG support?

[bender647]

A barrier for me using SVG is that the graphics I make are not importable into the (MS) tools the people I work with use. If I was pointed to a good SVG2something tool, I'd be more excited.

SVG is not the future

[FooBarWidget]

Not until it's supported by Internet Explorer.
This is not a troll, this is the truth. Joe Average doesn't care; a new vector graphics format is only exciting to geeks. Joe Average only cares about "images", regardless of the underlying technology.
Unless either IE supports SVG natively, or everybody has an SVG plugin, SVG will never become popular.

Re: INACCURATE TERMS

[Daengbo]

I don't know. My girlfriend had never used a computer graphics program before Gimp, but was quite an artist. After learning all about it, translating "Grokking the Gimp" into Thai, and teaching courses in it, she says that Photoshop is very confusing for her. So why, again, should Gimp change its interface? Because it's not what you're used to? I find the interface quite refreshing, but I don't use it professionally.
Goy does, though, and she agrees with me.

COOL!

[SCHecklerX]

Now the only thing missing is layered effects, and I'd be a very happy grfx artist (wannabe) :)

There was an OS/2 program (forget its name) which mixed vectors and layers, and also had the unique ability to layer EFFECTS...for example, I could do black text, put a blur effect layer over that, and then colored text over that to achieve a drop shadow with very little effort. Of course, you could then put an effect layer over the text for texturizing, etc. You could combine effects to your hearts content, and if you didn't like the way it worked, it was trivial to back out, or move the effect elsewhere.

Vector support seems like the necessary first step to this type of thing and I hope that the GIMP developers discover this cool and unique way to manipulate images.

Re: INACCURATE TERMS

[bickerdyke]

no. GUI are about beeing used to some or some other kind of logic. I think GIMP pute the things where you might expect them you you wouldn't be used to them beeing somwehere completle else - where they might or might not belong. It's easy to make a better user interface, that no one can work with cause the commands are where they belong and not where MS put them.

Re:SVG is not the future

[caseih]

IE doesn't support flash either, and it's wide-spread. All you need is to embedd a link to the SVG active-X control and users will pick it up on the fly. No big deal. Average Joe's don't even know flash isn't supported natively. They still use it.

Don't look for any new features in IE for the next several years. By integrating it tightly into the OS and killing it as a standalone product, Microsoft has effectively eliminated all potential innovation in the browser area, since browser releases now equals OS releases. IE 7 won't be out until Longhorn (at least a year away), and even then it won't be widely used as most people will never migrate off XP for the life of their machines.

This is an unprecedented opportunity for Mozilla to win the browser war. Being a standalone installable app (that can run on win98 and up), Mozilla can add new features and support new standards. Just spread the word. Tell your friends. Talk to your favorite web developers.

Re: INACCURATE TERMS

[Anonymous Coward]

But Paintshop Pro is a prosumer level product. GIMP is far beyond that. This is why you have so many neophytes who hate the GIMP. They are expecting the usability of PaintShop Pro with the power of Photoshop. That ain't gonna never happen. GIMP is squarely aimed at pros which is why I use it. I am a professional. I wouldn't touch PaintShop Pro with a ten foot pole.

Re:SVG a Huge plus

[labratuk]

Brilliant. I'm always having this argument with my friends. Everybody kisses Photoshop's arse and talks about how it is such a godlike program. Those people usually haven't had to use it nine to five every day. For those of us who have, lets just say it was the absolute bane of my existance.

Everyone listening? Photoshop is a massive pain in the arse, people! It's not that great! There is a reason I choose to use the gimp at home!

Any volunteers to join my new 'Photoshop Sucks' club?

Re:LAMENS TERMS (layman's terms?)

[rifter]

... but, really, is it gimp with a soft g as in gin or a hard one as in git?
Anyone?

Note: there seems to be no agreement here, but I'd assume the users' community (or better the project's developers) would have it right - I'm not trying to start a war.

I have always pronounced it with a hard G, both becase it is the G(uh)nu Image Manipulation Program and because the word gimp is pronounced that way. That said, it is yet another example of why the free software movement suffers from poor marketing. Gimp is a *very* politically incorrect term with derogatory connotations. I don't understand why they chose that acronym..

Re:What does this mean for Sodipodi?

[BigSven]

Raphael, your last paragraph completely missed the point (while you are perfectly right in the first two). The SVG import plug-in that used to live in librsvg can only render SVG to a bitmap. This is sort of nice but it is indeed not worth mentioning. The significant difference is the fact the GIMP core can now import paths from SVG files. This functionality is not provided by the plug-in. It's just a nice add-on that the user interface for path import was also added to the SVG import plug-in.