Hi
I've been using Corel Photo for some time, but I'm trying to get used to Gimp. I can't stand the interface, but I don't like photoshop UI either.

1) In corel photo, layers are like objects, I can easilly make rectangle and new layer will have size of this rectangle. I can make stroke with brush and this stroke will be my layer.
In Gimp if I want to make new layer with brush strokes I need to adjust size of layer before I do the stroke. Then I can paint and my layer is too big. Of course I can use wizard selection(U hotkey) to select stroke but it's not so comfortable.
I just dont need transparent area in my layer(I need just my brush stroke, layer borders=brush stroke borders, nothing more). 2) Is there any way to see the mask of eraser, using soft-edged eraser without mask (I just see hard-edged circle selection) is little confusing for me.
3) Is there any mod, option, to do grab, rotate, scale with mouse clicking(like in Corel Photo-2 clicks to rotate) etc. I know it could be done with keyboard shortcuts, but mouse "shortcuts" works much better for me. 4) Is it possible to make layer previews bigger and adjust them to show...(it's hard to explain for me) actual objects in these layers(not whole, transparent area with object). I've seen this option in photoshop tutorial I think.

Could you advise me other free program with UI similar to Corel Photo?

Thanks in advance for the answers

GIMP layers are like objects also, it seems to me. -- Select rectangle; C-c; C-v; Bucket fill->foreground-> whole selection

Thank you, but it will work only for selections(so it wont work with brush strokes I think) rectangle was just an example.

So if you do 200 brush strokes you have 200 layers?

Yes, I _can_ have 200 layers(but I dont have to). I just can make new layer, then brush stroke and layer borders will be resized to brush stroke. I can do a few more strokes in same layer and layer border will cover only strokes borders. In gimp, as far as I know, I need to declare size of layer before I do stroke.

New Photo-Paint layer is just "empty", I can draw crazy things, select my layer and make mask of these "crazy" paintings. I think I cant do that in Gimp.

Do many strokes with many curves, circles etc in one layer. Then try to make mask from these strokes, fill them all with gradient. In corel its something like that: object border->layer border->selection border->mask(could be, dont have to). So I can make selection from layer borders and voila! Maybe I'm missing something but I can't find a way to do it in Gimp.

I don't know, maybe its not common feature, anyway I find it very useful, I dont expect to get free, professional program, I am just asking :)

What do you mean exactly by mask ? In GIMP masks are used to make portions of

a

layer transparent without modifying the pixels on the layer itself.

I could be wrong( I can't remember exactly), but selection=~mask in Photo Paint

http://akvis.com/en/graphic-tips/selection-tools-photo-paint.php

If you want to make a selection from your layer contents (provided that you

have

begun with a transparent layer) you can use layer->transparency->alpha to selection

Thank you! I was thinking about that.

Anyway, there is web-based freeware software called SUMO paint 2.0 and it has more similar layers (than Gimp) to Photo Paint and free transform tool(1 tool only-scale,rotate by mouse).