On Thu, 12 May 2005, Kalle Ounapuu wrote:

Date: Thu, 12 May 2005 10:30:00 -0400 From: Kalle Ounapuu
To: Tom Williams
Cc: gimp-user@lists.xcf.berkeley.edu Subject: RE: [Gimp-user] Re: Nobody does it better

Here are some things I found I couldn't do with PhotoShop Elements and I'm sure
someone will correct me if they are possible with the full-blown PhotoShop:

*) Take screenshots. I often take screenshots of Gimp or other apps, if not
the desktop. The cool thing about doing it *within* the graphics app is I can
immediately scale, resize, or otherwise manipulate the image without having to
use one app to take the screenshot and another to do the manipulation.

On my PC with Photoshop I simply press Print Screen on my keyboard, go into Photoshop, make a new image and ctrl+v to paste the screenshot. When making a new image (e.g. File/New), the screenshot dimensions are automatically detected. If I didn't have this basic "PRNT SCREEN" capability working, or I wanted a more automation with multiple screenshots, I would probably use HyperSnap DX or some other screenshot program.

I'd be surprised if Adobe Photoshop Elements didn't work the same as its big brother, in most cases is does. I'd be inclinded to say it is six of one half dozen of the other and in my opinion it is difficult to say which approach is better.

I plan on keeping an old version of the GIMP around for a very long time, and the extra feature that allowed you to take screenshots excluding window decorations is one of the reasons for that (sure I could read the XWD man page but why would I want to?). (I'm also hoping Glade will add functionality to batch convert Glade files to PNG screenshots which would significantly change the way I do things and save me a whole lot of effort when it comes to taking screenshots.)

Screenshots is one of those features where Adobe have passed off the job to the Operating System which keeps things relatively simple. The GIMP offers a few extra features but I think it is difficult to say that one approach is inherently better. (The developers of the gnome screenshot applet has command line options to take only the current window and add a delay but they are still considering how best to present that information to users in a simple straightforward way.)

Seems like a lot of GIMP users are interested in taking screenshots and sharpening them... what gives? =)

I try and use a flat low colour theme sharp looking theme for screenshots and save as PNG. Jpeg is almost always the wrong file format for screenshots particularly ones with any text in them. If you are taking a screenshot that contains a photograph and your theme uses a lot of colours gradients and no text you might just be able to get a reasonable result but you have already made it very difficult to get compact screenshots with that of setup. I expect that users are trying to sharpen screenshots to compensate for the inappropriate condiditions when taking the screenshot.

Sven pointed out that the GIMP has support for MIDI devices which as far as I can tell is not something Adobe Photoshop supports, however I wouldn't like to assume that the MIDI support provided by the Operating system doesn't take care of this somehow.

Given their supposedly "Neutral Point of view" the Wikipedia article on the GIMP is terribly unbalanced, and I hope someone will take the positives brought up in this conversation and maybe add them to the article. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_GIMP

(Later I will try and respond to the points Carol made but it was not clear what she meant and I am particularly short of time today.)

Sincerely

Alan Horkan

Inkscape http://inkscape.org Abiword http://www.abisource.com
Dia http://gnome.org/projects/dia/
Open Clip Art http://OpenClipArt.org

Alan's Diary http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/

Hi,

Alan Horkan writes:

I plan on keeping an old version of the GIMP around for a very long time, and the extra feature that allowed you to take screenshots excluding window decorations is one of the reasons for that

The screenshot plug-in in CVS HEAD has this feature back and offers even more functionality than the old xwd hack.

Sven

Sven Neumann wrote:

Hi,

Alan Horkan writes:

I plan on keeping an old version of the GIMP around for a very long time, and the extra feature that allowed you to take screenshots excluding window decorations is one of the reasons for that

The screenshot plug-in in CVS HEAD has this feature back and offers even more functionality than the old xwd hack.

Suh-weet!!!! One feature I would like to see added is the ability to select regions of the screen when taking a screenshot, like PrintKey on Windows can.

Is there a Bugzilla enhancement report filed for the screenshot plugin? I'll take a look later tonight. :)

Peace...

Tom

Hi,

Tom Williams writes:

Suh-weet!!!! One feature I would like to see added is the ability to select regions of the screen when taking a screenshot, like PrintKey on Windows can.

The CVS version does that already.

Sven

Sven Neumann wrote:

Hi,

Tom Williams writes:

Suh-weet!!!! One feature I would like to see added is the ability to select regions of the screen when taking a screenshot, like PrintKey on Windows can.

The CVS version does that already.

Suh-weet! Ship it! :D

Peace...

Tom

Hi Tom,

Perhaps I posted a similar "commentary" before :) Recall something? :)

Here is another quick one:

In PS-CS8, draw a circular selection (perfect circle), run a linear gradient across it diagonally, shrink the selection by a few pixels (say 9 pixels) and then run a reverse linear gradient across it (in the shrinked inner circle). PS-CS8 will make the four corners of the circle (east, west, north and south) pointed !!! The Gimp is not faulty in this respect.

Best

Asif

Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 22:59:10 -0700 From: Tom Williams
Cc: gimp-user@lists.xcf.berkeley.edu Subject: [Gimp-user] Re: Nobody does it better

Those are three things I have personal experience with, at least with Gimp. :)

Peace...

Tom

End of Gimp-user Digest, Vol 32, Issue 21 *****************************************

Hi Tom,

Perhaps I posted a similar "commentary" before :) Recall something? :)

Here is another quick one:

In PS-CS8, draw a circular selection (perfect circle), run a linear gradient across it diagonally, shrink the selection by a few pixels (say 9 pixels) and then run a reverse linear gradient across it (in the shrinked inner circle). PS-CS8 will make the four corners of the circle (east, west, north and south) pointed !!! The Gimp is not faulty in this respect.

Best

Asif

Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 22:59:10 -0700 From: Tom Williams
Cc: gimp-user@lists.xcf.berkeley.edu Subject: [Gimp-user] Re: Nobody does it better

Those are three things I have personal experience with, at least with Gimp. :)

Peace...

Tom

End of Gimp-user Digest, Vol 32, Issue 21 *****************************************