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Newbie deal breaker problem
#1
Hi everyone,

A colleague has convinced me to test GIMP instead of my old Paintshop Pro.

I am a casual user, usually just removing an odd frame, blurring the background or layers to create thumbnails or backgrounds for videos, which means opening a file, adding some brushes, using clone brushes and retouch and saving it. That's all.

I just realised I can't do that in GIMP. It always saves the file in a different format, the internal one. I found I need to export the result and can't use png or jpg depending on what format the original was in.

So I read up on this issue here, managed to find the folder and tried to install jpeg.exe and png.exe where both failed due to some other file missing.

I am now at a crossroads whether to upgrade Paintshop Pro or dive into GIMP, where I am unsure whether GIMP is actually the right tool for an infrequent and simple user like me. Will GIMP lead me down a rabbit hole which will require a rethink and redoing my pc to suit GIMP?

I've gone and skimmed through a tutorial and watched a few Davies videos. The scope of the program is impressive, but might just be too much for me, which is why I'd love to hear some users provide user-level feedback what they think.

Thanks a lot for your help.
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#2
Quote:...I am a casual user, usually just removing an odd frame, blurring the background or layers to create thumbnails or backgrounds for videos, which means opening a file, adding some brushes, using clone brushes and retouch and saving it. That's all...

It is not that much different from PSP. The native Gimp save as in File -> Save is Gimp .xcf
Same as PSP .pspimage (or whatever they are calling it these day, long time since I used PSP) that saves all layers / masks / channels / guides / active selections. It is meant to prevent users inadvertently losing information from a format, jpeg or png which is single layer, flattened.

If you want any other format than .xcf just go to File -> Export or File -> Export -As and enter a filename with an extension say my-new-icon.jpg and it gets exported as a jpg.

Note that in Edit -> Preferences -> Image Import & Export there is a "Export File Type" setting, default is png but you can change to any of the common formats. Can save a tiny bit of typing.

and

If you open a file-type.xxx , edit it , and want to overwrite, there is the option in the File menu, appears just above the Export options.
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#3
[quote='rich2005' pid='23966' dateline='1623520209']
Quote:If you open a file-type.xxx , edit it , and want to overwrite, there is the option in the File menu, appears just above the Export options.

Hi, thanks a mil. This is the one I missed and something that changes things. It's still more involved due to more clicks necessary to get something done, but I'll try getting into it before deciding whether or not to dump PSP as it's constantly nagging me to add this and buy that and it is getting a bit old and less capable of doing what I want.

The "Export File Type" is a bit silly, where I find the format-type drop-down option a lot more user friendly. But hey, you can't get everything.

Thanks again.
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#4
(06-13-2021, 08:10 AM)FredM Wrote:
(06-12-2021, 05:50 PM)rich2005 Wrote:
Quote:If you open a file-type.xxx , edit it , and want to overwrite, there is the option in the  File menu, appears just above the Export options.

Hi, thanks a mil. This is the one I missed and something that changes things. It's still more involved due to more clicks necessary to get something done, but I'll try getting into it before deciding whether or not to dump PSP as it's constantly nagging me to add this and buy that and it is getting a bit old and less capable of doing what I want.

The "Export File Type" is a bit silly, where I find the format-type drop-down option a lot more user friendly. But hey, you can't get everything.

Thanks again.
When you create a JPEG/GIF/PNG/TIFF from Gimp, you throw away a lot of information: layer contents and structure, selections, paths... So you cannot rework what you did later if you only saved the JPEG/GIF/PNG/TIFF. Gimp used to have a single dialog to save and export, but then you could regularly see people in the forums crying over lost layers.

In fact Gimp does the same as your favorite Office application. Would you just create a PDF and not save the DOC/ODT?
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#5
(06-13-2021, 08:10 AM)FredM Wrote: The "Export File Type" is a bit silly, where I find the format-type drop-down option a lot more user friendly. But hey, you can't get everything.

What is silly about allowing the user to specify the default type for exported files? I added this setting as I was fed up with having to select jpg each time I wanted to export an xcf file. You would normally only adjust this setting once. Of course if you export to a number of different file formats then just use the drop down menu or type the extension in the file name.

Note that this option only sets the default - if you open and edit a non-xcf type file then the extension of that file will be offered if/when you export it (although you can then change this using the drop down menu or by entering the extension explicitly).
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#6
(06-13-2021, 08:53 AM)programmer_ceds Wrote: What is silly about allowing the user to specify the default type for exported files?

It's not about "allowing" something, for me it's restricting my workflow. I personally, only me, just myself, use jpg for low-res and png for hi-res pictures. I don't need any layer information. I don't need the colour settings etc etc.

That's just me, like I said, a casual user, who only needs some basic functions with some layers, a mask and diffusion effects. So opening a jpg file, adding a few elements via copy/paste, removing background and taking elements and moving them around is basically most of what I need.

So it would be nice for me if I could pre-configure the "save as" to only include the formats I need and not be limited to just a single one.
I hope I did not offend you and you understand where I am coming from.
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#7
(06-13-2021, 09:29 PM)FredM Wrote: It's not about "allowing" something, for me it's restricting my workflow. I personally, only me, just myself, use jpg for low-res and png for hi-res pictures. I don't need any layer information. I don't need the colour settings etc etc.

That's just me, like I said, a casual user, who only needs some basic functions with some layers, a mask and diffusion effects. So opening a jpg file, adding a few elements via copy/paste, removing background and taking elements and moving them around is basically most of what I need.

So it would be nice for me if I could pre-configure the "save as" to only include the formats I need and not be limited to just a single one.
I hope I did not offend you and you understand where I am coming from.

Don't worry, it takes more than that to offend me.

The default type for saving files doesn't limit you to a single file type - just set it to the type that you use most.

Following a change (which I think it would be correct to say was not universally popular) made some years ago "Save" and "Save as" only apply to files that are being saved in xcf format. For all other types the options are "Overwrite", "Export" or "Export as" - the idea being to emphasise that by saving to formats other than xcf you may be losing data (layers, paths, masks etc). It's a question of getting used to exporting rather than saving.

Quote:I just realised I can't do that in GIMP. It always saves the file in a different format, the internal one. I found I need to export the result and can't use png or jpg depending on what format the original was in.

I'm not sure why you are finding this - the behaviour should be as in the following two paragraphs.

If you have opened a jpg file then, after editing, either select the "Overwrite" option (possibly not the best choice) or use "Export as" to write it to a file with a different name (possibly just a variant letter suffix?) - in this latter case it will by default use a jpg extension, although you can change this using the drop down list.

In the previous paragraph you could replace all occurrences of jpg with png and it would still be correct.

If you are creating new files in GIMP and then exporting them as jpg or png I would set the default file type to the one that you use most then you will have to use the drop down list for less than half (the downside of GIMP supporting many different file types is the length of the drop down list - one solution to this would be to build your own version of GIMP with the list of supported files reduced to xcf, jpg and png)

Hope this helps but let me know if I'm missing the point.
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#8
Instead of Files > Export as...
just Ctrl+Shift+E will automatically export as jpg or the file format you've imported
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