Re: GIMP and Photoshop user interfaces (was: Re: Distros specifically designed for children)

On Tue, 03 Jun 2025 10:36:57 +0100
Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> wrote:

That’s strange, isn’t it, since most of the Adobe-lovers who don’t
like GIMP primarily say it’s because its UI is too different from
Photoshop.
>
You think it would be better if it were *more* different? 

 
I'd say wanting to jump to a different program without having to learn
or read documentation is having unrealistic assumptions. Sure, you
*can* have programs designed to be "compatible" UI-wise, but unless
that's a main design goal, there are going to be differences.

It's not about "different programs do things differently" - yes, that
does happen, but GIMP's UI design is just kinda shoddy even on its own
merits.

To cite one convenient example, the designers clearly have no idea what
the point is of keyboard accelerators in menus & dialogs; they'll often
assign the same accelerator key to multiple controls on the same window
so that, instead of quick-navigating through things with a sequence of
keystrokes you can commit to muscle memory, you're obliged to look at
the screen to *see* which control you've selected - at which point you
might as well have just used the mouse.

Like, even if they'd picked a different *set* of accelerators than
Photoshop for $REASONS, doing it the right way would let you achieve a
comparable efficiency of workflow; but they don't really understand or
care about good UI design, so they didn't. Adobe are bastards through
and through, but they know the reason they can get away with it is that
they have the best workflow in the business and working professionals
care more about Getting Shit Done than not supporting bastardry, so
they *do* make the effort.

(I'd also cite, as another example, that they have no idea what the
point of context menus is, either - right-clicking in the document
window brings up a *whole entire copy* of the main-window menu tree
hanging off the mouse pointer, which is utterly bonkers from a
usability standpoint - but I'd have to go back to check and make sure
that they didn't finally do something at least marginally saner since I
last looked.)