Is there an OG post to reference here?
EDIT: Nice, big improvement on UI responsiveness with large font libraries. Still some room for improvement, but it was almost unusable before.
this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2026
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Who in the comments is an Adobe employee?
This isn't Reddit.
If they could make it as dummy proof as Macromedia Fireworks from the 2000s, they would make transitioning creative work in Linux a bit easier. And this is coming from a Linux user since 2008.
I am going to get slammed here ... but GIMP is just way too complex to use. Maybe the new UI will be better, but the old UI is not just clunky or slightly bad ... it is UNUSABLE by normal people.
Draw a circle in GIMP. Draw a square. Yea ... how long did that take to figure out?
You want MS Paint.
Sit anybody in front of Photoshop for the first time and it will be the same.
The UI of modern Photoshop is now insanely bloated.
how recently can i have installed it? like, yesterday? HOW DO I DRAW A CIRCLE
GIMP is meant more for retouching photos, not drawing shapes. If you mostly want to draw shapes from scratch, you probably want something like Krita or Inkscape instead.
But if you really must draw a circle in GIMP, you make a circular selection and then fill it in with the bucket fill tool.
Use ellipse select tool with a fixed aspect ratio of 1:1. Then Select -> Border and choose a width. Then fill it with a color.
Like yeah, it is 3 steps instead of having a dedicated "Shapes" tool with a bunch of options that would do the same. But GIMP is kind of built around selections, you do need to learn to use them if you ever want to use GIMP effectively. It's about as important as understanding layers.
BRING OUT THE GIMP
Here, I’ll start. Opens GIMP.
Uhhhhhhhhh
Have you guys tried starting from scratch?
I used to use Photoshop and indesign prolifically ~~to shitpost~~ to do great art work in the 2000s. I took a good decade and a half off and decided to go Gimp instead of a new version of Photoshop this year. I’m at about 80% of what I could smoothly do with Photoshop, and honestly I love it.
I don’t think I could have made the switch if I didn’t take a super mega long break, though.
It's opening up PS and ID after the break and realising the application you once knew inside-out have changed so much, may as well learn a new one instead.
I boycotted Adobe and stopped using any programs for photo editing when they switched to a subscription model. I was REALLY good at it and just abandoned my skills right then and there. I’ve since started using GIMP but… Off the top of my head, adjustment layers were added LAST YEAR. So, that should give you an idea of how far behind Adobe they are. Maybe Adobe not innovating for 20 years will allow them to catch up.
Sounds like op overstates the changes to GIMP 3.2
Long live the PhotoGIMP guy.
I've been using GIMP for years and have become use to it. However, the interface still needs to be redesigned.
Wellllll that's exactly what they're looking for testers for right now
Ive been a gimper since university.
Change the name. 😄 Edit: Imp is right there. If you miss 3 syllables of GNU Imp, try Photobash. Make it obvious.
App is great, name is terrible but the devs like it and don't want to entertain the idea of renaming.
Perhaps if people keep suggesting a rename, it'll happen eventually. It is a shame that it has the name it has.
o7 Doing my civic duty in the fight to keep digital art in artists' hands.
Yeah... I'll stick with 2.10. It's responsive.
No thank you, I am good. My dreams are bad enough, I don’t need to punish myself with trying to use this user interface.
Do they want someone to test a new name? I'm tired of waiting.
Professional Image Manipulation Program