FOSS Photoshop killer Krita may release on Steam [video]

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=225403385

by pingpong_table • 12 years ago

155 97 12 years ago

zeruch2• 12 years ago

I actually think this is great. I've enjoyed using Krita (even though its sometimes a PITA to get setup) and its rapidly surpassing everything GIMP spent a dozen years trying to pull off.

Make it crossplatform and you have a BIG win.

rebootthebox2• 12 years ago

Krita's just lacking a OSX build. I've been using the windows build for a while. Krita's focus is on digital painting. I would say Krita is more comparable to Corel's Painter instead of Photoshop.

Argorak2• 12 years ago

As far as I see, Krita is built using GTK. An OS X built will probably just run using the OS X X11 server.

GigabyteCoin2• 12 years ago

it[']s rapidly surpassing everything GIMP spent a dozen years trying to pull off.

Standing on the shoulders of giants certainly makes it easier to see.

sho_hn3• 12 years ago

Krita was started in 1999, only four years after GIMP. For most of their existence, these two programs have been developed in parallel.

http://slangkamp.wordpress.com/2009/05/23/10-years-of-krita/

http://www.valdyas.org/fading/index.cgi/kde/krita_10_years.h...

Part of the reason Krita development has accelerated massively in the last couple of years is that its team decided on a clear mission statement at some point, one very different from GIMP: Krita is a painting app first. The main use cases are painting, illustration and texture-making. That it's also quite useful for cases GIMP traditionally aims at (photo editing, web graphics) are down to toolset overlap between the use cases and a robust, modern tech foundation (colorspace-independent implementation strategies, etc.), but Krita isn't actually trying to compete with GIMP and ventures into territory GIMP doesn't really serve.

Domenic_S• 12 years ago

Haha, cute, but it sure hasn't helped GIMP (the giant in that case being PS).

GFK_of_xmaspast• 12 years ago

why would you want to stand on the shoulders of GIMP

zeruch2• 12 years ago

I think that is only part of the answer. The Krita team is also a lot more compact and has a clearer, more internally defined end goal (it will be interesting to see what happens if its userbase explodes).

Less of the glacial Debian-style politics than have encumbered GIMP never also helped Krita.

archagon• 12 years ago

Great to hear! Krita is one of the few art programs that has real-time tiling, which seems like a great way to work on textures: http://krita.org/item/196-new-wraparound-tool

nitrogen• 12 years ago

Nice. I've wanted a tiling tool like that for ages.

anonymfus• 12 years ago

IIRC PaintCAD 4Windows had it, but it was added after developer became insane so it's usable only for him.

andrey-p2• 12 years ago

This alone makes me want to give Krita a shot.

pekk2• 12 years ago

Serious question: how is Krita a "Photoshop killer" and GIMP not one?

justin662• 12 years ago

Not once in that demo video did I see the usability monster leap out and try to stomp on anyone's balls. So it doesn't really invite comparison with the GIMP.

pekk2• 12 years ago

Do you have any criticism more specific than that you don't like GIMP? Does Krita's interface closely mimic Photoshop's or what? What is your actual point?

shittyanalogy• 12 years ago

Why are you bringing up GIMP?

andrey-p2• 12 years ago

I think it's a fair question to ask, Gimp is the one app I've heard being called a "Photoshop killer". In fact I'd only ever heard of Gimp before reading this, and the first thing I did was to google "Gimp vs Krita".

That said, Krita looks pretty good. I'm mostly using Gimp for drawing and I'd be interested in trying an alternative.

CamperBob2• 12 years ago

It's not called "GIMP," for one thing.

ye3• 12 years ago

Photoshop is not mainly a painting application, though it can be used as one.

The strength of Photoshop is in its automation, ability to integrate with all kinds of things, ability to open a hundred different formats by default, plugins, 16-bit-per-channel support, color management, work with huge files, etc etc etc.

This looks like a competitor for ArtRage or Corel Paint.

sho_hn3• 12 years ago

http://krita.org/faq/item/16-krita-features contains some information on the features supported by Krita, including 16 bit per channel colorspaces (including Lab, a much-vaunted Photoshop feature). Krita is also available with support for OpenColorIO, and integration into the asset pipelines found e.g. in VFX studios is part of its mission statement (support for Photoshop's file formats has been steadily increasing along the way).

You're entirely correct about Krita's focus on painting (a focus it has greatly benefited from; see also my other comment), but it turns out the kinds of foundations required by a good painting application offer utility in many use cases.

berkes• 12 years ago

Honestly curious:

The strength of Photoshop is in its automation, ability to integrate with all kinds of things, ability to open a hundred different formats by default, plugins, ....

This, as far as I can see, sums up Gimp very well. With its open scripting and plugin system (Python) which not only allows anyone to write simple automation scripts, but allows people like me to find importers, exporters, filetype support, scripts and plugins for free, for about anyhting thinkable.

How does Photoshop compare to the Gimp in these areas? I am aware of the differences in usability, obviously. But purely on technical grounds: is the automatability and extensability of the Gimp comparable to that of Photoshop?

ye3• 12 years ago

The problems with GIMP, the last time I checked, were - no support for 16 bit, problems with color management, slow (photoshop is extremely optimized, and now has GPU support). Plus I hate the default UI - they need to redo it completely.

wingerlang• 12 years ago

"Krita" means crayon in Swedish.

alexdowad• 12 years ago

I've tried using Krita before, and it sure didn't seem like a "Photoshop killer" to me.

trackofalljades• 12 years ago

It seems to me like someone excitedly posted this without really understanding what Krita actually does, or perhaps the differences between an app like Photoshop, an app like Illustrator, and an app like Corel Paint.

kendalk• 12 years ago

Photoshop "killer"?

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

jonah• 12 years ago

Does it have the "magic" tools like content aware fill, patch tool, and spot healing brush that Photoshop does? These are kinds of things my professional artist and photographer friends appreciate about the app.

rmc• 12 years ago

GIMP has a content aware fill, Gimp Synthesiser AFAIR

frik2• 12 years ago

Would be great if they port the whole Calligra office suite to Windows: http://calligra-suite.org

frik2• 12 years ago

Just tried Krita out on Win7 x64 with 16-bit colors. It works fine with default white background.

But if I set the background color to 0% opacity (aka transparent) the drawing becomes ultra-slow like 1 pixel per second :/

erikb• 12 years ago

I don't think something like Photoshop can be killed so easily. If Photoshop is Facebook, then this doesn't look like the successor, but like G+. Might have better features, but doesn't have the community.

And PS also has a huge set of commercially created plugins, filters, etc.

It's a pity, though. I really wish some FOSS project would make an end to PS!

llii• 12 years ago

I really wish some FOSS project would make an end to PS!

Then start using them if you aren't already. A community doesn't come out of thin air.

coldtea• 12 years ago

Photoshop killer? This is for 1/10 of the COMMON use cases for Photoshop.

dutchbrit• 12 years ago

Do they or are they planning on supporting OSX?

wlesieutre• 12 years ago

Sounds like it's planned: http://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?f=137&t=118888&p=298709

henningtegen5• 12 years ago

I am the lead developer of a application called Leonardo that we hope will be a future "Photoshop killer" when it comes to digital painting: http://www.getleonardo.com The main focus for us is speed and Leonardo is way faster then any other application including Photoshop (and it is still raster based).

Leonardo is not finished yet, but it is possible to sign up on out beta list.

Yrlec• 12 years ago

What does "way faster" mean more specifically? E.g. how does it handle a 100mpixel image?

henningtegen5• 12 years ago

It handles a 100 mega pixel image very well.

The trick Leonardo use to be this fast is that your screen only has a fixed amount of pixels and it is enough to update does pixels super fast for the application to feel fast. Then you have a lot more time to update the rest of the pixels.

This makes Leonardo kind of "resolution independent" and is always super fast whatever the canvas size and brush diameter. On top of this we also have a streaming mechanism of tiles between RAM and file so that you never run out of memory.

slashdotaccount• 12 years ago

No Linux, no sale. Krita's been on Linux since 1998.

henningtegen5• 12 years ago

Sorry dude. We are focusing on Windows and Mac. But in the far future we might support Linux too... ;)

sovande• 12 years ago

Will it support vector drawings also? The screen cast with "nobel english" was very nice and the tool you used to draw the box was cool, never seen that before.

henningtegen5• 12 years ago

In the first version there will be no vector stuff, we are focusing on raster. (but maybe in the future)

Thanks ;-)

WoodenChair2• 12 years ago

Is there anything about this tool that is superior to an inexpensive commercial app like Pixelmator other than being FOSS? I'm interested in comparisons to Pixelmator specifically.

TillE• 12 years ago

Wouldn't be a hugely useful comparison, since Pixelmator is Mac-only, while this is Windows/Linux-only. You might compare it to Paint.NET

WoodenChair2• 12 years ago

Unfortunately, it can't be a "Photoshop killer" if it doesn't run on the Mac since Mac sales are like 1/3 of Photoshop sales I think last time I saw a stat.

FOSS Photoshop killer Krita may release on Steam [video]

Related Stories