[solved] Light GTK alternative to GIMP

Question

Hello,
Which applications would you consider as light but still comparable to GIMP?
I looked into the wiki and there seem to be a variety of them out there based on QT but far less based on GTK which are actively developed.
I just tried xpaint but it takes a lot getting used to with regards to usability.
For me a good alternative must allow for basic image editing such as cutting, adding shapes, changing size...
On Windows for these things I used to have Paint.NET. Although there is Pinta which comes very close to Paint.NET it uses Mono which again is not light either.
What do you use for basic image editing?
Last edited by orschiro (2013-10-22 05:33:35)

Answer 1

Thanks for all your responses.
What do you mean by "light"?
Is Gimp in your opinion using too much RAM, or starting up too slowly, or requiring too many dependencies, or has a too bloated user interface, or in what way is it not light enough?
I would say a combination from all of these. It takes a while to start, the user interface is bloated and confusing. Most of the function of GIMP I have never used.
PS: There's an AUR package called gimp-devel-light that compiles a bare-bones version of Gimp with many optional features excluded, thus requiring fewer dependencies and probably also less RAM & startup time (though I haven't tested). Is that along the lines of what you're looking for?
I built it but could not note any subjective difference in speed and usability. It did not feel lighter in any perspective.
PS: Have you gone through the list of graphics editors on the wiki? (Also, if you end up finding an alternative that is not listed there, be sure to add it!)
Yes as mentioned in my initial post.
For situations where interactive editing is not needed, you can use the CLI imagemagick/graphicsmagick for mass image processing.
Thanks but I am explicitly looking for interactive editing.
I use Pinta. It starts up WAAAY faster than the GIMP.
I only started using Pinta recently, once I finally overcame my "OH NO I just CAN'T install a piece of software (Mono) to use ANOTHER good piece of software!" problem.
If Pinta works and does what you want then use Pinta.
[orschiro@thinkpad ~]$ sudo pacman -S pinta
[sudo] password for orschiro:
resolving dependencies...
looking for inter-conflicts...
Packages (5): gtk-sharp-2-2.12.11-1 libgdiplus-2.10-4 mono-3.0.7-1
mono-addins-0.6.2-3 pinta-1.4-1
Total Download Size: 47,17 MiB
Total Installed Size: 192,88 MiB
Sorry, but this is what I would definitely consider 'heavy'.
Unfortunately for now I could not find any adequate alternative...