Gimp Tutorial for Idiot?
I've been trying to use Gimp to replace other options for years now, but it feels so abstruse and severely inefficient. I used to use Photoshop around 15 years ago but have stuck with Paint.NET since - my problem is that I now use Linux and paint.net isn't available natively. I was using Pinta, but it just is like temu paint.net, and I wanted something more/better (also it has a number of bugs that can easily frustrate me and often crash/hang when doing work on larger files or for longer times).
And for decades, people (both Windows and Linux users) have tried selling me on Gimp. I've tried over and over to get into it, but nothing made sense and it took way longer to do simple things than I thought it ought... but I'm trying for reals about 10 years since my last attempt.
Please does anyone have a page that explains how to do things without everything being convoluted? There seem to be no ways to turn commands into keybinds or icons I can just click, and all the keyboard shortcuts I find are in relation to nothing I want to do. Ultimately, I prefer keyboard shortcuts, but I can do icons as well.
Latest example: I want to draw a rectangle outline. Should be simple, but there is no tool to draw shapes (at least that I can find, and the tutorials online don't seem to imply the existence of one either). Okay... I have to select the rectangle select, then I have to go to the menu (Edit) and choose Stroke Selection... which pops up another menu with a ton of options. That's great and all, but in every other program I've ever used (even MS Paint!) you just click an icon and make the rectangle. If you want to alter the shape or something you right click or hold click, or maybe you can bring up a menu. But if I want to make a number of rectangles over and over? Even with keyboard shortcuts I have to make the rectangle (no issues there), then click Edit, "s" apparently takes me to the stroke menu, then enter. Bloated at best.
So, if anyone has a good tutorial or something similar that can help me out here, or an alternative Linux-based raster graphics editor that is free, I would greatly appreciate to know of it/them. I really want to like Gimp, and I'm hoping someone here can either help me get into it or direct me elsewhere. Thanks!
Edit: I realise I forgot to mention, I did use Krita for a bit. It felt like an in between Pinta and Paint.NET, but iirc, it crashed somewhat often or had enough bugs that I went back to Pinta.
You can search keyboard shortcuts for stroke-to-last-values and assign it to a key for faster use.
I'd say in general though for just drawing you're better off using paint apps like Krita or the simpler Drawing or Pixieditor then importing it to gimp for better layer manipulation and filters.
For keyboard shortcuts at least, you can follow the official GIMP documentation on to change them.
As for everything else... Yeah, I feel GIMP has a high learning curve and not the best UI. It was the first program I used after MS Paint, and I learned mostly through just messing with the tools on colors to make textures that looked cool. After using other art programs since then, it definitely feels more clunky, in part due to all the dialogue boxes. (That said, I love the select by color tool since I can restrict it to contiguous regions and select them easily. It's the one tool that's always felt clunkier in other programs.)
I have no recommended tutorials myself since I haven't used it in years, nor do I use Linux, but what exactly do you want to use it for? Digital painting, image editing, both...? That can impact the tutorials recommended. Or people who use Linux can recommend alternative programs for that specific purpose.
You also may want to try Krita again depending on how long ago you tried it. The issues you had may have been resolved by updates.
I use Krita or Inskape these days. Don't really like GIMP.
It will finally get a proper shape tool in version 4 though... The issue is that version 4 has been in alpha for a long time and was supposed to be released like a year ago but they're really behind the schedule with it. But one day it will be out, and then you'll be able to draw a rectangle.
As a programmer, I love GIMP, it feels like it's designed exactly for my use case where other tools aren't as precise.
For drawing shapes, if they are all the same, you can do your selection and use the Stroke Selection button (icon that's in the bottom right) in the Selection Editor. After you stroke for the first time, clicking that button while holding shift will repeat the same stroke. That should allow you to do a different selection and then shift click it for a faster workflow.
Oh btw, every item in a menu should have a hotkey even if one isn't shown. For example, let's say you want to merge two layers, you can right click the top layer and hit
W. iirc in the past, the letter to click was underlined, I don't know if they removed the underline but everything in the menus should have a button.Otherwise, you can generate the shape in an external program and paste it in GIMP.
You should really view GIMP as an image editor where you work with existing images instead of as a drawing application.
Edit: Looks like what I'm talking about is called an accelerator or an access key and you can see the underline when you hold alt and then navigate in the menus.
Edit2: For every element that you hover in the user interface, you can hit F1 to bring up context appropriate documentation.