one of the reasons why gimp sucks: it insists that you save in its proprietary format even if you've 'exported' the image (which should just be 'saving' tbh)

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u/GobiPLX 3d ago

You know that gimp proprietary format exists so you can go back and edit different layers, change your filters etc

Every more professional program like Photoshop, video editing software etc have it

If you think it's the reason why something sucks, welp you should go to MsPaint

6

u/Alters_Reap 3d ago

Don’t fall for the bait

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u/ApprehensiveSink1893 3d ago

It's a good reminder, just in case you want the image in an easily editable form.

You are not forced to save a .xcf. You can hit Ctrl+D or the "Discard Changes" button and exit.

3

u/Stratelier 3d ago

Not unique to GIMP -- it is a part & parcel of the whole "Save v. Export" paradigm.

But, perhaps this is sitting on top a pile of other criticisms, which actually are unique to GIMP? I'm curious what some of those are....

3

u/_ico4498 3d ago

buy Photoshop

3

u/ProfessionalLet9385 3d ago

If it really "insited" there would not be a "discard" button.

A friendly reminder not to forget saving in .xcf does not suck. Click it away and you are fine.

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u/King_Kalo 2d ago

Yes, because I can totally change my edits when I "save" to a PNG. Are you kidding?

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u/barefootliam GIMP Team 1d ago

Note, the xcf format is not proprietary - it’s open and documented and anyone can use it, which is how other software can read and/or write xcf files.

Exporting is not the same as saving because it (in general) can lose image data such as layers, layer masks, non-destructive filters, the active selection... which are all saved in xcf.

An alternative might be that we could warn the user each time they saved as jpeg (say) -

Some data will not be exported: the image will be flattened, including text layers, and all transparency will be lost. Proceed anyway?, but that’s asking every time you export, which would be much more irritating for people who export the same image multiple times (which i do for one) and only close the image once.

I’ve also seen editors that can only open a project file in their own format, and you have to import images - video editors tend to be like this - which is going one step further.

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u/StopHurtingKids 1d ago

I'm pretty sure you can turn off this behavior. If you spend 2 minutes reading the manual.

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u/ExternalDistrict4256 21h ago

Not anymore. In new GIMP versions you can't do that but it's possible via a minimal Python plug-in to auto-clean and export images in order to bypass the xcf save dialog.