On Wednesday 07 November 2001 10:07, Roger Wesson wrote:
> (Hoping I don't start the platform wars again...) If you use Linux,
> then the Gimp is free and very powerful image editing software, very
> much like photoshop.
I am a Linux user too, and it is true, that The Gimp is a great program.
There is however one important area, where it comes short, and that is color
management. It has no CMYK separations, and no color profile management.
This is not important if you make images for websites, but getting
color-matched printouts from your scans is much harder in Linux because of
that. This isn't Gimp's developers' fault - ICC color profiles, Pantone
colors etc. are all patented and copyrighted technology, so it is very
unlikely we'll see them in Linux. Also, not all inkjet printers have Linux
drivers that use all of their capabilites (Epsons do - you can use 6 color
Epson inkjets controlling all the parameters that you can acces in Windows
drivers, but without preconfigured color profiles). Calibratintg monitor
gamma can also be tricky on Linux. I'm not saying that it's not possible to
obtain good color printouts with Linux software (Gimp + Gimp-print drivers
for Epson inkjets give bautiful results), but getting color matching will
require lots of trial-and-error, because of the lack of color profiling.
If you plan to use a scanner with Linux it is also worth mentioning, that
VueScan has a Linux version, not free, but worth the price.
There is a Windows port of The Gimp, but it is slower and a bit clunkier than
the Linux one.
Pawel
--
Pawel Golik
http://www.gen.emory.edu/cmm/people/staff/pgolik.html
Currently at 33°48'53"N 84°19'25"W
Home is at 52°12'25"N 21°5'37"E
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