The Document Foundation is the small non-profit entity behind LibreOffice. It oversees the project and community, and is now expanding with new developer roles. So let’s say hello to Dan Williams, who joins the team to work on design and user interface (UI) improvements, with an initial focus on macOS: Tell us a bit about […]
excited to see what this means for the project, the poor UI/UX of libreoffice is easily its most glaring flaw imo
Agreed, if you grew using another program, switching is hard unless it’s UX/UI is superb.
When I ditched Adobe, Inkscape was a breeze. GIMP is hard AF and Krita a bit easier but it doesn’t have the features I need. I ended up using Photopea, and now I’ve tried Affinity and it’s the best Photoshop alternative I’ve tried yet.
Collabora is looking pretty good so far. Still a few rough edges but easier than any other FOSS office software.
I think it’s ok for switching to be hard if the UI is built for productivity. I’m not really a “creative” worker in the most common sense, so I’m guessing GIMP’s UI sucks even after you learn it, but I do know VIM is not intuitive at all, yet improves productivity compared to most IDEs/text editors. I’ve also worked on an application, working closely with our somewhat technical users, and they would suggest UI changes that were often not intuitive, but increase their productivity a bit (less need for using a mouse, less keystrokes/clicks and stuff like that).
GIMP is well worth getting used to, especially now we are post 3.0 with a proper non-destructive workflow for filters/effects. I had always found it confusing to learn, having the Photoshop UI fossilised into my neural pathways, but what unlocked it for me was following an online GIMP course for 2/3 hours, which amounted to far less time than I had formerly spent cracking photoshop or working to pay for it.
Some great plugins are coming out now too. The Batcher plugin in particular makes GIMP (and GMIC by extension) extremely powerful for automation.
Inkscape was hell for me when I tried it years ago. I just had no clue where to find stuff and how to navigate properly. Maybe I have to give it another try.
Says more about you than Inkscape. Seriously. It’s build like literally almost every other program out there. Tools to the left, menus at the top, navigation and other windows at the right. How can you not find stuff?
I love Inkscape, it’s so intuitive! I didn’t even need to read the docs. And now that Affinity is coming to Linux I’m hoping I can switch my work to these options.
Agreed, if you grew using another program, switching is hard unless it’s UX/UI is superb.
When I ditched Adobe, Inkscape was a breeze. GIMP is hard AF and Krita a bit easier but it doesn’t have the features I need. I ended up using Photopea, and now I’ve tried Affinity and it’s the best Photoshop alternative I’ve tried yet.
Collabora is looking pretty good so far. Still a few rough edges but easier than any other FOSS office software.
I think it’s ok for switching to be hard if the UI is built for productivity. I’m not really a “creative” worker in the most common sense, so I’m guessing GIMP’s UI sucks even after you learn it, but I do know VIM is not intuitive at all, yet improves productivity compared to most IDEs/text editors. I’ve also worked on an application, working closely with our somewhat technical users, and they would suggest UI changes that were often not intuitive, but increase their productivity a bit (less need for using a mouse, less keystrokes/clicks and stuff like that).
GIMP is well worth getting used to, especially now we are post 3.0 with a proper non-destructive workflow for filters/effects. I had always found it confusing to learn, having the Photoshop UI fossilised into my neural pathways, but what unlocked it for me was following an online GIMP course for 2/3 hours, which amounted to far less time than I had formerly spent cracking photoshop or working to pay for it.
Some great plugins are coming out now too. The Batcher plugin in particular makes GIMP (and GMIC by extension) extremely powerful for automation.
Good times.
Inkscape is my favourite Linux program. And the UI got so much better the last few years.
Inkscape was hell for me when I tried it years ago. I just had no clue where to find stuff and how to navigate properly. Maybe I have to give it another try.
Says more about you than Inkscape. Seriously. It’s build like literally almost every other program out there. Tools to the left, menus at the top, navigation and other windows at the right. How can you not find stuff?
This comment also says more about you than me. Not so seriously.
I’m quite serious. That’s why I wrote “seriously”. ;-)
I guess I hit a nerve, since you didn’t tell me how you can not find stuff…
I love Inkscape, it’s so intuitive! I didn’t even need to read the docs. And now that Affinity is coming to Linux I’m hoping I can switch my work to these options.
Wait, what?