Re: GIMP CMYK support - was [Fsfe-uk] Mac OS X refund

[Dave Crossland]

On 21/01/2008, Jon Grant <address@hidden> wrote:
> On 21/01/2008, Noah Slater <address@hidden> wrote:
> > On Mon, Jan 21, 2008 at 01:06:31PM +0100, Andrew Savory wrote:
> > > Accounting is the only one for which there are no "good enough"
> > > equivalents.
> >
> > I would argue that the lack of CMYK support in GIMP along with a few
> > other issues prevent GNU/Linux being used for high end design work.
>
> Will this ever change though?

Yes, and it has already if you expand from GIMP to "free software
image manipulation programs" - as Krita supports CYMK.

For GIMP, it will come with the GEGL version as GEGL is architected
for CMYK support -
http://www.mail-archive.com/address@hidden/msg00273.html
- but the GEGL build is a long term development cycle and the main
GEGL guy, Pippin, is currently doing jobbing work at o-hand.com up in
Bromley, Kent.

> People debate it year in year out.. Why
> hasnt FSF/GNU spent some of its pure Adobe Flash sponsoring effort on
> doing something more worthy like CMYK support in Flash to get the
> media industries using GIMP (or CinePaint !?) and GNU+Linux.

I wrote my dissertation on this topic ("Is Free Software viable for
Graphic Design work?") for my BA Interaction Design degree, but it was
shitty by real world standards and I haven't published it, and last
year I chose to focus on a more technical problem (free fonts) rather
than software freedom propaganda.

A sustained campaign on this topic would be very worthwhile, because
getting propagandists to use free software will pay dividends.

Eben Moglen often says that free software is sustained on two things,
proof of concept and running code. Creative Commons has the "proof of
concept" on this, but as we also discussed today, not the "running
code."

-- 
Regards,
Dave