I've played with krita recently and i would like to write few words.

First the positives
I like the interface its pretty customizable. The default layout is good but if you are for example a Gimp user you can make it look and behave similar to gimp just by simple dragging the panels out.

I'm a Photoshop user(student version) and i love the nondestructive workflow that it offers. It seems that some of the functionality can be achieved in Krita. If i'm not mistaken the Effect mask is an equivalent of Layer style window. I use that window more often then other tools because i can manipulate these filters any time. I hope the filters in it can be extended with plugins because i miss gradient, color overlay and few other options.

I also like the idea of using OpenGL unfortunate in the version(2.1.0) it doesn't work to well.
I see also a great number of brushes each with its one set of settings. Unfortunately i didn't play with them to much because i focused on thous tools that i use most frequently. But i will check these brushes because i see a great potential in them

There are other tools but it would take to much time to write about them.

Negatives, tools that i miss and some of my ideas
Selection tool - I don't see a possibility to move, resize the selection and add or subtract a selection. Thats rather basic functionality.
Masks - It would be nice to see a preview of the mask in the layer panel. And i would kill for the ability to make a mask from a shape and then freely manipulate it .
Layer panel - I think that adding the possibility to select multiple layers would be very helpful. Moving(grouping) or removing layers one by one is rather annoying. I see that its posible to move masks and effects between layers just by dragging them(big+) but i think it should be also possible to clone them that way(shift, alt ore ctrl) between layers(cloning layers that way would be nice to).
Gradient - i don't see the ability to save my own gradients.

Context menus - you are doing almost the same stupid thing as gimp... Gimp simply clones the main menu duplicating it that way... I don't understand why. Selected menus can by detached so why duplicating it... I believe that the context menu should be for most used options of the selected tool. That way you can access it very easy without looking for them scattered all over the application. I would go even further and make it possible to chose which corresponding options should be visible for the selected tool. Simply make some standard presets and allow the user to modify it in the preferences. The ability to add your own macros to that menus would be also nice
Interface - i said that i like the interface and that is true but i would add the possibility to save cornet layout setup to be able to switch between them. Instead dragging every panel in and out simply save it as a preset.
Shapes/text - i wanted to write that its very limited but after playing with it i like it very much but finding the option to change color took me some time... I believe that it should be possible to apply the same filters as for normal layers... well the shape masks would probably made it possible.


I wanted to write a little more but i think that its enough for now
Krita surprised me very positive it has many great tools its well thought and i believe that in the future it will make a real competition for the commercial apps. I think that it has more potential then gimp... Well it offer me more in it early stage then gimp with its plugins...

Thanks for giving feedback.

Color and gradient overlays can be achieved with normal layers. In 2.2 a color overlay can be done with a generator layer using a solid color.

OpenGL support highly depends on the quality of your graphics driver.

Add and substract mode can be changed in the tool options of the selection tool.

Context menu has been replaced for 2.2

It's not possible to run filters on shape layers as they would have to be rasterized first. It's possible to apply a filter by adding a filter mask.

Hmm i only found versions 2.1.x in the repositories(even factory/unstable) the same thing is with the windows version. I'll try to get the newest build and then write some more. Thank you for the replay.

I forgot to mention: 2.2 isn't released yet.

From the sounds of it, it's due to be released soon though... Although how fast your distribution packages it is another matter...

I hope so

it (the beta) should be in the playground repo's of openSuse

example repo http://download.opensuse.org/repositori ... op/x86_64/

example rpm http://download.opensuse.org/repositori ... x86_64.rpm

Ok thanks but i will wait for a stable version.