I've seen a lot of work done with Krita in the past, and I heard many people discuss its usefulness in graphic work in the past too. I decided to try it earlier this week, and the result is a very negative feeling about the program.

I know that programs like these take a great deal of dedication and work to create. I'm not sure I even want to think about the massive amount of time that has gone into creating this program, it's daunting. And this is unfortunate because the latest version 4.3 has one of the worst interfaces for a productivity program I've seen in years. Honestly, it's terrible.

Now, I'm aware that the program is still under development for the current version, and that documentation is coming at some point —but this version of Krita is not intuitive for use and counterproductive to use. Unless a user has been using Krita since version zero, and continually following all the changelogs, everything is trial, error, and frustration. There appears to have been more time spent trying to make new features without ever considering productivity.

There are so many bells and whistles that need to be adjusted constantly, that no work can effectively be done. Trying to figure out the color selectors (plural, correct) is ridiculous in over-complexity. This should be one docker with internal sliders or drop-downs for tweaking. Not the mess it is. And the palettes all show as one big mess. Why would you ever work with every single available palette at once? Plus, there is no apparent or easy way to reset the dockers if a setting is changed. The same is for the tool and brush options.

If you look at an artist's workspace, you'll see that everything is organized. Things that are needed quickly are close at hand; they are often unchanging. You've tried to replicate this with the pop-up palette. I think the design is bad, but maybe others find it pleasant. Personally, when I paint or draw, I don't throw all my paints and tools into the middle of the paper (completely obscuring my work) when I'm choosing what to use. They stay off to the side, discrete, yet visible. The pop-up is a huge —literally huge— messy distraction for an artist.

Yes, you have nice brushes. It's nifty that you allow for animation and you're doing a microphone input... but good graphic programs are meant for productive art, not gimmicks. And there is plenty of animation and studio software out there already, and better documented. I'm just very disappointed to see another project go down the drains because people lost sight of what they were trying to do.

I am uninstalling today. I may look at Krita in the future if I ever hear that it's become less gimmicky.

There is no microphone input in Krita...

Well, then the available description could be clearer. What I use are painting tools.

@sine: You know, there are simplier way to just tell "I don't like it" and better way to give constructive feedback.
No need to try to make general statement for all artist. I'm not sharing your feedback and I feel often productive.
About productivity, can you show your actual production? Are you working at home, or study or working on studio? It might help at understanding from what field (painting/texturing/mate-painting/concept-art/comic/etc...) you post this feedback.

Deevad,
I work with many types of software, both professionally and privately. If I see a problem, then there is a problem.

If there is no documentation, and the interface is unfriendly, then it is not production software. You challenge me by asking me about myself, well, I firstly turn the table to prove my earlier point: How long have you been using Krita? Longer than a year? Long enough to spend time to figure out the program's quirks and hidden features, update to update? Long enough that you forgot how frustrating it is to attempt to use an undocumented tool with interface windows that are bifurcations of bifurcations?

Can you answer this and honestly say that if you had just stepped into 4.3 that everything would be rainbows?

You post this answer.
[Edited]
Actually, scratch that. Don't answer.
My message was for developers, not random people lurking around looking for a scrap.
I've stated what the problem is, and if a Developer wishes more , they can ask for themselves.

@sine: teach me, master.

Hi!

I know that it is sometimes difficult to get your way around in a new program. I have similar feelings most of the times I try something new, even when I used a similar program before. Things are in a different place than expected etc. However I never judge a program from one day, especially if I don't have anyone to answer my stupid questions like "and where can I save the file?!!!" (100% legit, happened to me in Darktable). Every program has some philosophy that you might need to learn to get your intuition where to find the other thing you need. That's inevitable with any program. I don't know if there is any category of programs that are just intuitive from the very first day - a notepad, possibly? But have you seen Notepad++ (a program for Windows)? It's huge and super complicated, I've never used more than 10% of it.

What I'm saying is, I understand that you didn't like the program. There are some people that will never like Krita even after longer usage. I tried to learn to like Artrage many times, but lack of Krita-like eraser mode (E switches the current brush to eraser) was a deal-breaker for me. But there are some that like it, and it's not like the program is terrible - I just prefer other ones.

For the same reason, please don't take it personally that we dismiss your "I didn't like it, so it's not good" post. If you want to be helpful for developers, which I hope you do and some of what you wrote sounds as if you actually do, could you please explain a few of the features that you've found confusing or not intuitive, and why is that - for example, what were your expectations? What your intuition told you? Where have you been looking for them? You don't need to explain in detail everything that is wrong with Krita, that would take too much time, of course. But if you explain one or two features in that way, hopefully we'll be able to figure out a solution for our users if it's a big problem.

And yes, if you tell us from which industry you come from (illustration, comic, VFX?...), it will help us understand your perspective more, too. Different industries have different needs, different prevalent programs etc. Also, maybe, which program do you use and like the most?

For things you already mentioned, I have a few comments:

> And the palettes all show as one big mess. Why would you ever work with every single available palette at once?

This was a regression (as in, a bug that wasn't happening in previous version) but it got fixed already.

> Plus, there is no apparent or easy way to reset the dockers if a setting is changed.

Window -> Workspace -> Default. Also in the workspace chooser button, which might be a bit more difficult to find, but is explained in the Manual. Where have you been looking for it?

> The pop-up is a huge —literally huge— messy distraction for an artist.

You don't need to use it though. There is Brush Presets docker for that already.

> The same is for the tool and brush options.

For brush, you can reset it in the Brush Editor, the same place where you change them. For tools, those settings are usually small, why would you need a method to reset them to default?

> Trying to figure out the color selectors (plural, correct) is ridiculous in over-complexity. This should be one docker with internal sliders or drop-downs for tweaking

There is one color selector in the default workspace, it allows you to add some sliders, color history, colors from the image and stuff. A user can just use this one for all of the work, maybe except for some specific cases like changing the color of onion skins.

> an undocumented tool with interface windows that are bifurcations of bifurcations?

Have you checked Krita Manual here? https://docs.krita.org/en/ - it has a "Getting Started" section, even with "Introduction from Photoshop" and "...from SAI" to help people that are already familiar with another tool. It can help getting this overall philosophy of the tool.

Tymond,

It's nice to see an intelligent response.

Regarding your questions and comments, I will share with you more in detail. And if you feel you must know because it can aid you in development, my work is in editing. I am the senior editor in an institution that deals with the recovery, repair, and analysis of photographic material. Many of our tasks need to have images missing components that must be filled in from extrapolated data.

We have been mainly using Photoshop lately, as well as a few other proprietary programs, for some time. (We also still use several artists to do traditional work for some tasks.) Recently I was able to get the go-ahead for the use of public, opensource software in limited settings. This is what led me to Krita. This has not been a one-day trial. I have been working with it for a week. I can understand some bugs, such as how the theme keeps resetting if you change the color selector type. But the docker icon for the color selector settings to disappear is another story.

In response to the comment "If I don't like it..." I will say that I have worked to where I am in my position by always being right over 95% of the time. I am not a nice man, and I only respect intelligence, not other peoples' smartalec responses.

About the dockers, if you change a setting on them, Windows->Dockers->Default does not reset a change made. It only resets the Workspace layout, not the internal settings of the dockers. In a workflow process, especially if you are outlining instruction, tools must be able to be reset to a default value. There is too much dependency on dockers for everything. Why are settings only available on something that once closed out takes multiple steps to reopen and readjust?

The palette bug is still there in the flatpack release. Also the Search and Tag function are inoperable. There should be a way to delete the pre-installed palettes as well.

The color selector is activated in two places at least, and that's not the big issue. I haven't delved deep enough to see if its settings are accessible elsewhere other than the icon that randomly disappears in the docker, but it needs to be. If you are facing bugs in the release, then the settings control should be placed in the menu bar under Tools, Settings, Edit, or something until the problem is resolved. They should be up there anyway. It's intuitive.

About the manual, I have been reading it. It's not documentation. It has no structure. Style manuals exist for a reason. The writing glosses over most subjects with a pretty picture, and where it does make an attempt at depth it gets as deep as a mosquito's foot. I have a policy that just because something is free, that doesn't mean it's good. If you have a volunteer writer who cannot write, pay for one that can.

Before I wrote my initial letter, and before I tried Krita, I saw work being done by people using it and was impressed. Since the frustrations of figuring out the interface and the problems, I went back to the same people and found that they had been working with Krita throughout its evolution. They are used to it after all this time. They had years or lead-time. If it takes a week, and I'm an experienced person and I can't get productive results, what is the problem?

I have been writing mostly about the color management issues because those are key to the work we do for the graphics side of our unit. If I had time to get past this and complete a task, then I'm sure I would find more items that I would share. But instead I spend more time with settings.

Intuitive software results in performing tasks where you do work or find data in a way or where you logically and reasonably expect them to do or be. If you want examples, look at the majority of word processing software, you'll see it. Look at the majority of internet browsers, you'll see it. Look at the multitude of CAD systems, it's there. Intuitive conventions are also in the naming conventions across the majority of programming languages, mobile phone application layouts, position of menus in programs, hardware, motor vehicles, and even the drink section on menus.

If you find something non-intuitive that you have to work with, it'll cost time, cause tasks to be late or improperly executed, and wreck havoc with everything that it has to work with.

I intend to keep an eye on Krita. AS I said, I think some nice work has been done on it. It can produce some nice graphics. But I think it is still lacking a lot of structure in its making.