The GIMP - can it open 16bit TIFFs yet?

[xpatUSA]

I had the GIMP on trial quite a while ago and found that it couldn't open 16bit TIFFs from my camera's raw converter (Sigma Photo Pro). I also read at the time that a new version of the GIMP was in the works that could.

Anybody here know if that happened and, if so, what version?

Thanks,

Ted

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

Anybody here know if that happened and, if so, what version?

Hi Ted,

http://www.gimp.org/docs/userfaq.html#c16bit

Progress is slow, but then more people could contribute resources if they want faster development. It's a massive endeavor for a few developers in their spare time without compensation.

Cheers,
Bart

[xpatUSA]

Hi Ted,

http://www.gimp.org/docs/userfaq.html#c16bit

Progress is slow, but then more people could contribute resources if they want faster development. It's a massive endeavor for a few developers in their spare time without compensation.

Cheers,
Bart

Thanks for the link, Bart.

[StephaneB]

Hi Ted,

http://www.gimp.org/docs/userfaq.html#c16bit

Progress is slow, but then more people could contribute resources if they want faster development. It's a massive endeavor for a few developers in their spare time without compensation.

Cheers,
Bart

It is actually glacial. There were discussion about 16 bits support and adjustment layers coming real soon in 2000...

[ablankertz]

There is the development version 2.9 floating around out there. You can get a download from partha.com.

[xpatUSA]

There is the development version 2.9 floating around out there. You can get a download from partha.com.

Thanks for the tip. Downloading as we speak

First try today, based on my current workflow (Sigma SPP > 16bit ProPhoto TIFF > RawTherapee).

GIMP 2.9.1 opened the 16bit TIFF but thought it was in Apple RGB color space, not ProPhoto. Checked the original with Harvey's ExifTool and it had an embedded ProPhoto profile and no mention of Apple RGB in any of the meta-tags.

Not really looking for help with that, just posting here for information.

I so hate being old. When you're old, you try out something new and for the first time ever in SPP set the stupid color space to stupid Apple RGB, which the GIMP duly reports to me and I don't believe it and I go off half-cocked and whine here. Duh. Please ignore the struck-out comment above. 

[andy.k]

I've been using development GIMP for almost two years for professional work, and very pleased to inform you all that since August it has made a quantum leap in performance on multi-core systems with some tools handling multi-threading extremely well, and mipmaps for image previews. It handles all data-types, internally processes all pixel values as 32-bit floats and generally kicks ass (is a little slow converting color, but that's LCMS2 for you--which iirc CaptureOne uses for it's CMS).
the drawbacks are that it's more resource intensive, memory-wise and on disk with xcf's, as it doesn't implement Adjustment Layers like Photoshop (which are fairly light-weight), meaning each layer is effectively another full-resolution raster (which for >40Mpx @ 32-bit, multiple layers get you seriously big files).

been using Ubuntu 14.04 -> 15.10, Linux is the only way to fly for running open source software like this.

[xpatUSA]

I've been using development GIMP for almost two years for professional work, and very pleased to inform you all that since August it has made a quantum leap in performance on multi-core systems with some tools handling multi-threading extremely well, and mipmaps for image previews. It handles all data-types, internally processes all pixel values as 32-bit floats and generally kicks ass (is a little slow converting color, but that's LCMS2 for you--which iirc CaptureOne uses for it's CMS).
the drawbacks are that it's more resource intensive, memory-wise and on disk with xcf's, as it doesn't implement Adjustment Layers like Photoshop (which are fairly light-weight), meaning each layer is effectively another full-resolution raster (which for >40Mpx @ 32-bit, multiple layers get you seriously big files).

Thanks for the info, Andy. Er - what's a "mipmap"?

. . been using Ubuntu 14.04 -> 15.10, Linux is the only way to fly for running open source software like this.

I suppose but, as a rank amateur and getting less and less proficient at running anything "exotic" on my humble Windows machine, I'll be sticking with Windows 7 having only recently stopped using XP.

best rgds,

[AlterEgo]

why bother and waste the time with gimp when alternatives to PS like photoline or even still corel are available ? a matter of some principle ?

[StephaneB]

why bother and waste the time with gimp when alternatives to PS like photoline or even still corel are available ? a matter of some principle ?

I have seen several cases where using open source software was more ideology than anything else.

[AlterEgo]

I have seen several cases where using open source software was more ideology than anything else.

somebody who runs commercial closed source Windows and then wants to use GIMP is an odd case, no ?

[andy.k]

why bother and waste the time with gimp when alternatives to PS like photoline or even still corel are available ? a matter of some principle ?

"learning" gimp is no harder than learning photoshop, no idea for photoline or corel paint/studio/whatever; in the end it's just digital photographs and the concepts applied in editing are the same. not really sure how it's a waste of time, as i outlined above there are some wonderful performance benefits, particularly for me as most of my work starts with color negative scans.

mipmaps:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mipmap

and regarding using open source software on Windows or whatever you like, it's not so strange at all, to me. why wouldn't anyone want a quality product, open source or not, but particularly one that didn't cost them anything?

[xpatUSA]

somebody who runs commercial closed source Windows and then wants to use GIMP is an odd case, no ?

No.

[xpatUSA]

mipmaps:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mipmap

Thanks again.

and regarding using open source software on Windows or whatever you like, it's not so strange at all, to me. why wouldn't anyone want a quality product, open source or not, but particularly one that didn't cost them anything?

Quite so. My main tool at present is RawTherapee. My interest in the GIMP is simply that my son uses it - for much more artistic purposes than my simple global editing.

[AlterEgo]

No.

a little bit pregnant case then 

[AlterEgo]

Quite so.

absolutely no - the problem is that GIMP is not a quality product... photoline or corel painshoppro are, because your time  wasted on that piece of ... (GIMP that is) is worth more than $60-70 they cost w/o any promos... GIMP now is like rawtherapee was when Gabor (the original developer) left the active work and new developers (as in right now) did not make it decent yet.

[xpatUSA]

absolutely no - the problem is that GIMP is not a quality product... photoline or corel painshoppro are, because your time  wasted on that piece of ... (GIMP that is) is worth more than $60-70 they cost w/o any promos... GIMP now is like rawtherapee was when Gabor (the original developer) left the active work and new developers (as in right now) did not make it decent yet.

It is most unfortunate that I appear to have attracted your unwelcome attention.

I am completely disinterested in both your opinions and the sad attempt at humor exhibited in your previous post.

Apart from your inevitable comeback to this one, please do not respond to my posts in future.

Thank you.

[andy.k]

xpat,

don't know if you've come across Partha's blog but he's been a long-time builder of gimp binaries for windows.

http://partha.com/

try the build he's posted  on 20 Sept '15 (which includes G'MIC, which is a pretty big module which has its own library of processing functions; like a Topaz or Alienskin if you will).
let us know what you think.

edit: to get the mipmap and multi-threading support, in a unix context at least, there are some so-called environment variables that need to be set (which are just options that gimp understands you want to enable during start-up, which cannot be enabled after start-up and so aren't available in a menu). I'm not easily able to find how to do that in windows in gimp related materials, but this is a page that gives the general idea (setting these GEGL options in the global environment probably won't hurt anything)

http://www.faqforge.com/windows/setting-the-path-environmental-variable-on-windows-7/
[in this tutorial, it demonstrates how to modify the $PATH variable so you can use command-line programs that are newly installed to their own directories, which is manually telling windows where to look for this new application in its new folder.]

and the variables that need to be enabled for the turn-it-to-eleven options should be these appended onto the long string of default windows environment variables:
GEGL_THREADS=<number of threads> (it would be 8 if you have a Core i7 quad-core, for instance)
GEGL_MIPMAP_RENDERING=true
[for the purposes of enabling these environment variables, using "New..." in the "Control Panel > System and Security > System > System Preferences > Advanced [tab] > Environment Variables" window, and entering the key name and it's value for each. i have no idea if using all-caps or not makes any difference for windows.]

[xpatUSA]

xpat,

don't know if you've come across Partha's blog but he's been a long-time builder of gimp binaries for windows.

http://partha.com/

Yes, thanks Andy, @ablankert gave me that same link in post #4 above and I responded in #5.

try the build he's posted  on 20 Sept '15 (which includes G'MIC, which is a pretty big module which has its own library of processing functions; like a Topaz or Alienskin if you will).
let us know what you think.

Already downloaded but not tried out seriously yet.

edit: to get the mipmap and multi-threading support, in a unix context at least, there are some so-called environment variables that need to be set (which are just options that gimp understands you want to enable during start-up, which cannot be enabled after start-up and so aren't available in a menu). I'm not easily able to find how to do that in windows in gimp related materials, but this is a page that gives the general idea (setting these GEGL options in the global environment probably won't hurt anything)

http://www.faqforge.com/windows/setting-the-path-environmental-variable-on-windows-7/
[in this tutorial, it demonstrates how to modify the $PATH variable so you can use command-line programs that are newly installed to their own directories, which is manually telling windows where to look for this new application in its new folder.]

and the variables that need to be enabled for the turn-it-to-eleven options should be these appended onto the long string of default windows environment variables:
GEGL_THREADS=<number of threads> (it would be 8 if you have a Core i7 quad-core, for instance)
GEGL_MIPMAP_RENDERING=true
[for the purposes of enabling these environment variables, using "New..." in the "Control Panel > System and Security > System > System Preferences > Advanced [tab] > Environment Variables" window, and entering the key name and it's value for each. i have no idea if using all-caps or not makes any difference for windows.]

Thanks for all that, mostly above my head these days. Last serious programming I ever was back in the eighties (Mac, Forth, 68000 assembler) and then only as an amateur.

Just to give an idea of how current I am: what's Topaz and what's Alienskin?

best,

Ted

[andy.k]

what's Topaz and what's Alienskin?

there are many applet extensions for Photoshop which integrate to provide the user with alternative (usually higher quality at the cost of slower performance) image operations; those were two brand names that I could think of.

spurred by your interest, I installed a fresh Windows virtual machine to try out Partha's latest build and see about adding those environment variables. I see that he's built in a theme which looks very PS-CC inspired! Also, most every worthwhile community filter plug-in or process is also included default. For the purposes of trying it out, everything seems to work really great, apart from things that are still "not ready" like the cage transform tool (which can very easily be pushed to breaking). I added the environment variables very quickly and easily but couldn't determine if they were working, being that I was running this was inside a virtual machine and the performance reporting was a bit funny, and that I didn't bring any really big files into it because I built it with some reasonable constraints on its resources.

a final suggestion I would make for getting started is to look over a few videos on YouTube by a guy called Patrick David ( he's made a few which are good quality compared to 99% of software tutorial videos on youtube).

edit: one thing that i've used extensively in ubuntu is the desktop's application menu search, where rather than trying to remember the location of the more obscure routines in the menus I can just search and type a half-remembered fragment of its name or functionality. this same operation is integrated into this windows build of gimp, accessed by pressing "/" (that's "?" without the shift key), a crucially important feature