is .xcf the default/popular format for GIMP users?

[staigermanus-2]

I recently got an email from someone who uses GIMP, ArtRage,
ArtWeaver, Twistedbrush, Project Dogwaffle and a few other tools for
painting. He sent me a few samples of his artwork, most in Jpeg or Png
format, but also a few in files ending in .xcf

Needless to say, WIndows didn't know how to show a thumbnail. And I
didn't see Irfanview do much with it. Turned out XnView was ok with it
and showed images. Then I read about the format in wikipedia and found
it was described as the native format of GIMP. Silly me for not knowing.

Then I read about other programs which also use XCF or at least have
the ablity to open and view it if there's just one layer. XnView was
mentioned, and then... aha, ImageMagick!

Heureka, our Project DOgwaffle uses ImageMagick for file import/export
when it's not the native Targa format. SO I tried and woohoo success -
Dogwaffle opened the xcf images just fine. Great!

So I'm curious, does everyone here use XCF as the one and only format
for WIP before saving to other formats if final integration is due in
other toolls or save to jpeg for web, email, etc?


Would be nice to get some insights from developers - is XCF (one of)
the format(s) of the future? A common layered metafore? should we look
seriously into support xcf natively and wth layers in DOgwaffle?

Does XCF also support image sequences, for example could an animation
sequnce from DOgwaffle be saved for import as layered image stack in
the GIMP, if that makes sense?

thanks for any tips.

-Philip
thebest3d.com - beyond digital painting

[Jernej Simončič-2]

On Wed, 13 Aug 2008 13:38:35 -0000, staigermanus wrote:

> So I'm curious, does everyone here use XCF as the one and only format
> for WIP before saving to other formats if final integration is due in
> other toolls or save to jpeg for web, email, etc?

In GIMP, XCF is the only format that can store everything related to the
image you're working on. Of course, as it's GIMP's native format, it's not
useful for interchange with other software (although I've noticed that
Corel's PhotoPaint supports loading of XCF images, though I don't know how
much of it's properties it supports). .xcf is to GIMP what .psd is to
Photoshop and eg. .pspimage is to Paint Shop Pro.

> Would be nice to get some insights from developers - is XCF (one of)
> the format(s) of the future? A common layered metafore? should we look
> seriously into support xcf natively and wth layers in DOgwaffle?

AFAIK, there are plans to replace XCF with a different format, similar in
design to ODF (ZIP file which includes XML with metadata and layers stored
as separate images).

> Does XCF also support image sequences, for example could an animation
> sequnce from DOgwaffle be saved for import as layered image stack in
> the GIMP, if that makes sense?

XCF supports layers, and eg. animated GIF images are imported as layered
images to GIMP.

--
< Jernej Simončič >< http://deepthought.ena.si/ >
< Contact address: >< jernej simoncic at isg si >

[Vodor]

I believe XCF will increase as more people become aware of what they can do with The GIMP. And the price is definitely right... 

 
Vodor....

vodor1@... ; thielensan2@...
vyzzhor@... ; thielensan@...
dennisthielen@...
My wife's Avon business: http://www.youravon.com/mthielen  



----- Original Message ----
From: staigermanus <dogwaffle@...>
To: gimpwin-users@...
Sent: Wednesday, August 13, 2008 6:38:35 AM
Subject: [gimpwin-users] is .xcf the default/popular format for GIMP users?


I recently got an email from someone who uses GIMP, ArtRage,
ArtWeaver, Twistedbrush, Project Dogwaffle and a few other tools for
painting. He sent me a few samples of his artwork, most in Jpeg or Png
format, but also a few in files ending in .xcf

Needless to say, WIndows didn't know how to show a thumbnail. And I
didn't see Irfanview do much with it. Turned out XnView was ok with it
and showed images. Then I read about the format in wikipedia and found
it was described as the native format of GIMP. Silly me for not knowing.

Then I read about other programs which also use XCF or at least have
the ablity to open and view it if there's just one layer. XnView was
mentioned, and then... aha, ImageMagick!

Heureka, our Project DOgwaffle uses ImageMagick for file import/export
when it's not the native Targa format. SO I tried and woohoo success -
Dogwaffle opened the xcf images just fine. Great!

So I'm curious, does everyone here use XCF as the one and only format
for WIP before saving to other formats if final integration is due in
other toolls or save to jpeg for web, email, etc?

Would be nice to get some insights from developers - is XCF (one of)
the format(s) of the future? A common layered metafore? should we look
seriously into support xcf natively and wth layers in DOgwaffle?

Does XCF also support image sequences, for example could an animation
sequnce from DOgwaffle be saved for import as layered image stack in
the GIMP, if that makes sense?

thanks for any tips.

-Philip
thebest3d.com - beyond digital painting

 


     

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Serr8d-2]

I use the .xcf format as a working, or 'project' file format, for
'internal use only'. And for storing layers I might need later. With
20 or more layers, an .xcf file can be massive; whereas the
industry-standard .jpg saved for the web is fractionally smaller. Of
course the other formats are all available from the .xcf 'save as' menu.

I accidentally e-mailed an .xcf file to a client; he was astounded by
the size (3.5 Mb) and his inability to open it. The .jpg version was
250Kb.

--- In gimpwin-users@..., Vodor <vodor1@...> wrote:
>
> I believe XCF will increase as more people become aware of what they
can do with The GIMP. And the price is definitely right... 

>
>  
> Vodor....
>
> vodor1@... ; thielensan2@...
> vyzzhor@... ; thielensan@...
> dennisthielen@...
> My wife's Avon business: http://www.youravon.com/mthielen  
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: staigermanus <dogwaffle@...>
> To: gimpwin-users@...
> Sent: Wednesday, August 13, 2008 6:38:35 AM
> Subject: [gimpwin-users] is .xcf the default/popular format for GIMP

users?

>
>
> I recently got an email from someone who uses GIMP, ArtRage,
> ArtWeaver, Twistedbrush, Project Dogwaffle and a few other tools for
> painting. He sent me a few samples of his artwork, most in Jpeg or Png
> format, but also a few in files ending in .xcf
>
> Needless to say, WIndows didn't know how to show a thumbnail. And I
> didn't see Irfanview do much with it. Turned out XnView was ok with it
> and showed images. Then I read about the format in wikipedia and found
> it was described as the native format of GIMP. Silly me for not

knowing.

>
> Then I read about other programs which also use XCF or at least have
> the ablity to open and view it if there's just one layer. XnView was
> mentioned, and then... aha, ImageMagick!
>
> Heureka, our Project DOgwaffle uses ImageMagick for file import/export
> when it's not the native Targa format. SO I tried and woohoo success -
> Dogwaffle opened the xcf images just fine. Great!
>
> So I'm curious, does everyone here use XCF as the one and only format
> for WIP before saving to other formats if final integration is due in
> other toolls or save to jpeg for web, email, etc?
>
> Would be nice to get some insights from developers - is XCF (one of)
> the format(s) of the future? A common layered metafore? should we look
> seriously into support xcf natively and wth layers in DOgwaffle?
>
> Does XCF also support image sequences, for example could an animation
> sequnce from DOgwaffle be saved for import as layered image stack in
> the GIMP, if that makes sense?
>
> thanks for any tips.
>
> -Philip
> thebest3d.com - beyond digital painting
>
>  
>
>
>      
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>

[Jernej Simončič-2]

On Wed, 13 Aug 2008 23:26:43 -0000, Serr8d wrote:

> I use the .xcf format as a working, or 'project' file format, for
> 'internal use only'. And for storing layers I might need later. With
> 20 or more layers, an .xcf file can be massive; whereas the
> industry-standard .jpg saved for the web is fractionally smaller. Of
> course the other formats are all available from the .xcf 'save as' menu.

When saving, type the file extension as .xcf.gz, this should make the file
somewhat smaller.

--
< Jernej Simončič >< http://deepthought.ena.si/ >
< Contact address: >< jernej simoncic at isg si >

[Kent Paul Dolan]

> From: "staigermanus" <dogwaffle@...>
> Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2008 13:38:35 -0000

[...]

> Would be nice to get some insights from developers -
> is XCF (one of) the format(s) of the future? A
> common layered metafore? should we look seriously
> into support xcf natively and wth layers in
> DOgwaffle?

[...]

Let me give you instead the perspective of a
one time standards developer (for computer graphics
programming languages GKS and CGM): very probably
XCF will NOT be a "standard of the future". One
common feature of standards as the standards
developing community understand them is that
"standards" tend to be all encompassing of features
important among existing work alike "things". In
this case, Photoshop is the 800 pound gorilla in the
digital image painting industry, and xcf cannot
support many of the features (like grouped layers,
if I understand correctly) that Photoshop users find
very valuable and pass about in "work in progress"
container files.

[My opinion is worth at least what you paid for it.]

xanthian.

[Tor Lillqvist]

> Let me give you instead the perspective of a
> one time standards developer (for computer graphics
> programming languages GKS and CGM): very probably
> XCF will NOT be a "standard of the future".

Who said it should be? GIMP developers have never intended XCF to be a
"standard", or to be useful for image interchange between
applications. It is GIMP's own format, used to save your work between
GIMP sessions, and permanently with all layers etc included. Nothing
more. In fact, one can see it as counter-productive that other
applications "learn" to  display XCF images, as that means people will
then complain if/when the XCF format changes. (GIMP itself will of
course be backward compatible and know to read also old XCF files, but
other apps might not then understand newer XCF images.)

--tml

[Kent Paul Dolan]

From: "Tor Lillqvist" <tml@...>
Date: Thu, 14 Aug 2008 12:52:49 +0300

>> Let me give you instead the perspective of a one
>> time standards developer (for computer graphics
>> programming languages GKS and CGM): very probably
>> XCF will NOT be a "standard of the future".

> Who said it should be?

Did you lose the thread of conversation? The OP
posed roughly "will xcf become a 'standard'" as a
question, and I was answering that question in that
light, not claiming that standardizing on xcf would
"be a good thing", but instead claiming that
standardizing on xcf would "be a thing unlikely to
occur" for the reasons I gave.

xanthian.