I find asking these kinds of questions to people using professional software like that is akin to asking a professional c++ programmer "why not lisp?".
Imagine you spend a career training on something and random people just tell you to do something else.
Err ... yeah - now you make it sound like I'm incapable of learning/trying new software.
Yes I've tried those alternative solutions and they don't have the same sort of polish and workflow as everything else. Find me ONE professional graphics designer who works 100% in GIMP and Inkscape - they just don't have the same feature set. If you do find people using GIMP and Inkscape in the professional world they almost always use them in conjunction with Adobe tools.
I have a specific list of needed features that do not have parity. "Doing something else" isn't an option when you don't have the tools to do your job/can't deliver for the customer because the software can't support what the printer needs...
In all reality I'm constantly adding new capability to my gfx workflow via software/hardware. I've switched completely over to Procreate on an iPad to do illustration. "Doing something else" is something I'm willing to do if it has value.
GIMP and Inkscape provide zero value to me - they're 100% neutered solutions/"toys" in the professional world. Open source folks (as much as I am one myself) want to think that there's a 1:1 tool for every piece of pro-level software out there and it's simply not the case =|
> Find me ONE professional graphics designer who works 100% in GIMP and Inkscape
My partner does, as do a number of studios and collectives I know in Rotterdam, Brussels, Paris and Porto. They use of course way more tools than Gimp and Inkscape, but work on Linux and exclusively with Free and Open Source software.
For them I feel it’s both about the philosophy, the challenge, and discovering new ways of working. Trying to reproduce an Adobe way of working will always feel lacking. Yet working in a free software ecosystem will make you also discover new tools (Latex, Graphviz etc.) and new ways of working (a lot of people are experimenting with doing print layout with HTML for example).
Of course sometimes it is painful--preparing for print production and especially spot colours without Adobe Acrobat is difficult and requires a a collaborative process with your printer. But it also comes with the thrill of trying a different creative model and the exchange with a small but thriving community of people who are excited about these things.
EDIT: This is not to say that it would be a viable approach for everyone. It’s just to say that such designers do exist, and to try to make their motivations more clear!
Sure - somewhere they exist. But I have yet to run into one in my career. Real question: are they doing paid production work?
I just simply cannot fathom passing off the cost of using buggy/incomplete tooling to my customer so I'm curious if it's people just producing for the open source community using open source tools?
Not trying to rip on your statement, but that's the only reason I can fathom using these tools in any professional context.
The problem is that everyone has their favorite tools, and a barrage of "what about <X>" when you are in no mood to invest the significant time and effort on a standing start for <X> when you've got your existing toolset warmed up already.
> when you are in no mood to invest the significant time and effort on a standing start for <X> when you've got your existing toolset warmed up already
Sure, and on the contrary I've added Procreate on an iPad as my new illustration workflow because it absolutely kills vs. my old Photoshop/Wacom technique.
This isn't a "I'm not willing to try new tools/invest time into learning because I'm comfortable" thing... it's a GIMP/Inkscape are not capable thing.
Imagine you spend a career training on something and random people just tell you to do something else.