FrankTheHealerAnon has Photoshop class
I stopped using GIMP and started using www.photopea.com. You get most Photoshop features for free in a familiar interface and without having to install a large slow application.
SpinDriftPhotopea is amazing. Its 90% a clone of PS and is sooo much better than gimp.
I used it today to remove a white background on some of our icons to get a transparent png.
It was as easy as going i to the layer options, blend options, and drag the slider. It even has the option that you can hold alt and split the slider in 2 to get transparency blend as a gradient.
This would be a nightmare in gimp, and photopea does it non destructively. And since its a web app you dont even have to install anything. Amazing.
Nightmare is a bit hyperbolic I’d say. From memory, use the magic wand tool, select the white area. Selection menu, expand by 4 or 6 pixels. Colors menu, color to alpha, pick white. Done.
Sure, this can sort of gets the job done with somewhat bad results.
The icons in my case were complex, so a single click with magic wand wound not select all of the parts .
Expand by 4 blurs the icons at the edges. This us actually pretty bad, and would result in lost detail and a washed out look.
The operation in gimp is destructive, so tweaking in multiple steps is not really possible, and creates a bad workflow.
No, Gimp is terrible and not up to the task at all.
I use GIMP to make the image background transparent all the time. It does great. Sounds like a skill issue