This thread is meant to discuss opinions on a new window type for Blender, through which the user could do image manipulation, such as in Gimp or Photoshop, but with Blender tools and visuals.
In here we can discuss tools, the look and feel, the functionalities, if it feels right for Blender to have a Gimp or Photoshop like extra window. Or if the UV Editor window could/should evolve to that…
Opinions are welcome.
Is anyone even planning this? If not, I doubt anyone will work on it any time soon. Unless you can code, ofcource.
So what you are saying, we should disconnect the image editor and the UV editor?
From one side of view - it would make it cleaner, and will give blender much greater power.
From another side of view - how would one draw while seeing the UV? That would require extra steps, which could be a workflow flaw.
Anyway, the tools should be a complete copy of Texture paint, so they would share the same workflow.
These two should basically work together.
And if this image paint gets new functions, texture paint should have them too.
I don’t know if someone in the Blender Foundation is planning on developing something like it or if it has even crossed their minds, but I guess it is an interesting topic. 
I do not dislike shifting between different tools and interfaces, I’m used to that and it’s not all that hard, but it could be better if it was all already inside Blender.
Disconnecting the UV Editor and Image Editor could be a go at it, that’s an idea. Yeah I guess there are things about Texture Paint that could jump in there.
I think it would be more useful if it were integrated into the VSE. Leave the UV editor and all that stuff alone.
Basically the VSE needs the equivalent of an after effects solid that you can draw an animated mask on.
Re-inventing the wheel by embedding a paint tool seems like a waste of time. Whats the point, just pop into photoshop where I have all my familiar tools.
I don’t even use the tools that are already there. When I do have to weight paint, I feel like the tools are clumsy as they are.
Well, maybe that is why he is asking if they could be improved?
Not to mention Photoshop is payed. I myself just love Photoshop, but I’m trying to let it go for Gimp. But if Blender had specific window for that, I wouldn’t need Gimp.
It’s always nice to have new functionality, but with plenty of 2D graphics software out there (free and commercial), it seems like developer time and effort should not be wasted on this and used for more pressing matters involving 3D content creation (what the software is designed to do). You can already edit your images with external software and even project-paint with them.
probably a short review of what graphics processing capabilities we already have in existing windows before inventing more. I count 3D painting, UV Image painting, all nodes processing, and VSE strip processing.
was there a project to implement some of then Paint tools into blender
to give more choice for instance of paint brush ect ?
i would like to see a better GUI to show mapping in blender
so many peoples are asking how to to do simple mapping
problems of scaling and location of texture on objects!
it should somehow be integrated in UV editor to allow to see texture and faces layouts for objects
that would simplify life for a lot of peoples to do mapping texturing
happy 2.5
Papa Smurf,made mention of his knowledge base, Nodes, there is ALOT, ALOT, ALOT of color and image manipulation you can do with them. Any paint program or photoshop and/or Gimp is not that difficult to set up post ops with and the paint tools in Blender are rapidly improving as of late.
grease pencil, vertex paint new features, texture projection painting, RT bump maps - all to use for surface/scene 3D painting this not enough?
Fully agree on that.
I agree with that the UV Editor should be just that,
an UV editor and that’s all, keep it simple you know.
But I’d much rather see a separate Image editor rather than the VSE be bloated instead.
Tools that can be very specifically useful in the VSE may well be accessible from there too, though. 
That doesn’t necessarily mean the image editor needs to be moved to the VSE though.
I really don’t see the point in putting energy in this. I mean if someone came along with a tremendous amount of free time and also just happened to only be great at coding graphics, and also loved Blender and wanted to see it, then OK, let him have at it.
But we already have gimp, even with all of the work into that one stand alone app, it is full of bugs and just works. It is not great. It is no photoshop, but it works. Then we have inkscape to cover that end. So with all of the work put in to that just to get only that far it should tell you how much work it would be to bring that into Blender. And for what? Just a little more ease. I do understand the concept and the power of painting in 3D. That is great. I would love to see Blender have more functionality there. But I for one would like to see more functionality in other areas first that have been left behind. Like modeling.
I take it that the UV Editor is for mapping models and an Image Editor could be like Gimp but with Blender look and feel, with tools such as selections, lasso, crop, paint and clone brushes, pen, text… some of these already work in Blender but have a 3D look alike and operability in them.
Grease Pencil, Vertex Paint and Texture Paint are all functionalities apart from an Image Editor, from a Gimp like window. You can’t really create and edit a new image in Blender with all the settings and tools Gimp has to offer. Yet. I agree that Grease Pencil, Vertex Paint and Texture Paint do have settings and functionalities that do resemble or can be partially used for an Image Editor. That’s why it needs to be studied carefully. Felix_Kütt is right, keeping it simple is right, but hard.
It is something to consider for the future, and there are definitely more important stuff going on
What is the interest to improve Image Editor for Texture Paint Mode when you can directly use Gimp or PS to create Texture from 3Dview ?
http://durian.blender.org/videos/image-re-projection/
Did you see this ?
http://vimeo.com/13989153
But I can see one to improve it for compositing.
Maybe the same kind of link could be done with cinepaint, Ramen, Cinelerra or Synfig for compositing with VSE or nodes.
It will be cool to extend Image Editor to show Node Editor Ouput and all previous nodes like 2D layers (an automatic Viewer Node for nodes with preview).
To have an Image Node Input or an Image VSE Strip created each time you press an <<Add 2D layer button>> in Image Editor.
Devs are probably thinking about this kind of stuff since Durian’s Beginning.
It’s not about improving Image Editor for Texture Paint, it’s about having a Gimp like solution inside Blender, that could go into a new window named Image Editor. Take it this way: 3D contains 2D right, not otherwise, so it does not make sense for Gimp to have 3D support, but it does make sense for Blender to have full 2D support.
Yep, now you just have to find someone to code it…
If only I were a coder and had nothing else to do but that
If you really want something done, do it yourself.
Anyway, i’d agree to this idea as long as the tools stay the same through Texture paint, Vertex paint and 2D paint, and it doesn’t damage the workflow.
Well, most of the drawing code is there, just need to add more…