GIMP Version: 2.8.14
Operating System: Linux
GIMP Experience: Intermediate Level

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That's basically it. I love GIMP but no nothing about Krita except that it looks interesting and seems more free-form than GIMP.

You can open XCF files in Krita using the usual open function and you can then export them or save them but I think Krita wants you to save under a different name.

So you can import an xcf and then you'd be exporting it as a png or jpg or whatever? Are there any special things you can do in Krita that you can't do in GIMP?

Maybe checkout the forum "Other Graphic Applications"
There may even be an answer to your question there.

Thanks Sallyanne. I went there. I really think Krita's mostly for painters. And that's not me. Can't draw at all. Thank goodness with GIMP I pretty much don't have to.

Your Welcome iggy

You can export XCFs as well. Krita can be used for other forms of art and design, not just painting and you can easily combine forms using combinations of paint layers, vector layers and filter layers but I think it's bias is towards painting. Filter layers are good because they allow you to visually adjust the image without affecting the original layers (like Photoshop's adjustment layers) There is also a great transform tool that enables resizing, rotating, skewing and warping all in one tool. The warping includes a grid warp, a cage warp (like Gimps but better) and a brush warp (like Gimps Iwarp but you do it directly on the canvas, not on a filter preview. There are other goodies to explore too. It has different strengths and weaknesses to Gimp and I will use both programs.

Thanks Erisian. That's very helpful. I have Krita on one of my computers (I assumed it came with the default packages) but not on this one, which is my main work one so I'm going to ask about the best way of getting it. I do wonder though, in an earlier post you said Krita asked you to call the xcfs something else. In this post you said you can export them as xcfs. Am I mis-reading what you mean?

Sorry I didn't make myself clear. When you press CTRL+s to save an XCF, it prompts you to choose a new filename so if you opened an xcf called Pudding.xcf you would have to save it as something else.xcf. It won't just save over the original.

Gotcha. Thank you.

To my knowledge, only since version 2.9.7 *** .xcf is handled properly.

i've never actually tried this before, i probably will now though

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Well, there is no need for the open source programs to support each other's native formats since after the developers of KDE and Krita proposed OpenRaster format to be inter-exchangeable file format for GIMP, Krita, MyPaint, Scribus, Inkscape etc. ORA supports all you need - multiple layers, masks, paths, adjustment layers and whatnot.

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A point of interest that I have just discovered is that you can use gimp brushes in Krita. I have just moved all my own brushes ready to use and I noticed that there are some GPS brushes included by default.