Can anyone recommend a simple and noob/nonprofessional-friendly cross-platform app for simple graphic design and photography uses?
I normally recommend GIMP for this but for some people who I help with their projects it’s overkill and not worth learning for infrequent use.
What can I recommend/teach such people to use, which is more stripped back?
Common use cases are putting together basic flyers & ads, restaurant menus, cropping photos etc.
Krita might be able to suit your needs. It’s on par with GIMP, but a lot of people find the interface nicer, and if you are doing any drawing the tablet support is by all reports much nicer.
From what I’ve experienced of Krita it is absolutely lovely for drawing and I know a lot of people really enjoy using it for general graphic design too. I think it might still be a bit too complex for the sort of people and uses I have in mind though. I think what they need is: Pick a page size, make a box in a very basic and visually obvious way, type in the box. Make another box in a very visually obvious way, put a picture in the box which automatically scales. Move boxes around.
Of course this is what GIMP and Krita do, but because they incorporate so much control and extra functionality there are also a lot of things that can ‘go wrong’ for a novice without them knowing why. I’m actually wondering whether Libreoffice Draw or even Writer might be the best option! I’m not aware that they have any image manipulation tools though…