The Book of GIMP

Book description

The Book of GIMP is a comprehensive guide to GIMP 2.8 with answers to (nearly) all of your questions about GIMP.

Table of contents

  1. The Book of GIMP: A Complete Guide to Nearly Everything
  2. Introduction
    1. This Book
    2. The Authors
    3. Production Notes
    4. Conventions
    5. Acknowledgments
  3. I. Learning GIMP
    1. 1. Getting Started
      1. 1.1 GIMP Basics
        1. The Screen Layout
        2. Dockable Dialogs
        3. The Toolbox
        4. The Single-Window Interface
      2. 1.2 Image Handling Basics
        1. Opening an Image
        2. Maximizing an Image
        3. Scanning
          1. Previewing the Picture
          2. Selecting and Scanning
        4. Image Window Menus
        5. Zooming
        6. Saving an Image
      3. 1.3 Working with Images
        1. Resizing an Image
        2. Cropping an Image
        3. Adding a Frame with Filters
        4. Using Layers
        5. Drawing in GIMP
        6. Printing with GIMP
      4. 1.4 Using a Tablet
        1. Installing a Tablet
        2. The Tablet Mouse and Stylus
        3. Working with a Tablet in GIMP
      5. 1.5 Exercises
    2. 2. Photograph Retouching
      1. 2.1 Tutorial: Enhancing Badly Taken Photographs
        1. Cropping, Straightening, and Restoring Perspective
        2. Correcting Exposure
        3. Correcting the Color Balance
        4. Removing an Object
        5. Improving Sharpness
        6. Removing Red Eye
      2. 2.2 Global Transformations
        1. Resizing an Image
        2. Shearing an Image
        3. Changing Brightness, Contrast, and Levels
        4. Adjusting Colors
      3. 2.3 Local Transformations
        1. Making a Selection
          1. The Selection Tools Options
          2. Simple Selection Tools
          3. The Scissors Select Tool
          4. The Foreground Select Tool
        2. Modifying Sharpness
        3. Modifying Brightness
        4. Using the Clone Tool
        5. Perspective Cloning
        6. More Correction Methods for Red Eye
          1. First Method: Selecting the Red Channel
          2. Second Method: Selecting the Red Spots
        7. Changing the Sky of a Landscape
      4. 2.4 Retouching a Scanned Photograph
        1. Correcting Colors
        2. Correcting Scratches and Spots
        3. Restoring Very Old Photographs
      5. 2.5 Advanced Techniques
        1. Making a Photograph Look Older
        2. Improving a Portrait
        3. Using Multiple Captures of the Same Scene
      6. 2.6 Exercises
    3. 3. Drawing and Illustration
      1. 3.1 Tutorial: Colorizing a Drawing
        1. The Black and White Drawing
        2. Using Layers to Keep Outlines Visible
        3. Defining Objects and Base Colors
        4. Coloring the Mushrooms
        5. Shading
        6. Finishing Touches
      2. 3.2 Painting and Drawing
        1. Brushes
        2. The Pencil Tool
          1. Drawing an Icon
          2. Pixel Art
        3. The Paintbrush Tool
        4. The Airbrush Tool
        5. The Ink Tool
      3. 3.3 Filling an Area
        1. The Bucket Fill Tool
        2. Gradients
        3. Patterns
      4. 3.4 Dodging, Burning, and Smudging
        1. The Dodge/Burn Tool
        2. The Smudge Tool
      5. 3.5 The Digital Painting Process
        1. Composition
        2. Sky and Clouds
        3. Mountains
        4. Hills
        5. Grassland
        6. Trees
        7. River
      6. 3.6 Drawing Shapes
        1. Drawing a Straight Line
        2. Drawing Ellipses and Rectangles
        3. Drawing a Complex Shape
      7. 3.7 Exercises
    4. 4. Logos and Textures
      1. 4.1 Tutorial: Making a Luggage Tag
      2. 4.2 Textures
        1. Tiling
          1. The Make Seamless Filter
          2. Other Filters for Generating a Tilable Image
        2. Creating Textures
          1. Building the Background
          2. Transforming the Background
          3. Other Texture Tools
        3. Using the Blend Tool
          1. Some Simple Blending Effects
          2. The Difference Blending Mode
          3. Using Edge Detection
          4. A Piece of Silk
          5. Hanging Drapes
        4. Using the Noise Filters
          1. First Method: The Brushed Metal Effect
          2. Second Method: A Canvas Texture
          3. Third Method: A Wood Texture
        5. Using the Embossing Filters
          1. First Example: A Realistic Canvas Texture
          2. Second Example: A Water-like Texture
          3. Third Example: The Scott Effect
          4. Fourth Example: A Stone Texture
        6. More Ways to Create Textures
          1. Using a Gradient Brush
          2. Using a 1-Pixel-Wide Layer
          3. Constructing by Hand
      3. 4.3 Logos
        1. The Text Tool
        2. Adding Relief
        3. Proper Shade vs. Cast Shadow
          1. Generating a Cast Shadow
          2. Adding Relief and Proper Shade
        4. Applying a Texture
          1. A Burning Logo
          2. A Radioactive Logo
          3. A Golden Logo
          4. A Textured Logo
      4. 4.4 Exercises
    5. 5. Composite Photography
      1. 5.1 Tutorial: Building a Composite Portrait
        1. Taking Features from Different Portraits
        2. Smoothing Transitions
      2. 5.2 Selections, Overlaying, and Blending Modes
        1. Masks and Selections
        2. Overlaying Images
        3. Using Blending Modes
      3. 5.3 Building a Panorama
        1. Taking the Pictures
        2. Superimposing the Pictures
        3. Touching Up the Panorama
        4. The Pandora Plug-in
      4. 5.4 Image Overlaying
        1. Digital Collage
        2. Self-Compositing
        3. A Composite Photography Project
      5. 5.5 Exercises
    6. 6. Animation
      1. 6.1 Tutorial: Animated Text
        1. Method One: Frame by Frame
        2. Method Two: Filtering All Layers
        3. Method Three: Moving Along a Path
      2. 6.2 Building an Animated GIF by Hand
        1. Drawing a Rainbow Daisy
        2. Zooming Toward the Viewer
        3. Adding Rain to a Landscape
        4. Adding Snow to a Landscape
      3. 6.3 Using Animation Tools
        1. Interactive Deformation
        2. Animating a Still Image
        3. Morphing
      4. 6.4 Using GAP
        1. The Move Path Tool
        2. Binocular Animation
        3. Improving the Binocular Animation
      5. 6.5 Exercises
    7. 7. Image Preprocessing
      1. 7.1 Tutorial: Extracting Information from a Picture
        1. Dynamics Extension
        2. Histogram Modification
        3. Noise Reduction
        4. Edge Detection
      2. 7.2 The Principles of Preprocessing
        1. Subjective Aspects of Preprocessing
        2. Histograms and Decomposition into Channels
        3. Extracting Information through Dynamics Extension
      3. 7.3 Filtering
        1. The Principles of Filtering
        2. Characteristic Matrices
        3. Comparing the Built-in Filters
      4. 7.4 Edge Detection
        1. The Principles of Edge Detection
        2. Edge Detection Methods
      5. 7.5 Exercises
    8. 8. Designing a Website
      1. 8.1 Tutorial: Laying Out a Website
        1. Planning
        2. Layout
        3. Adding Color
        4. Choosing a Color Palette
      2. 8.2 Fixed- and Variable-Width Designs
      3. 8.3 Web Design Tools
        1. Image Map
          1. Image Map Tools
          2. Useful Image Map Dialogs
        2. Semi-Flatten
        3. Slice
      4. 8.4 Optimizing Images for the Web
        1. JPEG
        2. GIF
        3. PNG
        4. Transparency
      5. 8.5 Exercises
  4. II. Reference
    1. 9. The GIMP Interface
      1. 9.1 The Main Windows
        1. Multi-Window Mode
        2. Single-Window Mode
        3. Docking Windows and Dockable Dialogs
        4. The Image Window
      2. 9.2 Fundamental GIMP Commands
        1. Closing Windows and Quitting GIMP
        2. Working with Multiple Images
        3. Common Tab Menu Options
      3. 9.3 Working with the GIMP Interface
        1. Menus
        2. Keyboard Shortcuts
        3. Keyboard Tips
        4. Clicking and Dragging
      4. 9.4 Creating, Loading, Saving, and Exporting Files
        1. Creating a New Image
        2. Loading a Web Page as an Image
        3. Loading an Image from a File
        4. Saving an Image
        5. Exporting an Image
      5. 9.5 Undoing
      6. 9.6 The GIMP Help System
    2. 10. Display
      1. 10.1 Rulers and Units
      2. 10.2 Guides
      3. 10.3 Grids
      4. 10.4 Zoom
      5. 10.5 Using Multiple Views
    3. 11. Layers
      1. 11.1 The Layers Dialog
        1. Components of the Layers Dialog
        2. A Layer Entry in the Layers Dialog
        3. Keyboard Shortcuts in the Layers Dialog
        4. Uses of the Layers Dialog
      2. 11.2 The Layers Menu
      3. 11.3 Layer Groups
      4. 11.4 The Image: Layer Menu
        1. The Stack Menu
        2. The Mask, Transparency, and Transform Menus
        3. The Final Five Entries
    4. 12. Color
      1. 12.1 Concepts
        1. Color Models
        2. Stored Representations
        3. Indexed Mode
      2. 12.2 Blending Modes
        1. Modes That Leave Pixels Intact
        2. Lightening Modes
        3. Darkening Modes
        4. Luminosity Modes
        5. Color Distortion Modes
        6. HSV Modes
      3. 12.3 Color Management
        1. Color-Managed Workflow
        2. Using Color Management
      4. 12.4 The Major Color Tools
        1. The Color Chooser
        2. Levels
        3. Curves
      5. 12.5 Additional Color Tools
        1. Color Balance
        2. Hue-Saturation
        3. Colorize
        4. Brightness-Contrast
        5. Threshold
        6. Posterize
        7. Desaturate
        8. Inversion
      6. 12.6 The Color Submenus
        1. The Auto Submenu
          1. Equalize
          2. White Balance
          3. Color Enhance
          4. Normalize
          5. Stretch Contrast
          6. Stretch HSV
        2. The Components Submenu
          1. Channel Mixer
          2. Decompose
          3. Recompose
          4. Compose
        3. The Map Submenu
          1. Rearrange Colormap
          2. Set Colormap
          3. Alien Map
          4. Color Exchange
          5. Gradient Map
          6. Palette Map
          7. Rotate Colors
          8. Sample Colorize
        4. The Info Submenu
          1. Histogram
          2. Border Average
          3. Colorcube Analysis
          4. Smooth Palette
        5. The Remaining Color Tools
          1. Color to Alpha
          2. Colorify
          3. Filter Pack
          4. Hot
          5. Maximum RGB
          6. Retinex
    5. 13. Selections
      1. 13.1 What Is a Selection?
        1. A Selection as an Outline
        2. A Selection as a Grayscale Image
      2. 13.2 The Seven Selection Tools
        1. Common Options
        2. The Rectangle Select Tool
        3. The Ellipse Select Tool
        4. The Free Select Tool
        5. The Fuzzy Select Tool
        6. The Select by Color Tool
        7. The Scissors Select Tool
        8. The Foreground Select Tool
      3. 13.3 The Paths Tool
        1. Building a Path
        2. Modifying a Path
        3. Using a Path
        4. The Paths Dialog
      4. 13.4 Using Selections
        1. The Select Menu
        2. The Edit Menu
        3. Modifying the Selection Border
    6. 14. Masks
      1. 14.1 Selection Masks
        1. The Channels Dialog
        2. Creating a Selection Mask
        3. The Quick Mask Tool
      2. 14.2 Layer Masks
        1. Building a Layer Mask
        2. Manipulating a Layer Mask
        3. Using a Layer Mask
      3. 14.3 Using Masks and Channels
        1. Building a Natural Mask
        2. Transparency and the Alpha Channel
        3. Converting Masks, Selections, and Channels
    7. 15. Drawing Tools
      1. 15.1 Digital Art
      2. 15.2 An Overview of the Drawing Tools
      3. 15.3 Shared Features
        1. Drawing Tool Options
        2. Paint Dynamics
        3. Using Dockable Dialogs with Drawing Tools
          1. The Dialog Menu
          2. Using Tags
        4. Six Useful Dockable Dialogs
          1. The Brushes Dialog
          2. The Patterns Dialog
          3. The Gradients Dialog
          4. The Palettes Dialog
          5. The Device Status Dialog
          6. The Tool Presets Dialog
      4. 15.4 The Fill Tools
        1. The Bucket Fill Tool
        2. The Blend Tool
      5. 15.5 The Painting Tools
        1. The Pencil Tool
        2. The Paintbrush Tool
        3. The Eraser Tool
        4. The Airbrush Tool
        5. The Ink Tool
      6. 15.6 The Cloning Tools
        1. The Clone Tool
        2. The Heal Tool
        3. The Perspective Clone Tool
      7. 15.7 The Modifying Tools
        1. The Convolve Tool
        2. The Smudge Tool
        3. The Dodge/Burn Tool
      8. 15.8 The Text Tool
        1. The Text Tool Options
        2. Choosing a Font
        3. Using the Text Tool
        4. Editing Your Text
      9. 15.9 The Color Picker Tool and the Measure Tool
        1. The Color Picker Tool
        2. The Measure Tool
      10. 15.10 Combining Tool Presets, Brushes, and Paint Dynamics
        1. Getting to Know the Dialogs Involved
        2. Predefined Paint Dynamics
        3. Predefined Brushes
        4. Predefined Tool Presets
    8. 16. Transformation Tools
      1. 16.1 Global Transformations
        1. Transforming an Image
        2. Resizing an Image
        3. Cropping an Image
        4. Transforming a Layer
      2. 16.2 Local Transformations
        1. Shared Properties
        2. The Move Tool
        3. The Align Tool
        4. The Crop Tool
        5. The Rotate Tool
        6. The Scale Tool
        7. The Shear Tool
        8. The Perspective Tool
        9. The Flip Tool
        10. The Cage Transform Tool
    9. 17. Filters
      1. 17.1 Common Properties
      2. 17.2 The Blur Filters
        1. Blur
        2. Gaussian Blur
        3. Motion Blur
        4. Pixelize
        5. Selective Gaussian Blur
        6. Tileable Blur
      3. 17.3 The Enhance Filters
        1. Antialias
        2. Deinterlace
        3. Despeckle
        4. Destripe
        5. NL Filter
        6. Red Eye Removal
        7. Sharpen
        8. Unsharp Mask
      4. 17.4 The Distorts Filters
        1. Apply Lens
        2. Curve Bend
        3. Emboss
        4. Engrave
        5. IWarp
        6. Lens Distortion
        7. Mosaic
        8. Newsprint
        9. Pagecurl
        10. Polar Coordinates
        11. Ripple
        12. Shift
        13. Value Propagate
        14. Waves
        15. Whirl and Pinch
        16. Wind
      5. 17.5 The Light and Shadow Filters
        1. Gradient Flare
        2. Lens Flare
        3. Lighting Effects
        4. Sparkle
        5. Supernova
        6. Drop Shadow
        7. Perspective
      6. 17.6 The Noise Filters
        1. HSV Noise
        2. Hurl
        3. Pick
        4. RGB Noise
        5. Slur
        6. Spread
      7. 17.7 The Edge-Detect Filters
        1. Difference of Gaussians
        2. Edge
        3. Laplace
        4. Neon
        5. Sobel
      8. 17.8 The Generic Filters
        1. Convolution Matrix
        2. Dilate
        3. Erode
      9. 17.9 The Combine Filters
        1. Depth Merge
      10. 17.10 The Artistic Filters
        1. Apply Canvas
        2. Cartoon
        3. Clothify
        4. Cubism
        5. GIMPressionist
        6. Glass Tile
        7. Oilify
        8. Photocopy
        9. Softglow
        10. Van Gogh
        11. Weave
      11. 17.11 The Decor Filters
        1. Add Bevel
        2. Add Border
        3. Coffee Stain
        4. Fuzzy Border
        5. Old Photo
        6. Round Corners
      12. 17.12 The Map Filters
        1. Bump Map
        2. Displace
        3. Fractal Trace
        4. Illusion
        5. Make Seamless
        6. Map Object
        7. Paper Tile
        8. Small Tiles
        9. Tile
        10. Warp
      13. 17.13 The Render Filters
        1. Clouds Filters
          1. Difference Clouds
          2. Plasma
          3. Solid Noise
        2. Nature Filters
          1. Flame
          2. IFS Fractal
        3. Pattern Filters
          1. Checkerboard
          2. CML Explorer
          3. Diffraction Patterns
          4. Grid
          5. Jigsaw
          6. Maze
          7. Qbist
          8. Sinus
        4. Circuit
        5. Fractal Explorer
        6. Gfig
        7. Lava
        8. Line Nova
        9. Sphere Designer
        10. Spyrogimp
    10. 18. Animation Tools
      1. 18.1 Principles of Animation
        1. Frame Frequency and Vision
        2. Frames and Layers
        3. Output Formats
        4. Optimizing Animations
      2. 18.2 Tools for Building Multilayer Animations
        1. Animating by Hand
        2. The IWarp Tool
        3. The Morph Tool
          1. Morphing Text
          2. The Morph Tool Dialog
        4. Filtering All Layers
      3. 18.3 The Animation Menu
        1. Blend
        2. Burn-In
        3. Rippling
        4. Selection to Animimage
        5. Spinning Globe
        6. Waves
        7. Optimizing and Playing an Animation
      4. 18.4 The Move Path Tool
        1. Choosing the Source Layers
        2. Choosing the Destination Frames
        3. Applying Transformations
        4. Control Points
        5. Key Frames
        6. The Preview Window
        7. Testing the Move Path Tool
        8. Advanced Settings
      5. 18.5 The Video Menu
        1. Manipulating Frames
        2. Converting Between File Formats
        3. Modifying Frames
        4. Altering Layers
        5. Converting Between Multilayer and Multiframe
        6. Encoding
        7. Playback and Navigator
        8. Split Video into Frames
        9. Bluebox
        10. Onionskin
        11. Storyboard
    11. 19. Obtaining and Printing Images
      1. 19.1 Capturing Screenshots
      2. 19.2 Scanning
        1. Scanners and Drivers
        2. XSane and GIMP
        3. Selecting an Area to Scan
        4. Setting the Scanning Parameters
        5. Scan Modes
        6. Scanning Resolutions
        7. Color Handling
      3. 19.3 Digital Cameras
        1. Importing Photographs into GIMP
        2. Choosing a Format
        3. Handling Raw Photographs
      4. 19.4 Printing
        1. The Principles of Printing
        2. Printing with the GTK Interface
        3. Printing with Gutenprint
      5. 19.5 Scanning and Printing with Windows
    12. 20. Image Formats
      1. 20.1 An Overview of File Formats
        1. Raster and Vector Formats
        2. Lossless and Lossy Compression
        3. Layout Engines and Browsers
      2. 20.2 JPEG, GIF, and PNG
        1. JPEG
          1. Exporting to JPEG
        2. GIF
          1. Exporting to GIF
        3. PNG
          1. Exporting to PNG
      3. 20.3 GIMP’s Native Formats
        1. XCF
        2. Other Native Formats
      4. 20.4 Other Useful Formats
        1. PostScript and PDF
        2. TIFF
        3. Netpbm Formats
        4. SVG
        5. Additional Formats Supported by GIMP
    13. 21. Scripts and Plug-ins
      1. 21.1 About Scripts and Plug-ins
        1. Scheme, Python, and C
        2. Installed Plug-ins
        3. Finding New Plug-ins
      2. 21.2 Noteworthy Plug-ins
        1. Photo Effects
        2. G’MIC
        3. Liquid Rescale
        4. Elsamuko Scripts
      3. 21.3 Writing Plug-ins
        1. Scheme
        2. Python
        3. C
    14. 22. Customizing GIMP
      1. 22.1 The Preferences Dialog
        1. Environment
        2. User Interface
        3. Theme
        4. Help System
        5. Tool Options
        6. Toolbox
        7. Default New Image
        8. Default Image Grid
        9. Image Windows
        10. Display
        11. Color Management
        12. Input Devices
        13. Window Management
        14. Folders
      2. 22.2 Additional Preferences in the Edit Menu
        1. Keyboard Shortcuts
        2. Modules
        3. Units
      3. 22.3 Customizing Image Views
        1. Display Filters
        2. Hiding or Revealing Parts of the Image Window
        3. Padding Colors and Snapping
      4. 22.4 Building New Brushes
        1. Defining an Ordinary Brush
        2. Defining a Color Brush
        3. Defining an Animated Brush
        4. Defining a Parametric Brush
      5. 22.5 Building New Patterns
      6. 22.6 Building New Gradients
        1. The Gradient Editor
        2. The Gradient Editor Menu
        3. Building a Gradient
      7. 22.7 Building New Palettes
        1. The Palette Editor
        2. Importing Palettes
        3. Exporting and Duplicating Palettes
        4. Palette to Gradient and Sort Palette
        5. Indexed Palettes
  5. III. Appendices
    1. A. Vision and Image Representation
      1. A.1 The Physiology of Vision
        1. How the Human Eye Works
        2. Color Perception
        3. Color Blindness
        4. Optical Illusions
      2. A.2 Image Representation
        1. Discretization
        2. Digitalization
        3. Compression
      3. A.3 Color Representation
        1. How Colors Are Produced
        2. The Additive Model
        3. The Subtractive Model
        4. The HSV Model
      4. A.4 Exercises
    2. B. Tips and Hints for Selected Exercises
      1. Chapter 1
      2. Chapter 2
      3. Chapter 3
      4. Chapter 4
      5. Chapter 5
      6. Chapter 6
      7. Chapter 7
      8. Chapter 8
      9. Appendix A
    3. C. Resources
      1. C.1 Official GIMP Pages
      2. C.2 Related Official Sites
      3. C.3 Tutorials
      4. C.4 Communities and Blogs
      5. C.5 Brushes and Plug-ins
        1. Brush Sets
        2. Plug-in Sets
      6. C.6 Mailing Lists and IRC Channels
      7. C.7 Other Graphics Applications
      8. C.8 Related Graphics Software Projects
      9. C.9 Other Graphics Sites
    4. D. Frequently Asked Questions
      1. D.1 What Does the Future Hold?
      2. D.2 How...?
        1. How can I draw a straight line?
        2. How can I draw a circle?
        3. How can I create an outline around text?
        4. How do I save a selection within an image to a file?
        5. How do I merge an image from another file with the current image?
        6. How do I get small fonts to look as nice as large fonts?
        7. How do I set keyboard shortcuts?
        8. How do I set up GIMP so a layer becomes active when I click an element in that layer?
        9. How do I fill a layer or selection with transparency?
        10. How do I draw in a different color?
        11. How do I add a blur to my image?
        12. How can I paint along the outline of a rectangle?
        13. How do I move existing guides?
        14. How do I get rid of a floating selection?
        15. How do I paint in a transparent area?
        16. How can I see the marching ants and know whether my selection has been made?
        17. How can I add color to a black and white image?
        18. How do I resize my photo to a precise size, say 5 × 7 cm?
        19. How do I set the foreground color to a color in my image?
        20. How can I keep text sharp when scaling it down?
        21. How do I copy a layer mask to another layer mask?
        22. How can I search for a specific font, brush, or pattern?
        23. How do I erase with a tool other than the Eraser?
        24. How can I use the Scale tool to enlarge an image?
        25. How can I find a dialog I closed by accident?
        26. How can I invert grayscale values without changing the colors?
        27. How do I crop with a defined aspect ratio?
      3. D.3 Why...?
        1. Why are some of the filter names grayed out?
        2. Why is nothing happening?
        3. Why doesn’t anything happen when I try to cut, paste, or apply a filter to a selection?
        4. Why can’t I modify the channel I built by saving a selection?
        5. Why can’t I change my image after I saved a selection to a channel?
        6. Why do my paint strokes appear on the image when I try painting on a layer mask?
        7. Why did the size of my file increase when I exported it to JPEG with 100% quality?
        8. Why can’t I draw in the color I chose?
    5. E. Installing GIMP
      1. E.1 GNU/Linux and Unix
        1. Debian
        2. Ubuntu
        3. Mint
        4. Fedora
        5. OpenSUSE
        6. Mandriva
        7. Other Unix-like Operating Systems
      2. E.2 Windows
      3. E.3 Mac OS X
    6. F. Batch Processing
      1. F.1 GIMP Batch Mode
      2. F.2 David’s Batch Processor
      3. F.3 ImageMagick
        1. Calling ImageMagick
        2. Building Thumbnails
        3. Labels and Transformations
  6. Index
  7. About the Authors
  8. Copyright

Product information

  • Title: The Book of GIMP
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: January 2013
  • Publisher(s): No Starch Press
  • ISBN: 9781593273835