The GIMP

I used the GIMP for several years, and found it capable for cropping, performing adjustments using curves and levels, and resizing images. Since then I have begun using Photoshop, and much as I would like to champion the GIMP, I have to say there is just no comparison. Photoshop is simply one of the best designed programs on the planet and the GIMP will have to go a long long way to catch up.

I have sequestered all of my unhappy ranting that I wrote during my early days while pulling my hair out. It shouldn't be so, but the GIMP is very definitely an "experts" program that has many quirks and shortcuts.

Some salient GIMP limitations:

• No 16 bit support, 8 bit only.
• No real raw support.
• Phenomenally bad design.

At this point in time, I am running version 2.4.4 of the GIMP, which is what comes packaged as part of Fedora Core 8 linux. You should be aware if you roam around reading tutorials that GIMP 1.0 was quite a different beast, and some tutorials refer to it. I have yet to find a tutorial that I can follow that is entirely consistent with the menu layout on the version I am running, and this is certain to continue with future versions as the developers rename things and rearrange menus.

There are some alternatives to the stock GIMP that I run. In particular, note that the stock gimp uses 8 bit color channels. Also, consider image magic, which is simple, powerful, and easy to use. It can be invoked from the command line allowing you to use it in scripts, or run it from web pages (PHP scripts) and so on, Very handy; my hat is off to these folks.

I have accumulated a short list of GIMP resources that you may find useful. There are hundreds of GIMP tutorials out there. Don't overlook the help and documentation built into the GIMP itself.

Combining two images

1. Use New to make a new image, plenty big enough to hold the final result (you can crop it as the final step).
2. Use Open to open the first image.
3. Use select all to select all of it
4. Use edit-->cut to move it to the "clipboard"
5. Use paste as->new layer to put it into the final image.
6. repeat this for the second image.
7. move the images around till you are happy.
8. crop if you like
9. you could do layer->merge, but do not need to
10. use save-as to save it (it will merge if necessary).

Some random actual tips on using the GIMP

• To crop an image, follow: Image -> Tools -> Transform Tools -> Crop & Resize
• To scale an image, follow Image -> Scale Image
• To undo something, use Ctrl-Z
• To redo (i.e. undo an undo), use Ctrl-Y
• To save, use Ctrl-S
• To get the layers dialog, use Ctrl-L
• To get bucket fill, use "B"
• To change size after the fact, use image -> Canvas Size