GIMP in the world of Linux

I’ve managed to revive my old PC and upgraded to Ubuntu. With it, I installed the latest version of GIMP (version 2.8.2 which was released on August 24, 2012).

GIMP Loading Screen

One thing I noticed when browsing through the menu bar, is that there are new entries such as new filters and the new FX menu. Interesting. I might dabble with it soon and check out all the goodness it has to offer.

GIMP Filters

If you’ll notice that G’MIC is pre-installed with the package. G’MIC stands for GREYC’s Magic Image Converter. A script which contains a handful of preset transformations and effects to your image. Check it out here.

It also has a new FX-Foundry menu which has a few other effects that the Filters menu currently doesn’t have. I wished they package also the GAP plugin which extends the basic animation capabilities of GIMP. Though the basic ones are powerful enough to create animated GIF’s.

GIMP FX-Foundry

These are some of the new features that GIMP 2.8.2 has to offer aside from being able to add a layer group in the Layers dialog box just like its proprietary counterpart.

I can’t wait for what the GIMP Team have in mind for the next release.

Happy GIMPing everyone!

Charcoal Drawing by William Thorup with GIMP Paint Studio 2.0

A short charcoal sketch by William Thorup using some charcoal presents in GIMP Paint Studio 2.0. Enjoy!

GIMP 2.8 RC1 released

You have read it right. GIMP already released a RC of GIMP 2.8. You may wonder why GIMP released it as a RC even though 2.7.5 was doing quite well.

Well, I am also wondering why. It could be for feedback and bug reporting. We’ll just have to wait.

At last, we can try and test GIMP 2.8. Windows binaries can be found at http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/stable.html

It is quirky at the moment, to me at least. Here’s what happened:

I downloaded a copy of GIMP 2.8 from the link above. Then, I tried to install it in my PC at work running with Windows Home Edition Service Pack 2.

I chose a language and pressed OK. Then an error popped up. It states that it requires Service Pack 2 or higher. GIMP developers might have overlook this or my PC isn’t saying correctly what Service Pack it’s running.

So I tried it with my PC at home running with Service Pack 3. And this time, it ran properly and I was able to install GIMP 2.8.

UI is very nice especially the Single Window Mode. A very nice addition indeed. Another worthy to mention is the addition of Folders in the Layers tab. A feature which I was looking for the first time I tried GIMP. This will surely give proprietary image editors a ran for their money.

I also noticed that Windows version has a Slice tool which was missing in the previous versions. A feature that most people are looking for and inquiring about.

GIMP 2.8 RC was released together with a new version of BABL and GEGL. Using GEGL was too slow for me.

Anyway, I will post some pictures soon and other notes I have on GIMP 2.8 before a stable version will be released. You can also check out the task taste to track the project schedule of GIMP.

Linux version is out of this scope since I am only running a Windows machine and haven’t had the opportunity to produce a Linux box.

Happy GIMPing everyone!

GIMP 2.8 is almost here

GIMP announced that GIMP 2.6.12 will be the final release for 2.6 series before switching to 2.8.

I know that a lot of you are very excited with the new features and changes 2.8 has to offer.

I have seen some initial reviews of GIMP 2.8 in Youtube.  Take note that it was from the development (unstable) stage.

Track the release schedule of GIMP 2.8 from tasktaste (Thanks to Alex Standiford).

Happy Gimping everyone!

Save PNG the easy and fast way

I have blogged about Guillotine for easy slicing for your web templates. Others may also use the Slice script. I also googled for other options to save sliced images for our templates. I’ve found a “slice-save” script (by Arun Ravindran) and the “save for web” script almost similar to what can be found on Photoshop’s.

Add Photoshop and GIMP brushes

Phew, I’m back. Yeah, I know it’s been quite a while. But anyways..

I’ve seen a lot of question going around on how to add additional brushes to The GIMP. Not only can we add GIMP brushes but we can also utilize those wonderful brushes made for Photoshop. Nice!

Note: This is a Windows version of GIMP so I haven’t had details on a Linux or other platforms. If you have any information, leave a comment. Thanks

Okay, on to the post of the day, adding brushes to GIMP. Well, there are several ways on adding brushes. These are, adding to your personal folder and to the program files folder.

Poor GIMP Development

Since the release of 2.6 series, development of The GIMP has been poor these days. The first release of the series, version 2.6, was good news to every GIMP user.

New features are definitely indispensable when using GIMP. Though there were minor bugs but are negligible and are most likely to happen.