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GIMP goodness

scott granneman
Updated ·2 min read

If you’re looking for great free, open source, multi-platform (Windows, Linux, Mac OS) image editing software, then look no further: you need the GIMP (which stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program). Most folks describe the GIMP as “open source Photoshop”, but that’s not quite true. For instance, the GIMP doesn’t yet do Pantone colors (they’re owned by one company, unfortunately), so output for print is a bit limited, but for most other graphics needs, the GIMP is great & always getting better; in fact, version 2.2 is supposed to be out later this month. Here’s a couple of resources for those interested in learning more about da GIMP.

The GIMP Gets Ready for 2.2
”As promised, this time it didn’t take another 3 years for a new stable GIMP version to be released. 8 months after GIMP 2.0 hit the road, GIMP 2.2 is almost done. The GIMP developers released 2.2-pre2 today and unless any major problems show up, the GIMP 2.2.0 release is going to follow later this month. The GIMP Wiki has a comprehensive list of new features in GIMP 2.2 and here are some screenshots of the development version.”
(Scott’s note: follow this links in the Slashdot piece to find out those new features & see screenshots.)
GIMP 2.2
A list of some new features you can expect in the next release of the GIMP, with particular focus on the new GIMP Animation Plug-in, which allows you to edit movies. Wheee!
Script-fu Tutorial
(Scott’s note: Script-Fu is a programming language for the GIMP that allows you to script actions.)
”This is a short tutorial in Script-Fu programming. I’ll try to give a short intro into the world of Script-Fu and explain how basic things works. We will create a complete script-fu step-by-step. The goal is to have a Script-Fu, which produces a metal style text. I assume, that the reader has a basic knowlege of Scheme, which is the programming language that is used in Script-Fu.”
(Scott’s note: Note that this tutorial was written for GIMP 1.1.24, which is old, but it may still be useful. Also note that Tiny-fu is eventually going to replace Script-Fu.)
Gimp-Python
”Gimp-Python is a package that allows people to write plug-ins for The Gimp in the Python programming language rather than Script-Fu (Scheme), Perl, Tcl or C.”
(Scott’s note: yes, it appears that this is also for GIMP 1, but I think it still works.)

Other GIMP posts: