====== GIMP ====== Gimp stands for "GNU Image Manipulation Program", it has little to envy to "Adobe Photoshop", which is the //de-facto// reference in this field. If you're a seasoned Photoshop user, you'll need a little time to get acquainted to the GIMP interface and some principals that are a little different between those two very complete programs. But you'll eventually discover that there is very little Photoshop can do that GIMP doesn't! ===== Installing Plugins ===== GIMP comes installed along Linux Mint LMDE, but you'll probably have to add some plugins to it in order to have GIMP offering the exact function you need. For a deeper introduction on GIMP plugins, you're invited to read the [[http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/GIMP/Installing_Plugins|GIMP wiki about plugins]], otherwise here is a quick introduction on how to install a plugin for GIMP: === Download the plugin === You first need to download the plugin. Where you download it from depends on the plugin you want but many can be found in the [[http://registry.gimp.org/|GIMP plugin registry]]. === Expand the archive === The downloaded plugin package will come compressed (.zip, .gz, .bz2). So you need to decompress it first.\\ Locate you downloaded file in the file browser, right click it and select: "Extract Here". === Copy the plugin to the GIMP plugin directory === The easiest way to activate your downloaded plugin is to simply put it into your //~/.gimp-x.x/plugins// directory. To do so: * Right click on the extracted plugin folder, from your download location, and select "copy" * Open your "Home" directory: from the Menu > Places > Home Folder for example * Show hidden files and folders by typing "CTRL-h": you now see all files and folders starting with a "." * Expand (or enter) the .gimp-x.x folder * Right click the plug-ins folder and select "Paste Into folder" * Quit and relaunch the GIMP application to have the plugin available (quitting the application means selectin "Quit" from the File menu) Here below are some plugins of interest: ===== gimp-plugin-registery ===== [[http://registry.gimp.org/node/33|Save for Web]] is one of the most immediate plugin you'll want if you're a web developer and are used to the "Save for web..." menu in Photoshop. As stated on the plugin page: //it allows to find compromise between minimal file size and acceptable quality of image quickly//. This plugin is part of a plugins package that is available for installation via the "Software Manager". Open "Menu > Software Manager", then type "gimp" in the search field.\\ In the results list, double click on "gimp-plugin-registry", then click the "Install" button. Alternatively you could use the command line to do the exact same thing: <code> $ sudo apt-get install gimp-plugin-registry </code> In case you cannot find the package on debian, [[http://forums.solydxk.com/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=2731|there might be an explanation out here]]...\\ You might then want to download the .deb file for your Debian version [[https://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=gimp-plugin-registry|here]] and install manually. Restart GIMP and you should see the "Save for Web" option under the "File" menu. Installing the gimp-registery-plugin will also bring you a lot of other plugins: * Add Film Grain (2.8): * Helps adding realistic film grain to BW images. * btn4ws (0.8.0.1): * Generates a series of buttons in three states (passive, active, pressed) with various selectable effects on them, as well as XHTML, CSS and JavaScript code for using the buttons. * Black and White Film Simulation (1.1): * Converts the selected layer into Black and White using the channel mixer. Tries to produce results resembling tonal qualities of film. * CMYK Tiff 2 PDF for Gimp (20090321): * This plugin completes the prepress workflow of using Separate+ to generate CMYK Tiff images by allowing you to convert the saved CMYK Tiff image into a PDF file. * Contact Sheet (2.16): * Generates a contact sheet(s) for a directory of images. * David's Batch Processor (1.1.9): * A simple batch processing plugin for The Gimp - it allows the user to automatically perform operations (such as resize) on a collection of image files. * Diana-Holga2 (c): * Diana/Holga Toys Cameras effect simulator. * El Samuko GIMP Scripts: * * Antique Photo Border Script: * This script simulates a yellowed and slightly jagged border like these of old photographies. * Che Guevara Script: * This script generates a poster like the famous Che Guevara one from Jim Fitzpatrick. * Cyanotype Script: * This script simulates the Cyanotype printing process. * Difference Layer Script * This script generates two difference layers from the two layers on the top. It's similar to GIMP's built-in Grain Extract/Merge function, but the tonal range is bigger. Now you can apply further editing and "switch on/off" the adjustment by switching the visibility of the subtractive and the additive layer. Also you can change the modification intensity by changing the intensity of these two layers. * Erosion Sharpen: * Sharpens the image with erosion and dilation. * Escape Line Script: * This script creates escaping lines from any point. It's similar in function to the built-in Line-Nova Script, but much more flexible. So you can chose the center, the thickness, the angle, the length, the offset and the randomness. * Film Grain Script: * This is yet another script which simulates the typical film grain of high ISO pictures. * First Photo Border Script: * This script simulates the cut-off of the first picture of a film roll of cheap cameras like Lomo. * Lomo Script with Old Style Colors * This script simulates the Lomo effect. * Movie 300 Script: * This script simulates the color style of the movie "300". * National Geographic Script: * This script simulates a high quality (portrait) photo like these from the National Geographic. * Obama "HOPE" Script: * This script generates a poster like the famous Obama "HOPE" one from Shepard Fairey. * Rainy Landscape Script: * This script changes a dry landscape to a wet one. * Photochrom Script: * This script simulates a photochrom image, a lithographic printing process from the 1890's. * Sprocket Hole Script: * This script simulates complete exposed 35mm film strips with frame numbers, lettering, overexposed sprocketholes and DX film edge barcodes. * Sunny Landscape Script: * This script changes a rainy landscape to a sunny one. * Technicolor 2 Color Script: * This script simulates the 2 Color Technicolor effect. * Technicolor 3 Color Script: * This script simulates the 3 Color Technicolor effect. * Vintage Look Script: * This script simulates a 70s vintage look. * Exposure Blend (1.3b): * Prompt for 3 images in a bracketed exposure series (e.g. 0,-2,+2 EV) and blend these into a contrast enhanced image. * EZ Perspective: * Specialized tool for easily correcting or changing perspective. * Fix-CA (3.0.2): * Corrects chromatic aberration in photos * Focus-Blur (3.2.6): * This plugin tries to simulate an out-of-focus blur * GIMP FX Foundry (r111): * Probably the largest script collection available for The GIMP. * GIMP-Mask: * Do and undo several popular image masking (that is, censoring) methods (CP, FL, Q0, MEKO). * Warming and Cooling Filters (May 24, 2010): * Warm or cool an image using one of several methods: * Wratten, Roy's Warm, Brauer's Warm, Pasty Cadaveric Look * Layer-Effects (4/12/2012): * This is a series of scripts that implement various layer effects: * Drop Shadow, Inner Shadow, Outer Glow, Inner Glow, Bevel and Emboss, Satin, Color Overlay, Gradient Overlay, Pattern Overlay, Stroke * Liquid Rescale (0.7.1): * Content-aware rescaling. Keeps the features of the image while rescaling along a single direction. * Normalmap (1.2.2): * Allows you to convert images into RGB normal maps for use in per-pixel lighting applications. * OpenRaster load/save handler (20110529-1d32622): * OpenRaster is an effort by the Create project[1] to offer a standardized and open interchange format for raster-based applications. This plugin allows one to load and save files in the OpenRaster format. * Planet Render (1-2): * Creates a planet. Color, size and sun orientation can be set. * Refocus (0.9.1): * The GIMP plugin to refocus images using FIR Wiener filtering. During image processing operations such as scanning and scaling, images tend to get blurry. The blurred impression of these images is due to the fact that image pixels are averaged with their neighbors. Blurred images don't have sharp boundaries and look as though they have been taken with an unfocused camera. * Resynthesizer (2.0): * Gimp plugin for texture synthesis * This gimp plugin takes samples of textures, and synthesizes larger textures from them. It can be used to extend textures (including making tileable textures), remove objects from textures, and make themed images. * Save for Web (0.29.0): * Allows to experiment with various popular web format options. It shows an automatically updated preview and file size statistics. * Separate+ (0.5.8): * Separate+ is a plug-in that generates color separations from an RGB image, proofs CMYK colors on the monitor and exports the CMYK TIFF file. * Smart Seperate Sharpening (2.8): * This script implements a new version of smart sharpening (redux) combined with separate sharpen to give better results. You can find more about Smart Sharpening at http://www.gimpguru.org/Tutorials/SmartSharpening2/ * Streak-Camera simulation (0.6): * A streak camera images an object through a slit - thus getting a "one dimensional image". This image is propagated along the second dimension of the image plane at a constant speed. The result is a picture of the time dependency of the object. * Traditional Orton: * This is an effect invented by Michael Orton in the 1990’s, which consists of taking two copies of an image, one blurred, and one sharp, and mixing them to produce an image with a dreamy quality. It is especially well suited to landscape and flower photography. * Wavelet Decompose (0.1.2): * The wavelet decompose plugin decomposes a layer of an image into layers of wavelet scales. This means that you can edit the image on different detail scales (frequencies). The trivial recomposition of the image can be done by GIMP's layer modes so you can see the results of your modifications instantly. Among the applications are retouching, noise reduction, and enhancing global contrast. * Wavelet Denoise (0.3.1): * The wavelet denoise plugin is a tool to selectively reduce noise in individual channels of an image with optional RGB<->YCbCr conversion. It has a user interface to adjust the amount of denoising applied. The wavelet nature of the algorithm makes the processing quite fast.