New camera shots.

I just picked up a new camera today for coin shots. Here are some better shots of a 16 D and 22 no D.

 

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Oops, sorry. It's a Sony DSC-H50

 

That is great snaz - the exact same camera I have. Now when you figure out the details of how best to make it work - let me know. Oh yeah - nice coins.

 

Thats's cool, thanks Mark! believe me, neither one of us will see the day I figure something like this camera out.
I started pushing buttons and weird stuff was happening, so I shut it off to avoid further damage... Better just stick to Macro Mode

 

Pics have great detail, but you either need to adjust your white balance or get a program to do it. I like that 16-D, but doesn't it look better this way? (that is about a 10 sec fix adjusting the background to white.)

 

It does RLM thanks! I will do that from now on.. these were just quick shots I took while showing my dad.

 

What did you use to do the adjustment?

 

There should be some kind of white balance on your camera. That is the best place to adjust - either manually or automatically.

 

Photoshop elements. Just used their adjust to white (control+L) and clicked on the background. It automatically adjusts the pic to make that point true white.

 

Darn - no photoshop here. Will have to get it one of these days. As it is I think I need better lighting. Sigh....

 

Id like to point out that Snaz is very generous. I just witnessed a very kind and very generous thing that Snaz did. But I cant say much more than that.

 

http://www.gimp.org

Ruben

 

Photoshop Elements is affordable. I bought mine for around $100.

 

Free Software - BTW

http://www.fsf.org/

ruben

 

I got mine for free Legally. Bought a scanner and it came with it.

 

Sounds like a great deal.

The version I bought also includes video editing software - something I have not used yet but I will if I ever buy a video camera.

Don't quote me but the stand-alone version of Photoshop Elements (no video editing) may be closer to $60.

 

A quick check shows Dell has it for $20.69.

 

WOW! That is CHEAP for a very powerful software. At that price everyone should buy a copy.

 

Only if you want DRM infested software. Better off with the Free Software which happens to have had video editing tools for a long while now

http://www.gimp.org



Introduction to GIMP

GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed program for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring.

It has many capabilities. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter, etc.

GIMP is expandable and extensible. It is designed to be augmented with plug-ins and extensions to do just about anything. The advanced scripting interface allows everything from the simplest task to the most complex image manipulation procedures to be easily scripted.

GIMP is written and developed under X11 on UNIX platforms. But basically the same code also runs on MS Windows and Mac OS X.
Features and Capabilities

This is only a very quickly thrown together list of GIMP features. You can also have a look at the illustrated features overview.

* Painting
o Full suite of painting tools including Brush, Pencil, Airbrush, Clone, etc.
o Sub-pixel sampling for all paint tools for high quality anti-aliasing
o Extremely powerful gradient editor and blend tool
o Supports custom brushes and patterns
* System
o Tile based memory management so image size is limited only by available disk space
o Virtually unlimited number of images open at one time
* Advanced Manipulation
o Full alpha channel support
o Layers and channels
o Multiple Undo/Redo (limited only by diskspace)
o Editable text layers
o Transformation tools including rotate, scale, shear and flip
o Selection tools including rectangle, rounded rectangle, ellipse, free, fuzzy
o Foreground extraction tool
o Advanced path tool doing bezier and polygonal selections.
o Transformable paths, transformable selections.
o Quickmask to paint a selection.
* Extensible
o A Procedural Database for calling internal GIMP functions from external programs as in Script-fu
o Advanced scripting capabilities (Scheme, Python, Perl)
o Plug-ins which allow for the easy addition of new file formats and new effect filters
o Over 100 plug-ins already available
* Animation
o Load and save animations in a convenient frame-as-layer format
o MNG support
o Frame Navigator (in GAP, the GIMP Animation Package)
o Onion Skin (in GAP, the GIMP Animation Package)
o Bluebox (in GAP, the GIMP Animation Package)
* File Handling
o File formats supported include bmp, gif, jpeg, mng, pcx, pdf, png, ps, psd, svg, tiff, tga, xpm, and many others
o Load, display, convert, save to many file formats
o SVG path import/export
* Much, much more!


This FAQ is still a work in progress. Some sections are very outdated, other sections should probably be removed, and some new questions and answers should be added. Please contact us if you can improve it.

1. General Information
1. What is this GIMP?
2. Where do I get it?
3. Why and when was GIMP changed from "general image manipulation program" to "GNU image manipulation program"?
4. GIMP is a stupid name. Why can't you change it?
5. Is GIMP a GNOME application?
6. Is GTK+ still under the aegis of GIMP? Was it ever?
7. Which version should I use?
8. Is there a user manual?
9. What about a Windows version?
10. What about a Mac version?
11. Are there any Easter eggs in GIMP?
12. Is there a mailing list?
13. Is there an IRC channel?
14. Why does GIMP complain about missing or wrong versions of libraries?
15. Is XInput support available?
16. Does GIMP support art tablets like the Wacom?
17. Does GIMP have scanner support?
18. Can GIMP install its own colormap?
19. GIMP complains about MIT-SHM!
20. What does "wire_read: unexpected EOF" mean?
21. Do I need an X server to run in batch mode?
22. What kind of system do I need to run GIMP?
23. Is there a bug list somewhere?
24. Does/could GIMP use high-level graphics operations for its operations?
25. What does the future hold?
2. Using GIMP
1. How can I draw a straight line with GIMP?
2. How can I draw a circle with GIMP?
3. How can I create an outline around text?
4. What are layers?
5. How do I save a selected sub-image to a file?
6. How do I save an image with an alpha channel?
7. How do I merge an image from a file to the current image?
8. How do I get small fonts to look as nice as large ones?
9. How do I bind keys to menus for shortcuts?
10. How do I select a layer "sitting" under the mouse cursor? I have more than 400 layers in my image and I cannot remember each layers name.
11. I hate switching between windows in GIMP. Isn't there an easier way?
12. Is there a macro recording interface?
13. How do I configure my X server to do global gamma correction?
14. How do I fill with transparent?
15. How do I draw in a different color?
16. How can I export my path to SVG?
17. How do I do something really simple like blur?
18. I've tried to use GIMP but I just don't get it - what am I missing (and I know nothing about images so dont start about alpha channels and layers, etc).
19. How can I paint easily an (OutLined) rectangle using GIMP ?.
20. How do I edit properties of existing guides? How do I move existing guides?
21. How do I select the layer currently shown under the mouse cursor? Is there a shortcut?
22. How can you wrap text using the Font tool? There are alignment buttons (including justified) but they have little effect since I can't work out how to make the text wrap.
23. Why do I have to make my rectangular selection exactly right the first time? Why can't I move and resize a rectangular selection using handles?
24. I recently saw a project that specified files were to be saved in Photoshop "Save for Web -> High (15K to 30K Optimized)" format. Is there an equivalent in GIMP?
25. How do I get GIMP to be by default image tool i.e. I installed another program & it is now associated to auto-opening them.
3. Common Feature Requests
1. When can we see layer groups?
2. When can we see 16-bit per channel support (or better)?
3. When will an MDI/nested windows be implemented?
4. How should I make feature requests?
4. Plug-Ins
1. What are plug-ins?
2. How do I add new plug-ins?
3. How do I build new plug-ins?
4. Is there a plug-in for ... ?
5. Why did some plug-ins disappear for 0.99.19?
6. What is Script-Fu?
7. Where can I learn about Script-Fu?
8. How do I call one script-fu script from another?
9. How do I call a plug-in from script-fu?
10. How do I execute script-fu from batch mode?
11. What does ``procedural-database-error'' in script-fu mean?
12. What is Net-Fu? Where is it?
13. Where can I get the fonts I'm missing?
14. How can I change the GIMP font?
15. Why don't the Far Eastern fonts work?
16. What about TrueType fonts?
17. What is GIMP's native graphics file format?
18. What other graphics file types are supported?
19. Is there any way to keep the layers when I save?
5. Troubleshooting Unix Platforms
1. Why can't I get JPEG to work on my Digital Alpha/UNIX (4.0d) box?
2. Why won't GIMP compile on 64-bit or IRIX (SGI) machines?
3. Script-Fu won't compile on IRIX (SGI)
4. Why does GIMP complain about X Input Methods under Solaris?
5. How do I add fonts with Solaris?
6. What is the gimp.wmconfig file?
7. Why don't GIF and JPEG work on Slackware Linux?
8. I get make errors on {Solaris, HP/UX, whatever}.
9. Why do I see weird things when I use GIMP with AcceleratedX?
10. What's this beavis.jpg image used in several scripts?
6. Footnotes

General Information
What is this GIMP?

The "GNU Image Manipulation Program" (originally the General Image Manipulation Program) sired by Spencer Kimball & Peter Mattis.

In their own words, "GIMP is our answer to the current lack of free (or at least reasonably priced) image manipulation software for GNU/Linux and UNIX in general."

It is a raster editor, which means that it performs operations directly on the pixels that make up the image, and not a vector editor. Other (proprietary) raster editors include Adobe Photoshop, Jasc Paintshop Pro and the humble Microsoft Paint. An alternative free editor is the KOffice project, Krita. Users wanting to edit photographs will certainly want a raster editor like GIMP. Graphic designers and illustrators may prefer a vector editor depending on their tastes.
Where do I get it?

Most (if not all) GNU/Linux distributions will support GIMP through their package management systems and may even come with GIMP preinstalled. You can follow links to GNU/Linux and UNIX, Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac OS X for the latest binaries. Of course, this is free software so the source code is available to, along with instruction on how to compile it.
Why and when was GIMP changed from "general image manipulation program" to "GNU image manipulation program"?

One day (I believe it was in 1997) RMS visited Berkeley, and Spencer and Peter met with him. They asked if they could change General to GNU, and it was done.
GIMP is a stupid name. Why can't you change it?

GIMP is comfortable with its name and thinks that you should apologise for your rudeness.
Is GIMP a GNOME application?

Not really. It doesn't use the GNOME application framework. The only thing it has in common is GTK+. GIMP can optionally use gnome-vfs, allowing you to load and edit images from remote servers.
Is GTK+ still under the aegis of GIMP? Was it ever?

GTK was developed solely for GIMP, initially. Towards the end of the 0.99 development cycle in 1998, GTK was split from being bundled with GIMP to being a separately available library. See ancient history for some interesting tidbits from the GIMP perspective.
Which version should I use?

You should use the latest stable release. See our downloads page.
Is there a user manual?

Yes. It is available in HTML form, and in PDF.
What about a Windows version?

See GIMP for Windows.
What about a Mac version?

See GIMP for Mac OS X.
Are there any Easter eggs in GIMP?

Yes.
Is there a mailing list?

See our list of Mailing Lists.
Is there an IRC channel?

See our list of IRC channels.
Why does GIMP complain about missing or wrong versions of libraries?

Probably because it can't find them.

FIXME: some of the advice given here is incorrect and even dangerous.

There are a couple of solutions. The best one, if you have superuser access on your system, or a cooperative system administrator, is to add GIMP's library directory to the system library configuration. To do this, edit /etc/ld.so.conf to include /usr/local/lib and then type ldconfig and things should work from then on.

If you can't do this, add the directory to your LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable. Be sure you do this in your shell's startup scripts as well.

If you have old versions of the libraries, you will probably need to remove them first, especially if they are in standard system locations such as /usr/lib . Don't just delete them, though; move them somewhere safe, install the new ones, and try again. Then make sure everything else still works; you may have other programs on your system which require the old versions. The ideal response in such a case is to rebuild all the programs to use the new libraries. Where this isn't possible, you will just have to experiment with trying them in different locations, or statically linking them to one or more programs.
Is XInput support available?

Yes.
Does GIMP support art tablets like the Wacom?

FIXME: obsolete advice.

In the more recent releases of most distros, installing the wacom-tools package should make tablet support "just work". Make sure that you enable the input devices in GIMP, too.

Otherwise, you have to do a little extra work to compile it in.

See Intuos on Linux by Terry Mackintosh, or this quick overview from Juergen Schlag:

1. run GNU/Linux with a X11 server which supports the Xinput-Section (my old S3-Board running under the XFree-Server works well, but the XSuSE- Server for PERMEDIA2-Boards doesn't work :-(
2. install the Xinput driver for the Artpad (see the docs). I used a patched driver for the PenPartner
3. edit the Xinput-Section of your /etc/XF86Config to load the driver when X11 starts (see the man-pages for XF86Config and your X-server)
4. recompile the GTK toolkit with the Xinput-support enabled. see the README and INSTALL file for the command switch to do this.
5. restart your computer, start X11 and GIMP. if no error message occured your artpad should work well

Does GIMP have scanner support?

Yes. It's available on Windows and uses TWAIN, and on GNU/Linux you even have a choice between XSane and gnome-scan — both can be used as GIMP plug-ins.

Further information is available at the SANE project.
Can GIMP install its own colormap?

Yes. In either the system-wide gimprc file or your personal gimprc file, uncomment the line that includes install-colormap.
GIMP complains about MIT-SHM!

If GIMP gives you a message similar to either of these when you try to start it: Xlib: extension "MIT-SHM" missing on display "198.51.29.58:0.0". or * WARNING **: XShmAttach failed! then you need to run it with the --no-xshm option.

This happens for one of two reasons. Either your X display server does not have the shared memory option, or you are running GIMP on a different system than the one on which it is displaying. In the former case, you may wish to look into different X servers, because shared memory can give you MUCH better performance. In the latter case, you will just have to live with it, since different systems can't generally share the same memory space.
What does "wire_read: unexpected EOF" mean?

This error message should say something like "the plug-in (or the main GIMP app) I was talking to has exited before returning any results, so I assume that it has crashed."
Do I need an X server to run in batch mode?

Yes, you have to have some form of X server (unless you're running Windows, of course). It needs an X server for image processing, and for font manipulation. However, if you wish to run in batch mode, you can run with a special, frame-buffer-less X server called Xvfb, which doesn't require a graphics card or mess with your screen:
Xvfb :1 -screen 0 10x10x8 -pixdepths 1 & gimp --display :1.0 --no-interface --batch "commands" ... &

The first command starts the special X server; the second is an example of how to invoke GIMP in batch mode. When you are done using GIMP this way for a while, kill off Xvfb so it doesn't waste system resources. If you expect to use GIMP this way a lot, you might want to leave Xvfb running for better response time.

You should check the man page for Xvfb(1) for other options, such as whether to use shared memory.
What kind of system do I need to run GIMP?

Any system capable of running Gnome 2, KDE 3.2, Windows 2000, Mac OS X and later versions should be able to run GIMP. GIMP's biggest appetite is for memory and how much you will need will depend on the how many images you are working with, their resolution, size, the number of layers you use and so on. As a general rule, more is better, but 128MB should be enough to be getting started with.
Is there a bug list somewhere?

See Bugs for a list of bugs and how to report them.
Does/could GIMP use high-level graphics operations for its operations?

Not yet. GIMP does use MMX and SSE low-level instructions. The guess is that any gain from higher-level instructions would end up being swamped by having to push pixels back and forth to the graphics card, but we would love to be proved wrong The GEGL project is a more logical place for this kind of thing.
What does the future hold?

Version 2.8 may bring a combined Transform tool (Scale, Rotate, Shear, Flip and Perspective), more use of Cairo for beautiful antialiased graphics and more usability improvements. We will also make GIMP use more of GEGL, namely for projection (everything you see in a visible stack of layers). This will be another step to version 3.0, which will bring long requested features like support for 16+ bits per channel and adjustment layers, to name a few.
Using GIMP
How can I draw a straight line with GIMP?

See Drawing a Straight Line in the GIMP user manual or see our nice tutorial.
How can I draw a circle with GIMP?

The easiest way is to create a new selection with Ellipse Select tool and stroke it (Edit -> Stroke Selection...). We welcome patches that add tools to draw geometric primitives on canvas.
How can I create an outline around text?

Place some text somewhere. Then click "Create path from text" in the "Text tool option" window. Then use "Edit" -> "Stroke path" and select the appropriate options in the following dialog. Please also see the Paths section in the user manual.
What are layers?

The best analogy is to the way cartoons used to be animated. Each component of a scene would be painted on a transparent film, and then each film would be stacked or layered over the other to produce the complete composition. In this way, you could easily animate a person walking because his legs could be animated independantly of his body, for example. Similarly, complex images can be broken down to layers within GIMP and each layer can be processed independentlly of every other. See the Layers section in the manual for more information.
How do I save a selected sub-image to a file?

Use "Edit->Paste As->New Image" menu command or press Ctrl-Shift-V key combination, then save newly created image.

The script-fu-selection-to image can also be used to cut a selection out of an image and create a new image with it.
How do I save an image with an alpha channel?

Before saving the image, select "Layers->Flatten Image". It would be more intuitive if it was called something like "Remove Alpha"...but that's generally not its primary function. It just happens to remove alpha.
How do I merge an image from a file to the current image?

Use "File->Open As Layers" menu command or just drag the file to a window and drop it there. The file will be added as a new layer on top of the layers stack.
How do I get small fonts to look as nice as large ones?

Make sure you have "Hinting" and "Antialiasing" options enabled in Text tool options dialog.
How do I bind keys to menus for shortcuts?

Make sure that "Use dynamic keyboard shortcuts" option in "Interface" tab of Preferences dialog is enabled, then go to the menu selection you are interested in. Keeping it selected (hold the mouse's menu selection down if necessary), press the key sequence you wish to assign to the menu. It will appear on the right of the menu. The new binding will be saved and used in future GIMP sessions. You can also use "Keyboard Shortcuts" dialog ("Edit->Keyboard Shortcuts") to assign keys to menus and functions.
How do I select a layer "sitting" under the mouse cursor? I have more than 400 layers in my image and I cannot remember each layers name.

Please turn on "move-tool-changes-active" in the preferences dialog. Then (after you did a restart of GIMP) hold down the shift-key while you drag or click a layer in the image. The layer will now be selected (active).
I hate switching between windows in GIMP. Isn't there an easier way?