A. What is 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.
For more information about GIMP, you may like to visit – GIMP official site
B. Installing GIMP –
1. Install Gimp. Open Ubuntu Software Centre and search for GIMP
Type your admin password and install Gimp.
C. Working with GIMP – some basics
1. After Opening GIMP you will probably see screen like this –
For full screen working environment maximise the middle window. (GNU Image Manipulation Programme.)
2. Opening an image in GIMP
Go to menu bar > file> open
OR
right click anywhere (blank space) in GNU Image Manipulation Programme window and from drop down menu select open.
OR
simply press “ctrl+1”
3.
By default you will see “toobox- Tool Option” at left hand side.
3.1 Selecting an image or part of it: You can access the tool by clicking on the rectangle icon in the toolbox. Note that the cursor now changes you can select the required area by dragging the mouse over required region.
Similar to this there is a Ellipse Select Tool, which can be used to select circular/elliptical regions in the image.
You can copy (ctrl+c), paste (ctrl+v) etc. the selected image. You can crop the image.
3.2 Cropping the image
To crop – Select the image with rectangle tool (for that matter any selection tool). Now go to menu bar then, image> crop to selection
3.3 Rotating Image
After selecting a tool click on the image. It will open “Rotate” dialogue box. You can change angle, image’s centre etc.
3.4 Scaling the image.
Two ways to do it – 1. For this we use the the Image> Scale Image option from the menu.
We have to provide the new width and height of the image in pixels that is required. Also in this way we can change the resolution of image in terms of dpi (dots per square inch). 2. If you want change image size you also can do it with help of scale tool. It can scale entire layer, or selected part in the layer or even a path.
3.5 Zooming in and out
Zoom in with “ctrl+scroll up” and zoom out with “ctrl+scroll down” (with help of scroll button on mouse).
Alternatively you can use “+” button for zoom in and “-” for zoom out.
3.6 Using Blend tool.
You can fill selected area with blend tool. For that select an area (4.1 – selecting with different tools. Tip: in “tool options dock” you can toggle between selection mode like “replace the current selection” etc) and then in toolbox select “blend tool”. With help of various Dockable dialogues you can select gradient colours with various options (ctrl+G). Now select the colour. Click and drag on the area you have selected. Selected area will be filled with gradient colour.
3.7 Advantage of Layers
In GIMP its easy to work with layers. When you are adding new image or design to your current design it is always better to do in new layer. To add new layer go to menu bar > layer> New layer or press “ctrl+shift+N”. It keeps your work safe! You can apply different attributes to different layers independently.
[… to be continued…]
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