Beginning GIMP, from Novice to Professional, 2nd ed.

Table of Contents

About the Author • About the Technical Reviewer • Acknowledgments • Introduction

CHAPTER 1: Getting to Know GIMP
What Is GIMP? • A Tour of the Important GIMP Windows and Menus • The Toolbox Window • Tool Options • Image Windows • The Layers Dialog and Dialog Docking • Menu Overview • Tear-off Menus and Context Menus • Image Window Menus • A Few GIMP Settings You Can Customize • Tool Settings Changes • Window Controls • Keyboard Shortcuts • A First GIMP Project

CHAPTER 2: Improving Digital Photos
Opening Files • Rescaling • What Size Should You Choose for Your Images? • The Scale Tool • Saving Files • JPEG • GIF • PNG • XCF • TIFF • Other Formats • Experimenting with JPEG and GIF Settings • JPEG Quality Settings • GIF and Indexed PNG Quality Settings • Cropping • Brightening and Darkening • Brightness-Contrast • Levels • Curves • Other Exposure Adjustments • Rotating • Rotating by Multiples of 90 Degrees • Free Rotation • Sharpening • Fixing Red-eye

CHAPTER 3: Introduction to Layers
What Is a Layer? • Using Layers to Add Text • The Text Tool • Using the Move Tool • Changing Colors • GIMP's Color Chooser • Simple Effects Using Layers • Drop Shadows • Linking Layers Together • Performing Operations on Layers • Using Layers for Copy and Paste • Select Only the Part You Want to Paste • Paste Into the Image • Scale the Pasted Layer • Aligning Layers • A Tour of the Layers Dialog • Bonus Project: Making Simple GIF Animations

CHAPTER 4: Drawing
A New Image • Using Layers for Drawing • Drawing Lines and Curves • Drawing Hard Edged Lines: The Pencil Tool • Brushes • Drawing Tool Options • Drawing Fuzzy or Smooth Lines: The Paintbrush Tool • The Airbrush Tool • The Ink Pen Tool • The Eraser Tool • Drawing Rectangles, Circles, and Other Shapes • Defining Regions • Outlining Selections: Stroking • Free Select with the Lasso • Filling Regions • The Bucket Fill Tool • Patterns • Gradients • A Drawing Project: Drawing a Tree

CHAPTER 5: Selection
Working with Selections • Marching Ants • The Select Menu • Moving Selections • Select by Color and Fuzzy Select • Select Contiguous Regions • Bezier Paths • Defining a Path • The Paths Dialog • Curved Paths • Adding Nodes or Segments and Moving Paths • Moving or Modifying an Existing Path • The Intelligent Scissors • Modifying Selections with Selection Modes • The QuickMask • Highlighting Foreground Objects • Using Channel Masks to Save a Selection • Layer Masks • Extracting Foreground Objects with SIOX

CHAPTER 6: Erasing and Touching Up
Dimming Highlights with Dodge and Burn • Dodging • Burning • Smudging Blemishes Away • The Clone Tool, for More Difficult Jobs • Setting the Clone Source • Fine-tuning a Clone Job • Clone Tool Options • Copying Small Regions • The Heal Tool • Pespective Cloning • Sharpening or Blurring Specific Regions: The Blur/Sharpen (Convolve) Tool • Sharpening with the Convolve Tool • Blurring with the Convolve Tool • Blurring Backgrounds with Gaussian Blur •

CHAPTER 7: Filters and Effects
Image Window Filters vs. Toolbox Xtns • Filters for Images • Tools vs. Plug-Ins • The Filters Menu • Blur • Enhance • Distorts • Light and Shadow • Noise Filters • Edge-Detection Filters • "Generic" Filters • Combine • The Artistic Filters • The Map Filters • Adding Patterns to a Layer • Filters to Help Make Web Pages • Animation Helpers • Alpha to Logo • Decor • Scripts to Make New Images: The Xtns Menu

CHAPTER 8: Color Manipulation, Channels, and Layer Modes
A Review of RGB and CMY Color • Additive Colors • Subtractive Colors • The Relationship between Additive and Subtractive Systems • Color Depth • The Indexed Palette • Representing RGB Color in Web Pages • Working in HSV • Why Use HSV? • Working for Print: CMYK • CMYK for Professional Printers • GIMP's Alternative Color Choosers • The Triangle Color Selector • The CMYK Tab • The Watercolor Selector • Correcting Color Balance • Hue-Saturation • Color Balance • Using Curves or Levels for Balancing Colors Working with Grayscale or Black and White • Methods of Measuring Brightness • Grayscale Mode • Desaturate • Hue-Saturation • Decompose • Channel Mixer • Coloring Monochrome Images and Making Sepia Photos • Automatic Conversion with the "Old Photo" Filter • Manual Conversion for Fine Control • Using Threshold to Clean Up Scans • Indexed Color • A Typical Indexing Problem: Choosing the Palette • Dithering an Indexed Image • Redesigning for Better Indexed Results • Picking Colors from the Image • The Color Channels • How to Use Color Decomposition • Use Threshold and QuickMask to Improve the Selection • Decomposing to HSV • Some Color-mapping Toys • Color Profiles • Embedded Color Profiles

CHAPTER 9: Advanced Drawing
Useful Mask Tricks • Making Text "Fade Out" • Making a Fuzzy Border • Even Bigger Fuzzy Borders • Interpreting the Mask Border Color • Layer Modes • A Quick Tour Through All of GIMP's Layer Modes • Creating Depth: Drawing with Layer Modes • Combining Layer Modes: Making 3-D Letters • Drawing Realistic Shadows • Using an Object to Cast Its Own Shadow • Transparency: Add the Final Tweak • Realism and Multipoint Perspective • Single-Point Perspective • Two-Point Perspective • Adding Reflections and Shading • Making Brushes, Patterns, and Gradients

CHAPTER 10: Advanced Compositing
Colorizing Images • Combining Patterns with Textures or Grain • Using Layer Modes to Improve Photos • Using Screen Mode for Dark Images • Using Overlay or Hard Light When Light is Flat • Using Overlay or Burn to Cut Through Haze • Making Photos into Art with Layer Modes • Making "Drawings" and Other Effects Using Layer Offset • Adding Blurs and Other Tricks for Artistic Effects Compositing Unrelated Images • Using Soft Light for Combining Images • Using Overlay for Dark Images • Using Screen to Get a Lighter Effect • Using Addition to Complement Light and Dark • Using Subtract to Make a Cut-out Mask • Making Eerie Colors with Burn • Using Grain Merge to Add Texture • Stacking Images • Stitching Panoramas

CHAPTER 11: Plug-Ins and Scripting
Plug-Ins • The Plug-In Browser • Finding Plug-Ins • Installing a Plug-In • Writing GIMP Scripts • Script-Fu (= Scheme = Lisp) • Python • Perl • Reading and Modifying a Script • User Interface Options for Scripts • A Python Script • Finding Out How to Do Things: The Procedure Browser • A Perl Script • Writing a C Plug-In • A Tour Through Zealous Crop • The run Procedure • The Routine That Does the Work • Getting Pixels: Tiles and Pixel Regions • Searching the Image for Blank Rows and Columns • Writing to Pixel Regions • Making a New Plug-In • Layer Coordinates vs. Image Coordinates • Setting Boundaries • Handling the Edges One at a Time

CHAPTER 12: Additional Topics
Printing with GTK-Print • Printing with Gutenprint • Screen Shots and Scanners: the Acquire Menu • GIMP Preferences • Environment • User Interface and Keyboard Shortcuts • Theme • Help System • Tool Options • Toolbox • Default Image • Default Grid • Image Windows • Display • Color Management • Input Devices • Window Management • Folders • GIMP Configuration Files • Additional Resources • Official GIMP Documentation • The Wiki • Other Tutorial Sites • Reporting Bugs • Finding Source Code at svn.gnome.org • Where to Find Freely Available Images • Art Sites and Imaging Contests • Summary and Conclusion

APPENDIX A: Getting and Installing GIMP
Requirements • Where to Find the GIMP • Installing on Windows • Installing on Macintosh • Installing on Linux and other UNIXy Systems •

APPENDIX B: Installing GIMP on Older Systems

APPENDIX C: Building from Source

APPENDIX D: A Preview of GIMP 2.6
No more Toolbox menus • The Improved Free/Polygonal Select Tool • GEGL • Color Tool Improvements • Brush Dynamics • Text Tool Wrapping • Other Changes •