GIMP for Absolute Beginners

by Jan Smith, Roman Joost

GIMP for Absolute Beginners gives us an easy way to use the power of GIMP, and enjoy digital photography and graphics without worrying about application features.-->--> GIMP is a powerful open source graphics and digital imaging application with almost all the features of its proprietary counterpart, Photoshop. But many of us are photographers and artists first, and we like to use our tools without having to think about them too much. GIMP for Absolute Beginners gets us to this stage without patronising users who haven't used GIMP before.-->--> This book takes us from actually installing GIMP to file format issues and storing images online or on hardware at home. Next we deal with image qualityhow to maintain image quality and how to improve it. For example, we are required to worry about scanners and how they change images while scanning, and how to compensate for it.-->--> But what can we actually do with photos and graphical images? These questions are answered in a photo projects chapter as well as a chapter on digital painting: Starting with making small changes to photos and adding information to them, we end up creating cartoons from outlines and indeed creating paintings and graphical designs without photographic input.

-->What you'll learn-->Learn how to install GIMP and navigate its interface How to work with scanners and card readers Improve image quality with GIMP Increase your design prowess Have fun with digital painting projects -->Who this book is for-->

Hobbyists, occasional designers, enthusiastic photographers, graphical design amateurs, and beginning illustrators.

374 pages, Paperback

First published February 15, 2012

Reviews

[Ivo Stoykov · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good GIMP tutorial. As the title says it is for beginners, but worth to be read - there are some nice shortcuts I found for myself.

[J.J. Rodeo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to start digital painting and after some research, I decided to use GIMP, an open-source image editing program. (I know photoshop is also out there, but I could not purchase it and I did not want to use an illegal copy of the program.)
while searching for the installation file for the GIMP, I came upon this educational book and I found it to be quite helpful. It contained many useful tips and it was concise and comprehensive.
I have already started painting, and I feel very excited!

[Paul Groinus · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very basic introduction to the software, enough to get started using it.

[mciupin13 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very basic manual. There's nothing here that can't be found at any GIMP website or forum, and the websites offer current information about the latest versions and upgrades.

[Dwight Pittenger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very useful book for those like me just beginning to use image processing using the GIMP open source program.