Book of GIMP

A Complete Guide to Nearly Everything

by Olivier Lecarme and Karine Delvare

January 2013, 676 pp.

ISBN-13:

978-1-59327-383-5

4-Color

GIMP is a free alternative to Adobe Photoshop with tons of professional-grade features. But with so many powerful tools and menu options, GIMP can be difficult to master. Whether you're struggling to get started or trying to master some of GIMP's more complex features, you'll find the answers you're looking for in The Book of GIMP.

The tutorials in the first half of the book walk you through essential GIMP skills, like resizing and cropping images, touching up spots and scratches, and customizing your work area. Illustrated, step-by-step instructions show you how to:

Improve the lighting and composition of images
Remove distortions and noise to make old and damaged photos look like new
Create stunning panoramas and digital collages using a series of photos
Make, edit, and export custom textures, logos, and animated GIFs
Work with selections, channels, and masks to edit images like a pro
Create colorful digital art, layer by layer

The book's second half offers a comprehensive reference to GIMP's many features, including color balancing, masks, filters, and plug-ins. You'll find tools described in unparalleled detail, with coverage of nearly every option and parameter.

With illustrated tutorials and detailed references, The Book of GIMP is sure to become your one-stop guide to just about everything GIMP.

Author Bio

Olivier Lecarme is a Professor Emeritus in Computer Science at the University of Nice, France. He has a doctorate and a "Thèse d'État" in Computer Science. He has been a professor at the Universities of Grenoble, Montréal, Lausanne, and Nice, and has taught many aspects of computer science, including programming language fundamentals, and graphics processing.

Karine Delvare is a web development consultant. She has a master's in Computer Science, with a specialization in image and sound, and has collaborated on the GIMP development project. She lives in Mérignac, near Bordeaux, France.

Table of contents

Introduction

I. Learning GIMP
1. Getting Started
2. Photograph Retouching
3. Drawing and Illustration
4. Logos and Textures
5. Composite Photography
6. Animation
7. Image Preprocessing
8. Designing a Website

II. GIMP Reference Manual
9. The GIMP Interface
10. Display
11. Layers
12. Color
13. Selections
14. Masks
15. Drawing Tools
16. Transformation Tools
17. Filters
18. Animation Tools
19. Obtaining and Printing Images
20. Image Formats
21. Scripts and Plug-ins
22. Customizing GIMP

III. Appendices
A. Vision and Image Representation
B. Tips and Hints for Selected Exercises
C. Resources
D. Frequently Asked Questions
E. Installing GIMP
F. Batch Processing

View the Index (PDF)
View the detailed Table of Contents (PDF)

Reviews

"If any reader is looking for a free and full-featured image-editing program, then by all means consider GIMP, as well as this outstanding tutorial and reference book."
—Michael J. Ross, web developer and Slashdot contributor (Read More)

"Have a copy of this on your desk, and we can't imagine a single GIMP-related question that it won't be able to provide an answer to."
—Graham Morrison, Linux Format

"Whether you are a GIMP beginner or a veteran user, this book will save you hours of trial and error when editing graphics files."
—Jack Germain, LinuxInsider (Read More)

"An excellent introduction to the GIMP and, to an extent, image processing (and pre-processing) in general."
—Jesse Smith, DistroWatch (Read More)

Featured on examiner.com (Read More)

"Olivier has included a very complete range of topics. And this book is now on my shelf, because I am still learning things."
—Ramon Miranda, creator of GIMP Paint Studio (Read More)

Featured on Network World (Read More)

"I felt like chapters were organized in a way that made it easy for readers to decide exactly how much of the detail they cared about. I was thoroughly impressed by The Book of GIMP and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone."
—Dave Rankin, About.com Open Source (Read More)

"This book really does contain just about everything one needs to know about this great software suite."
—Greg Barbrick, Blogcritics (Read More)

"If I was going to use one word to describe this book, it would be 'masterpiece'. This is one of the most well put together books I have ever read. It is in full-color, covers a wide variety of topics, and covers them in depth."
—Tad Anderson, SYS-CON MEDIA (Read More)

"I highly recommend this excellent all-in-one reference book to all GIMP users."
—nixCraft (Read More)

"GIMP is notoriously a little bit difficult to work with, but The Book of GIMP explains how to make the most out of every feature."
—Kevin Wierzbicki, Campus Circle (Read More)