GIMP for Absolute Beginners

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.

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 to creating paintings and drawings without photographic input.

GIMP for Absolute Beginners covers the newest version of GIMP, version 2.8, so you can be sure the book covers the latest GIMP features.

What you’ll learn

• Learn how to install GIMP and navigate its interface
• 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.

About the Authors

Jan Smith has been taking photos for more than 20 years; her photos have been reproduced in a range of media. In 2000 she studied digital imaging at the Adelaide Central School of Art and moved from the darkroom to digital editing with relief.

Jan discovered GIMP nine years ago while volunteering at Computerbank (a company that refurbishes donated computers and sells them cheaply to low income people to help bridge the digital gap). Jan has assisted hundreds of low-income people become familiar with computers loaded with open-source software. She has developed a solid grasp of the way beginners learn to use software.

Jan has worked as a technical writer for Infrae in the Netherlands and for companies using open-source software in Australia. She was elected Vice President of the Zope Foundation in 2010. She has a background in radio journalism, technology and production, and is the assistant manager of 3ZZZ, Australia’s largest multilingual community radio station. Jan brought open-source software into 3ZZZ to improve the not-for-profit organization’s workflows.

Roman Joost first learned about open-source software in 1997. He is the project manager of GIMP’s user documentation and he has contributed code to GIMP. He has contributed to GIMP and Zope open-source projects for eight years. Roman has a Diplom-Informatiker (FH) from Anhalt University of Applied Sciences in Koethen, Germany. He has worked for Gocept GmbH & Co. in Germany, Infrae in the Netherlands, and is currently working for another Zope company in Brisbane, Australia. For relaxation, he enjoys photography and digital painting with GIMP.