Because of the complication of Inkscape, I though it would make sense to illustrate some of the techniques with this tool in a series. In this first entry I will show you how to work with one of Inkscape’s most fundamental tools – bezier curves. It is with this tool that you create most of your work.

What is a bezier curve anyway?

Figure 1

A bezier curve is a smooth curve, made up of paths, with controllable nodes (or handles) that allow you to manipulate the curve in numerous ways. A curve can have any number of paths and the more paths the smoother the curve. A very simple way to think about this is examining two different geometric figures. Take a look at Figure 1. Here you see two different geometric shapes. On the left you have a hexagon (six sides) and on the right you have an icosagon (20 sides). Obviously the image on the right looks more like a circle. Why? More “paths”. That is what we are dealing with here.

If you can imagine the figures at the right starting as squares and then, using the right tool, adding new nodes into the path sections (a square would have four “paths” by default. The more nodes you place on a path, the more you can manipulate that path. Enough nodes and a square can be manipulated into a circle.

Now, let’s see how this is used in Inkscape.

Create a shape with the tool

Figure 2

Open up Inkscape and then select the Bezier Curve tool (on the left side). With that tool you are going to create a shape. You don’t just click the mouse and start drawing though. You create paths. If you want to create a square with this tool you must hold down the shift key, click a point on the blank canvas and then click the remaining points of the square. You must hold down the shift key the whole time you are creating and then make sure you close off the square by clicking on the original point with the final point (see Figure 2).

Figure 3

Now to add nodes to the paths (of which you have four). Click on the Edit Path by Nodes tool (second from the top on the left). Now click on the Insert New Nodes button (far left on the top row of icons). Double-click in the center of the top path. This will create a new node in the path. Do this for both the sides and the bottom paths. Once you have done that you will have a square with eight total nodes. If you click and drag each of the center nodes outward you will have an octagon (see figure 3). You can then add more nodes and continue smoothing out that shape until you eventually have a circle.

And that is one way to work with bezier curves and nodes.

Perspective is the ability to make it look like you are seeing objects coming or going or to give them a three dimensional shape. Although it may seem like a difficult tool to use, it’s actually quite easy (once you get the hang of it). Let’s see just how this is done.

Assumptions

Naturally I will assume you already have The GIMP installed on your machine. I will also assume you have at least a rudimentary grasp on how The GIMP is used (as I won’t be explaining fundamentals of GIMPs usage). Now, with that said, let’s get to work.

Figure 1

The Perspective tool

When you open up The GIMP you will find the Perspective tool in the toolbox. Figure 1 shows the Perspective tool selected. As you can see you can change the Interpolation and the Clipping as well as the Direction.

What I want to do is to show you how to create a road that

Figure 2

looks like it’s coming at you. The initial image (Figure 2) was created by simply drawing two solid lines and a dotted line.

Because you are going to be actually changing the shape of the image, you need to copy your image onto a larger image. If you do not do this you will not have room to change the perspective of your working image. In the case of our example I will create a newer, larger workspace with the same background color as what you see in Figure 2.

Figure 3

With the new workspace created copy the contents of what you want to work with into the new space. Once that is there select the perspective tool.

When you click on your working image you will see four small squares appear, one in each corner of the copied image. All you need to do is manipulate those corners around until you get the exact perspective you need. Figure 3 shows how The GIMPs perspective tool shows you the original perspective and your working perspective.

When you have the exact look you want you will need to click the Transform button in the floating Perspective window.

Figure 4

When you are done, you will have a 3D looking image of a road appearing to come your way (see Figure 4).

Sure you could have done this freehand, but the task is far, far easier using the tool dedicated to that single purpose.

Final thoughts

The GIMP is filled with handy tools like the Perspective tools. And each of these tools only takes a short period to get used to how they work. The Perspective tool is no different. And, in the end, you will create fantastic images with ease.

Brushes in The GIMP allow the user to extend The GIMP’s flexibility by creating different ways to draw with effect or style. Brushes can be any number of styles from either standard drawing tool brushes to more artistic brushes.  Regardless of the type of brush you want to add (you can even create your own), you have to know how to add them, before you can use them. In this Ghacks article I will show you how to add new brushes to The GIMP in Linux.

Where to find brushes

Obviously you have to have brushes in order to add them. If you are not creating your own brushes, you will need to find them online. There is a wealth of resources for The GIMP on line. Here are some great sites to find brushes to add to The GIMP.

TechZillo: One fine collection of artistic brushes. This site includes blood splatter brushes, grass blade brushes, scratch brushes, grunge brushes, and more.

deviantArt: A small collection but includes spiderwebs and firework brushes.

Free Brushes: A site dedicated to free brushes for not only The GIMP but also Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro.

1000 Free Brushes: That’s right, 1,000 free brushes for The GIMP.

Installing brushes

When you download a brush (or set of brushes) you are going to find either a single .gbr file or an archive of collected .gbr files. Once you have downloaded the file(s) (we’ll assume they have been downloaded to ~/Downloads) open up a terminal window and unpack the file (if needed). Now, from the terminal window follow these steps:

1. Make sure The GIMP is closed.
2. If you are using a distribution that requires you to su to the root user, do so first.
3. Issue the command ls *gbr to make sure you are in the correct directory and the files are there.
4. Issue the command sudo mv *gbr /usr/share/gimp/2.x/brushes Where x is the release of The GIMP you are using. NOTE: If you are using a distribution that does not require sudo leave that portion out of the command.

That’s it. You can now fire up The GIMP and begin using the new brushes. Let’s see how this is done.

Usage

Figure 1

I have downloaded a fun set of brushes called Doodle 2. After installing the brushes, I open up The GIMP and when I click the Brushes button, I can see all of the new Doodle 2 brushes in the tool (see Figure 1). As you can see, near the bottom of brushes window, the Doodle 2 brushes are there. All you need to do is click a tool that can use brushes, like the paintbrush, and then select the brush you wan to use.

Final thoughts

That’s it. Adding new brushes really is a great way to make The GIMP easier and far more useful. And don’t forget, you can also create your own brushes for The GIMP.

Some of these tools you might already know, some of them you may not already know, some of them you will be very glad you now know. So, with that said, let’s get our GIMP on!

Remember the “toolbox”

Figure 1

Before we start with the tools, let me remind you where the toolbox is. When The GIMP opens, three windows should appear:

* The Main Window
* The Dockable Dialog Window
* The Toolbox

The Toolbox (see Figure 1) is the window that allows you to pick your tool of choice. In order to select a tool, you only need to click its button. When you do select a tool, the lower pane will change according to the tool you have chosen. By default, the Paintbrush tool is selected.

Now, let’s take a look at those tools you should know the most.

Move tool

Figure 2

The move tool (see icon in Figure 2) allows you to move your selections around on your image. This is one of the most used tools in The GIMP, but often the most overlooked. Most users assume, once you have placed an element on your image, you can just move it around at will. You can, if the move tool is selected.

Color tool

Figure 3

The color tool (see icon in Figure 3) is one of those tools you will soon wonder how you worked without. With this tool you can select a single color on your entire image. Say, for instance, you have an image with a red background and you want to copy everything but the red background. You can select the Color tool and then click on the red of the background. This action will select everything on your image that is of that exact same color. You can then invert your selection and then copy the contents. You have to be careful using this tool as it does include all of that same color from your image. So if there is red in the portion of the image you want to copy, it will be left out.

Color Picker

Figure 4

The color picker (see icon in Figure 4) is a simple, but very useful tool. When you select a color with the Color Picker it places that color in your color palette. The selected color will be selected as your foreground color. This tool will keep you from having to try to guess the exact colors for your work.

Measure tool

Figure 5

This tool (see icon in Figure 5) is for anyone that has to do exact work. When you use this tool you select two points and at the bottom of the image window and drag the second point to its destination. During the dragging you will see, at the bottom of the image window, the length (in pixels) and angle (relative to horizon).

Scissors selector

Figure 6

There are numerous ways to select a portion of your image. One of those tools is the Scissors select tool (see icon in Figure 6). This tool allows you to place points on your image and the tool will automatically connect those points using intelligent edge fitting. The best way to describe intelligent edge fitting is to show you (see Figure 7).

Figure 7

As you can see, the lines connecting each point attempt to attach themselves to any edge along the path. This is a very handy way to make cut outs of images for illustration purposes.

Final thoughts

And there you have it…five handy GIMP tools that you may not have known about. It is one of my goals to help people see that The GIMP is not as difficult as it would see, nor is the interface as bad as some think. I hope you find these GIMP tools as handy as I do. We’ll revisit this topic and cover five more handy GIMP tools later.

Which version?

The version of The GIMP you are using will matter. If you open up GIMP click on the Help menu and select About. A new window will open informing you which version you are using. I am running 2.6.8. If you can, update your version to the latest so this article will make better sense (and you’re not having to convert from the old style of 2.4.)

Fortunately you won’t have to do anything extra with GIMP – you only have to download the plug-ins you want, place them in the proper directory, and restart GIMP. That’s it. Of course, after you’ve restarted the application, it is some times a matter of locating the plugins.

Where to place the pulg-ins

I will assume you are using GIMP in Linux. That being the case you will find a directory in your ~/ directory called .gimp-XXX (where XXX is the release number). In my case I am looking at ~/.gimp-2.6. Within that directory you will find two different subdirectories that will house most of your plugins:

• plug-ins: If the file is a uncompresses as a directory, it will be unpacked and placed here.
• scripts: If the file has an .scm extension (or compressed archive contains an .scm file), it will go in here.

Now that you know where these directories are, let’s take a look at a few plugins you might like.

Calendar Maker

Figure 1

This simple plugin will take an image you have and render a month calendar on top of it. This script-fu is installed into ~/.gimp-XXX/scripts and will be found in the Filters > Render menu. When you open up the tool you will see a fairly straight-forward window (see Figure 1).

To create a calendar follow these steps:

1) Open up the image you want to lay the calendar over.

2) Click the Filters > Render menu path and select Calendar.

3) Configure the calendar how you want it.

4) Click OK and watch the calendar render.

You can then print out your calendar and use it as desired.

Splix

Figure 2

If you are into gray-scale or sepia tone images, Splix is right up your alley. What you can do with this plugin is take an image and remap the colors to a lighter and a darker color. This is great for when you want to make a sepia tone image with different tones. To install this plug-in move the *scm file to the scripts directory and restart GIMP. To use Splix simply:

1) Open up the image you want to manipulate.

2 ) Go to the Filters > Red Storm FX menu and select Splix.

3) Manipulate the controls as you see fit (see Figure 2).

4) Click OK.

Your image will now be re-rendered in the two tones you selected.

RSS Lightsaber

Figure 3

This one is a lot of fun. Add a lightsaber effect to any image. Figure 3 shows a simple before and after of an image. This script is installed into the scripts directory (even though it downloads as a tar file – it contains documentation). So you will download hte file, unpack it, and move the *scm file to the scripts directory.

To use RSS Lightsaber open up the image you want to manipulate and follow these instructions:

1) Add a new layered (call it Blade Layer).

2) Create the “sabers” using the drawing tool (they MUST be white).

3) Remain within the Blade Layer and go to the Filters > Red Storm FX menu and select RSS Lightsaber.

4) Select the core size, glow size, and glow color and select OK.

Your image will not be rendered with beautiful light saber effects.

Final thoughts

There are quite a lot of filters to be found within the repository. I will revisit this topic as I find cool or useful plugins/scripts later on. If you’ve come across a nifty script, let your fellow Ghacks readers know.

With The GIMP, creating rudimentary 3D logos is painless…if you know the steps. And with a good collection of fonts you can make your clients think you have far more skills than you might actually have. With that in mind, let’s take a look and see just how simple it is to create a 3D logo with The GIMP.

How it works

The GIMP has a built in feature that helps you to create these logos. We will be working with version 2.6 – which is actually important because the engine that creates these has changed as well as the location of the submenu has changed. So if you don’t have 2.6, give upgrading a go.

The process is pretty simple.

• Select the type of logo you want to create from the Create menu.
• Enter all of the necessary information and select the configurations to suit your needs.
• Click OK
• Edit the image to suit your needs.
• Save the file.

Now let’s take a look at the process with a bit more detail.

The logo tool

Figure 1

To open up the logo tool go to the File menu and select the Create submenu. From with the Create submenu you will see the Logos submenu, click on that to reveal the different types of logos you can create (see Figure 1).

The different types of logos range from the cartoonish, to the professional, to the nearly-fantastical. There are quite a few choices so your best bet is to play around with them until you find the type of logo you prefer to work with.

Figure 2

Once you click on the logo type you want to create a new window will open. It is within this window that the logo is created. The good news is, you really need zero artistic skills to tackle this task.

Figure 2 shows all of the configuration options you will have to deal with to create a logo. Don’t let amount of options fool you, you really only need to work with a minimum of these to create your logo. Here’s what you’ll need to work with:

Text: This is what your logo will say.

Font: This is the font you want to use for your logo.

Blend Gradient(s): These will be the gradient colors you will use for your logo. You can create new gradients as well. The included gradients should be plenty to get you started.

Background Color: If you know the color of the background your logo will be going over you can change this here. I usually delete the background color so the logo is surrounded by a transparent border.

Figure 3

And that is the bare minimum you need. Once you have all of that filled out, click OK and the logo will be created.

Figure 3 shows a sample logo created using the Glossy logo tool, the Biometric Joe font,  and the Cold Steel 2 gradient.

Of course there are plenty more options to configure for your logo – but getting the hang of the basics will give you plenty to do with this tool.

Figure 4

TIP: As I mentioned I tend to remove the background in this logos. What this does is allow my logos to be placed on any color background. To do this go to the layer window of your new logo, select the background layer, and click the delete button in the layer window. When you save this image you will now want to make sure you save it in a format that supports transparency (such as .gif or .png.)

Final thoughts

I have used this method to create logos for plenty of clients. Not only does this make you a more versatile web designer, it also adds to the bottom line as you can now charge design fees.

So instead, I gave Paint.net another go, an application which I have tried before, but gave up because I heard GIMP was so awesome. Paint.net is a graphical application just like Photoshop, but without many of its fancy tools. If you just need some cropping, resizing and positioning action for images in your blog, Paint.net will be great. At around 6Mb in size, it doesn’t take a toll on your system either.

For me it works quite well for basic web design too, simple gradients, some web 2.0 style reflections, nothing too complex. The two things which I miss most about Photoshop though is the text capabilities and vector graphics. Text capabilities in both GIMP and Pain.net are shabby compared to PS, and Paint.net doesn’t really have great pen tools either. If you need way more power than the simple Windows Paint, but way less than Photoshop, Paint.net is a solid, well built, lightweight image editor for you.

You can get the best of both worlds though with a nifty addon to Gimp called Gimpshop. This reorders your menus and restructures them to resemble Photoshop’s, and very closely at that. Many items that have caused mix-ups have been changed, for example Gimp’s convolve tool has been renamed to “blur/sharpen”, something actually understandable.

Menus have been reordered to, so if you’ve grown accustomed to Photoshop, you’ll feel right at home in Gimp too. I’m sorry to say there is no Windows version yet, only Mac and Linux, but there is one on the way! If you’re a developer you can grab the source from the homepage though. I like many-many things in Gimp and I’d rather support free software which is as good as its $600 counterpart, so it’s Gimp with Gimpshop for me!

Before I give Noah’s method, I’d like to mention that there is a way to create animated gifs directly with MPlayer. However, the resultant gif file can sometimes be very strange-looking so it’s not very reliable. Anyway, once you figure out what video clip to use, let’s begin. Fire up MPlayer and switch to command-line operation. Then type in the following command:

mplayer -ao null -loop 0 -ss 0:11:22 -endpos 5 file.avi

This command allows you to preview what your final gif will look like. In this instance, I’ve selected a 5 second clip and looped it so it keeps repeating. If you’re satisfied with the clip, proceed to the next step.

mplayer -ao null -ss 0:11:22 -endpos 5 file.avi -vo jpeg:outdir=gifmovie

This command tells MPlayer to export your 5-second clip as a series of jpeg images to the specified folder, which in this case is ‘gifmovie’. After this step, MPlayer’s work is done and it’s time to switch to Gimp. This is where you convert the jpeg files into your gif.

Open the first jpeg image in your directory using Gimp. Then, open the rest of the images in the folder as layers (File > Open as layer). Now, all you have to do is save the file as a gif (File > Save As). In the resultant dialog box, check the ‘save as animation’ and ‘loop forever’ options. Then, click on ‘Export’ and your animated gif is ready.

You need to play around a bit with the options in Gimp if you want to add fancy effects and things like that. I tried this out and I was quite happy with my gif file. It requires a bit of practice but once you have a basic idea of where things are, it’s a breeze. Have you ever tried making an animated gif file? What program did you use? What do you think of Noah’s method?

Liquid Rescale is a plugin for Gimp which adds this functionality to Gimp. I was a little bit surprised that it took just a few weeks to create the plugin which currently does everything shown in the tech demo except real-time resizing.

The Liquid Rescale plugin requires Gimp 2.1.1.3 or newer and can be found in the Layer menu after installation. Take a look at the technology demonstration below in case you missed it. The plugin itself is available for Linux and Windows.

Read More:

Liquid Rescale
via Genbeta

The tool is available for many platforms including Windows, Mac and Unix / Linux. The best part is, that it has almost every feature that Adobe Photoshop has. Its able to load and save in 34 different formats making it also an ideal image converter.

The homepage has not only download links to the latest GIMP version but also an extensive tutorial section that helps you in your first steps with GIMP.

I recommend the tool to everyone who needs to use an image manipulation program for his personal images and websites.

Head over to the Gimp Homepage and take a look at it.

Transform Images with GIMP

At times, and maybe even now, you have needed a graphics suite to edit images to accentuate and enhance them with an artistic flair. Adobe Photoshop is the standard, but once you take a look at the prices on the internet or while walking around a software section in one of the “Best” stores (not a specified location), it is a chilling blow to see the price. If this cuts into your budget like a Viking’s axe, GIMP could very well be what you need. To put it plain and simple, this is great software for the price. It costs $0.00 which can be paid with a few clicks. This includes a tutorial section that will provide you with everything you need to know in virtually any language format.

There is certainly no harm in trying it out and it is fun to experiment with before cracking open the tutorial. The download takes about 2 minutes and the interface, though complex is straightforward.

Initially, when you run GIMP, the toolbars do not align like they do in the screen shot above. It is easy to resize and move them around to match the interface, which starts as a tiny screen. There are too may tools and options to mention here, but we can take a look at some of them. Simply drag and drop an image into the open field and you are ready to begin.

Here we have the image of a rose in its original color and resolution. By selecting “Colors” in the upper pane options, you get a dropdown list of options to change the image. By selecting Color Balance, You can adjust the intensity of the color tones and change the image of a pink rose into this:

By clicking on the diagonal line in the graph, you can drag various points on the line to different areas of the field to get a variety of effects. This altered image gives a totally different impression.

This is just one feature. With the Filters option, you can select a wide assortment of customizations to express your artistic style in the image.

With so many directions to take the images you have, it is easy to spend hours getting caught up in this program. The toolbar options alone feature options like cropping, paintbrush, eraser tool, scissors and much more. Use different layers and artistic options, change hue and brightness, adjust noise levels, etc. This program is highly recommended for the artistic photographer. You can use any image like JPG, PNG, thumbnails, cartoon pictures, and anything else you can come up with. Finally, you can merge them together for a collage. The best way to learn is to experiment and have fun and use the tutorial to sharpen your skill. Enjoy this delightful program.