Introduction to the Gimp

by: sarakrindel

The Gimp is an computer art program originally designed for Linux, but by now has been ported to Windows. It's very to Photoshop, but with two major differences. First it can be used to make gif animations, and it is free.

LINUX USERS ONLY

Almost every recent version of Linux has the Gimp pre-installed, so you're ready to go. Check to see what version you have - if you have version 1.0, you might want to get version 1.2 as there are a few more tools, options, and a few minor bugs have been fixed. I use version 1.2, so for the purposes of this guide I assume the reader uses version 1.2 too.

If you have trouble finding it on the desktop, start a terminal window, and type in "gimp" and enter.

WINDOWS USERS ONLY

You have to go to the WinGimp Website to download it. It's a whopping 12MB, so it will take several hours on a dial up modem, not to mention I've heard about it crashing in the middle. You can also order it on a CD if you're willing to pay $5 for shipping & handling and give out your address. Other than that, I can't give any help with installation and whatnot other than what is offered on the WinGimp site.

I assume WinGimp is identical to the original version of the Gimp which I use, but there might be several differences of which I may not be aware.

EVERYBODY

This is what the Gimp looks like-

As you can see, there are twenty tools, some of them you should already be familiar with from other art programs, and the ones you don't know you'll have to figure out or cause the destruction of the universe. For help, you can look up Grokking the Gimp on specific tools.

Each of the tools also have their own individual options. For example, these are the options of the airbrush tool-

On the bottom left corner there is the colors palette. Click the white spot to get the color palette

On the bottom right corner is the currently selected brush, the currently selected pattern, and the current gradient selction. You can click on each for the repective selection options.

I have yet to find any practical use for gradient selections, but if you do, great!

Get a canvas/picture open through File> New or File> Open and click with the right button to get more menu options, such as depicted by this crappy JPEG file

Many of these options are identical or remarkably similar to those in Photoshop, so you probably should look at those tutorials too.

On the canvas menu, under Image > Mode, you will see the three options of 'RGB' 'Grayscale' and 'Indexed'. 'RGB' is for JPEG/JPG images, 'Indexed' is for GIF images, and 'Grayscale' can be for either JPEG/JPG or GIF, but it's just black, white, and gray. I'm obsessed with making images take up minimum amount of storage space, I use these and tinker with the options all the time to try to get maximum quality for minimum memory.

Last but not least, on the Layers > Layers, Channels & Paths within the canvas menu will get the the layers manager up and running.

If you are familiar with Photoshop, you should have no problems here. As oddhatter said, layers rock. Almost every graphic artist who works with them falls in love with them -_'

As mentioned earlier, Grokking the Gimp is a good in-depth guide to using the Gimp, and a great reference for finding out what a paticular option means, although I have never bothered to read it word-for-word. I learned most of how to use the gimp by trial, error, and mostly being silly and having fun over the course of several years, with only a 10-minute demostration to provide a foundation. It's not rocket science. Remember, the most important thing of all is enjoy the process!