The Book of GIMP


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.

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

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

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

Book Details

  • Paperback: 676 pages
  • Publisher: No Starch Press (December 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1593273835
  • ISBN-13: 978-1593273835
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No Responses

  1. tavivlia says:

    the absolute irony…GIMP is mostly used under GNU/Linux (which I use) and cannot read it with evince or xpdf, only with Adode Reader 9 fonts are visible and loads fast in contrast to the abovementioned. :/

    Can you do something about it buddy?

    Keep up the good work!

  2. dhamaso says:

    prefiles suck!!! please change the server. 😕

  3. Wow! says:

    dhamaso,
    Why PreFiles.com is suck?

  4. harrykrishna says:

    the epub file is the one you want, not the pdf file. the pdf file has only images. this is what is posted on tbp, kat, etc.

  5. mcfur13 says:

    Originally Posted by tavivlia »

    the absolute irony…GIMP is mostly used under GNU/Linux (which I use) and cannot read it with evince or xpdf, only with Adode Reader 9 fonts are visible and loads fast in contrast to the abovementioned. :/

    I can confirm…the pdf renders nicely on Mac and iPad, but not on Linux.

    I downloaded sample chapter from No Starch. It presented nicely in linux pdf readers. Tried several different readers with no change.

    Google was not helpful in trying to resolve. It appears there is an issue with libpoppler and some fonts. Not sure how to break it down any more than that.

    Opening the pdf via command line, I kept getting error messages (incl. sample pdf) about
    "Error: Invalid Font Weight".

    Also received errors (but not with sample pdf):
    "Error: Couldn't create a font for 'LGUSHR+Futura-Bold'"
    "Error: Couldn't create a font for 'NWREJN+Helvetica'"
    "Error: Couldn't create a font for 'NWREJN+Helvetica'"

    epub presented nicely.
    Not sure what to suggest.

    Appreciate the efforts. 😀

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