Posts Tagged ‘gnu image manipulation’

Improve default picture viewing on Slackware Linux with XFCE as Desktop environment

Saturday, March 17th, 2012

Default XFce picture viewer on Slackware Linux is GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program). Though GIMP is great for picture editting, it is rather strange why Patrick Volkerding compiled XFCE to use GIMP as a default picture viewer? The downsides of GIMP being default picture viewing program for Slackware's XFCE are the same like Xubuntu's XFCE risterroro, you can't switch easily pictures back and forward with some keyboard keys (left, right arrow keys, backspace or space etc.). Besides that another disadvantage of using GIMP are;
a) picture opening time in GIMP loading is significantly higher if compared to a simple picture viewer program like Gnome's default, eye of the gnomeeog.

b) GIMP is more CPU intensive and puts high load on each picture opening

A default Slackware install comes with two good picture viewing programs substitute for GIMP:
 

  • Gwenview

    Gwenview on Slackware Linux picture screenshot XFCE

  •  
  • Geeqie
  • Geeqie Slackware Linux Screenshot XFCE

    Both of the programs support picture changing, so if you open a picture you can switch to the other ones in the same directory as the first opened one.
    I personally liked more Gwenview because it has more intutive picture switching controls. With it you can switch with keyboard keys space and backspace

    To change GIMP's default PNG, JPEG opening I had with mouse right button over a pic and in properties change, Open With: program.

    XFCE4 Slackware Linux picture file properties window

    If you're curious about the picture on on all screenshots, this is Church – Saint George (situated in the city center of Dobrich, Bulgaria).
    St. Georgi / St. George Church is built in 1842 and is the oldest Orthodox Church in Dobrich.
    In the Crimean War (1853-1856) the church was burned down and was restored to its present form in 1864.

    gpicview is another cool picture viewing program, I like. Unfortunately on Slackware, there is no prebuild package and the only option is either to convert it with alien from deb package or to download source and compile as usual with ./configure && make && make install .
    Downloading and compiling from source went just fine on Slackware Linux 13.37gpicview has more modern looking interface, than gwenview and geeqie. and is great for people who want to be in pace with desktop fashion 🙂

How to add extra plugins, effects, brushes and functionality to GIMP on GNU / Linux

Tuesday, February 28th, 2012

How to add extra plugins, effects brushes and functionality to GIMP on Debian and Ubuntu Linux / GIMP logo head pictureThese days, I'm playing with The GIMP. I've been a GNU / Linux, FreeBSD user for already 11 years now but as I'm doing mostly system administration and I don't have much expertise in Panting or Computer Graphical Design, I've never put much time to learn more in the interesting area of graphical design. Hence until just recently, Just until now, I've never spend time with the GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) and never realized how powerful this great program is. The more I learn about GIMP functionalities and how it works the more it makes me determined to learn some basic web design 🙂

The functionality which The GIMP offers in a basic install is quite rich, however by default on most Debian and Ubuntu installations many of the great plugins which easifies the way to edit pictures is missing.

Example for a very valuable functionality which is not present with standard gimp package installed on Debian and Ubuntu are:
 

Here I will mention here few words on:

  • GIMP FX-Foundry Collection

GIMP FX-Foundry is a thoroughful collection of GIMP scripts (addon plugins), that automates many of the operations which requires a professional web design skills and gives an easy intuitive interface through which very robust "high level" graphic design can be accomplished. This additional GIMP extensions helps to create very unique design in just few simple steps, as well as gives multiple tools for the sake of easy pro design creation. For anyone looking for quick edit of images with GIMP FX-Foundry is a must have GIMP plugins extension. The script pack is located on http://gimpfx-foundry.sourceforge.net/

To install FX-Foundry scripts collection on Debian / Ubuntu / Linux Mint and other based Linux distributions:

debian:~# apt-get install --yes gimp-plugin-registry
...

gimp-plugin-registry package name is based on GIMP Plugin registry's website
. Gimp plugin registry contains many helpful design goodies 🙂

Once installed you will notice GIMP with a new menu on the main menus bar reading FX-Foundry :

GIMP Screenshot GNU Linux Debian additional FX Foundry menu

GIMP FX Foundry extensionos package contains 124 scripts for additional graphics manipulation. The collection contains less scripts than the ones provided by gimp-plugin-registry. package has 156 scripts inside.

One of the most helpful GIMP addition from the package is the inclusion of Save for Web button under:

File -> Save for Web

GIMP Save for Web menu suitable for reduced size images for HTML image producing on Debian GNU / Linux screenshot

Another very helpful .deb package which adds up to GIMP's design possibilities is gimp-data-extras .

gimp-data-extras adds 111 new GIMP Fill in Patterns , which can be used through the Blend Tool to Fill selected areas with color gradients.

To install gimp-data-extras on Debian:

debian:~# apt-get install --yes gimp-data-extras
...

Generally once installed this package will add to GIMP – an extra set of brushes, palettes, and gradients for The GIMP as you can read in the package description.

I was also quite stunned to find out the good old GIMP is capable of basic Video editting!!

On Debian and Ubuntu there is a package called gimp-gap which once installed adds an extra Video menu.

GIMP Screenshot GNU Debian linux adding GIMP extra Video editting capabilities

I've not tested the GIMP video editting capabilities yet, however I intend to learn something about it immediately when I have some free time left. You see the enormous list of Video editting possibilities GIMP obtaines with gimp-gap which btw stands for (The GIMP Animation Package).

To install gimp-gap:

debian:~# apt-get install --yes gimp-gap

I've noticed also the following list of others useful GIMP additions (mainly helpful in Web, Brochure and Logo Graphic Design) to install them:

debian:~# apt-get --yes install gimp-gmic gimp-ufraw gtkam-gimp gimp-gluas \gimp-dimage-color gimp-dds gimp-dcraw gimp-cbmplugs flegita-gimp gimp-texturize \gimp-resynthesizer gimp-lensfun gimp-gutenprint gtkam-gimp mrwtoppm-gimp

Here is the package description of the packages above command will install:

  • gimp-cbmplugs – plugins for The GIMP to import/export Commodore 64 files
  • gimp-data-extras – An extra set of brushes, palettes, and gradients for The GIMP
  • gimp-dcraw – GIMP plug-in for loading RAW digital photos
  • gimp-dds – DDS (DirectDraw Surface) plugin for the gimp
  • gimp-dimage-color – GIMP plugin to convert Minolta DiMAGE pictures to sRGB colour space
  • gimp-gap – The GIMP Animation Package
  • gimp-gluas – Lua environment plug-in for GIMP
  • gimp-gmic – GIMP plugin for GREYC's Magic Image Converter
  • gimp-gutenprint – print plugin for the GIMP
  • gimp-lensfun – Gimp plugin to correct lens distortion using the lensfun library
  • gimp-normalmap – Normal map plugin for GIMP
  • gimp-plugin-registry – repository of optional extensions for GIMP
  • gimp-resynthesizer – Gimp plugin for texture synthesis
  • gimp-texturize – generates large textures from a small sample
  • gimp-ufraw – gimp importer for raw camera images
  • flegita-gimp – Gnome Gimp scan plugin.
  • gtkam-gimp – gtkam gimp plugin to open digital camera pictures
  • mrwtoppm-gimp – GIMP-plugin to support Minolta DiMAGE 5/7/7i RAW images

Now after installing all this plugins and seeing all GIMP's power, I'm starting to wonder why are still people ranting Adobe PhotoShop is feature rich.
That's all, enjoy the great new GIMP features. Happy picture editting 😉