GIMP posts

Filed under: Photo, Utilities, Windows, Freeware, Windows x64

Paint.NET 3.5 Beta 1 released - now with added shiny

by Paul O'Brien Sep 22nd 2009

The widely acclaimed image editor Paint.NET has been updated to version 3.5 Beta 1.

The Windows application, developed using version 3.5 of the .net framework, was originally developed by a Microsoft-mentored student as a replacement for the basic Microsoft Paint application that ships with Windows. Since it's inception it has grown hugely in features to the extent that many now consider it a viable free alternative to applications such as Photoshop and The GIMP.

Paint.NET includes powerful features including layers, unlimited undo, numerous filters, magic wand, cloning and also offers a plugin architecture for third party extensibility.

The new 3.5 Beta 1 release - the first to require version 3.5 of the .net framework - adds a refreshed UI designed to look great on Windows Vista and Windows 7 Aero / Glass together with new filters, initial Windows 7 taskbar integration (recent items are listed in the jumplist), reduced memory usage and a host of fixes and updates.

If you are already a Paint.NET user you can download the updated release from within the application itself using the update feature, or the release can be downloaded directly from GetPaint.

Many people of course will be sceptical as to whether Paint.NET can genuinely offer a Photoshop alternative for $0 - are you already a satisfied user? Share your thoughts on the application in the comments!

Tags: gimp, image editing, image editor, ImageEditing, ImageEditor, paint, paint .net, Paint.net, photoshop

Filed under: Design, Windows, Linux, Open Source

GIMP 2.7 beta released

by Brad Linder Aug 27th 2009

The folks behind the open source GIMP image editing application have released the first beta build of GIMP 2.7. The application is available for Windows and Linux, although the download server for Gimp 2.7 beta seems to be a bit fuzzy at the moment. You can get the source code from a mirror, or download the Windows installer from Filehippo.

As you can see from the screengrab of the installer, this is not a stable release. And it crashed on me a few times as I tried out some of the new features, including the new on-canvas text editor. But here are a few of the changes in GIMP 2.7:

GIMP resources such as brushes and patterns are now taggable.
Save as and Export functions have been separated. To save a file as anything other than an XCF file, you need to use Export.
Enhanced size entry widget
Refinements to the layer mode menus
Status bar feedback for keyboard changes to brush patterns

You can read more details in the release notes or changelog.

Tags: gimp, gimp-2.7, gimp-2.7-beta, image-editing

Filed under: Design, Windows, Open Source

Run GIMP 2.6.1 image editor from a flash drive

by Brad Linder Oct 13th 2008

Just about a week after open source image editor GIMP 2.6.1 was released, a portable version is available. What makes GIMP 2.6.1 Portable different from the original application is that you don't have to install the portable edition on a computer to run it. You just download the application, run it once to unzip it to a directory of your choice, and then you can run it from that folder. In other words, you can unzip it to a USB flash drive and plug that drive into any computer you want to use GIMP on.

GIMP Portable is part of the Portable Apps suite which also includes portable versions of Firefox and OpenOffice.org. The portable applications are Windows only, although most of the applications are open source and capable of running on Windows, Linux, and in some cases, OS X. You just need to install them the old fashioned way on Linux and Mac systems.

Tags: gimp, gimp-2.6, gimp-portable, portable-apps

Filed under: Design, Linux, Open Source

GIMP 2.6 open source image editor launched

by Brad Linder Oct 1st 2008

The developers behind open source the image editing application GIMP have released a major update. GIMP 2.6 includes a number of changes to the user interface and tools and plugins. There are a also a few important changes under the hood.

One of the most noticable changes is that the main menu items have been moved from the toolbox window to the image window so that you can access most options in one place. Another major change is the ability to pan beyond the border of an image. The free select tool has been tweaked so that it now supports polygonal selections, and there are new brush dynamic options that let you tweak the size, opacity, pressure, and velocity of brush strokes. GIMP 2.6 also uses GEGL for processing most color operations.

You can find a complete list of changes in the release notes.

GIMP 2.6 is available for download via FTP. It's not yet available in the Ubuntu repositories, and there's no Windows installer yet, so you might want to wait a while before installing GIMP 2.6 unless you're comfortable compiling applications from source.

[via Slashdot]

Update: The Windows version is now available for download.

Tags: gimp, gimp-2.6, image-editing

Filed under: Photo, Linux, Open Source

GIMP 2.5.4 Ready for Download

by Lee Mathews Sep 17th 2008

Development toward the 2.6 release of GIMP continues, and devoted users can now head over to the FTP server and grab a copy of the new (and unstable) 2.5.4 release.

Several UI annoyances have been fixed. Docks and toolboxes can now be easily recovered from an accidental close via the window menu. You can also lock your tabs to a dock to keep yourself from dragging them out by mistake, and presets can be saved in all GIMP's color tools.

A blank, placeholder window has been added (pictured), which allows files to be dragged-and-dropped for editing.

The help system has been improved, and now supports online browsing. If you don't have the entire set of docs installed, GIMP will simply open the requested page in your web browser.

Full release notes are available here.

Tags: gimp, linux, open-source, photo editing, PhotoEditing

Filed under: Design, Internet, Mozilla, Freeware, Browsers

Grab Color Palettes From Your Current Page In Firefox

by Lee Mathews Aug 15th 2008

Design inspiration can come from a lot of different places. If you find yours from digital sources on the web, Palette Grabber for Firefox might be incredibly useful to you.

Install it, and Palette Grabber sits in the left corner of your status bar waiting to leap into action. A single click (right or left) exports a selective palette based on your current page in Firefox. Palette selection is very intelligent, producing accurate swatch sets for each of the websites I sampled.

Palette Grabber supports several file formats, including Photoshop, Flash, Fireworks, PaintShop Pro, the GIMP, and Mac OS X Color Picker. Minimalists and power users can elect to save a tabbed text listing of RGB values.

For a 25k download, Palette Grabber is definitely worth adding to your Firefox install if you do any digital design work.

Tags: color palette, color swatch, ColorPalette, colors, ColorSwatch, design, GIMP, palette, photoshop

Filed under: Design, Utilities, Imaging Tips

Do more with GIMP by adding plugins

by Todd Ritter Dec 27th 2007

We are big fans of free, open-source alternatives to brand-name software, and one of the best examples of this is GIMP, the full-featured Photoshop rival. Like any good forward-thinking software project, GIMP has a plugin architecture which allows for any shortcomings or missing features to be remedied by a helpful developer taking the time to create the necessary add-in. techZilo has compiled a handy list of its top 40+ plugins for GIMP including "Snow" (just in time for winter!), "RedEye," and "Light Filter."

Installing the plugins on Linux will require the use of your trusty terminal, and some plugins even require running install scripts (new Linux users will probably want to consult the GIMP docs for help). If you're running GIMP on Windows, you'll have to look for a precompiled version of the plugins you want since most GIMP plugins are uncompiled code that your Windows machine will not understand.

GIMP is available for Linux and Windows, and also for Mac OS X via Darwinports or Fink (so you would follow the plugin installation instructions for Linux).

[Via Lifehacker]

Tags: gimp, plugin

Filed under: Developer, Photo, Utilities, News, Macintosh, Linux, Open Source, Unix

Paint-Mono - A GIMP alternative?

by Kristin Shoemaker Dec 23rd 2007

Screen shot of Paint-Mono from Paint-Mono Project

The Download Squad team got really excited this morning. When we contemplated installing Paint-Mono, we pictured it and GIMP arming themselves with swords, screaming "There can be only one!" We thought there would be an epic battle, and the victor would lop off the other's head in a firestorm of light.

Instead, we ended up compiling Mono.

Paint-Mono is a Unix port of Paint.NET. To install, it requires Mono 1.2.6, your favorite flavor of Unix (OSX, BSD, Linux, or Solaris), and a Subversion client. (Here's a little warning: if you're running Ubuntu Gutsy, you don't have the right version of Mono. Deb packages for this version are hard to find, so that most likely means compiling from source. The Mono installer didn't work for us).

So is it a GIMP killer? At this point we'd have to say no. We couldn't get Paint-Mono to compile (even after installing Mono 1.2.6). According to Miguel de Icaza, most of the features in Paint.NET have been ported over to Paint-Mono, with more to come. It might be a nice alternative as it develops, but we'll have to wait and see. Right now, it could have all the features of GIMP and more, but we'd still recommend GIMP to our friends just because they'd actually be able to install it and run it on their Windows, Linux, or even Mac computers.

[via Digg]

Tags: compile, editors, gimp, graphics, linux, mono, paint-mono, paint.net, subversion, unix

Filed under: Features, Hardware, Linux

Eee PC Tips: A crash course in Linux

by Brad Linder Nov 6th 2007

So you're an early adopter and you've run out to buy yourself Asus's $400 Eee PC because it seemed like a great price for a fully functional 2 pound computer that's about the size of a typical hardcover book (and far smaller than Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows).

But the innovative easy to use interface might get old pretty quickly if you want to do more than surf the web and create letters, spreadsheets, and PowerPoint style presentations for your friends telling them how cool you are because you have an Eee PC while they don't.

Asus includes instructions for loading Windows XP onto the Eee PC, but it requires an external DVD drive, some drive compression, and you know, a copy of Windows XP. Curiously, Asus does not include any instructions for unlocking the built-in potential of Xandros Linux, the operating system that ships with the Eee PC. But as we mentioned in this week's Squadcast, it just takes a little bit of work to unlock this machine's potential.

If you've got a bit of Linux experience under your belt, it's pretty simple to add some programs, enable an advanced desktop, and tweak the Eee PC to your heart's content. But it turns out that even if you're a Linux noob, the learning curve isn't that steep. Here are some of the most useful Eee hacks/tweaks we've discovered in our first half week of playing with it. Thanks to the Eee User community for helping inspire our hacking.

Tags: audacity, easy-mode, eee-pc, full-desktop, gimp, icewm, kde, linux, start-menu, synaptic, Xandros

Filed under: Design, Open Source

GIMP 2.4: First major update in three years

by Brad Linder Oct 25th 2007

If you've been thinking it's been a while since GIMP 2.2 was released, you're right. It's been three years since the GIMP team has pushed out a major update to the open source Photoshop alternative. This week, GIMP 2.4 was released, with a new icon set, and a whole slew of other features:

Redesigned crop, selection, and align tools
Scalable bitmap brushes
Reorganized menu layout
Improved display when zooming in or out
Support for more file formats
Full support for color profiles
Improved printing
Auto red eye removal tool

There are a ton of other new features and updates. You can read about them in the release notes.

[via Slashdot]

Tags: gimp, gimp-2.4, image-editing, the-gimp

Filed under: Audio, Design, Utilities, Video, Linux

Ubuntu Studio released

by Brad Linder May 11th 2007

An Ubuntu-based Linux distribution designed for creative types has been released. Ubuntu Studio was originally due out last month, but some last minute glitches caused the developers to delay the release date by a few weeks.

Ubuntu Studio is designed to prove that Linux is just as good as OS X or Windows for creating and manipulating media files. Of course, if you're not an ubergeek, installing audio, video, and image editing applications can be a bit of a hassle.

That's where Ubuntu Studio comes in. The distribution comes with some of the most popular and powerful free multimedia software available, including:

Ardour2 and Audacity for audio editing
Pitivi for video editing (Cinelerra will be available after license issues are worked out)
Gimp and Blender for image editing
And a boatload of other packages designed for creating digital media

Sure, you could configure your own Ubuntu or other Linux system to run all the same software. But Ubuntu Studio takes most of the pain out of the process.

One thing to note, the ISO is a bit larger than your typical LiveCD, at 860MB. So you'll have to burn it to a DVD. Oh yeah, and it's not a LiveCD... err LiveDVD. You'll have to install Ubuntu Studio if you want to take it for a test drive. Fortunately the installation process is fairly straightforward, and if you have an empty partition on your hard drive Ubuntu Studio can happily coexist with Windows or other operating systems.

Tags: ardour, audacity, blender, cinelerra, editing, gimp, multimedia, pitivi, ubuntu, ubuntu studio, UbuntuStudio

Filed under: Design, Photo, Utilities, News, Windows, Open Source, Imaging Tips

PAINT.NET 3.0 alpha is here

by Ryan Carter Oct 15th 2006

I have been using Paint.net for a while now, and it really is a decent editor. Everyone who needs something more powerful than the Microsoft Paint that comes with Windows, but can't figure out Adobe Photoshop needs to take a look at Paint.net. The new alpha release (for testing only of course) has a multiple document interface, which is one of the biggest improvements in the new version. Though it is labeled Alpha, 3.0 is quite stable and usable. It now has common color palette and even a common colors panels too. The formerly slow font-loading problem has been smoothed out, and the fonts show up quickly now. Check it out!

Tags: .net, dot, editing, editor, gimp, image, net, paint, paint.net, photoshop

Filed under: Design, Open Source

GIMP 10th anniversary splash screen winner announced

by Jordan Running Dec 30th 2005

Open source image editing program the GIMP is celebrating its 10th birthday and to commemorate it they held a contest to design a splash screen. The winner, announced this week, is "Dialed In" by an artist called ix. The winning splash screen accompanies the GIMP's birthday release, version 2.2.10, which can be downloaded from its many mirrors. You can check out all of the entries in the gallery.

[Via Slashdot]

Tags: anniversary, contest, gimp, splash screen

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Graveyard Shift - zombie-busting Time Waster

With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet. They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...

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