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FAQ answers Tom.Williams@diversifiedsoftware.com 20 Dec 01:26
  FAQ answers Michael J. Hammel 20 Dec 04:13
  FAQ answers Marc) (A.) (Lehmann 22 Dec 11:40
FAQ answers Debra Douglass 22 Dec 15:11
FAQ answers Thomas Lund 22 Dec 22:08
  FAQ answers Joshua Thorin Messer 22 Dec 20:46
20021219170811.DC6FE10058@l... 07 Oct 20:15
  FAQ answers Michael J. Hammel 20 Dec 00:50
   FAQ answers John Culleton 19 Dec 20:55
    FAQ answers Michael J. Hammel 20 Dec 04:03
   FAQ answers Akkana 20 Dec 02:00
John Culleton
2002-12-19 20:55:14 UTC (over 21 years ago)

FAQ answers

On Thursday 19 December 2002 23:50, Michael J. Hammel wrote:

Thus spoke Tom.Williams@diversifiedsoftware.com

Actually, I asked this question :

OK here is my FAQ:
How does one set defaults in Gimp for e.g., output formats?

See File->Preferences. However, the default format is XCF which is GIMP's built in format to save layer information. To specify a different output format you either append the appropriate suffix to the filename (and let GIMP guess which format that means) or set the option menu to the format you want to use.

Other defaults are configurable in the Preferences dialog.

Hope that helps a little.

The preferences I referred to are for PS output and include such items as:
Encapsulated Postscript (my preference) Zero horizontal and vertical offset (my preference) Inches instead of pixels for dimensions (my preference) The Preferences dialog doesn't cover these details.

I don't mind specifying PS output. It's these other details that have to be reset in the same way on every run.

Michael J. Hammel
2002-12-20 00:50:47 UTC (over 21 years ago)

FAQ answers

Thus spoke Tom.Williams@diversifiedsoftware.com

Hi! Here are some questions I have:

*) Where can I find "good" gimp tutorials?

"Good" is relative, but here are some pointers to get you started. http://www.graphics-muse.com/cgi/gmcat.pl?id=11

*) How close in functionality to PhotoShop is the gimp?

You can do in GIMP most of what you can do in Photoshop. There are some caveats:
Photoshop handles 16 bit color, Pantone and CMYK conversions - GIMP does not. Photoshop has a way to record your actions - GIMP only allows you to redo the last action (so far).

GIMP has features Photoshop does not: Scripting
Networked access
Batch mode

The trick is to expect your techniques to be similar between the two applications, but not identical.

*) What versions of PhotoShop .PSD files are supported by the PhotoShop plug-in?

Unknown. I guess I could read the code and find out, but I'm too lazy right now. It's the holidays. :-)

*) How can I change the foreground color of some text to a pattern?

The easiest way to do this is to start with text on it's own transparent layer. If you do so, then you can simply select "Alpha to Selection" in the Layers menu and do a Bucket Fill using a pattern instead of a color. If you don't have your text on a layer by itself like this, then you need to make a selection of the text. Selection techniques are many, and are likely to be one of your most valued skills as you get more involved in your artwork.

*) What are layer "masks" and how do they work?

They are cardboard cutouts that determine which part of the layer will actually be used. In the layer mask white areas designate areas of the layer that are visible (and/or combined with other layers) and black areas are "masked out". To create a mask, just start painting in the layer mask with either black or white. Note that "gray" areas (places where pixels are mixed between black and white) in the mask make the corresponding pixels in the layer partially visible (aka partially transparent).

*) How does the "Xtns/Script-Fu" menu differ from the "Script-Fu" pop-up menu?

Huh? I'm not sure what the "Script-Fu" pop up menu is.

*) Is it possible to align text along a curve in an image? If so, how is it done?

It's done with a filter currently. See Xtns->ScriptFu->Logos->Text Circle This only works around a single arc, so it's not what you might expect, but it's a start.

*) How can I find out the step-by-step process to make the logo effects in the "Xtns/Script-Fu/Logos" menu? I can see the resultant layer data, but have NO idea of how to do that myself.

Read the code. Really, that's how pretty much everyone else learned. ScriptFu code is regular text that you can read. But it's a programming language.

If you want to know how the techniques were discovered by the ScriptFU programmers, well, that's probably just experience. Lots of time fiddling with existing scripts or techniques to invent new ones.

*) What does "feathering" mean?

It means making the edges of a selection soft. In brief, it allows pixels within the feathered region to go from fully selected to not selected. If you feather a distance of 10 pixels for a circular selection then 5 pixels toward the inside of the selection will be fully selected and, as you move outward, the pixels are considered less selected. Being "less selected" is essentially like be more transparent.

What this means in practice is that if you fill the selection (or cut it out) you get soft edges. In a fill of a feathered selection, the color flows from the selected color towards the existing colors in the layer.

*) What books on the gimp are recommended? Beginner and intermediate level books would be great.

Can't answer that. I have two published, so I'm a bit biased (though I think you can only actually get one of them these days). Carol's new web site has some listed (and the site design is rather nice - hope to see it go live soon!) - mmmaybe.gimp.org I think is the URL.

*) Where can I find online resources/tutorials on creating animations with gimp?

I think that link I gave earlier has some animation tutorial links on it. There aren't many tutorials on this subject yet.

Thus spoke Nathan Carl Summers

OK here is my FAQ:
How does one set defaults in Gimp for e.g., output formats?

See File->Preferences. However, the default format is XCF which is GIMP's built in format to save layer information. To specify a different output format you either append the appropriate suffix to the filename (and let GIMP guess which format that means) or set the option menu to the format you want to use.

Other defaults are configurable in the Preferences dialog.

Hope that helps a little.

Tom.Williams@diversifiedsoftware.com
2002-12-20 01:26:26 UTC (over 21 years ago)

FAQ answers

Thanks for the answers! :)

*) How does the "Xtns/Script-Fu" menu differ from the "Script-Fu"

pop-up

menu?

Huh? I'm not sure what the "Script-Fu" pop up menu is.

When I right-click on an image and get the context menu, there is a "Script-Fu" option at the bottom. That is the "Script-Fu pop-up" I was referring to. :)

Peace....

Tom

"Michael J. Hammel" To: gimp-user@lists.xcf.berkeley.edu Sent by: cc: gimp-user-bounces@lists.xcf.be Subject: [Gimp-user] FAQ answers rkeley.edu 12/19/02 03:50 PM

"Our mission is to help our clients achieve more cost-effective data center operations."

Thus spoke Tom.Williams@diversifiedsoftware.com

Hi! Here are some questions I have:

*) Where can I find "good" gimp tutorials?

"Good" is relative, but here are some pointers to get you started. http://www.graphics-muse.com/cgi/gmcat.pl?id=11

*) How close in functionality to PhotoShop is the gimp?

You can do in GIMP most of what you can do in Photoshop. There are some caveats:
Photoshop handles 16 bit color, Pantone and CMYK conversions - GIMP does not.
Photoshop has a way to record your actions - GIMP only allows you to
redo the last action (so far).

GIMP has features Photoshop does not: Scripting
Networked access
Batch mode

The trick is to expect your techniques to be similar between the two applications, but not identical.

*) What versions of PhotoShop .PSD files are supported by the PhotoShop plug-in?

Unknown. I guess I could read the code and find out, but I'm too lazy right now. It's the holidays. :-)

*) How can I change the foreground color of some text to a pattern?

The easiest way to do this is to start with text on it's own transparent layer. If you do so, then you can simply select "Alpha to Selection" in the Layers menu and do a Bucket Fill using a pattern instead of a color. If you don't have your text on a layer by itself like this, then you need to make a selection of the text. Selection techniques are many, and are likely to be one of your most valued skills as you get more involved in your artwork.

*) What are layer "masks" and how do they work?

They are cardboard cutouts that determine which part of the layer will actually be used. In the layer mask white areas designate areas of the layer that are visible (and/or combined with other layers) and black areas are "masked out". To create a mask, just start painting in the layer mask with either black or white. Note that "gray" areas (places where pixels are mixed between black and white) in the mask make the corresponding pixels in the layer partially visible (aka partially transparent).

*) How does the "Xtns/Script-Fu" menu differ from the "Script-Fu" pop-up menu?

Huh? I'm not sure what the "Script-Fu" pop up menu is.

*) Is it possible to align text along a curve in an image? If so, how

is

it done?

It's done with a filter currently. See Xtns->ScriptFu->Logos->Text Circle This only works around a single arc, so it's not what you might expect, but it's a start.

*) How can I find out the step-by-step process to make the logo effects

in

the "Xtns/Script-Fu/Logos" menu? I can see the resultant layer data, but have NO idea of how to do that myself.

Read the code. Really, that's how pretty much everyone else learned. ScriptFu code is regular text that you can read. But it's a programming language.

If you want to know how the techniques were discovered by the ScriptFU programmers, well, that's probably just experience. Lots of time fiddling with existing scripts or techniques to invent new ones.

*) What does "feathering" mean?

It means making the edges of a selection soft. In brief, it allows pixels within the feathered region to go from fully selected to not selected. If you feather a distance of 10 pixels for a circular selection then 5 pixels toward the inside of the selection will be fully selected and, as you move outward, the pixels are considered less selected. Being "less selected" is essentially like be more transparent.

What this means in practice is that if you fill the selection (or cut it out) you get soft edges. In a fill of a feathered selection, the color flows from the selected color towards the existing colors in the layer.

*) What books on the gimp are recommended? Beginner and intermediate level books would be great.

Can't answer that. I have two published, so I'm a bit biased (though I think you can only actually get one of them these days). Carol's new web site has some listed (and the site design is rather nice - hope to see it go live soon!) - mmmaybe.gimp.org I think is the URL.

*) Where can I find online resources/tutorials on creating animations

with

gimp?

I think that link I gave earlier has some animation tutorial links on it. There
aren't many tutorials on this subject yet.

Thus spoke Nathan Carl Summers

OK here is my FAQ:
How does one set defaults in Gimp for e.g., output formats?

See File->Preferences. However, the default format is XCF which is GIMP's built in format to save layer information. To specify a different output format you either append the appropriate suffix to the filename (and let GIMP guess which format that means) or set the option menu to the format you want to use.

Other defaults are configurable in the Preferences dialog.

Hope that helps a little. --
Michael J. Hammel |
The Graphics Muse | Women should put pictures of missing husbands
mjhammel@graphics-muse.org | on beer cans. http://www.graphics-muse.com

Akkana
2002-12-20 02:00:00 UTC (over 21 years ago)

FAQ answers

Tom Williams wrote:

*) How does the "Xtns/Script-Fu" menu differ from the "Script-Fu" pop-up menu?

(Answering the questions Michael didn't) The scripts and plugins in Xtns create a new image -- they're not tied to any existing image. The ones in the Image popup menu do things on the current image.

*) What books on the gimp are recommended? Beginner and intermediate level books would be great.

I learned a lot from "Grokking the Gimp" -- preview it at gimp-savvy.com.

Stephen J. Baker wrote:

Q: I'm trying to paint and nothing is happening - what did I do wrong?

That gets my vote for the #1 question on the FAQ! It was definitely what kept me in xv or paintshop pro instead of gimp when I was getting started.

A: Eeek! There are about 1e6 things that could be: * You are painting outside of the selection.

And you may not realize this because the "marching ants" may not be shown for some reason.

* You've picked some kind of 'do nothing' paint. * Your paint colour is the same as the background. * You are painting to a layer that's hidden. * You are painting to a layer that's rendered at 100% transparency.
* Try hitting 'Layers/Anchor'. * Try hitting 'Layers/Layer-to-Image-Size'.

The two causes I hit most often:
* You are painting outside of the layer (because you have the wrong layer selected) * You are painting to a layer that somehow got "preserve transparency set" (which leads to a new FAQ: Why does that bit sometimes get set without my setting it?)

...and lots of others...

I used to hit this problem even back before I knew about layers, when nothing was selected, and I still don't know what was causing it ...

* Look - just save the image, restart GIMP and load it back in again - I'm too busy to figure it out.

Ouch. (That doesn't necessarily solve it, though, since when you reload you may still end up on the wrong layer or whatever.)

...Akkana

Michael J. Hammel
2002-12-20 04:03:31 UTC (over 21 years ago)

FAQ answers

Thus spoke John Culleton

The preferences I referred to are for PS output and include such items as:
Encapsulated Postscript (my preference) Zero horizontal and vertical offset (my preference) Inches instead of pixels for dimensions (my preference) The Preferences dialog doesn't cover these details.

I don't mind specifying PS output. It's these other details that have to be reset in the same way on every run.

Hmmm. I guess there may be a bug (or feature, depending on your point of view) where file plug-ins don't maintain their last setting in the gimprc file. Also, the file-format specific file plug-ins are the place where preferences of this nature must be set. It's a trade off for how versatile plug-ins can be (supporting another format means dropping in another plug-in instead of recompiling all of GIMP). What probably needs to be addressed is how well (or even if) file plug-ins (which are kind of special plug-ins from a developers perspective) save their last set configurations.

I haven't checked if there is a bug written against this issue. It is probably worth while to write such a bug report if there isn't one yet since it's a reasonable request and a useful feature for future releases.

Of course, this feature may already exist for the PS file plug-in but its just not being used correctly. I haven't verified that possibility yet (I don't use the PS output format much).

Michael J. Hammel
2002-12-20 04:13:34 UTC (over 21 years ago)

FAQ answers

Thus spoke Tom.Williams@diversifiedsoftware.com

*) How does the "Xtns/Script-Fu" menu differ from the "Script-Fu"

pop-up

menu?

Huh? I'm not sure what the "Script-Fu" pop up menu is.

When I right-click on an image and get the context menu, there is a "Script-Fu" option at the bottom. That is the "Script-Fu pop-up" I was referring to. :)

Ah. Well the difference is not cut in stone, but essentially Xtns->Script-Fu provides filters which generate new images while the ScriptFu pop-up menu provides filters which act upon the current active canvas.

This isn't completely accurate, but it's a good way to think of it. The Xtns menu doesn't apply to a specific canvas. But nearly all the items in the pop-up menu apply to the current active canvas.

Marc) (A.) (Lehmann
2002-12-22 11:40:58 UTC (over 21 years ago)

FAQ answers

First of all, please don't quote such a long mail without replying to it. Believe us, we _did_ reeceive the original mail, too ;)

On Thu, Dec 19, 2002 at 04:26:26PM -0800, Tom.Williams@diversifiedsoftware.com wrote:

*) How does the "Xtns/Script-Fu" menu differ from the "Script-Fu"

pop-up

menu?

When I right-click on an image and get the context menu, there is a "Script-Fu" option at the bottom. That is the "Script-Fu pop-up" I was referring to. :)

Well, they are completey different. Or, put another way:

The right-click-menu (image menu) contains operations/plug-ins that work on the active/current image. The filters and script-fu entries use the underlying image as one of their arguments.

The Xnts-menu (the whole toolbox, actually) contains effects and plug-ins (and other operations) that work without images (for example, there is no file/save). Most plug-ins in the toolbox or xtns-menu create new images.

As a sidenote, the fully artificial distinction between script-fu-plug-ins and other plug-ins confuses a lot of users (the same is true for the xtns menu. I fail to see why a user must memorize that a specific plug-in is wirtten in C, Perl, or script-fu, just to _use_it). All of these should just be moved to their correct location, ending this confusig double-life.

Debra Douglass
2002-12-22 15:11:23 UTC (over 21 years ago)

FAQ answers

On 12/22/2002, on gimp-user@lists.xcf.berkeley.edu, Thomas Lund wrote: >>FAQ: How to get off this list?

That one's easy - go to the web page listed at the end of every message posted to gimp-user.

-Debra

Joshua Thorin Messer
2002-12-22 20:46:54 UTC (over 21 years ago)

FAQ answers

Thus spake Thomas Lund (cannon@online.no):

FAQ: How to get of this list?

Did you try the advice sent directly to you by myself and also sent to the list by another user? Send mail to the list admin at gimp-user-owner@lists.xcf.berkeley.edu. If manish can't get you off the list something is borked.

Thomas Lund
2002-12-22 22:08:06 UTC (over 21 years ago)

FAQ answers

FAQ: How to get of this list?

----- Original Message ----- From:
To:
Cc: ; ;

Sent: Sunday, December 22, 2002 11:40 AM Subject: Re: [Gimp-user] FAQ answers

First of all, please don't quote such a long mail without replying to it. Believe us, we _did_ reeceive the original mail, too ;)

On Thu, Dec 19, 2002 at 04:26:26PM -0800,

Tom.Williams@diversifiedsoftware.com wrote:

*) How does the "Xtns/Script-Fu" menu differ from the "Script-Fu"

pop-up

menu?

When I right-click on an image and get the context menu, there is a "Script-Fu" option at the bottom. That is the "Script-Fu pop-up" I was referring to. :)

Well, they are completey different. Or, put another way:

The right-click-menu (image menu) contains operations/plug-ins that work on the active/current image. The filters and script-fu entries use the underlying image as one of their arguments.

The Xnts-menu (the whole toolbox, actually) contains effects and plug-ins (and other operations) that work without images (for example, there is no file/save). Most plug-ins in the toolbox or xtns-menu create new images.

As a sidenote, the fully artificial distinction between script-fu-plug-ins and other plug-ins confuses a lot of users (the same is true for the xtns menu. I fail to see why a user must memorize that a specific plug-in is wirtten in C, Perl, or script-fu, just to _use_it). All of these should just be moved to their correct location, ending this confusig double-life.

-- -----==- | ----==-- _ | ---==---(_)__ __ ____ __ Marc Lehmann +-- --==---/ / _ \/ // /\ \/ / pcg@goof.com |e| -=====/_/_//_/\_,_/ /_/\_\ XX11-RIPE --+ The choice of a GNU generation | |