{"id":2375,"date":"2008-07-27T09:14:35","date_gmt":"2008-07-27T14:14:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/?p=2375"},"modified":"2008-07-27T09:14:35","modified_gmt":"2008-07-27T14:14:35","slug":"fun-with-the-gimp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/2008\/07\/27\/fun-with-the-gimp\/","title":{"rendered":"Fun with The GIMP"},"content":{"rendered":"

I didn’t go out last night. For one thing, it’s just too hot outside to walk around much. For another, my new book on The GIMP<\/a> $\"\"$ , the free open source image editing tool which is on par with Photoshop, arrived yesterday and I made my way through the first three chapters.\u00a0 The book recommended using my own images, taken with my digital camera, for the exercises.\u00a0 I took several images that were poorly lit, and using The GIMP’s Colors -> Levels option, was able to make them look even better than Picasa can do.\u00a0 Then I decided to have some Photoshopping – or in my case, GIMPing – old photos.\u00a0 Here’s one of my first image projects, a pic of what Big Foot Lodge bartender\/former BFF Meghan might look like if she got my name tattooed on her chest:<\/p>\n

You can get a free copy of The GIMP here<\/a>.\u00a0 Make sure you download the Help as well as the program itself.\u00a0 Note:\u00a0 Either one of two things will happen.\u00a0 Either you’ll get frustrated with it and give up after 15 minutes, or you’ll get addicted to it and nothing you planned to do today will get done.\u00a0 Here’s a hint for you:\u00a0 After you fire it up, go to the File menu and select File->New and create a new image, or FIle->Open to open an existing image.\u00a0 The GIMP isn’t much fun unless you’ve got an image to work with.\u00a0 I know that sounds like basic advice, but I sat there for a while thinking the Layers dialog was an open image, and wondering why I couldn’t do anything with it.<\/p>\n

Probably skipping brunch again, because I want to play with the GIMP some more, and because I’ve got momentum going on my next site and don’t want to give that up.\u00a0 I’ll be out later today, probably around 3:30.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"