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Artist's Guide to GIMP, 2nd Edition

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Photo RestorationDecay
Creative Techniques for Photographers, Artists, and Designers
by Michael J. Hammel

June 2012, 320 pp.
ISBN: 978-1-59327-414-6
Contents | Reviews | Updates

Beta version now available! Preorder the book now and get instant access to an early PDF of the book. You'll also receive the final book as soon as it's available.

As a full-featured, free alternative to Adobe Photoshop, GIMP is one of the world's most popular open source projects. The latest version of GIMP brings long-awaited improvements and powerful new tools to make graphic design and photo manipulation even easier—but it's still a notoriously challenging program to use.

The Artist's Guide to GIMP teaches you how to use GIMP without a tedious list of menu paths and options. Instead, as you follow along with Michael J. Hammel's step-by-step instructions, you'll learn to produce professional-looking advertisements, apply impressive photographic effects, and design cool logos and text effects. These extensively illustrated tutorials are perfect for hands-on learning or as templates for your own artistic experiments.

After a crash course in GIMP's core tools like brushes, patterns, selections, layers, modes, and masks, you'll learn:

  • Photographic techniques to clean up blemishes and dust, create sepia-toned antique images, swap colors, produce motion blurs, alter depth of field, simulate a tilt-shift, and fix rips in an old photo
  • Web design techniques to create navigation tabs, icons, fancy buttons, backgrounds, and borders
  • Type effects to create depth, perspective shadows, metallic and distressed text, and neon and graffiti lettering
  • Advertising effects to produce movie posters and package designs; simulate clouds, cracks, cloth, and underwater effects; and create specialized lighting

Whether you're new to GIMP or you've been playing with this powerful software for years, you'll be inspired by the original art, creative photo manipulations, and numerous tips for designers.

About the Author

Michael J. Hammel has been involved with GIMP since version 0.54 and was a contributor to the early development of the program. Hammel wrote a column on GIMP for Linux Format for three years and is the author of The Artists' Guide to the GIMP and Essential GIMP for Web Professionals. He is an embedded software engineer living in Colorado Springs.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: Fundamental Techniques
1.1 Drawing and Painting
1.2 Layers and Modes
1.3 Color Modes
1.4 Selections
1.5 Paths
1.6 Drawing Basic Shapes
1.7 Patterns and Gradients
1.8 Working with Text
1.9 Digital Cameras
1.10 Basic Tutorials

Chapter 2: Photographic Effects
2.1 Soft Focus
2.2 Photo to Sketch
2.3 Antiquing with Sepia Tones
2.4 Color Swap
2.5 Changing Depth of Field
2.6 Reflections on Glass
2.7 Lake Reflection
2.8 Photo Restoration
2.9 Casting Light Through a Window
2.10 Light Streaks
2.11 Miniaturize a Scene
Tips for Photographic Effects

Chapter 3: Web Design
3.1 Gel Buttons
3.2 Metal Buttons
3.3 Tabs
3.4 Website Banners
3.5 Simple Logos
3.6 Icons
Tips for Web Design

Chapter 4: Advertising and Special Effects
4.1 Creative Text Design
4.2 3-D Package Designs
4.3 Reflective Glass
4.4 Popping an Image
4.5 Shiny Emblem
4.6 Wine Bottle
4.7 Gears
4.8 Cube City
4.9 Underwater
4.10 Colored Lighting
4.11 iPod
Tips for Advertising Design

Chapter 5: Type Effects
5.1 Chrome and Metal Text
5.2 Gel Type
5.3 Distressed Text
5.4 Frost
5.5 Neon Signs
5.6 Spray Paint
Tips for Type Effects

Chapter 6: Creative Inspiration
6.1 Fire Girl
6.2 Star Field
6.3 Creamsicle Love
6.4 Mobsterville

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Reviews

"A really instructive book that is expanding my knowledge of the program. Users who are looking to get more out of the GIMP might want to check it out."
—Ryan Paul, Ars Technica (Read More)

"The Artist’s Guide to GIMP, 2nd Edition was easy for me to read and helped me do exactly what I set out to do in a short amount of time."
—Beginlinux.com (Read More)

"I would definitely recommend The Artist’s Guide to GIMP to those who want an all-round, practical book on how to use GIMP."
—Kevin Unhammer, Software Engineer (Read More)

"Hammel has done an excellent job of creating a number of chapters focused on creating beautiful artwork with GIMP. The chapter on setting up GIMP would be especially useful to absolute beginners."
—Partha Bagchi, GIMP advocate and blogger

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