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10 Sweet GIMP Photo Editing Tricks to Wean You Off Photoshop

Paul Lily — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:30:00 -0500

You could buy a used car -- albeit not a very good one -- for the same scratch it takes to pick up a copy of Adobe Photoshop, the de facto standard in high-end photo editing software. Or a pair of GTX 285 graphics cards for that killer SLI setup you've always wanted. We could go on, but at $700 for a piece of software, Photoshop's MSRP hardly needs put into perspective. In short, it's expensive.

It's also powerful, but don't worry if you don't have a handful of Benjamins lying around. Thankfully, you can perform a lot of the same photo editing tricks for free with GIMP. Short for GNU Image Manipulation Program, GIMP is the open source (and no-cost) equivalent to Photoshop, and like it's paid counterpart, GIMP can be a little overwhelming at first. That's where we come in.

Like swimming, it's best if you just dive in. To help give you that push, we waded through the gazillion tutorials floating around the Web and brought back a sundry collection of groovy tips and tricks that, along with some touches of our own, will have you learning the ins and outs of GIMP while having fun doing it. We'll show you how to make lifeless photos pop with detail, how to tap into the Force and add a lightsaber to any pic, make your own custom brushes, and much more.

Be More Efficient with Batch Processing

After spending hours resizing and making minor adjustments to each of the hundreds of photos you took on your last vacation, you vowed to be much more seletive in what shots you take the next time you go on a trip. But you knew it was a promise you'd never keep, and that's okay, because even though GIMP doesn't come with a built-in batch editing feature, there's a plugin available that will add that functionality.

The plugin you're looking for is called David's Batch Processor (DBP), which you can download here. Scroll down to the Windows Users sections and grab the latest download (dbp-1.1.8.zip). Extract dbp.exe from the ZIP file and place it in C:\Program Files\GIMP-2.0\lib\gimp\2.0\plug-ins. That's all there is to it!

The next time you fire up GIMP, you'll find the Batch Process feature under the Filters menu. If you don't see this option, make sure you put the plugin the correct folder and reload GIMP.

The Batch Processor window contains several tabs, but the first thing you need to do is click on Add Files and select the photos you want to alter. You can remove individual files if you accidentally add one or change your mind, or clear the entire list.

We tend to take high resolution images, which gives us the flexibility to come back later and edit them for different projects. But this also makes them unwieldy to send to friends and family who have no interest in downloading a 10MB attachment. We can rectify this by selecting the Resize tab, clicking on the Enable checkbox, and then choosing whether to downsize by Relative or Absolute.

Other options include the ability to turn, flip, and rotate images, blur photos, adjust the color (including auto adjustments), crop, and sharpen. We can also choose to rename our snapshots and output to a variety of file formats, such as BMP, JPG, PNG, and several others.

Sharpen (Literally) Your Photo Editing Skills

Ever wonder how pro photographers manage to make their photos look better than the real thing? Part of the answer lies in post processing. Of course, adequate lighting, a good camera, and experience all play a part as well, but you can clean up almost any photo with just a few simple steps.

Snapshots of electronics clean up particularly, allowing you to post lust-worthy pics of your setup on your favorite computer forum or auction site. For this example, we're using an image of an EVGA X58 Classified motherboard. The colors appear a little dark and lackluster, so we're going to address that first.

Navigate to Colors and select Levels. You'll notice a histogram, which tells you how the pixels are distributed. If most of the action in the histogram is to the left, then your image is probably dark and underexposed. If they're to the right, then the picture may be too bright. A perfect shot will show most of the action in the middle.

What we want to do with this photo is lighten it up and get rid of the haze. Click the triangle on the right side of the graph and move it left. Keep doing this until the colors start to go out of whack, then back off slightly. When you're finished, make sure the image is noticeably brighter than when you first started. For this example, we decreased the white level from 255 to 222.

Now that we've lightened the image, it's time to make it pop. To do this, navigate to Filters>Enhance>Sharpen. The more you sharpen the image, the more lively it will look, but be careful not to overdo it or you'll end up with a swirl of colors. We settled on a value of 60, which over exaggerates the details - just the effect we were going for!

While this trick doesn't always work well with text-heavy photos or screen grabs, it does do a good job with outside scenes, especially where vibrant colors are involved, like a blue sky or lush vegetation. Notice in the above photo of our workplace how the right side -- the side we cleaned up -- looks much less blurry and vibrant than the untouched left portion. If you look close enough, you might even spot Wil giving an intern a verbal lashing - a typical Monday morning!

Make Your Own Custom Brushes

GIMP comes with a variety of brush styles to choose from, including various sized circles, splatters, and even a green pepper, but you can create any style brush you want. Here's how.

First, create a new transparent image sized to however large you want the brush to be. In this case, we're going to create a 70x70 image. Paste or draw whatever you want the brush to be (we used a cat's paw). Duplicate the layer (Layer>Duplicate Layer) one time for each color you want to use, then use the Paintbrush or Bucket Fill tool to make the image a different color in each layer.

Now comes the semi-tricky part. Because we're using four multicolored layers, we want to save our image as an animated brush. Save your image using the .gih file format, and in the 'Save as Brush Type' dialog box that appears, change the Ranks number to 4, or equal to however many layers you created.

Save or move your newly created brush to C:\Program Files (x86)\GIMP-2.0\share\gimp\2.0\brushes. No need to close and reload GIMP - just click the Refresh brush button in the lower right corner of the brush menu and you're good to go!

(Credit: Gauntam Lad)

Wield a Lightsaber Like Luke Skywalker

In a perfect world, we'd all have lightsabers and settle our disputes like they do in Star Wars. While technology is probably still a few years off from perfecting the lightsaber, we can at least fake it in our photos, and all it takes is a little bit of editing..

It's helpful if you start off with a picture that already has a sword, stick, or other similar object in it, though this isn't required. For our example, we're going to alter a snapshot from Medieval Times.

After you've selected and opened the photo you want to modify, create a new layer with a black background. To do this, select Layer>New Layer, or press Shift+CTRL+N. Where it says Layer Fill Type, select Foreground or Background color, depending on which one you have set to black.

Highlight the new layer in the Layer Console window and change the Mode to Screen, as shown above. Once you do this, you should be able to see your original photo. This begs the question, 'why not just create a transparent layer?' We tried doing that, but were unable to change the color of the lightsaber (which we'll get to in a bit). For an in-depth explanation on the different layer modes, see here.

With the black background layer still highlighted, click on the Paths Tool in the Toolbox window (second row, third icon). Use this tool to create a selection around the object you want to transform into a lightsaber (you may find it helpful to zoom in on your image while doing this). In our example, we're going to outline the sword's wooden blade.

Once youv'e made an outline, navigate to Select>From Path, or hold Shift+V to activate your selection, then use the Bucket Fill Tool or Paintbrush to completely fill in the selection with white. When you're finished, deselect the object by going to Select>None.

Next, create three duplicate layers (Layer>Duplicate). You should now have five layers total - your original picture plus four black layers.

Highlight the top layer, then navigate to Filters>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Change both the horizontal and vertical values to 5. When you're finished, repeat the same step for the second layer, but change the values to 10. Repeat again for the third layer and change the values to 20, then one more time on the fourth layer and change the values to 40.

By this point, your object should look like a lightsaber, but we're not finished yet. Right-click the top layer, select Merge Down, then change the Mode to Screen. Repeat this step two more times so that all you're left with is the original picture (bottom layer) and a black background layer with a white lightsaber (top layer).

At this point, you're ready to customize your lightsaber. With the top layer highlighted, go to Colors>Color Balance and adjust the sliders until you're happy with the result. For an added effect, click the Shadows radio button and adjust the sliders some more.

(Credit: gimpology.com)

Create a Swirly Wallpaper or Water Drop Effect

Grown tired of the stock wallpaper that ships with your OS? You can hit up Google Images until you stumble upon one that fits your mood, or better yet, create your own one-of-a-kind wallpaper. Forum member acm321 on CrystalXP.net came up a easy-to-learn technique for making swirly wallpaper using GIMP, and we want to expand on that. Here's how you do it.

Decide what resolution you want your wallpaper to be. For this example, we're going to create a background that measures 1680x1050. Open a new image (File>New) sized to whatever resolution you're running, or go even larger if you think you might upgrade to a bigger LCD down the line.

Pick out a color and then choose a dark shade for the foreground and a light one for the background. You can change these by clicking on the two squares in the middle of the Toolbox window (if you need help choosing contrasting dark and light colors, see here). In this example, we chose Firebrick3 (#C11B17) for the foreground and Red1 (#F62217) for the background.

Click on the Blend tool in the Toolbox and verify that the Gradient is set to FG to BG (RGB) and the Shape set to Linear. With the Blend tool, draw a line from the top to bottom, bottom to top, or from corner to corner.

Change the foreground to white, then draw a swirl in the middle of your image using the brush tool. Don't worry if the swirl isn't perfectly uniform.

Next, navigate to Filters>Blur>Gaussian Blur and set both values to 40, then hit OK. You should have an image that looks similar to the above.

Navigate back to the Filters menu and select Distorts>Whirl and Pinch. Crank the Whirl angle slider all the way to the right and the Pinch amount slider about three-quarters to the left. Leave the radius at 1.00..

Go back into the Filters menu and select Distorts>Waves. Make sure that the Smear radio button is selected. Play around with the amplitude, phase, and wavelength sliders until you're happy with the result (for our image, we set the amplitude to 75, phase to 140, and wavelength to 45).

We're almost finished, but first, we want to make the ripple effect stand out a bit more. Go to Filters>Artistic>Softglow and adjust the sliders to your liking. For our finished image above, we set the Glow radius to 1.00 (move the slider all the way to the left), Brightness to 0.25, and Sharpness to 1.00 (move the slider all the way to the right).

And that's it! If you're not happy with the color, there's no need to start over. Instead, go to Colors>Hue-Saturation and adjust the Hue slider.

When you're finished, play around with the other filters and see what different effects you can come up with (Hint: Go to Filters>Render>Clouds>Difference-Clouds).

(Credit: CrystalXP.net: acm320)

Create an Explosion in Outer Space

With a little bit of creativity and experimentation, the sky's the limit with GIMP. And so is outer space. By using a pre-rendered scene included in GIMP, we're going to create a galactic explosion.

Create a new image any size you want. Navigate to Filters>Render>Fractal Explorer. Click on the Fractals tab, highlight Snow_Crystal, and click Apply.

We want to blur the image so it no longer resembles anything like a snowflake. Go to Filters>Blur>Motion Blur. Change the Blur Type to Zoom, check the Blur outward checkbox, and adjust the Length slider all the way to the right. Click OK. On older machines, this may take awhile to process, so be patient.

Duplicate the layer (Layer>Duplicate Layer), then flip it vertically (Layer>Transform>Flip Vertically). Change the Blend mode to Burn.

We now have the basis for our explosion, but we still need the bright burst of light. Create a new layer with a black background, change the mode to Addition, then navigate to Filter>Light and Shadow>Lens Flare. Place the flare square in the middle, then repeat this step and place another flare slightly off to the side.

Create a new layer with a black background and change the mode to Addition. Change the foreground color to yellow, then click on the Paintbrush tool and select the Galaxy brush. Add several splatters in an uneven circle around the bright flares.

Now go to Filters>Blur>Gaussian Blur and change the values to 15. We now have a realistic looking explosion! Splatter the scene with different sized stars using the brush tool, and add whatever else into the scene you want (planets, asteroids, spaceships, etc).

(Effect Credit: gimp.pixtuts.com)

Convert Photos to Sketches (without a Plugin)

Not all of us have an inner Rembrandt to work with, but we do have a PC. As it turns out, that's all you need to make realistic looking sketches, which you can then hang on the wall and dupe visitors into thinking you're a virtuoso with a pencil, or print out for your kids to color. But be warned - we've added some steps that were left out of the original tutorial and there isn't much room for error, so follow along closely.

Pick out a photo and open it in GIMP. Try to avoid overly cluttered backgrounds, as they end up difficult to discern when converted to a sketch.

Navigate to Filters>Edge-Detect>Sobel. Make sure all the checkboxes are selected and hit OK. It may look like we just irreversibly ruined the image, but rest assured, we're just getting started.

We need to highlight the details, and to do that, go to Colors>Auto>Equalize. Because we want a black & white sketch, we now need to get rid of the colors that were just drawn by converting them to gray. To do this, click on Colors>Desaturate and hit OK.

Create a duplicate layer (Layer> Duplicate Layer, or press Shift+CTRL+D). To make things easier as we go, double-click the original layer (the one in the bottom on the Layers panel) and rename it 'Equalized Layer.' Now double-click the layer you just created (the one on top) and rename it 'Highpass Filter.'

Nw we need to bring out the details of our sketch-in-progress. Part of this entails darkening the blacks and lightening the whites, and there's two ways you can go about doing this. The first is by going to Colors>Levels and adjusting the Input Level sliders until you're happy with the results. Alternately, you can apply a high-pass filter using GIMP's Curves tool (Colors>Curves).

No matter which one you use, the finished product should look the same, as depicted above.

Here's where things get a little tricky. Make a duplicate of the Equalized Layer by clicking on it and selecting Layer>Duplicate Layer. Move this layer to the top (click and drag), double-click, and rename it 'Masked Layer.'

We need to invert the colors on this new layer. Click on the newly created masked layer (which should be on top), and select Colors>Invert.

Next we're going to apply our highpass layer as a mask. Highlight the Highpass Filter layer and select Edit>Copy. Now highlight the Masked Layer that you just inverted, right-click, and select Add Layer Mask. In the dialog box that pops up, check the Selection radio button, then press Add.

If you followed the steps correctly so far, your Layer box should look like the above. Select the Masked Layer you just created and click Edit>Paste. Right-click the 'Floating Selection' layer that appears in the Layer box and click Anchor Layer.

You're almost finished! For the last step, you need to create a new, white layer (Layer>New Layer), then drag it underneath the Masked Layer. If you didn't make any mistakes, your sketch should look similar to our example.

If you want your sketch to show more details and shading, play around with the input levels or curve tool when manipulating the high-pass filter and lessen the black level, allowing more highlights to show.

(Credit: Dave Neary)

Mix B&W with Color

Some of the best looking effects are also the easiest to pull off, and that's definitely the case with this one. All that's required is a bit of patience and a whole lot of experimentation.

There's no hard and fast rule that says one type of picture will end up looking better than another, but generally speaking, you want to start with one where the main character or object is vibrantly colored.

Once you've selected a photo and opened it in GIMP, duplicate the layer (Layer>Duplicate layer). We need to remove the color from this duplicate shot, and do that, navigate to Colors>Desaturate. You have three options to choose from -- Lightness, Luminosity, or Average -- each one representing a different shade of gray. We chose Luminosity for our example, but use whichever one you like.

Now you should have a black and white layer on top of the original color photo. Right-click the top b&w layer and select Add Layer Mask. Select the White (full opacity) radio button and hit Add.

Now you're ready to start restoring color. One way to do this is by simply grabbing the brush tool and going to town willy-nilly, but we found it easier to zoom in and create a selection path around our area of focus. Once you're zoomed in, select the Paths Tool and create points all around the area you want to color. Then choose Select>From Path or press Shift+V to make the selection active. Now you can restore color using the paint brush without fear of accidentally spilling into other objects.

How much or how little of the picture you want to restore is up to you, but it doesn't hurt to play around (just keep pressing CTRL-Z to undo each step if you don't like the result). In our example, we partially restored an outline in the grass for a natural border..

You'll often see this trick applied to flowers and plants, but don't be afraid to experiment with different types of photos and see what you can come up with!

(Credit: Eric R. Jeschke)

Convert Photos to Neon

There are a billion and one tutorials on the Net that show you how to convert text into neon in GIMP, but not many tell you how to convert an image. In fact, we only found one, and it was missing some critical steps. Here's how you can create a neon effect from any photo without pulling your hair out.

This works best if you pick out an image where the person you want to crop isn't just standing upright. Once you've found a suitable candidate, zoom in, select the Paths Tool, and create an outline around the subject. Don't worry about making it perfect, we just need a general outline. Click on Edit>From Path to activate the selection, then copy it to your clipboard.

Open a new image with a black background, then select Edit>Paste as>New Layer. Now click on Layer>Transparency>Alpha to Selection. If it isn't already, change the background or foreground to white then click Edit>Fill with BG Color (or Fill with FG Color, whichever one is white). You should now be left with a black background and a white image of your selection.

Now click on Select>Grow and choose the value 1 where it says 'Grow selection by.' Click OK to get rid of the dialog box, then hit the DEL key. Next, navigate to Edit>Stroke selection (make sure white is selected as your foreground). Chose 2.0 for the line width and make sure the Solid color radio button is selected, and then click on Stroke.

Next, click on Layer>Transparency>Alpha to Selection, then duplicate the layer (Layer>Duplicate Layer). Now click on Select>To Path, then Select>None. Duplicate the layer again, then go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and input 10 for both the horizontal and vertical values.

It's starting to look like a neon outline, but we need to give it some color. Click on Colors>Colorize and adjust the Hue left or right to change the color. For an added effect, Duplicate the layer, change the Mode to Addition, change the Hue just as you did before, and move the layer slightly off of the original. Rinse and repeat as many times as you want, and feel free to add some flair with the different brushes.

Draw Graffiti without Being Harassed by the Five-O

We don't condone tagging (or whatever it is kids are calling it these days), nor would we want to explain to the local cop on duty or wandering gang banger why we're leaving our mark on a perfectly good wall. Luckily for us, neither of their jurisdictions extends into the virtual world.

A prerequisite for this effect is a good graffiti font. There are a ton of free ones floating around the Web (see here), and the one we're using is called Nosegrind. You also need a good backdrop, like a brick wall. Once again, the Web proves invaluable

Open the image in GIMP that you want to tag, then select the Text Tool in the toolbox. Choose your font and desired size, then click on the image and begin typing.

Next, right-click the text layer and select Alpha to Selection, then create a new transparent layer drag it and under the text layer. Click on Select>Grow. How large you decide to grow the selection will depend on how large your image is, but we recommend starting with a value of 10 and seeing how it looks.

Now we're ready to add color to our graffiti. Pick a light and dark color for your foreground and background. Make sure the new layer you created above is highlighted, then select the Blend tool with Mode set to Normal, Gradient to FG to BG (RGB), and Shape to Linear. Draw a straight line up or down on your selected text. Click Select>None.

Right-click the top black text layer and select Alpha to Selection, then Select>Grow. Grow the selection by about 25 percent of the original value you grew it by previously (so if you grew it by 20 before, grow it by 5 this time). Make a new transparent layer and move it beneath the black text layer. Pick a different color than the one you used before and select a light (foreground ) and dark (background) shade. Select the blend tool and draw a line down over your text. Merge the layer down.

Now we need everything to blend into the brick background. Right-click on the top layer with black text and select Alpha to Selection. Change the foreground and background to a dark and light gray, respectively, and draw a line from the bottom to the top of your text with the Blend tool. Now go to Filters>Map>Bump Map. In the top pull-down menu, select your brick layer, change the depth to about 10, and hit OK.

We also need to change those gray colored bricks back to black. Go to Colors>Brightness and Contrast and decrease the brightness to about -115 and increase the contrast to around 35.

In our example, we used green and pink colored graffiti. To make these also blend in with the brick wall, go to Select>None, then right click the green text layer and select Alpha to Selection. Apply the bump map filter as you did before, only this time you don't need to follow that up with a brightness and contrast adjustment. When you're finished, click Select>None and repeat this step for the pink text layer.

Use different brushes to sprinkle in some paint splatters and other effects to make it look more realistic.

(Credit: GimpTV.net)

Additional Resources

www.ghuj.com
Gimp.org/Tutorials
Gimp-Tutorials.net
Gimp-Tutorials.com
Gimper.net
Gimpology.com
Pixel2Life.com

Linux Software Picks: Six Alternatives to Photoshop

Will Kraft — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 20:30:00 -0500

Although many graphics professionals turn to Windows or Mac OS to execute their designs, Linux is far from helpless in this area. While it helps that Adobe Photoshop, the undisputed gold-standard program that most professionals use for raster graphics, runs on Linux through Wine, there are several native Linux programs that offer some of the same functionality. Furthermore, there are many free vector graphics programs that can produce infinitely scalable graphics much like what Adobe Illustrator can do. Aside from the software situation, there is no reason why Linux could not be just as effective with graphics applications as OS X and Windows, since Linux supports many peripherals like tablets out of the box with full plug-and-play support.

Are the Linux programs drop-in replacements for Photoshop and Illustrator? The answer could be either yes and no, depending on the way you look at it and what your needs are. If you compare the Linux alternatives to Photoshop/Illustrator feature-by-feature, the free open source tools will come up short by a significant margin and there is simply no way to get around that fact. If you actually need those features on a day-to-day basis, then you should get your wallet out and purchase Photoshop and/or Illustrator. However, if you can get by with less, the free open source software tools may be enough to get the job done and save you considerable money in the process.

Raster Tools

These tools are meant to work with raster (pixel-based) images. This type of image uses a matrix of dots of varying colors to create an image. Rasterized images have hard limits as to how much they can be manipulated in certain ways, but they support for more detail than vector-based artwork. Image formats like PNG, JPG, TIFF, PSD, etc. are raster-based.

GNU Image Manipulation Tool (GIMP)

The GIMP is arguably the most well-known open source graphics tool, and is one of the most mature open source image manipulation tools around. GIMP comes pre-installed in most distros, so there is seldom a need to manually install it. GIMP is quite powerful, with a large toolkit and support for layers/layer masking, channels, and over 150 filters to provide various effects. GIMP can handle all common image formats like BMP, PNG, JPEG, TIFF, etc. and can read many proprietary image formats like Photoshop native PSD and the various RAW formats used by some digital cameras.

GIMP is also very fast and has very good automation capabilities. Those familiar with Photoshop will find the tool window and filter organization to be to be fairly straightforward. GIMP includes the necessary tools for image cropping/retouching and works quite well as a lightweight (and we stress lightweight) Photoshop alternative. Unless you're a professional graphic designer, GIMP will probably be adequate for your needs.

However, GIMP does have problems. To begin with, its interface relies on a multiple window model that can be rather cumbersome for those not used to it. It is often essential to flag the tool window as “always on top” to keep it from hiding behind other windows whenever it loses focus. Fortunately, the GIMP developers are planning to convert the program to a single-document window interface in future versions; such functionality is already available in a derivative of GIMP called GIMPshop. Furthermore, GIMP has no CMYK support while other similar tools do.

Krita

Krita is a KDE application and part of the Koffice suite. Named after the Swedish word for “crayon”, Krita's layout is roughly similar to Photoshop, with a tool panel to the left and layer/color selection panels to the right. Although Krita is not quite as capable as the GIMP (owing in part to Krita's relative immaturity as a fairly new project) it can still do quite a bit.

When you first start Krita, you will be prompted with a preset template to use. There are several different sizes and color spaces (RGB, CMYK, and Grayscale) to choose from or you can define your own custom size and bind it to the desired color space. Once you have created or opened a document, you are able to use the toolkit panel (located to the left, just like Photoshop and GIMP) to work on it. Krita's layer and color management tools (and all the panels in general) are nicer than those in GIMP since they can be docked whereas GIMP's can only be free-floating.

Krita does have its deficiencies, but that is understandable since it is still fairly new compared to GIMP. Krita has about half of the filters that GIMP does, but the ones that are present work well.

Phatch

Phatch is rather unique. It is not an “editor” in a true sense, but is more like an image processor. Phatch has many preset image effects that can be applied to an image; these effects can be stacked on top of each other and be applied in a specific sequence if desired.

Phatch offers batch processing capabilities; if you need to apply effects like sharpen, add border, etc. to many images at once, it would normally take hours if you had to do it manually. In contrast, Phatch can process entire directories at once in minutes. Alternatively, Phatch offers drag-and-drop processing. Phatch may not be a tool you use every day, but it is invaluable in the situations where you do need it.

Vector Tools

Unlike rasterized images, vector graphics incorporate true lines, curves, etc. While rasterized images do not scale well since they are made of a finite quality of pixels (zooming in on a raster image will reveal jagged curves), Vector art may be resized or otherwise manipulated infinitely and still remain completely smooth. Linux has many programs that can create vector artwork.

Inkscape

Inkscape is in our opinion the best open source vector image editor that we have ever seen. We feel that Inkscape even gives proprietary tools a run for their money, based on the screenshots we have seen depicting what many talented artistic people have been able to do with Inkscape. Inkscape supports layers and has all the tools a program of its type should have, like freehand drawing, calligraphy brush, line/curve drawing, pen tool, path node management, circle/polygon drawing, gradients, color/stroke management, etc. All of these tools are logically placed and are easy to use. Inkscape also includes multiple color pallets and even some rudimentary flowcharting and 3d tools.

Additionally, Inkscape's native file format is Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), so no further conversion is necessary. It can also import many file formats, both vector and raster. The only deficiencies that we found with Inkscape are the dialog windows that control fill and stroke; they could be more prominently placed than they are. Even if you just dabble in artwork, you should spend some time playing with Inkscape.

XARA Xtreme

Xara is a formerly proprietary Windows vector drawing application that was later open sourced and ported to Linux. Unlike the other solutions mentioned here, Xara probably won't be found in standard distro repositories (although unofficial repositories may have it) and as such can be more difficult to install. The standard procedure to install the binary is to download the package file from the website, chmod it as executable, and then run it like a shell script. This will launch a graphical installation utility. We took a shortcut and installed the binary instead of compiling from source (which is what people are most likely to do) on Ubuntu 9.04. While the binary worked, it was very unstable and prone to crashing at random moments, especially when applying effects. Presumably, performance and stability would be better if the application were to be custom-built for each system.

Xara includes the standard tools and features of most vector graphics programs, but we noticed that the pen tool behaved differently than in other programs, which might put some people off. Xara included some nifty beveling, transparency, and contour tools in addition to the standard features, but the unstable nature of the program made us hesitant to experiment very much. (it was aggravating to repeatedly create something only to have the program crash without warning and take our work with it) Xara saves its native files in a proprietary format (.xara) but it can export to SVG and rasterized formats like PNG or JPEG. Like Inkscape, Xara can import many types of graphics. Xara shows promise, but for now, it would be best to stick with Inkscape unless you want to compile Xara yourself.

OpenOffice.org Draw

OpenOffice.org's Draw module is different from many of the other drawing tools we tested; while it can create simple line art in the right hands, it just doesn't have the flexibility of something like Inkscape or Xara. However, Draw appears to be a very promising tool for creating flowcharts as an alternative to Kivio (another flowchart utility). An added bonus to using it for this purpose is close integration with the rest of OpenOffice. We noticed that creating flowcharts with Draw is very straightforward and the various shapes fit the purpose nicely with pre-defined text areas.

Draw saves its native files in ODF Drawing format. While this is not a bad thing, it makes it difficult for other programs to work with it. While Draw can export SVG, it requires that a Java Runtime environment be installed. Draw's import functionality is adequate, but it can't handle as many formats as the alternatives we tested.

Four Ways to Separate Open-Source Winners and Losers

David Murphy — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 12:30:38 -0500

The competition between open-source projects and retail applications is a never-ending struggle. Even when two products aren't in direct competition -- like Adobe's Photoshop versus the GNU Image Manipulation Program -- there's still an underlying push and pull for your attention and resources. The struggle only deepens when the retail version of the two programs approaches an inexpensive or free pricing model. Open-source is an alternative, but when is it the better alternative?

Open-source software developer Patrick McKenzie wrote a post recently about the various ways retail software developers can out-develop open-source alternatives to their products. While it was geared toward the perspective of an open-source creator, he nevertheless gave some good insight as to what differentiates quality open-source projects from the muck. And a number of his points apply to some of the very applications I've recommended in these weekly freeware/open-source roundups.

What does the program do?

To start, McKenzie suggests that a number of open-source projects navel gaze on the specifics of the software and the licensing behind its creation rather than the solution said software provides for a user. For this, look no further than a project like FreeNAS. FreeNAS is a wonderful open-source alternative to pre-installed software setups on network-attached storage devices. But if you check out the project's Web site, you will have no indication as to why you would ever want to install the app. What's the benefit? There's a ton of information about the program's features, requirements, and updates... but comparisons of FreeNAS versus common open-source and retail equivalents are sorely lacking. What problem does FreeNAS solve? What makes it better than the standard? Why should I turn to open-source?

Design Disasters

McKenzie's second point concerns the design of open-source projects, and this one hits especially close to home. I discover a number of interesting applications in my search across the Web for new projects to highlight. Invariably, I have to kick some out of the pile--not because they're poor implementations, but because they're ugly enough to distract from the application's powerful functionality. This proved especially heinous when I was going through finance-related open-source applications for Maximum PC's tax-time feature. Hint to open-source developers: If your program doesn't look at least as smooth as Excel, people aren't going to want to use it.

User Experience is Full-Circle

The user experience presented by an application--or SourceForge itself, in McKenzie's example--is another determining factor that separates quality open-source from questionable applications. It's difficult to parse out specific example in this case, but there are a number of open-source programs that look as if they were created using a 7-year-old installation mechanism. Worse, these programs won't even leave a means for uninstalling the application, save for whatever you might be able to accomplish in the Windows Control Panel.

I never used to use Revo Uninstaller before I started running these open-source roundups; I now consider it a critical component of my work. Invariably, of the five open-source applications I install each week, two to three will leave junk on my hard drive or, worse, spare folders in critical system areas (My Documents, an uber pet peeve). A quality user experience doesn't begin and end with the actual running of the application--the entire process is as important as the actual program itself, and this is an area where retail applications can shine over their open-source friends.

Help! I Need Somebody! Help!

Finally, there are the support mechanisms. Nothing's more frustrating than having to wade through Google-searched forum posts or those damnable Wikis just to find the answer to a simple question about lost features or a confusing user interface. When possible, open-source software needs to walk users by the hand through every facet of its operation. I'd love to see a common video encoding application actually bundle half of the information found across the Internet about encoding types and mechanisms. Better yet, I'd love for a video encoding app to recognize what file I slap into its "Input" field and give me a step-by-step overlay as to how I can go about converting that video to any format the encoder supports.

Simplifying this concept, quality open-source projects are more than just scatter houses of user-built information across the Internet. They are apps like Pidgin, which integrate comprehensive search listings of potential problems, mailing list support, IRC queries, and large user guides right on the big-and-bold help section off of the main site's homepage. Making the support system as easy as possible for the user to interact with is the mark of a solid open-source project. Querying hundreds of Internet forums to find answers is the surest way to turn a person back to the retail alternative.

One of the greatest advantages of open-source software--for consumers, at least--is that it provides a free method for accomplishing tasks that would otherwise require you to purchase expensive software. But just because a program is priced to nothing doesn't mean that it's automatically going to attract user interest regardless of its design, user experience, or marketing. Free software isn't a free pass to ignore the basic qualifications that retail software has to entertain to attract customers.

How To: Leave Your Mark in Left 4 Dead

Shaun Rykiss — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 20:00:00 -0600

In our opinion, no artistic medium offers a better opportunity to express a PC gamer’s individuality and inappropriate sense of humor like a personal decal “spray” projected on your enemy’s spawn room wall during a multiplayer match. While Valve has made it a mostly painless process to import spray images into their Source engine-based games, the difficulty still lies in creating an original image you can be proud to vandalize next to an enemies corpse. And since no game offers more opportunities to grief friends and enemies than Left 4 Dead, we’re going to show you a flawless technique for creating your own ‘writing on the wall’, pun absolutely intended.

What you need:

- Photo editing software, GIMP
Free, http://www.gimp.org/downloads/
- VTFEdit
Free, http://nemesis.thewavelength.net/index.php?p=41
- Handwriting-styled Fonts
Free, http://www.dafont.com
- WinRAR
Free Trial, http://www.rarlab.com/download.htm
- Left 4 Dead (though the guide works with any Source Engine game)
$50, http://www.l4d.com

Time: 1.5 hours

1. Set up Your Template

You’ll need image editing software such as Photoshop or Paintshop, though less expensive (and free) alternatives such as Gimp are available that offer the same tools required for this job. For user convenience this tutorial will use Gimp, though it is important to note most modern editing programs consist of similar tools, options and terminology, so don’t worry about specificity of tools. Other programs will follow the same guidelines.

After opening Gimp, select File > New, which will bring up the New Image dialog box. All sprays have a resolution of 256x256 pixels, which you should input into the Height and Width boxes (make sure the units are set to pixels). Now in the Fill Width box, make sure you set it to Transparency. This will make the background invisible, so when you use a spray in-game you will only see the graffiti, and not a white square box. After pressing OK, you are now ready to start working on your blank image!

2. Customize GIMP

Next, let’s customize the interface to make designing our spray a little easier. Select File > Dialogs > Tool Options. This opens the Tool Options dialog box, which will change in context with the tools you select. If you would prefer to dock it with your tool selections, click the area of the Tool Options menu that says Text (if the Font Tool is selected) and drag it under the tools on the main Gimp window where it says “You can drop dockable dialogs here”. Also, open the Layers dialog box through File > Dialogs > Layers, which can be docked the same way.

3. Choose Your Graffiti Style

At this point you have a few options for designing the look of your graffiti. We recommend visiting www.dafont.com or another website that provides free-to-use user made fonts. There, you can find some great styles in the Handwriting category under Script (it is important to note each artist has conditions for using their font, usually found in a Readme file bundled with the font download). Once you’ve chosen a font, download and install it. Open My Computer > Control Panel > Fonts, then drag-and-drop the font (extracted from the .rar file using WinRAR) into the Font folder to install it. Remember the font’s name so you can easily find it for the next step!

4. Start Writing

Now we can start writing. Once you’ve decided what you want your Spray to say (be snarky for extra lulz), select the Font Tool and left-click anywhere on your Canvas. In the GIMP Text Editor, type the text you want on your Spray. You can change your font and text size in the Tool Options window, as well as the color. We recommend darker colors, since they will look more like static markers on in-game wall textures. If you have multiple blocks of text you’d like to write, simply click elsewhere on the Canvas and a new Text Box will be made as a separate layer. Be sure to use a different font for more than one line of dialogue to mimic a conversation between multiple survivors!

5. Apocalypse-ify Your Text

If you are happy with your current product, move on to step six! However, if you want to really make your graffiti fit in with the game’s art style, there are a number of things you can do. Start by moving your text around the Canvas with the Move Tool, and spinning it on an angle with the Rotate Tool, or skewing it to an angle with the Shear Tool. These tools can be used by clicking and dragging your text into your desired positions, and clicking the Rotate or Shear button respectively to reflect the changes. Remember to use the Layers window to select the text you want to modify.

To add a final touch, select the Paintbrush Tool, adjust the tool settings so that the brush uses the same color as the text, and the size accordingly. Draw a few scribbles on your font text, extending some letters and underlining words to make text look unique, as if a person had written it. Play around with the other various Tools GIMP offers and have fun with it!

6. Export and Convert

Now it’s time to export your artwork into a usable game file. Click File > Save As. In the Save Image window, select where you want to save your image (we recommend making a Sprays folder either in My Pictures or in your Left 4 Dead directory), and click the Select File Type text at the bottom of the window. Scroll down and select PNG Image (extension .png), or TarGA (.tga), then name the file in the Name field at the top and click Save. When the Export File window comes up, make sure Merge Visible Layers is selected, and then click Export and Save in the Save as PNG/TarGA window.

Install VTFEdit, launch it and click File > Import. Select your PNG or TarGA image form wherever you saved it and click Open. The VTF Options window will pop up, which looks pretty imposing. For the most part you can leave it alone and simply press OK, however I would adjust a few things to be safe, which can be seen in the following screenshot. Select File > Save As, and save it where you like, which will save the image as a VTF file, the format which all Source-based Sprays are saved.

7. Import and Enjoy!

The last step is simple and painless, boot up Left 4 Dead and click Options. Select Multiplayer > Import Spray, find the VTF file you made, click Open and bind your Spray to a keyboard shortcut (T is the default key).

Congratulations, you have your own graffiti Spray to place wherever your trigger-happy hands like!

Tips:

- Edit > Undo is your best friend. Remember the hotkey Ctrl+Z!
- Save often
- Try and familiarize yourself with GIMP before starting, and customize it to your liking.

December 2008: 2009 Technology Preview

The Maximum PC Staff — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 19:33:47 -0600

In the PDF archive of the December 2008 issue you can find:

2009 Technology Preview!
Netbook Roundup
Learn GIMP secrets
Awesome Product Reviews, including ATI's Radeon 4870 X2
Ask the Doctor
Rig of the Month
The Watchdog
And a whole lot more!

Click the big giant cover image to the right to download the PDF aarchive today!

Bring Out the GIMP Part 1: GIMP Basics

Robert Strohmeyer — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 11:26:13 -0500

No matter which Linux distro you run, chances are it came with a magnificent little image editor called GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program). Unlike Paint and other free-with-your-OS image editors, GIMP is a full featured graphics app with a broad range of capabilities that rival those os Adobe Photoshop. (Note: GIMP does lack many features of its $749 rival, but it has the distinct advantage of costing absolutely nothing.) In this, our first of several posts about this powerful Linux app, we'll give you a quick-and-dirty intro to GIMP's most basic features. Note that there are multiple ways to accomplish these basic tasks in GIMP, but these methods require the fewest steps. In later tutorials, we'll show you more advanced (and more efficient) image editing techniques.

Crop an Image
Cropping in GIMP is fairly straightforward. To start, open an image and select the rectangle selector from the toolbox. Then place the cursor in one corner of the area you'd like to crop. (It's often easiest to start in the upper left corner, like reading a book.) Now drag the rectangle toward the opposite corner of your desired area. (If you started in the upper left corner, you'll be dragging toward the lower-right.) Once you're happy with the selected area, right-click in the box and choose Image > Crop Image.

Resize an Image (aka Scaling)
Like cropping, scaling is a simple operation in GIMP. Open your image and select Image > Scale Image from the menu. Enter the dimensions you want in the fields, and then click Scale to make it so. Easy peasy.

Alternatively, you can handle both cropping and resizing with the Crop and Resize tool located in the Tools > Transform Tools menu. It works similarly to the above examples, but for quick edits, we like the above methods more.

Fix Your Pics
You can manually adjust color, hue, and saturation easily in GIMP. In this image, my tortoise is looking a little hot in the Hawaiian sun, and I'd like to eliminate those washed out white spots from his shell. To do it, I'm going to modify the color balance in the highlights by clicking Tools > Color Tools > Color Balance and using the sliders to make small adjustments. Because I really only want to tone down the highlights at this point, I check the Highlights option at the top of the Adjust Color Balance dialog, and then I push the Yellow-Blue slider a little to the right. A small adjustment quickly removes most of the annoying white spots from the tortoise's shell without significantly altering the image's overall appearance. While I'm at it, I'm going to turn up the Red and Green just slightly to preserve the natural red tones of the soil and shell and preserve the bright greens of the surrounding grass. As long as you make small adjustments, the result maintains a natural look while bringing out more of the subject's fine details. You can also make adjustments to brightness, hue, and saturation in the same way, by choosing those options from the Tools > Color Tools menu.

That concludes this week's GIMP tutorial. This one was elementary, but in upcoming posts, we'll dig a lot deeper into this app's wide range of features, including working with paint tools to manipulate your images, using layers, and playing with the array of plug-ins and scripting tools that make GIMP such a powerful graphics tool.