Slashdot: Grokking The Gimp [Book Review]

“One of the standout userland programs to come from Free
Software development, the GIMP offers a powerful range of features
for digital imagery. Unfortunately, not everyone’s had the
privilege of (or inclination for) sitting through ‘Principles of
Color’ or similar classes. Not to fear, the author has – – and he’s
willing to share his knowledge.”

“Compounding the complexity challenge, the GIMP has its own way
of doing things. Half of the work of editing an image seems to be
making a good selection. Again, the author has theory to divulge
and tips to present to improve your technique. Though only a few
tools and methods are discussed, they are fundamental to all
advanced operations. (Note that the book covers the as-yet
unreleased 1.2 GIMP — the 1.1.x betas have been quite usable for
months.)…”

“Banks assumes little prior knowledge of the GIMP. Chapter one
is a brief tutorial of the program’s features and functions. More
experienced users can skip this, though I found a couple of
timesaving tidbits. The same may be said of chapter two, on layers,
though the material quickly moves beyond what an average user might
discover in an afternoon. The selections and masks chapters form
the real foundation for most GIMP work — how do you choose parts
of your image to edit? A little theory, a few tools, and some
examples later, you’ll have multiple answers for that
question.”

Complete
Story