Customer Reviews

GIMP User Manual: GNU Image Manipulation Program : Photo Retouching, Image Composition and Image Authoring

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As far as it goes this large book full of tiny type and oddly worded English sentences is okay. But it doesn't address the mechanics of GIMP 2.6.7 and 2.6.7 which are the versions circulating in September 2009. Looks like 2.4 and 2007 is about where new content stopped in this edition published in 2009. So processes described as accomplishing some action or another may be different. I'm going back to the web for more information than I think I should have to for owning a thirty dollar book. It's your money. It was mine.

Very good reference manual - its all here in one book...what I liked the most is the fact that I don't have to buy two or three books to get my questions answered - EVERYTHING is here! Sure, its a big book, but its all there!!!

Finally I can use GIMP without going back to the internet to look up some 'how to' answer on some forum and waste hours trying to find out how to do something...I just look it up here, and presto, I can carry on.

If you use GIMP, GET THIS BOOK!!! You'll find it will answer any question you have and get your projects done faster and BETTER then trying to figure it out for yourself.

Well Recommended! (and cheap too!)

I found this book comprehensive, clear and easy-to-follow.
Written by members of the GIMP development team, it may be
regarded as the "offical" GIMP manual.

Highly recommended for every level of user, from beginners
to experts.

GIMP is a great and free photoshop program. With this manual it is even easier than photoshop. Though the font is small, the information is invaluable. At 600 pages it would easily go to a thousand with the larger font. Publisher made a good decision because it is user friendly and you can solve any problems you are having with the photo program.

The GIMP User Manual introduces the freely distributed software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. Gimp works on many operating systems and in many languages.
This is one of my favourite pieces of image-editing software. It can perform to high standards and allows a huge amount of customization via the "PREFERENCES" section.

There are many advanced features like curves, cloning, unsharp mask, print size scaling - and of course - a layers tool. Most of these work just fine for me.

User-friendliness is reasonably good, once you learn the "GIMP way", it is easy. I have never had any serious "crashing" problems which were directly attributed to GIMP itself. I would advise that when working on photo(s), close as many extra open windows as possible (e.g. email, internet, My Documents, etc.). By doing this you greatly reduce the risk of losing work due to program "crashing". Remember, an ordinary JPG file can turn into a monstrous 100MB file while it is being edited...

I find GIMP to nearly match up against similar programs such as Corel Paint Shop Pro 9 and Adobe Photoshop - but GIMP is free. I would heartily recommend this program!

Strengths of the software:
* Tremendous value! (Free, download from www.gimp.org.).
* Works with Windows, Linux or Mac computer OS's.
* Most of the essential tools that the average photographer will ever need.

* Easy-to-use.
* Plenty of customizing options.
* Fast start-up.
* Full-featured clone tool.
* Various selecting/tracing tools.
* Wide array of filters, including special-effect.
* Very handy crop tool, including guides. (Rule-of-thirds, golden sections, etc.).
* Never had any serious "crashing" problems.
* Free, downloadable plugins available to expand versatility.

Pros and Cons of the Manual:

All in all, for me this User Manual is extremely helpful.
The fonts are a bit small, and with so many pages it really takes a while to read through the complete book.
But on the other hand it is readable, so personally I am very happy to have this printed manual. Great to learn the program itself more quickly and to look up closer for all tools, effects and functions.

The Gimp User Manual arrived today. I haven't used it yet but it will definitely be a challange just to be able to read it. The entire 653 page manual is done in a 7 point font. It may have a lot of good information, but it won't be easy to extract.