Beginning GIMP: From Novice to Professional (Expert's Voice in Open Source) 2nd ed. Edition

by Akkana Peck (Author)

63 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-1430210702

ISBN-10: 1430210702

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The GIMP Version 2.4 will be released end of 2005. We’ll likely be first to market a book about the new version. Other books are pre-Version 2.4 and very outdated

Takes a project-based approach. Reader will be taught through real-world examples and projects immediately applicable for their own work

GIMP is an emerging technology in Open Source that has been making big headlines. Was used to make the Scooby-Doo movie and the official mascot of Linux (Tux)

GIMP works on Mac OSX, Linux, and Windows. This book shows how to install it on each platform.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

From the reviews:

"Peck’s textbook provides a thorough treatment of topics ranging from installation (on various platforms) and background on common graphic file formats, to drawing, photograph manipulation, filters/effects, and even scripting … . In addition, a thorough treatment of the tools useful to experienced designers is provided … . Peck’s book is effective in showing just how far GIMP has progressed in 12 years. Beginners may be surprised … with this free application, especially with the assistance of this clear, concise, and attractive textbook." (Ian van der Linde, ACM Computing Reviews, Vol. 49 (2), February, 2008)

About the Author

Akkana Peck is a freelance software developer and writer who has been working with open source software for nearly 20 years. She has worked for a diverse collection of companies including Netscape, Silicon Graphics, Sun Technologies, Hewlett Packard, and Apple, and has written imaging software ranging from GIMP plug-ins, to cartography, to scientific visualization. Akkana is a longtime member of the GIMP community and enjoys giving GIMP courses and presentations, as well as filling up her hard drive with digital images. She lives in San Jose, California with her husband and a motley assortment of old computers. You can find more of her musings at ShallowSky.com.

Series: Expert's Voice in Open Source
Paperback: 584 pages
Publisher: Apress; 2nd ed. edition (December 24, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1430210702
ISBN-13: 978-1430210702
Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 1.2 x 9.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 63 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #203,256 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #54 in Books > Computers & Technology > Software > Design & Graphics
- #81 in Books > Computers & Technology > Graphics & Design > Desktop Publishing
- #255 in Books > Textbooks > Computer Science > Graphics & Visualization

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Amazon Customer

Great Book if it were Up-to-Date

July 17, 2010

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Well written and easily understandable. This is the affordable manual so badly needed for Gimp. It is neither a tutorial or a reference, but has advantages of both. It's easy discussion style leads you through how to use Gimp, starting with the basics, and moving soon to advanced. But I have had no problem using the index to jump ahead to specific topics of interest, as the discussions made sense without reading everything in order. I feel like I will be a Gimp expert when I finish the book, but I and already getting lots of use from it in improving my digital photos.

The book is a couple of versions behind. There are a few mentions in the Appendix describing the differences in the newer versions, but the explanations are just short summaries. Most of the tools are still in the newer versions. But in newer versions (latest is 2.6.10) many tools have been relocated and can be hard to find. In fairness, with versions changing so rapidly, it would be difficult for any author or publisher to keep up. Because the book is advertised as covering version 2.6 but really doesn't, I downgraded my rating from five stars to four.

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John R. Overall

Very good book, but could use references of Gimp to Photoshop.

December 9, 2015

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

The book is well written (I'm not that far into it yet.....) and very informative. My only objection is that I imagine Gimp is, for many people, a kind of "poor man's Photoshop", and I imagine that some people (me, for instance) have gotten Gimp because it's free!!, and Adobe has priced itself out of the realm of the Real World (and beyond a lot of fantasy worlds.....and now you have to rent it......) Akkana Peck has carefully avoided ANY reference to Photoshop (Gimp may be all she ever used???......), and it would be good if she said something like, "This is like the dodge tool in Photoshop, but it's more subtle, and you need to use 2 hands."

While it may be the "poor man's Photoshop", Gimp seems to incorporate a lot of the same features, and can probably hold its own in most matchups.

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CindyTop Contributor: Baking

Really Helpful, Easy to Follow

February 8, 2010

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Gimp is a great program, very powerful, but not always as intuitive as you might like, especially if you're not familiar with any graphics programs. Akkana Peck writes clearly without "geek speak" for us mortals who only understand English. If you carefully read and follow everything she has to say, you'll look like a Gimp wizard when you're done going through this book.

There's a lot of basic stuff in the beginning that you might think is skippable, but don't do that. Every once in a while, you'll stumble across a gem of information even in the first several chapters, even if you're familiar with image editing software and have been using Gimp for a while.

All the images she uses for examples in the book are available on-line. This makes it a lot easier to try the demos without doing a lot of searching for a similar image. This book is based on a slightly out-dated version of Gimp, but there are updates for newer features at the book website. I'm glad I bought this book--it's worth the price.

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E. M. Flynn

Great way to learn GIMP, for a tech gimp

May 19, 2017

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This is an excellent manual for those who want to learn GIMP on their own. I open it up whenever I get a chance and try to master one aspect at a time. BEGINNING GIMP allows me to do so on my own terms, with its clear copy and step by step instructions.

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Not completely step by step but I would recommend

July 11, 2010

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

The book is frustrating as it takes you through editing a picture and then stops...
For instance Masks which is probably one of the hardest things...she tells you how to work on the mask and then doesn't finish, so you are left with the mask to the side of the transparent layer and your background below that..What do I do next?
Even cropping...she did the same thing...
I bought the book because I was tired of wading through online tutorials..well I'm still having to do that because she leaves me hanging. She does a great job if she would just finish the steps.

I give 3 stars because I'm glad I have the book...because when you are drowning in frustation, you need something to hold onto.

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Just what I needed

March 15, 2009

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

A few weeks ago I knew nothing whatsoever about the GIMP.
I downloaded version 2.6 and decided to learn how to use it.
After a frustrating attempt to educate myself with the online
help files I turned to Akkana Peck's Beginning Gimp, second edition.

I found her book to be just what I needed. It's a big book at just
under 600 pages, but I found it a reasonably quick read due in large
part to many full color examples and Akkana's clear writing style.

It is not easy to write technical documentation, and so it is wonderful
to encounter such a well written work. Ms. Peck has the rare talent
of being able to present volumes of technical information in a manner
that has enough detail to be useful, without overwhelming the reader with
minutiae, or being boring. Her style makes heavy use of examples,
which are nicely illustrated (kudos to the publisher to spending the extra
money for color images). Key concepts are presented in a well ordered manner, making it quite painless to understand the "Zen" of GIMP.

After reading the book cover to cover, working through most of the
example exercises, I feel I have expanded my image processing abilities
immensely. By the way, you can (and should) download all the example
material found on the publishers web site.

Many thanks to the extraordinarily talented programmers who created
this remarkable program. Thanks also to those who have created the
online help files (which are quite useful once one has a basic understanding of the GIMP).

And thanks again to Akkana Peck for making the initial learning curve so pleasant!

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