The Artist's Guide to GIMP 2nd Edition: Creative Techniques for Photographers Artists and Designers

About this book

As a full-featured free alternative to Adobe Photoshop GIMP is one of the worlds most popular open source projects. The latest version of GIMP (2.8) brings long-awaited improvements and powerful new tools to make graphic design and photo manipulation even easierbut its still a notoriously challenging program to use. The Artists 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. Hammels step-by-step instructions youll 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 GIMPs core tools like brushes patterns selections layers modes and masks youll 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 youre new to GIMP or youve been playing with this powerful software for years youll be inspired by the original art creative photo manipulations and numerous tips for designers. Covers GIMP 2.8