Of course there are a whole bunch of social networking sites that help us with promoting our causes as well as our organizations. There’s Twitter, Facebook, Blip.tv, and so on. But what do we post on these sites? What tools can we use to process the raw material we have?

We’ve got tools for multimedia like Avidemux, GIMP and Audacity. For those who are interested in podcasting, I am sure Audacity is one thing to check out because of its features that could be used in podcasting. You could cut clips, have fade in and fade out effects and so on. There are versions for Linux, Mac and Windows so that you folks out there could enjoy using this for your needs. I once shared a guide on how to make a ringtone using Audacity but you could also use that as a basis on cutting an audio clip.

GIMP is one heck of a useful tool for processing images. Its user interface is definitely not Photoshop’s but in terms of features, there’s a lot that it offers. If you take a look at the GIMP registry, the many plugins and scripts will blow you away. It will also help you in making it more useful and easier to manipulate images using GIMP.

And then there’s Avidemux. I wasn’t able to play around with it a whole lot but this looks like a promising tool for those who have video blogs and presentations to share. It’s very nifty, I like it and would love to learn more on using it too. The nice thing about it is that there’s quite a number of guides on the Avidemux wiki.

These are but tools to help us deal with broadcasting our information. At the end of the day, we must know how these tools will help us in conveying the messages we have, in making sure that we’ve got the material we need for the channels we want to enter and so on. Every organization has something to share — it’s a matter of how, when and why after you realize what they are.

And then there are also content management systems. But I think that there could actually be separate blog entry for them altogether. There’s too many aspects of CMSes that are worth talking about, I think.

Post from: New Linux User

Anyhow, I haven’t been using GIMP much and I’ve mainly been taking pictures with my toy cameras (plastic film cameras: fisheye 2, brandless camera with panoramic mode, etc.) these days and what’s scanned is what I get. Especially the lomo look and feel because of the funky colors when using certain kinds of film and having them cross-processed.

an unedited picture. just to show the 'before' and 'after' look of using GIMP plugins and scripts

this has been edited with the lomo plugins and watermark script

So yeah, there are some basic things that we could do with GIMP. Thanks to Dmitri Popov’s blog entry. I must say that those are nifty things. Red eye correction is a must, after all. Because sometimes we take photos and end up with people who have red eyes. Ack. That won’t do! And the automatic correction of colors are great too. I am guilty of taking pictures that are underexposed.

I know that GIMP has plugins and scripts but I haven’t actively searched for them until recently. Because I am fond of the look and feel of pictures taken using lomo cameras and other such film cameras, I searched for plugins and found some thanks to the GIMP registry which has an article about a lomo script with old style colors. If you are also fond of having vignettes and a dramatic look on your pictures, you could try it out too. Download the scripts and plugins as stated in the article and give them a try.

Scripts and plugins are easy to use, so far. When you download them, save them into the scripts and plugins directory of GIMP in your computer. You could find them in your home directory. Look for /home/(your login name)/.gimp-2.x/ : ) I just wrote 2.x here but you should really use the version number of GIMP that you have installed. When you run GIMP, you should be able to see them in the Filters menu. This has better instructions on installing scripts for GIMP.

One more thing: for simple watermarking needs, you could use this watermark script. To use it, just select it under the script-fu menu and then you will be asked to enter the watermark you want to use, as well as the size of the font, the typeface of your choice and the position of your watermark.

I hope you have fun editing pictures!

Post from: New Linux User

Wilber is GIMP's mascot

As for the the other cool project I am interested in is the one that lets you animate your drawings in GIMP. It’s you making simple animation on GIMP. Neat huh? The article gives you a very basic idea on how basic animation could be done in GIMP and save them as GIF files. The idea is that you will have layers of drawings that will let you manipulate them. Basically your animation will be shown by each layer working together to create the effect. There is also a warning on this article on what the GIF plugin of GIMP can do. (Hooray for screenshots!)

One thing I could probably add here is a novel using a wiki, not a text editor or word processor. Why do I suggest a wiki? It’s because it’s easier to divide content into chapters. And you could easily edit small chunks of text. And if ever you’re already contented with what you wrote you could just upload it on your server. Especially if you will use Zim Wiki. It is possible to publish pages in HTML format. That will be really cool, don’t you think? And it’s the National Novel Writing Month before you know it. So you might as well consider a wiki as one of your tools. (I use Tomboy and Emacs Planner often enough but lately Zim Wiki seems to be showing me that it’s very useful. ; ) So please check that out too.)

Good luck if you’re going to try any of these mentioned projects. Have fun! : )

Post from: New Linux User

Wilber is GIMP's mascot

In any case, there is GIMP Paint Studio which is basically a different configuration of the application.  For those of you who frequently use it, you’re probably wondering if there’s a better configuration somewhere.  Luckily, there is one and it’s GIMP Paint Studio.  You could download it here.  This is especially for those who want to use it for drawing and painting.

What does GIMP Paint Studio give us?

• Additional paint brushes.  The default ones are really not enough!
• Quick access to tools and options.
• A new palette.

There are probably more features but at this time I’d probably have to follow a number of Spanish blogs and have them translated.

I read about GIMP Paint Studio in the webupd8 blog. Other links you might like to check out are these Spanish blog entries:GIMP Paint Studio and GPS v.1.0.

Post from: New Linux User

using brushes on GIMP

Yes, I have it. And I am glad that it’s possible to use them in GIMP. (Cheers for GIMP!) This is possible with GIMP from version 2.4 onwards. eHow.com’s guide to using Photoshop brushes in GIMP is pretty straightforward. It teaches you to look for the version of GIMP you’re using then installing the brushes you’ve downloaded. For my trial, I got some brushes from DeviantArt — thanks to the links from this page on 24 awesome brushes for GIMP and Photoshop.

My tip is to basically look for all the brushes you’d like to use. Maybe even just one will do. Make sure it’s an ABR file. If you downloaded a zip file, extract it first and then you’d most likely see an ABR file.
Then check out the Preferences part of GIMP. You will see that there is a section on brushes. Select that so you could see the location of brushes for GIMP.
Afterwards, move all the brushes you’ve downloaded to that directory you see in GIMP’s Preferences dialog box. Chances are it will be in a hidden directory in your home. Mine was in /home/clair/.gimp-2.6 so I put my downloaded files there.
Select the brush icon and you should be able to find the brushes you have just copied to the brushes folder. Now be happy and use them to your heart’s content!

The screenshot was done with these brushes: Edge Brushes by axeraider70 and Grass Blades by iceytina.

Post from: New Linux User

• gimp-tutorials.com – A website which compiles various tutorials (shown in a frame within the page) which could help you create borders around your images or create a header image for your blog.
• Gimpology – The site is like Gimp-tutorials but it doesn’t show the tutorial on the page itself but it gives the link to the original site. You could submit your tutorials and you just need to sign up in order for you to do that. Two tutorials I skimmed and found interesting are: on GIMP hotkeys and how to add radiance to photos of people.
• Gimp Talk – The forum has a section for tutorials. Check it out.
• Gimp User Group – Another forum with tutorials. There are even thumbnails on the index so that you know what kind of effects you could add to images.
• gimp-tutorials.net – If you’re more interested in brushes and filters, you might want to check this out. Another lovely thing about this site is the downloads section if you want more scripts and gradients.

Other essential references:

• Gimp tutorials on tigert.com
• Grokking the GIMP
• Touring the GIMP

Itching to try out the tutorials? Run GIMP and have fun!

Post from: New Linux User