MS plan to abandon Paint averted

[JohnM]

Just my Ten cents on the subject .... This old dinosaur was persuaded to upgrade from XP to Win7 after using my son's PC while I was house (and dog) sitting for a couple of weeks. It took a bit of re-edumacation of the ol' grey cells, but I soon mastered it. Didn't even look at Vista or Win8 as nor did any of my kids. However ... Win10 was being offered for free ... so what the hell, I can always go back.

I've found it easier to learn than Win7 was, and have never looked back. I now have Win10 installed on two PCs, a Tablet, and a Smartphone. I did also try to upgrade my laptop to 10, but unfortunately the poor old thing failed on specs and can't take it. Pentium CPU and not enough spare RAM. So that's still soldiering on with Win7, but it is rarely used now that I've (Sort of) mastered this touchy feely tablet thingy.

Getting into using the Smartphone is another story though. All the swipes and sweeps required for a touchscreen just don't come naturally to me, but I'm determined to master it as I've got a couple of drones that can be better controlled by the phone than their mini hand control boxes. With phone control you can see what the camera is seeing in real time. You can turn the camera on and off in flight, and of course you can record direct to a memory card in the phone. All good fun, but really way too technical for this ol' duffer to be playing with.

[bigpetr]

I would not be so worry, there are free replacemnts. Here mentioned PAINT.NET for example. It is as easy free paint program. And it has "layers" function - huge benefit for paper model designer. Makes texturing much more easier.

[southwestforests]

Originally Posted by JohnM

I haven't totally deserted the GIMP though, and one day I WILL sit down and read that manual. I've got as far as having the whole thing assembled into one multi-page (951 of them).pdf file, but I hate reading such things on-screen,...

A couple years ago found what seems to me a pretty good book, Beginning GIMP, by Akkana Peck, and it is only 530-some pages.
Now, what seems to me a pretty good book may or may not seem likewise to others since I don't use the program extensively.
Book must have some merit since it is distrubited by Springer-Verlag with Springer being the same Springer in the Springer-Praxis space books which are also distributed by Springer-Verlag.
This second edition was copyright 2008 by the author; I do not know whether there is a newer edition.

[JohnM]

I googled that book SWF. and the AMAZON (UK) entry was interesting. Only one left at £32.20 +p&p, but it does mention that there is a newer edition ... currently unavailable. https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Books/Beg...rts/1430210702

Looking around the page though, it does show other books about the GIMP. Including a second hand paperback for only £1.31.

The GIMP has been updated many times over the years though, so I would suggest careful study of the version covered before buying any of them. £30+ for a book covering only an earlier version than you're using could be an expensive disappointment. I'm currently using v2.8.18 but I've not checked for updates lately.

Still, it's good to know that there are books available out there. The On-line manual is a horribly complex thing to learn from, with all it's interactive links leaping you from page to page and back. Hint: Make a note of the page number you are on before clicking any links. Finding your way back can be a nightmare.

[SCEtoAUX]

There is a GIMP 2.9.4 out now. https://www.gimp.org/news/2016/07/13...-9-4-released/


Here is a page to download a GIMP pdf manual dated September 29, 2016 consisting of 901 pages.

Index of /www/meta

The url for the site has linux in it so I do not know if the manual is specific to linux operating system or if that even matters. The manual does reference Windows and Mac OS.

[whulsey]

Have the Akkana Peck book I bought several years ago (at Borders) and it was pretty good. It was version 2.4 at that time. So would imagine an updated book would be good also.

[cfuruti]

Originally Posted by southwestforests

A couple years ago found what seems to me a pretty good book, Beginning GIMP, by Akkana Peck, and it is only 530-some pages.
Now, what seems to me a pretty good book may or may not seem likewise to others since I don't use the program extensively. ...

I own the first 2006 edition. which covers GIMP 2.0 to 2.4. It's a very good introductory book (there's not much about scripting, a topic big enough to earn its own book). The author is knowledgeable, and a great enthusiast of open source software.

I still own Carey Bunks' "Grokking the GIMP", a 2000 book, which IIRC covers GIMP 1.2. That version lacks layer grouping, single-window mode and lots of plug-ins, but concepts like layers, masks and paths remain similar, and are well covered in that book, should you find a second-hand copy.

If in doubt, the differences between GIMP versions 2.2 to 2.8 are summarized in https://www.gimp.org/release-notes/

[cfuruti]

Originally Posted by SCEtoAUX

...

Here is a page to download a GIMP pdf manual dated September 29, 2016 consisting of 901 pages....

The url for the site has linux in it so I do not know if the manual is specific to linux operating system or if that even matters. The manual does reference Windows and Mac OS.

I only use GIMP for Linux, but in the books I own the only significant differences between versions for Linux and Windows are in the installation process. The user interface and functionality are equivalent.
If you are interested in scripting, there's a trivial difference: most Linux distributions include runtime support for Perl, Python and (sometimes) Scheme, GIMP's default scripting languages; in Windows you must get them separately.