There are literally hundreds of picture editing software programs on the market today. Each of these products promises to be the best you have ever bought for a variety of reasons. However, when put to the test, many of the products fail to live up to their claim which can leave many people feeling frustrated and like they lost money.
Thankfully there is a great piece of software available for free, Gimp. While some claim that Gimp is not a good product for professional’s, there are few arguments that it is a solid piece of software. The following series of articles are not only going to take a look at what Gimp offers, but also give tutorials on how to get started using this wonderful product.
What Gimp Has
Quite honestly Gimp has about everything you could want in image editing software. It allows you to change brightness and contrast, color schemes, and much more. In fact there is very little you can do with other editing software that you can’t do with Gimp. Gimp offers a wide variety of features including a paint program that you can use to create your own work or edit images. Along with the paint feature it also allows you to play with the physics of a picture.
What Gimp Does Not Have
Where Gimp falls short is that it does not provide every feature that some other products do. For example while it does allow you to blur or focus a photograph, it does not do so in the same range as something like Photo Shop. However, overall the lack of a few things is hardly noticeable except to those who really expect a lot out of this kind of software.
Who Gimp Would Work For
Again, Gimp is a solid enough program that it could work for almost anybody. Even if you are involved professionally with image editing and creation there is very little that Gimp can’t provide. If you are an amateur or a professional who has the occasional need to create or edit images, Gimp is about as perfect as you can get. Admitted, if you are someone involved with movies, animation, or other ultra high tech endeavors Gimp probably is not the best choice. Then again, the stuff people in that field of work need costs a lot of money.
In the end, if you are looking for free editing software that provides a lot of bang, Gimp is the way to go. It has most of the features of the brand name stuff like Photo Shop and gives you a lot of flexibility. While there are some people who will insist it sucks because it is free to download, the truth of the matter is that it is a great product. Sure, you probably won’t get a job working on a movie, but if you are looking for something that allows you to edit your own images, Gimp does that for absolutely no cost.
One of the greatest things about image editing software is it allows us the opportunity to be artists without having to have a great deal of talent. While there will always be a need for talented artists, sometimes it is nice to engage in your own creative projects. If you have children, or are trying to think of a good present for a child in your life, try making your own coloring book. Gimp is a free image editing program that takes only a short time to download and the following tutorial will teach you how to make a coloring book with it.
Select an image
The first step to making a coloring book is to select an image. You might want to use photograph’s of the child and the child’s family. If the child has a favorite animal, you could use photograph’s of that. It really only takes a bit of thought to choose a great image for a coloring book.
Bring the Image up in Gimp
After you have decided on the images you want in the coloring book open up the Gimp Program. Now find the tab that says file. Click on it once. You should see a open option. Bring your mouse down to the open tab and click. This will bring up a series of file choices. Find the image you want to edit first, select it, and you should see it in the Gimp program.
Change the image to Black and White
If you are already working with a black and white image, skip this step. If you are working with a color photgraph, the next step is to make it black in white. This is pretty easy. Select the image tab on the toolbar, move down to mode and then select grayscale. As you can see, this should give you a black and white photograph.
Make the Picture a Cartoon
Now that the image is black and white (or grayscale if you prefer) the next step is to make the picture a cartoon. This is actually pretty easy as well. Simply select the filters tab on the toolbar then move down to the artistic tab. After selecting the artistic tab you will see several choices, select cartoon. Once this is selected you will get a preview, select okay. Now you have a cartoonish picture, but we are not quite done yet.
Finishing Touches
The final step is to mess around a bit with the brightness and contrast. Again go to the toolbar and select the color tab. Under the color tab you will find a brightness and Contrast button. Click on the brightness and contrast button. This should bring up an option box that gives you two sliders, one for brightness and the other for contrast. Slide both sliders around a bit until you get something that looks like the picture below.
At this point, you might want to experiment with some of the different functions or simply size to a full sheet of paper and print. Repeat this process for as many images as you want and give them to the intended child with a pack of crayons. Chances are they will really like your home made coloring book.
