Tutorials for Gimp
 

Hi
Can anyone suggest a few good tutorials for the GIMP image processor?
I would also like to know that weather it is a worth while replacement for the Adobe Photo-shop?

Regards

http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/ and http://gimp-tutorials.net/ are good start points. As to your second question, Gimp can do most of what potatoshop does, but without knowing your needs and experience with it it's hard to say.

Also, you might try this website:
http://meetthegimp.org/
It has over 150 video screencasts featuring the Gimp.

Cheers

I have found a book on the Gimp at wiki books here. sadly I do not know how to download it. I have tried the pdf download from the tree at right. But that only downloads the current page that is open, where as i want the entire book at once. Could any one provide any help???

I don't see any "tree at right" in the page you linked to.

That depends completely on two things:
1) what you're using the program for, exactly, and
2) what you're accustomed to

The second thing is tricky, because if you don't want to adapt to how Gimp works, you're not going to like it. First depends on whether the Gimp itself, or one of its plugins (that you have installed) provides the functionality you need. Basic image/photo editing should work all right, with the exception that (I think still today) Photoshop can work with images of higher bit depth than Gimp can. This is not necessarily an issue, but may be, depending on what you do. Second thing is working with and converting raw photographs: whereas (some versions of) Photoshop (are advertised to) have a "great" raw tool, Gimp has somewhat-great tool. Last time I tried, I used the dcraw/ufraw plugin to handle the raw images; it "worked", but to be honest, the manufacturer's own software was a lot better. I can't compare to Photoshop here, since I don't use it, but I assume it's good if you pay for it. Nevertheless, if you have a good camera, chances are you have a good raw converter already, so you only have to hope that it runs on the operating system you want to use.

There's the saying that you should use the right tool for the job, meaning that if it's something Gimp (or equivalent) is best for, use it--if not, then don't. For example vector graphics are something Gimp isn't made for. RAW image handling is something Gimp isn't specifically made for. But if it's bitmap stuff, Gimp is a great tool, the better the better you are--some of its functions, like scripting, require some time to learn, so I'd say a lot of "is it worth it" talks really go down to "have I got enough time in my hands to learn this, or do I just get frustrated and rather pay for something else" talks. It's good if you take the time to get good with it, in other words :)

+1 on meetthegimp.org. It is the bee's knees. The author is a teacher, so his tutorials are well-constructed and in digestible bites (bytes?).

If you're designing for print, then Photoshop is probably best. But then if you're designing for print, you'd probably be using a Mac!

If you are seriously interested in Gimp, then it's worth buying Akkana Peck's "Beginning Gimp: from novice to professional", published by Apress.

it is a bit old now but back in `01 when i started to use "The Gimp"
"Grokking the GIMP "
http://gimp-savvy.com/BOOK/

yes "Grokk" is Martian -- R.A.Heinlein

1. Click on the link to the printable version
2. File->Print->Print to File (I saved it as a pdf)

There are several good books on GIMP available on Amazon if you want hard copy. I have not used GIMP a lot but it seems to work as well for me as Photoshop but I'm no expert in either so you will have to make up your own mind. Either one has a pretty stiff learning curve IMHO.