Linux Pro Magazine GIMP Handbook Special Edition

I received a few Promo copies of the Linux Pro Magazine GIMP Handbook Special Edition in the mail a couple of weeks ago. I’ve just been too busy to sit down and have a look at it in depth.


I did give it a few flip-throughs when I had a moment, though.

This is apparently a “Special Edition” magazine aimed entirely at GIMP and using it. As such, it’s mostly (unlike my blog) ad free. So that means there’s over 100+ (full color) pages of good content!


It’s broken down nicely by sections:

  • Get Started
    • Compiling GIMP
    • GIMP 2.8 and 2.9
    • User Interfaces
    • Settings
    • Basic Functions
  • Highlights
    • Basic Functions
    • Colors
    • Light and Shadow
    • Animation with GIMP
  • Practice
    • Layers
    • Selection
    • Colors
    • Paths
    • Text and Logos
  • Photo Processing
    • Sharpening
    • Light and Shadow
    • Retouch
    • GIMP Maps
  • Know How
    • G'MIC
    • UFRaw
    • Painting
    • Fine Art HDR Processing
    • Animation with GIMP

The sections appear well written and are clearly laid out. They cover external resources where it makes sense as well (referencing the GIMP Registry quite a few times for some of the more useful and popular scripts).

As an image editing program, GIMP provides a variety of useful and advanced functions for any possible task. Before you use them, however, you should be aware of some simple things. 
— Get Started: Basic Functions

The writing is nice and clear, and there is a good range of topics covered that should get most beginners on track for exploring further in GIMP.

For example, in the “Photo Processing” section, while discussing Sharpening an image, they make mention of most of what users are likely to need (and some more obscure ones): Standard Sharpening, Unsharp Mask, High-Pass Sharpening, Wavelet Sharpen, and more.

The instructions are clearly presented, and having all full-color pages really helps as there are many examples showing the concepts. There’s also some neat coverage of associated/support programs as well like G'MIC, UFRaw, and LuminanceHDR!

There’s a bundled DVD included that will boot to ArtistX linux as well (and includes GIMP install files for OSX/Win).

All in all, quite a bit of content for $15.99.

To sweeten the deal, the nice folks at LinuxPro Magazine are offering a discount code to save 20% off the price!

The discount code is: GIMP20DISCOUNT and it’ll be valid through July 15th.

Of course... A Give-Away!

I do have a few copies they sent to me as promotional copies. I thought it might be more fun to go ahead and pay them forward to someone else who might get more use out of them than me.

So, all you need to do is either leave a comment below, or share any blog post of mine on Twitter or Google+ with the hashtags #patdavid #GIMP.

You can also email me with "GIMP Giveaway" in the subject.

If you do enter, make sure I have a way to reach you.

Oh, and disclaimer: I’ve never done a give away for anything before, so please bear with me if I suck at it...

I’ll sift through the hashtags and whatnot later next week and randomly pick three folks to send these copies to!

[Update]
I chose the winners earlier this week using http://www.random.org. So congratulations to Stan, Anand, and Doug! I'll be dropping your magazines in the mail this week!

Help support the site! Or don’t!
I’m not supporting my (growing) family or anything from this website. Seriously.
There is only one reason I am writing these tutorials and posts:
I love doing it.
Technically there is a second reason: to give back to the community. Others before me were instrumental in helping me learn things when I first got started, and I’m hoping to pay it forward here.

If you want to visit an ad, or make a donation, or even link/share my content, I would be absolutely grateful (and tickled pink). If you don’t it’s not going to affect me writing and posting here one bit.

I’ll keep writing, and I’ll keep it free.
If you get any use out of this site, I only ask that you do one thing:
pay it forward.


11 comments:

  1. I would love to get a copy of this special edition. I am the co-Founding Pastor of a new church development and I use GIMP as the standard editing software for our pics. As a non-profit, money is tight and getting something like this for free would help a lot, both in preserving our small bank balance and in improving the images we use. (Learning how to use GIMP to produce animation would also be a great benefit.)

    You can reach me at: greypilgrim@interior-castle.org. If I am chosen, you can send the magazine to

    1633 E Street Rd
    Glen Mills, PA (USA) 19342

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  2. I've been using GIMP for about 4 years and am continuously impressed with it. I'd love to get a copy of the publication.

    You can reach me at hkass@yahoo.com.

    Magazine can be sent to me at

    33040 Rockford Drive
    Solon, OH (USA) 44139

    Thanks,

    Howard

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  3. It's nice to see GIMP getting some more coverage. Looks like an interesting issue.

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  4. Looks really interesting.

    Are you able to ship internationally, or is this US residents only?

    I can be reached at
    temp-giveaway-email@clb92.com

    #patdavid #GIMP
    (Just testing is hashtags work in Blogger comments)

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  5. The Book seems very interesting, and hopefully I can be the winner.
    I have twitted as instructed and will be providing the contact details in the email.

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  6. Gimp is the first open source software I stared to use almost a year ago. I love to paint and still like a beginner. Any resource I find to help me learn about digital graphics and paint would be a great help.

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  7. I can not find the paypal gateway.

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  8. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  9. Would absolutely LOVE a copy of the GIMP publication! I'm a beginner photographer and painter.

    #patdavid#GIMP

    You can reach me at: kdw@xmission.com

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  10. I've been playing around with gimp for a number of years and even recommended it to people who can't afford Photoshop. At the start of this year I got into photography as a hobby and am becoming heavily depended on gimp. I'd love to get a copy of this magazine since I'm pretty much stuck in the color menu and would love to explore some of the other features I've seen in gimp.
    I think Gimp is among the most underrated software of recent times. The difference in my photos when I use gimp to edit then and the originals from the camera is such a huge difference and I'm just starting to learn.
    Whoever wins these can learn from them and still pass them to others in a year or 2 because gimp changes so little.
    Bill
    Billymerciless@gmail.com

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  11. I would love a copy, because this is the first program I used when I got my linux tablet. The open source community have a lot of great ideas and support. I am much older, and it is
    important to learn this new computer workd. This web site and anothers have been such a big help with information. THANKS FOR ALL THE GOOD WORK.

    ReplyDelete