GIMP

Gimp super basic

I am thinking of setting up a business.

It should be low capital, and it is also good to at least try to own a business once in my lifetime. I will never know if I will be good in it. The business I am thinking of is weekend and online based, so I can still keep my silly job to keep my main income flowing in. 

So for now, I have 2 other hope of having additional income, Forex and Business. For Business posts, I will put the word 'Business' in front of the title.

My business require me to use a software, Gimp. It is like Adobe Photoshop, but a free version of it. I had spent some time playing around with it today. The below is the most basic and important step to do, after you installed it. Which is to set it up for an easier interface. My current Gimp is version 2.8.

1. Go to Tools, New Toolbox
2. Drag it wide, and you can see 'You can drop dockable dialogs here'
3. Go to Windows, Dockable Dialogs, click Tool Options
4. Drag Tool Options into the Dockable Dialogs area
5. Go to Windows, Dockable Dialogs, click Layers
6. Drag Layers into the Dockable Dialogs area

Wah La~ you have a neat GIMP interface with only 2 windows.

Gimp again

I am starting to like this software.

Today I try to get quotes from China regarding my product. The sample is freaking expensive (USD 80), but I hope my bulk order will not be. If not it will kill my dreams of starting the business.

Back to the software, I learnt some more things today. One of the useful skill I can learn is to turn any photo into a cartoon. It will be super useful to my designs, and there will be endless things I can do if I can learn it well.

Anyway, about some things that I learnt:

• When I use Free Select tool, I am unable to get rid of the dotted lines. And when that is on, I cannot do any other things like Brush or Pencil. Solution : Click on Rectangle Select tool and then click on the image.

• When it comes to photo editing, GIMP arranges the top bar in order (below).When editing photos, go to Colors. Most basic feature to edit will be to use Brightness & Contrast. Another important feature is Threshold, though I have not use it yet. After Colors, go to Filters to add special effects.

Below is a video about what awesome thing GIMP can do, even though it is using Photoshop.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kB0SVZ27vfk

More knowledge bout GIMP

Learn many more things from watching youtube videos and trying it out myself.

• To resize an image, go to 'Scale'
• Fuzzy tool is one of the most amazing tools. If it don't work, remember to right-click the layer and 'Add alpha channel'
• To add new image, copy it, and paste in GIMP.
• If image is bigger than the checker background, go to Image, Fit Canvas size to Layers

I finally know how to sketch!

1. Filters, Artistic, Photocopy
2. Colors, Threshold, then adjust it.
3. Then use white paint and remove those dirty spots and make the sketch cleaner.
4. Next step is to use the original image again, duplicate and go to Colors, Posterize. This is for applying shading, which is very important for my cap designs.
5. Next step we go back to Threshold again and adjust the Posterized layer.
6. One very useful step is to flatten images into just one layer, when your layers start piling up. Of course, remember to save into a different file first before you regret. From there on, it is easier to make the image cleaner and also to change color.

Yeah!

Anyway, for better description, go to the below video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtQohJi9Mkc

How to convert certain colors in an image to another color.

(you might need to flatten the layers first)

1. Click on 'Select by Color tool' (Beside fuzzy tool)
2. Click on the color of the image you want to change
3. Once selected, run your brush all over the image

Another important feature is to convert all white color to Alpha (transparent).

This is very crucial to be able to print pictures onto a color of a cloth.

1. Go to Color, Color to Alpha

Yea~

I really made some good progress with the software, and produced some professional looking jobs. I am excited about my new venture!

Why sometimes I cannot use paint brush?!

• Because Paintbrush opacity is not 100%
• Because some areas are still being selected. Go to the Rectangle select tool and double click on the image.

How to save image with transparent background

• Export as .PNG 

How to scale image size properly

• Hold Control key and scale it. It will scale it in proportion

How to have a bigger background

• go to image, go to canvas size. type 3000 for height and width.