Category: Graphic Design

Linux distros give artists, creators easy access to software

Posted on by anadmitc in GIMP, Graphic Design, Inkscape, Linux distros, Ubuntu, Ubuntu Studio, Uncategorized, Video, Video editing software, Zorin 16 Pro

Linux distros are still considered by many as only for nerds. They are not operating systems for musicians, artists, photographers, and creators in related fields.

The major reason for this is that leading software designed for creators, such as Adobe’s products and Avid Pro Tools, only works on Mac and Windows. This gives the impression that Linux distros have been relegated to the operating system for programmers and network specialists.

This belief is false, however.

Software titles, like the ones listed above, are expensive, and they are not flexible. Users can only install each title on one or two computers after purchasing a license from the developers.

There are many alternatives to these titles that are open-source. They can typically be downloaded and installed for no charge, and they can be installed on as many computers as the person downloading them desires. For most of them a subscription is not required.

The open-source software is typically not as powerful and feature-rich as the leading software applications. However, these titles are usually better than the free or inexpensive software that can be acquired through the Windows 10 store or the Mac OS X store.

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GIMP 2.10.20 comes with new features as well as important bugfixes

Posted on by anadmitc in Graphic Design, News

Release highlights:

  • Tool-group menus can now expand on hover
  • Non-destructive cropping now available by cropping the canvas rather than actual pixels
  • Better PSD support: exporting of 16-bit files now available, reading/writing channels in the right order
  • On-canvas controls for the Vignette filter
  • New filters: Bloom, Focus Blur, Lens Blur, Variable Blur
  • Blending options now built into filter dialogs
  • Over 30 bugfixes

Toolbox updates

We listened to users’ feedback on introducing tool groups in the toolbox in the previous release. A lot of people told us they appreciated the change in general but were quite averse to having to click to open the list of tools in a group. The new release adds the option to show the tool-group menu as soon as the mouse hovers over the toolbox button, without having to click it. This option is enabled by default when the toolbox is arranged in a single column, but it can be enabled for arbitrary toolbox layouts, or disabled entirely, through the Toolbox page of the Preferences dialog.

Additionally, when not using the new behavior, toolbox tooltips now list all the tools in a group, to improve their discoverability.

Basic non-destructive cropping

GIMP now provides a kind of a non-destructive cropping behavior by default. Instead of deleting pixels that you cropped out and thus changing both the layer and the canvas, it will simply resize the canvas. If you export such an image, the resulted file will only have what you see within canvas boundaries.

The benefit of that is (at least) threefold:

  • You can revert to the original uncropped version by going to Image -> Fit Canvas to Layers. None of your edits between cropping and uncropping will disappear.
  • If you save your project as an XCF file, you can close the file and even quit GIMP and still be able to remove cropping and then crop differently at any time later.
  • When you are on the fence about your cropping decision, you can view pixels that you cropped out by going to View -> Show All.

If you want the old “destructive” behavior back, simply tick the ‘Delete cropped pixels’ checkbox in Crop tool’s settings.

The article about GIMP is taken from the GIMP Website blog. Click here to read the entire article on the blog.