On Sat, 2009-02-07 at 16:03 -0800, Patrick Horgan wrote:
Gracia M. Littauer wrote:
anyone used this book ...good? great? so so?
I'm working my way through it...it's not new, i.e. it talks about the
upcoming 2.4 release, but it seems quite good. Rather than using the
existing Python-Fu scripts to do things, the author tells you about
them, but teaches you how to do the stuff yourself
Yeah, it's definitely not new. Just didn't get a lot of publicity, I
guess. It took about 2 years to do and it was about 2 years (maybe
longer?) between 2.2 and 2.4. Since it had historically been long
periods between major releases I thought I'd be safe to write it for 2.2
(thinking 2.4 wouldn't supplant 2.2 for quite some time even if it did
come out soon after the book, which it did). Fortunately, 2.4 didn't
changes things that would make the book obsolete. So it's still
applicable to 2.4.
2.6 changed the UI a bit and that may confuse people using the book.
However, the goal when I wrote it was to use core utilities for
tutorials (and not write another User's Guide) and not rely on filters
that might change or Script-Fu/Python-Fu add ons. The purpose was to
show you how to use the core GIMP. Everything beyond that is just
icing.
The web site is slowly getting updates. I plan on updating some very
old tutorials (I just got the release to do so from Linux Format, where
I write a monthly column on GIMP) for 2.6. It will be a slow process,
but that's the plan.
A version of the book for 2.8 is planned if I can ever get the time to
start updating all the tutorials. If there was enough interest they
might do it on glossy paper next time, which would make the tutorial
images much cleaner (but higher cost to produce).
Feel free to write me about the types of tutorials you're looking for.
I can consider them for the next edition of the book, write them in my
Linux Format column or post them on my web site(s).
http://www.graphics-muse.org/artistsguide/
Comments on the web site(s) are open now (they were closed for a long
time, but I now trust my spam software to keep out the riff-raff). Feel
free to leave comments there too.
