steveleach writes:

Good Day - I recently found GIMP and think it is amazing. I've been a PhotoShop user for years, and actually prefer GIMP. The one thing I can't seem to figure out is holding me back from using GIMP exclusively, and that is the Record Action feature. I have to manipulate about 100 pictures per day - simply resize a picture to 6x4" @ 300 dpi, save it, resize again at 100 dpi, put a 10 pixel; black border around it and save it to another directory. I can do this to a hundered picitures in about a minute with PhotoShop, but it takes quite a while with GIMP. I am no techie ... any suggestions?

Unfortunately there is no _general_ record action feature. But for actions such as this, there is a nice plugin that works just fine.

You can get the plugin BIMP here: http://www.alessandrofrancesconi.it/projects/bimp/

The first part is very easy with BIMP. The second part is also fairly easy, though a little hacky.

BIMP shows up in the File menu. From there, add an action to resize to 6x4" 300dpi, add images and do the export. First step done.

Now create a 6x4" 100dpi PNG image with a transparent background and a 10px border. Add the same images to BIMP, add an action to resize to 6x4" 100dpi, and another action to add a watermark. Place the watermark in the center, and select your PNG.

This seems to work from my quick testing, though I guess it would be better if BIMP itself had an "add border" feature. (In the Future, GIMP itself may support script recording and playback: http://wiki.gimp.org/index.php/Roadmap )

Kevin Brubeck Unhammer

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