[wplug] [wplug-announce] The Open Pitt, Issue 38

Wed Apr 23 00:24:39 EDT 2008

PDF version: <http://linode.wplug.org/w/images/2/21/Wplug-top038.pdf>

                               THE OPEN PITT
      What's cooking in Linux and Open Source in Western Pennsylvania

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Issue 38                         April 2008                   www.wplug.org
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In this issue:
  Book Review: The Artist's Guide to GIMP Effects
  December/January/March Roundup
  Announcement: Open Source Picnic
  From the Editor: The Open Pitt Needs You!

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                               Coming Events

Apr. 23: Roundtable Discussion, Topic: What Do You Get for Free?  7pm to
         9pm, John Harvard's Brew House, Wilkins Township  (RSVP to
         bethlynneicher at gmail.com required)
May 18:  7th Annual WPLUG Open Source Picnic.  1pm to 6pm, Snyder Park,
         Whitehall

                    The public is welcome at all events
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Book Review: The Artist's Guide to GIMP Effects
by Patrick Wagstrom

  Author: Michael J. Hammel
  Publisher: No Starch Press
  ISBN: 1-59327-121-2
  $44.95, 348 pages, 2007

At some point, nearly every Linux user has come across the need to edit a
graphic, take a screenshot, or scan in a picture.  If you're like most
people, you fire up one of the staples of the Linux desktop--the GNU Image
Manipulation Program, more commonly known as the GIMP.  While the GIMP is
extremely powerful, it's also known for its rather non-intuitive interface
and for having a steep learning curve.  I've often heard new users lament
their inability to draw a straight line in the program or the difficulty in
reproducing easy effects from Adobe Photoshop.  Most GIMP experts will
contend that's just because GIMP is different, not inferior--unfortunately,
that difference usually means there is a profound lack of documentation
too.  While there are hundreds of free Photoshop tutorials online, there
exist comparatively few for the GIMP.

_The Artist's Guide to GIMP Effects_ aims to fill this gap by providing a
set of basic techniques and principles to benefit any novice GIMP user, and
even provide some assistance to long-time users.  The book is structured
into six different sections: fundamental techniques, photographic effects,
web design, advertising and special effects, type effects, and user
interface design.  Each section walks through several tutorials on the
topic, with plenty of full-color screenshots to guide you through the
process.

For a new user, the fundamental techniques section at the beginning of the
book is one of the most concise introductions to GIMP I've seen.  Starting
out with a basic tour of the user interface, by the end of the chapter
you'll be creating layers, applying effects, and doing simple image cleanup
with ease.  Hammel goes beyond the standard content of most tutorials and
covers how to interact and touch up scanned images through the XSane GIMP
plugin--a workflow that has become nearly trivial with modern
distributions, yet few Linux users seem to use.

The other sections of the book vary significantly in quality and
practicality.  The second on photographic effects is quite good, covering
how to restore photos, add reflections, and transpose colors in the image,
but then closes with how to add an unrealistic lightning effect to a photo.
Many of the tutorials in the web design section reminded me of early GIMP
tutorials from 1997, discussing things such as gel buttons, metallic
buttons, and waving flags.  If you'd like your web page to look like it was
designed before the first dot-com crash, these may be useful, but in
general the effects look canned and unclean.  Most of the font effects
suffered from similar issues of making the output look very dated, or
worse, unreadable.  There may be cases when a design calls for a brushed
metal section of text, but odds are yours doesn't need it.

That's not to say these effects aren't of any value, it's just that
applying them properly without making an image look poor can be very
difficult.  Understanding _how_ to apply the effects is one part of the
problem, but understanding _when_ and _where_ to apply them is just as
important, if not more so.  I recommend reading _Universal Principles of
Design_ by William Lidwell, et al. for a quick introduction to some of the
finer points of design.  I tend to fear books like Hammel's ending up in
the hands of my grandmother because of the nagging suspicion I'll receive a
custom-designed Christmas card with Grandma flying a P-51 Mustang inches
above a motion-blurred landscape with lightning in the background and
"Merry Christmas" written in frosty text at the bottom.

As usual, No Starch Press has done a wonderful job putting together a
high-quality book.  The lay-flat binding of the book lets it sit open next
to you while going through the tutorials.  The extra-wide format also helps
make the tutorials much easier to follow.  While the book is designed for
GIMP 2.2, and even has some comments on changes for the new GIMP 2.4, my
eyes were continually distracted by the widgets and window theme in use for
the screenshots.  When the Crux theme first came out with the Sawfish
window manager back in 1999 it was good, but now the heavy use of gradients
and high contrast of certain elements makes it a poor choice for
screenshots.  The use of a more modern and clean theme might have led to
cleaner pictures and less distraction for the reader.  Of course, like I
said, many of the design effects remind me of the late 90s, so it's only
appropriate that the screenshots follow the same motif.

Overall, this is one of the better practical guides to the GIMP that I've
seen.  If you really want a printed book tutorial, this is a good one to
pick up.  If you already have a basic level of knowledge of GIMP and some
background with Photoshop, you can probably just as easily browse
del.icio.us or digg to find links to excellent Photoshop tutorials that you
can translate to function with the GIMP.

Patrick Wagstrom is a Ph.D. candidate at Carnegie Mellon University
researching communication and collaboration in Open Source development.  He
has been using Linux since 1994.

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December/January/March Roundup

Dec. 8 General User Meeting: Neal Sofge of RAND Corporation talked about
Bricolage, a Perl-based web content management system.  He explained its
strengths such as versioning, multiple content workflows, and several
supported templating systems.  Also covered was the interface and
publishing the rendered pages to the production web site.  Using the
deployment of RAND's new online bookstore as an example, he described how a
complex, hand-maintained site was converted over to Bricolage within budget
and with modest hardware requirements.

Jan. 12 General User Meeting: The attributes of the Gentoo system were
covered by Ted Rodgers.  Often thought of as a Linux distribution, it is
actually a meta-distribution that can be used to build Linux or BSD
systems.  He went into the details of portage, the heart of Gentoo, and the
massive flexibility it offers to customize your system.  Ted also discussed
typical uses and installation methods.

Mar. 29 General User Meeting: Brian Seklecki of Collaborative Fusion
tackled two topics: OpenLDAP and two-factor authentication.  After covering
some of the uses of LDAP such as centralized identification and
authentication of users and public-key management, he described the layout
of an LDAP database.  This was followed by the details of setting up
OpenLDAP as a server and getting clients to use it for authentication.
Brian finished with a discussion of two-factor authentication methods like
grid cards and electronic tokens.

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Announcement: Open Source Picnic

WPLUG's 7th annual Open Source Picnic will be held on Sunday, May 18.  As
in recent years, we will be at Snyder Park in Whitehall (in the South
Hills).

We call it that because just like Open Source software, it is fueled by the
contributions of those involved.  Please go to the WPLUG wiki
<http://linode.wplug.org/> and find the link under "Upcoming Meetings" to
RSVP if you plan on coming.  While you're there, why not sign up to bring
food, supplies, or organize an activity?

Snyder Park features a covered pavilion, playground, basketball court, and
baseball field.  Count on bringing the whole family for an afternoon of
friends and fun!

Complete details and directions can be found on the wiki page.  See you
there!

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 From the Editor: The Open Pitt Needs You!

As you may have noticed, several months have passed between issues of _The
Open Pitt_.  Much of the fault for this can be rightly laid at my feet, as
work and other responsibilities have pulled my attention away recently.

But we are also suffering from a shortage of articles, and that's where you
can help.

Have you tried out a new distribution recently?  Maybe installed a hot new
web application?  How is your company or organization using Free and Open
Source software?  Have you attended an interesting conference or similar
event lately?

All these subjects and more are valid topics for articles.  It would be
great if there's a local angle, but pretty much anything Linux or Open
Source related is fair game.

Many people worry about their writing abilities--have no fear, we're more
than happy to help you massage your text into a polished article.  All you
need is a subject and the enthusiasm to talk about it.

You can e-mail <top at wplug.org> to reach the editor.  I look forward to
hearing from you!

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The Open Pitt is published by the Western Pennsylvania Linux Users Group
<http://www.wplug.org/top/>

Editor: Vance Kochenderfer

Copyright 2008 Western Pennsylvania Linux Users Group.  Any article in
this newsletter may be reprinted elsewhere in any medium, provided it is
not changed and attribution is given to the author and WPLUG.
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