Ever since the GIMP emerged as a killer app for image editing, Linux has held a unique place when it comes to image tweaking. On one hand, a number of great tools allow you to perform all sorts of manipulation on an image both in a GUI and in an automated command-line form. What’s more, all these utilities are free. On the other hand, Linux is not popular with professionals, because some notable commercial image-editing applications aren’t natively available on Linux. However, even without commercial support, the free tools available on a Linux machine provide a great deal of image-editing power, whether you are a pro or a novice.

The hacks in this chapter provide you with the tools and know-how to perform standard changes to your images, from cropping to resizing to creating thumbnails to adding watermarks. I have also included a whole series of hacks that delve into the power of the ImageMagick suite of tools. This command-line suite lets you perform all sorts of functions on your images and the command-line interface makes it simple to write scripts that automatically modify your images. I’ve even included some sample scripts to get you started.

If you take a lot of digital photos, you will find a number of hacks to help you through the full process of using a digital camera with Linux. Some of the hacks include tips to access your camera under Linux, automatically sync it with your computer, tweak your photos, and even remove red eye. I also cover some tools that help you create slideshows and manage even large directories full of years of photographs.