When the idea for this book began to take form in the beginning of 2006, we imagined finishing it in 2010 and covering GIMP 3.0. The first goal was nearly met for the French edition—that was under our control—but GIMP 3.0 is still far off because volunteer developers can work only when they have time to do so. Still, GIMP 2.8 is a great leap forward compared to the previous version, GIMP 2.6. Some of the most noteworthy new features include a single-window interface; completely revised and more powerful brush dynamics; clarification of saving versus exporting images; improved handling of dockable dialogs; support for layer groups; the ability to lock pixels, channels, and paths; an improved Free Select tool; support for selecting and tagging multiple objects in resource lists (brushes, gradients, and palettes); a new Text tool with on-canvas editing capabilities; a large set of new brushes, brush dynamics, and tool presets; and many other features that make the program easier and more enjoyable to use. GIMP still lacks nondestructive editing, CMYK native support, and 16-bit depth color handling. Some of these features will likely appear in the next version, with support from the Generic Graphic Library (GEGL).

This book aims to fulfill two different purposes: to provide hands-on, task-oriented GIMP tutorials and to provide a comprehensive reference manual. Because these two goals are distinct, we designed the book in two parts. In the first part, eight independent chapters will walk you through the main tasks you can perform using GIMP. Each chapter begins with a hands-on tutorial and ends with exercises that reinforce the concepts covered.

You might want to start with Appendix A, which explains the theory behind image representation, and Chapter 1, which helps you to start using GIMP, but you can read the other chapters in any order. For example, if you are mainly interested in photo manipulation, read Chapter 2 and Chapter 5. If you are more interested in graphic design, read Chapter 3 and Chapter 4. And if you read all the tutorial chapters in order, you’ll have a solid grasp of most aspects of GIMP.

The final 14 chapters constitute a thorough GIMP reference manual. We tried to cover all aspects in a logical order, using as many examples and illustrations as possible. We also tried to avoid explaining the same thing several times. Of course, topics overlap between the two parts, but we tried to keep repetition to a minimum and, when it was unavoidable, to explain things in a new way.

The chapters in the second part are arranged in a logical order, but, because this part is intended as a reference manual, you certainly do not need to read the chapters in order. We’ve included cross-references to help you find what you need to move your project forward. Some of the chapters in the second part correspond directly with a chapter from the first part. In those cases, we recommend that you first read the tutorial chapter and then refer to the relevant chapter(s) in the second part of the book. These paired chapters include 3 and 15, and 6 and 18. Additionally, Chapter 9 to Chapter 14 present some basic concepts that are used regularly in later chapters.

We used a bleeding-edge, developmental version of GIMP to ensure that everything was up-to-date as of the book’s completion, and we’ve covered every aspect of GIMP as thoroughly as possible, with the exception of the tools in the second half of the Image: Create menu and those in the Image: Filters > Alpha to logo menu. We chose not to cover those tools because they’re self-explanatory and have only a few parameters.

We struggled with the decision of whether to cover the many plug-ins and scripts that users have added to GIMP. Many of them would require an entire long chapter of their own. We decided to cover only one addition, the plug-in set called GIMP Animation Package (GAP), because it adds a powerful capability that GIMP alone lacks. In Chapter 21, we mention a few additional plug-ins to give readers an idea of what’s available.