[solved]Image editing software for dummies ?

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iliketrains
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[solved]Image editing software for dummies ?

Post by iliketrains »

I had a what seemed like a small task. A clip art with transparent background that needed a very specific rgba 0-255 background added.
Those who are familiar with Gimp feel free to laugh but it took over an hour to get this done. The procedure is now recorded in notes but next task will be different and I'll be lost again.
Admittedly being an infrequent user is most of the the problem. As an experiment the 'other leading brand' was tested and the solution was straight forward because the menus were on my wavelength and the terminology was dummy friendly. This post isn't to dump on the Gimp. The web is full of users doing amazing things with it but I'm not that guy.
To the point, is there a dumbed down version of the gimp? Or a Linux software stripped down to the Gimp's main features. The fancy features photographers need are not a must have in this case.
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Moem
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Re: Image editing software for dummies ?

Post by Moem »

I believe that Pinta might be the ticket here. It feels a lot simpler and not overcrowded with features, but it still can do a lot. Give it a try and see how you feel. If you can spare the disk space and you don't mind getting the Flatpak version, you will get a MUCH newer and more stable edition.
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If your issue is solved, kindly indicate that by editing the first post in the topic, and adding [SOLVED] to the title. Thanks!
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absque fenestris
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Re: Image editing software for dummies ?

Post by absque fenestris »

You could have done this with LibreOffice Draw, for example:
1. insert image (the clip art with transparent background)
2. create a square around the clip art
3. give the square the desired color
4. place the square in the background
5. group the two elements
6. convert it into a bitmap
7. save it, e.g. as PNG


Be warned my skills with this image stuff are far from advanced.
@liketrains: No problem ...

an example:
Kamera with Draw.png
Kamera with Draw.png (105.1 KiB) Viewed 3392 times
iliketrains
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Re: Image editing software for dummies ?

Post by iliketrains »

Moem wrote: Tue Jan 25, 2022 6:51 pm If you can spare the disk space and you don't mind getting the Flatpak version, you will get a MUCH newer and more stable edition.
I've never used flatpak. Do these instructions seem reasonable ? https://www.tipsonunix.com/2022/01/inst ... nt-fedora/
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trytip
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Re: Image editing software for dummies ?

Post by trytip »

gimp 2.10 is 10 times harder to use than gimp 2.8
i'm no artist but i can make my way around tabs. for every click you make in 2.8 you must make 2 or more in 2.10
don't feel bad about gimp. it's a good photo editor but not user friendly at all
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Re: Image editing software for dummies ?

Post by Petermint »

There are lots of alternatives that do some things easily then you hit something they cannot do. The action you described is, to many people, something they would "never use" and they would want an image editor where that feature is not in the menus because it is just a complication.

I had a customer who paid a graphic artist $18,000 for a change similar to what you mentioned.

For a good recommendation, what else do you do with images?

There are lots of good online pages for Gimp but some show the menus for previous releases. Gimp also complicates things by letting you create a nasty Apple style desktop mess with lots of undocked windows. I prefer a big screen with organised windows, which was the default in a previous Gimp.

For minor changes to lots of images, Pix is a good choice. Check how it handles changes so you never overwrite the original. I mainly use Pix as a fast way to delete the crud from a collection.
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Re: Image editing software for dummies ?

Post by Reddog1 »

I don't recommend the flatpak version of Pinta. Use the PPA. Flatpak is a real PITA if you don't use it regularly. With the ppa, Pinta will show up in the Graphics section of the menu with no messing about.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pinta-maintainers/pinta-stable

sudo apt update

sudo apt install pinta
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Re: Image editing software for dummies ?

Post by phd21 »

Hi iliketrains,

I just read your post and the good replies to it. Here are my thoughts on this as well.

My favorite easy to use basic image editor since I switched to Linux Mint years ago is Kolourpaint which is in the Software Manager or Synaptic Package Manager (SPM). I use Gimp for more advanced image editing and Ksnip for my screen captures which also has some basic image editing and painting functions. There are excellent tutorials for almost any task on Gimp in YouTube and elsewhere.

To easily perform the change background color task you mentioned using Kolourpaint:

Change a transparent background color to a specific RGB color. Out of curiosity, what are the specific RGB values for the color you want to use?

Open the image in Kolourpaint
1. Click the fill bucket
2. double-click the foreground color to bring up the color selector window and select the color you want.
-- If you have specific RGB values then put those in.
3. Click the Color Similarity tool and choose a value of at least 15 or higher.
-- You can experiment by clicking undo and change this value and try again, repeat as necessary.
4. Just click anywhere in the transparent background and it should fill it with the color you chose.
5. Click the Save button to save the image or click File -> Save As to save into another format with various options.

Hope this helps ...
.
. Click Image to view the animated Gif which used to play in the forum without clicking it? I had to resize and compress the animated GiF because of the extremely low file size attachment limitation of this forum (<200kb).
Using Kolourpaint to change an images background color in Linux Mint 20.03
Using Kolourpaint to change an images background color in Linux Mint 20.03
.
First Screen capture of Kolourpaint with original image before changes
First Screen capture of Kolourpaint with original image before changes
.
Screen capture of Kolourpaint of original image after background color changes
Screen capture of Kolourpaint of original image after background color changes
Phd21: Mint 20 Cinnamon & xKDE (Mint Xfce + Kubuntu KDE) & KDE Neon 64-bit (new based on Ubuntu 20.04) Awesome OS's, Dell Inspiron I5 7000 (7573) 2 in 1 touch screen, Dell OptiPlex 780 Core2Duo E8400 3GHz,4gb Ram, Intel 4 Graphics.
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Re: Image editing software for dummies ?

Post by Moem »

iliketrains wrote: Tue Jan 25, 2022 9:06 pm I've never used flatpak. Do these instructions seem reasonable ? https://www.tipsonunix.com/2022/01/inst ... nt-fedora/
No, they are overkill. You can just click it in the Software Manager. But if you have restricted disk space, it may be nicer to avoid the flatpak and use the PPA method given by Reddog1.

(I don't see how Flatpak is a pita in any way, though.)

An impression of Pinta, and its documentation, can be found here: https://www.pinta-project.com/

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Re: Image editing software for dummies ?

Post by iliketrains »

For a good recommendation, what else do you do with images?
I'm not a photographer, my hobby is cnc tools. Outside of the usual CAD/CAM software, that also involves converting bitmaps to vector formats like svg and dxf. This is for carving, engraving, vinyl cutting, art-like stuff
I also occasionally use a CAM software that accepts lossless bitmaps (not jpgs).
Inkscape traces bitmaps with limitations, b+w clip art is ideal. Learning image editing could mean fewer limitations when searching for image files.
Out of curiosity, what are the specific RGB values for the color you want to use?
75,26,190,255. The background rectangle needs to match an existing screen. A small bit of variation wouldn't be obvious but if exact is possible might as well do so. Nothing to do with cnc this time.
btw: the example task in post #1 can be done in Inkscape. My goal is to move away from depending on Inkscape for everything
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absque fenestris
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Re: Image editing software for dummies ?

Post by absque fenestris »

So what's wrong with using Inkscape?

For money, I would have done a job like this on the Mac with Adobe Illustrator back in the day.
Inkscape or Scribus would be my choice today on a Linux system.
LO Draw should be installed on virtually any Mint system and can do a surprising amount of typical Inkscape or Scribus jobs.
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Re: Image editing software for dummies ?

Post by murray »

These days I do most of my graphic work in either Photopea or Pixlr. They're online editors that are very easy to use and there's nothing to install.
Running Mint 19.3 Cinnamon on an Intel NUC8i5BEH with 16GB RAM and 500GB SSD
iliketrains
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Re: Image editing software for dummies ?

Post by iliketrains »

absque fenestris wrote: Wed Jan 26, 2022 4:41 pm So what's wrong with using Inkscape?
Nothing wrong with it, I lean on it heavily. The thing is it's primarily a vector drawing program. I would like to be able to download all kinds of images, not only images Inkscape can easily trace. If need be I manually trace but not if it can be avoided. If another program can simplify a bitmap Inkscape may deal with it better? Honestly I'm not sure, just trying to add to the toolbox.
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Re: Image editing software for dummies ?

Post by Flemur »

iliketrains wrote: Tue Jan 25, 2022 6:40 pm I had a what seemed like a small task. A clip art with transparent background that needed a very specific rgba 0-255 background added.
Those who are familiar with Gimp feel free to laugh but it took over an hour to get this done.
I don't doubt it, but I found two tricks to do it with gimp:

1a - set the regular background color to what you want;
1b - save the image as a jpg or other format which doesn't have a transparent background. Done.

2a - Open the image, or drag-drop the image (Edit: or "Open as layers" the same image twice)
2b - "Open as layers" the same image. You now have two layers which look the same, fill the lower one with you background color. (click the eye/lock icons in the layer display to hide the top image)
Please edit your original post title to include [SOLVED] if/when it is solved!
Your data and OS are backed up....right?
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Re: [solved]Image editing software for dummies ?

Post by iliketrains »

Marking as solved. I will be revisiting Gimp after gaining experience, for now it's Pinta.
Software manager says Pinta 1.7 but when installed says 2.0.2 which is latest.
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Re: [solved]Image editing software for dummies ?

Post by emmalfal »

It took me forever just to find a program that could do a simple crop. I'm using XnView presently, but it ain't great. Crops, though.
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Re: [solved]Image editing software for dummies ?

Post by rickNS »

emmalfal wrote: Thu Jan 27, 2022 7:13 pm It took me forever just to find a program that could do a simple crop. I'm using XnView presently, but it ain't great. Crops, though.
For cropping, and resizing, I like the included "Pix" program.

In my opinion it's very straight forward.
Click on the pencil icon to get the edit menu "stuff".
Here's an example, took a ksnip of Pix, default image was 757 pixels wide, and a file size of 285 KB. (too large to insert here)
Resized to 640 pixels wide, and saved as, changed extension to .jpg, now file size is 34 KB, took seconds to do.
ksnip220128-0923.jpg
And cropping is just as straight forward.
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