[solved]Image editing software for dummies ?
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[solved]Image editing software for dummies ?
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.
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.
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
Re: Image editing software for dummies ?
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.
If your issue is solved, kindly indicate that by editing the first post in the topic, and adding [SOLVED] to the title. Thanks!
- absque fenestris
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Re: Image editing software for dummies ?
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
an 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
@liketrains: No problem ...Be warned my skills with this image stuff are far from advanced.
an example:
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Re: Image editing software for dummies ?
I've never used flatpak. Do these instructions seem reasonable ? https://www.tipsonunix.com/2022/01/inst ... nt-fedora/
Re: Image editing software for dummies ?
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
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
Re: Image editing software for dummies ?
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.
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.
Re: Image editing software for dummies ?
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
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pinta-maintainers/pinta-stable
sudo apt update
sudo apt install pinta
Re: Image editing software for dummies ?
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).
. .
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).
. .
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.
Re: Image editing software for dummies ?
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.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/
(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/
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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Re: Image editing software for dummies ?
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 stuffFor a good recommendation, what else do you do with images?
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.
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.Out of curiosity, what are the specific RGB values for the color you want to use?
btw: the example task in post #1 can be done in Inkscape. My goal is to move away from depending on Inkscape for everything
- absque fenestris
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Re: Image editing software for dummies ?
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.
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.
Re: Image editing software for dummies ?
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
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Re: Image editing software for dummies ?
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.
Re: Image editing software for dummies ?
I don't doubt it, but I found two tricks to do it with gimp: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.
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?
Your data and OS are backed up....right?
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Re: [solved]Image editing software for dummies ?
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.
Software manager says Pinta 1.7 but when installed says 2.0.2 which is latest.
Re: [solved]Image editing software for dummies ?
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.
Re: [solved]Image editing software for dummies ?
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. And cropping is just as straight forward.
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