Beginning GIMP: From Novice to Professional (Expert's Voice in Open Source)

Well written for beginners to learn GIMP.A bit dated from the updated versions but similar enough to current versions to learn basics.

Gimp is a great program, very powerful, but not always as intuitive as you might like, especially if you're not familiar with any graphics programs. Akkana Peck writes clearly without "geek speak" for us mortals who only understand English. If you carefully read and follow everything she has to say, you'll look like a Gimp wizard when you're done going through this book.There's a lot of basic stuff in the beginning that you might think is skippable, but don't do that. Every once in a while, you'll stumble across a gem of information even in the first several chapters, even if you're familiar with image editing software and have been using Gimp for a while.All the images she uses for examples in the book are available on-line. This makes it a lot easier to try the demos without doing a lot of searching for a similar image. This book is based on a slightly out-dated version of Gimp, but there are updates for newer features at the book website. I'm glad I bought this book--it's worth the price.

Well written and easily understandable. This is the affordable manual so badly needed for Gimp. It is neither a tutorial or a reference, but has advantages of both. It's easy discussion style leads you through how to use Gimp, starting with the basics, and moving soon to advanced. But I have had no problem using the index to jump ahead to specific topics of interest, as the discussions made sense without reading everything in order. I feel like I will be a Gimp expert when I finish the book, but I and already getting lots of use from it in improving my digital photos.The book is a couple of versions behind. There are a few mentions in the Appendix describing the differences in the newer versions, but the explanations are just short summaries. Most of the tools are still in the newer versions. But in newer versions (latest is 2.6.10) many tools have been relocated and can be hard to find. In fairness, with versions changing so rapidly, it would be difficult for any author or publisher to keep up. Because the book is advertised as covering version 2.6 but really doesn't, I downgraded my rating from five stars to four.

A few weeks ago I knew nothing whatsoever about the GIMP.I downloaded version 2.6 and decided to learn how to use it.After a frustrating attempt to educate myself with the onlinehelp files I turned to Akkana Peck's Beginning Gimp, second edition.I found her book to be just what I needed. It's a big book at justunder 600 pages, but I found it a reasonably quick read due in largepart to many full color examples and Akkana's clear writing style.It is not easy to write technical documentation, and so it is wonderfulto encounter such a well written work. Ms. Peck has the rare talentof being able to present volumes of technical information in a mannerthat has enough detail to be useful, without overwhelming the reader withminutiae, or being boring. Her style makes heavy use of examples,which are nicely illustrated (kudos to the publisher to spending the extramoney for color images). Key concepts are presented in a well ordered manner, making it quite painless to understand the "Zen" of GIMP.After reading the book cover to cover, working through most of theexample exercises, I feel I have expanded my image processing abilitiesimmensely. By the way, you can (and should) download all the examplematerial found on the publishers web site.Many thanks to the extraordinarily talented programmers who createdthis remarkable program. Thanks also to those who have created theonline help files (which are quite useful once one has a basic understanding of the GIMP).And thanks again to Akkana Peck for making the initial learning curve so pleasant!

I am taking an online Class in[...]on using Gimp. This book has served me as a good reference guide. The perspective of the book is focused on "photos" but Gimp can do so much more. I have found the index to be very useful and pretty complete. There are alot of screen shots and I find this very helful along with very specific instructions on using the tools.

For pretty long time my hobby is photography. In digital age I must now depend (at rather old age 76) on digital darkroom. Which one?I first thought about upgrade of my old Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0, but the only solution was (and is) to buy the most recent one, perhaps the best on the market, but with a lot of gimmick gadgets and verbose help I will never use. Then I come across GIMP. After a number of evenings on the Internet I come across references about this GIMP book and other books as well.I made the very best choice. This book is now my companion because of the very straightforward language (English is not my native language) and some intrigue questions it set up chapter by chapter, so that the reader wants to follow it. Because of that I believe that soon I am able to use all features of GIMP I need and to improve colors and tone scale of my pictures beyond Adobe Elements 2.0.I also like the graphical side of the book which makes reading easy and pleasurable. Therefore no wander why I praised this book so high.Wojciech Swider

Good reference. Too bad offer for the pdf version is no longer availabler.

Too much information for a novice.