Sunday, September 18, 2011
Gimp 2.7.4 and G'MIC 1.5.0.2
Introducing the next Gimp git release! This release is based on September 16 git pulled from the Gimp nightly tars (see link on the right). This release has a lot of the features that I missed in my previous release, as was kindly pointed out by some of you. You can now open JPEG 2000 (jp2) images in this build. I have grafted animated PNG support right in; it should work out of the box. You can also open an image anywhere from the Internet. The single-window mode is more robust but still a work in progress. PostScript should work if you have any of the following requirements: if you have Ghostscript installed on your machine, then it should match the OS architecture – 64-bit OS requires 64-bit Ghostscript. Also, for it to work, either put the Ghostscript bin directory in your path, or provide the environmental variable GS_PROG. This environment variable must point to the gswinXXc.exe location (XX = 64 for 64-bit and 32 for 32-bit). If this does not work, please drop me a line. Also, if there is interest, I can include Ghostscript in my builds. Ghostscript can be obtained from the usual place.
I used the Nodoka-Midnight theme for the screenshots. To use this theme, create a directory called Nodoka-Midnight in the .gimp-2.7/themes directory and drop the gtkrc file from the theme in there. Then start Gimp and change the theme in your preferences. Let me know if this does not work for you. Please keep in mind that the MS-Windows theme will crash Gimp if you try to use the text tool. So, please use one of the other GTK themes.
Here is a screenshot of the new build.
Gimp RGGJAN Fork
One additional fascinating fork of Gimp brought to my attention by a reader is also provided. You just have to see it to believe it. This fork by RGGJAN has a great freehand selection tool not unlike the Gimp foreground selection tool. However, here it is able to pick up fine hair with much more finesse than the usual Gimp tool. You can see a video on YouTube. One word of caution: sometimes, it is not very effective and so you have to be careful. I am only providing a portable version since the git code has not been updated since June 2011. Anyway, check it out.
G'MIC 1.5.0.2
I have updated G'MIC, the fascinating collection of more filters than you can possibly imagine, to the latest stable version 1.5.0.2. Please check it out. Note that the frequency of release precludes me from keeping up with the beta versions.
Installation
Download the version that is appropriate for your OS - 64-bit for 64-bit Windows and 32-bit for 32-bit Windows. Once you do that, simply click on the executable that you downloaded and install like any other software. If you don't like it, use your control panel to uninstall. Please don't mix and match the versions (Why would you want to?) especially if you are using my Gimp builds. The DLLs are the same and since the 64-bit DLLs will not work with the 32-bit one, you are likely to get an error and the application will quit. If you are missing DLLs, please drop me a line and let me know!
For the portable version, please note the included executable called gimprun.exe. Please click on that file to run the portable version. Please don't try to go into the bin directory to run the program. It will not work.
As usual, if you are inclined to leave me feedback or a comment...
