Gimp Pro

From LUGOP

Interview with Akkana Peck

18:04:19< BBlalock> Hi All!
18:04:43< ke9vo> i'm here
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18:28:43< zmef420> wasuuuuuup!
18:29:21< BBlalock> I dunno.
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18:33:45<@zmef420> i got ops
18:33:51<@zmef420> woohoo!
18:34:08< BBlalock> Huh?
18:36:13< ke9vo> waiting.......
18:39:07< BBlalock> zzzzzzzz...................
18:47:10<@zmef420> wakeup
18:48:10< ke9vo> waiting......
18:49:50< BBlalock> Eh?
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18:56:19<@zmef420> hello akkanna, thanks for showing up
18:56:49< BBlalock> Welcome!
18:56:55< akk> Hello, everyone!
18:57:20< ke9vo> indeed, thanks for taking your time tonight!
18:58:02< akk> No problem, happy to be here.
18:58:26< ke9vo> We are very impressed with your book and several of us have questions about the topic and authoring process
18:58:46<@zmef420> were just getting settled
18:58:58< akk> Thanks for the compliment! I'll be happy to answer whatever questions you have.
18:59:09< ke9vo> First off, how long did it take to write the book from start to finish. We have heard of books taking anywhere from 3 months to 2 years.
18:59:43< ke9vo> BTW, there are about 10 of us in the room, only a few on IRC
19:00:02<@zmef420> fyi
19:00:05< akk> It took just under a year to write. I think Apress and I began talking around March of last year.
19:00:12<@zmef420> wow
19:00:28< ke9vo> Were you approached by them or did you pitch the book idea?
19:00:30< akk> Finished around late Feb.
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19:00:53< akk> Both. :-) Apress contacted someone who had previously been involved with the gimp project
19:01:03< akk> who then started looking for someone interested in writing a book.
19:01:15< akk> I was interested, so he put me in contact with the Apress editor (Matt Wade)
19:01:22< akk> and I pitched my ideas for a book to him.
19:01:31< ke9vo> So you have been actively involved in the development of GIMP tools, or mainly documentation?
19:01:52< akk> I've written some plugins of my own, and small contributions to gimp itself.
19:02:18< ke9vo> That's great.
19:02:18< akk> I hadn't really been involved with gimp documentation, but I'd written tutorials and an online course.
19:02:33<@zmef420> will you tell us about linux chicks
19:02:42< ke9vo> Is the course available online to the general public also?
19:02:56<@zmef420> these guys have never heard of the group
19:03:13< akk> It's all available. I taught the course on a mailing list (which is publically archived)
19:03:31< akk> though right now the links may be broken: linuxchix just changed servers and I just heard that mailing list links may have changed.
19:03:36< akk> (hold on, I'll check and give you the url)
19:03:49< BBlalock> Thanks!
19:04:06< akk> Actually it looks like the links still work (whew).
19:04:09< akk> http://linuxchix.org/content/courses/gimp
19:04:21< ke9vo> We'll be sure to check that out
19:04:39< akk> Originally, the book outline I proposed to Apress was an expanded version of the course
19:05:03<@zmef420> what changed?
19:05:06< ke9vo> One thing that set this book apart for us was the full glossy photos and pages, and it seems many books don't have that kind of finish to them. Was it a battle getting the color photos?
19:05:29< akk> First, what changed: it turned out there was so much more detail I wanted to include in the book
19:05:38<@zmef420> sure
19:05:53< akk> that the order in which I had covered topics in the course didn't make sense any more
19:06:19< akk> for instance, I'd get halfway into a chapter and think "You know, this leads right in to something I wasn't going to cover until three chapters later".
19:06:27<@zmef420> your book is vey in-depth
19:06:48< ke9vo> Have you found the exposure from the book has helped get your name around the publishing industry, or are you not that interested in that?
19:07:00< ke9vo> Sorry to be spouting questions so fast...
19:07:08< akk> First, back to the color: Apress was really great about that.
19:07:12<@zmef420> machine gunning
19:07:24< akk> They'd never done a color book before, but Matt understood from the beginning that a gimp book in B&W didn't make sense
19:07:34<@zmef420> right
19:07:45<@zmef420> the quality was a must
19:08:13< akk> We talked about it briefly, because he wanted to make sure I was comfortable with providing that many full-color images
19:08:31< akk> but of course I wouldn't have wanted it any other way.
19:08:42< ke9vo> A user is asking if making the switch from Photoshop to the GIMP is an easy one? and are RAW file formats supported?
19:09:12< akk> Raw files: yes, at least most of them, through a separate plug-in.
19:09:37< akk> I believe there are plug-ins for both of the common raw converters (ufraw and dcraw, I think?)
19:09:52< akk> though most people just use the conversion programs by themselves rather than the gimp plug-ins.
19:10:03< akk> Conversion from photoshop: depends on your expectations.
19:10:24< akk> Some people get really used to the photoshop interface, and of course learning a new user interface always takes some effort.
19:10:26< ke9vo> I would suppose that is question you get pretty often
19:10:34< akk> Conceptually they're actually surprisingly similar.
19:10:47< akk> I find that I can usually adapt online photoshop tutorials to gimp with no trouble
19:11:06< akk> (as long as it's not the kind of tutorial with instructions like: Type ctl-F. Now type ctl-L.)
19:11:14< ke9vo> Another user question: Is using GIMP for simple graphics overkill, or it is easy enough to dive right into?
19:11:25< akk> But menus and functions are in different places so you do have to learn the new locations and names.
19:11:25< ke9vo> Simple graphics, like Web
19:12:02< akk> If all you need to do is crop/resize/lighten/darken, it is overkill in the sense that you don't need the extra power.
19:12:16< ke9vo> Also, are any photoshop plugins supported in GIMP, or are there mainly Open Source equivalents ?
19:12:26< akk> It's probably a bit better at some of the operations (resizing quality, different ways of lightening/darkening)
19:12:41< akk> but the differences for web images are fairly subtle.
19:13:12< akk> Photoshop plug-ins are supported (there's a gimp plug-in that can interpret them), but of course they're windows binaries.
19:13:20< akk> So on Linux you need wine or an equivalent.
19:13:29< akk> I haven't tried it myself, but people say they usually work in wine.
19:14:06< akk> Back to the overkill question: one thing I like about using gimp even for simple operations
19:14:32< akk> is that if I decide to go beyond them, like doing a layer mode operation or adding some fancy text or making a panorama
19:14:36< akk> I don't have to switch programs.
19:15:08< ke9vo> User question: Is there an equivalent to the 'healing brush' on photoshop?
19:15:26< akk> Glad you asked! No, not yet, but there may be soon.
19:15:39< akk> The Google Summer of Code is sponsoring 8 different gimp projects
19:15:43< ke9vo> A die-hard user of Photoshop says is the best part...
19:15:44< akk> and a healing brush is one of them.
19:15:48< ke9vo> That's great to hear
19:15:55< ke9vo> Is there a URL for the 8 projects?
19:16:03< akk> You can do something somewhat like the healing brush by using the clone tool with a different layer mode
19:16:04< ke9vo> Last year's summer of code turned out some nifty stuff
19:16:11< akk> but it's not as flexible as a real healing brush.
19:16:46< akk> I don't think there's a url for the final projects. There was one for all the original proposals.
19:17:09< ke9vo> Well we are looking forward to finding out more about that
19:17:10<@zmef420> did you ever think of writing an astronomy book?
19:17:15< akk> I can probably find a url for the mailing list message announcing the first 7 winners (the eighth got added later).
19:17:53< akk> Ah, it turns out http://www.gimp.org/ has a list of the 8 projects on the front page now.
19:17:59< ke9vo> Great!
19:18:16< ke9vo> Another user question: Why are the help files a separate package for GIMP?
19:18:19< akk> I'd like to write science books (astronomy or geology) but haven't seen the right opportunity yet. Maybe some day.
19:18:36< akk> I think the help files in a separate package are related to localization issues.
19:18:49< akk> There are so many different languages.
19:18:54<@zmef420> right
19:19:35< ke9vo> It still seems to be a point of contest for many users (I know my Dad said the same thing)
19:19:58< akk> It can be difficult getting the gimp help installed, particularly if you build from source.
19:20:13< akk> It requires a lot of extra packages that the rest of gimp doesn't require.
19:20:34< ke9vo> I suppose if everyone buys your book, the help files are optional right ? :)
19:20:39< akk> On distros it's usually pretty straightforward (apt-get gimp-help or something similar).
19:20:47< akk> Heh, I hope so.
19:20:57< akk> The gimp manual is all online, of course, and it's quite good
19:21:10< akk> so you can always look things up there.
19:21:42< akk> It doesn't cover everything (as I discovered when looking up some features I wasn't already familiar with) but it's still amazingly complete.
19:21:43< ke9vo> A printing question: Are you normally satisfied with the quality of an inkjet for your graphics or do you use/recommend something like dyesub?
19:22:01< akk> I'm actually happy with a good inkjet.
19:22:25< akk> I have an Epson C86 now, which isn't quite as good as the 6-color photo inkjets, but it's good enough for most things I do
19:22:37< akk> (and has the fade-resistant inks, which the 6-color printers don't).
19:23:00< ke9vo> Have you done anything with Gray-scale inks?
19:23:02< akk> Dye-sub printer output is beautiful but I use my printer for text too, and I had the impression they weren't as good/fast at general printing.
19:23:08< akk> No, I haven't.
19:24:03< ke9vo> Do you do much with B/W, and in particular printing to make it look like a real b/w print?
19:24:44< akk> No, not really. The only B/W "art" I do is occasionally printing scans of pencil sketches.
19:24:55< ke9vo> Do you find the GIMP being used on many commercial projects and media that the average person is ware of?
19:25:31< akk> I've been wanting to try to collect a list like that, but haven't done it (and don't know of anyone else who has, unfortunately).
19:25:44< ke9vo> What OS to primarily work on? (We are all hoping for Linux)
19:25:57< akk> I know some professional photographers who use it, and it's used by a few magazines/newsletters and so forth
19:26:15< akk> and for additional work in some smaller movies and animation
19:26:41< akk> I use linux for nearly everything. Ubuntu dapper for my desktop, breezy on the laptop.
19:26:58< akk> (plus a few other distros I occasionally try out -- I have extra partitions for trying new distros)
19:27:05< ke9vo> That's great!
19:27:08< BBlalock> WooHoo!
19:27:23< akk> My husband is more cross-platform than I am, so he did most of the testing for the parts of the book where I talk about windows and mac. :-)
19:27:48< ke9vo> When you wrote for Apress did you use OpenOffice or Word?
19:28:22< akk> I used openoffice, but my husband did some of the formatting in an old version of word, so it wasn't entirely "pure".
19:28:50< akk> Apress used Word on their end, and dealing with the Word comments/notes was a real problem.
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19:29:02< akk> (OpenOffice doesn't deal with them very well.)
19:29:16< akk> That was the only compatibility problem, though -- everything else was fine.
19:29:34<@zmef420> The GIMP is one of the most important pieces of free software and an obviously an artistic one. your producer/ consumer standpoint provides an important perspective for usersd of this valuable tool.
19:30:08< ke9vo> Well, we think we have taken enough of your valuable time... again thank you very much for the chat!
19:30:20< akk> You're welcome -- nice chatting with you!
19:30:28<@zmef420> thanks for chatting with us and best of luck with the book.
19:30:33< akk> Thanks.
19:30:53<@zmef420> goodnight
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19:31:00< BBlalock> Thanks for dropping in!
19:32:12< akk> Thanks for asking me! Good night, everyone -- and have fun gimping.
19:32:19< ke9vo> good night......bye
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