News

• Added Black Gloss Arrow brushes
  Thursday, 02/12/2009:
  
  Pack of 16 brushes, fairly large at about 200 pixels -- but they are very crisp and scale well if you need them smaller. Originals were SVG from OpenClipart by user "rg1024", will also available from WPClipart in the signs_symbol/arrows section very shortly.

• Site Updates
  Wednesday, 02/11/2009:
  
  Updated TOOLBOX page with new sitemap for latest version. Shows each tool along with a brief description when you mouse-over them. Helpful if you have not yet installed the GIMP but want to know how it works and what all the fuss is about.
  
  Slowly making individual Script-Fu pages with lots of screenshots to demonstrate the settings and effects of each plug-in. 'Cause let's facce it -- the average person downloads a pack of about 100 plug-ins, it can be a real time-consuming hassle to figure out what each one does and how the settings affect the output.

• Script-fu package update
  Friday, 01/02/2009:
  
  water-paint-effect.scm -- simply named new layer (when user chooses not to flatten) to "Watercolor layer" to make adjustments more obvious.

• Script-fu package update
  Friday, 12/28/2008:
  
  water-paint-effect.scm -- added "Flatten Image when complete" option to dialog. Had previously merged the "subtracted" layer automatically, now you can leave on a separate layer to adjust effect, if desired.

• Script-fu package update
  Friday, 12/26/2008:
  
  artist-pastel.scm -- added "Flatten Image when complete" option to dialog, changed option default values and corrected spelling errors.

• Script-fu package update
  Sunday, 12/21/2008: Corrected initialization error in thre Color/Saturation/Lighten-Saturate script. Guess it slipped past me in the last large update.

• Script-fu package update
  Tuesday, 12/16/2008: 20th release, and 5th update since the release of the GIMP-2.6.x series. This is a large update including an overhaul of script internal documentation, bug fixes, some added features -- 94 scripts wit 112 effects all tested on GIMP-2.6.3. Download from the bottom of the scripts download page.

• More Arrow Brushes
  Friday, 12/12/2008: Added 16 color arrows and have now broken the BW/color downloads into 4 packages. Two BW and two color. Also wrote better install instructions and put in a proper (GPL3) license -- a fellow GIMP user asked the developers if the arrows could be incorporated into the GIMP, and they responded that the licensing was unclear. So I am trying to accommodate. Would be neat if they became standard in the GIMP.

• Python-FU
  Thursday, 10/23/2008: Started posting Python scripts, starting with a request to furnish a preview screen for the high-pass-sharpen script. Check it out at the:
  new Python-FUs page.

Older News

• You may have noticed some SCRIPT-FUs (a lot) no longer work when you upgrade the GIMP. Moving from 2.2 to 2.4, the scripting engine itself was changed. And of course, with each GIMP update some of the underlying programming calls and parameters are changed. This is a normal process in software development. I spent some time getting my favorites back into working shape (I'm not the original author of most of these..)
  
  In Oct '07 I posted 26 scripts, but they have been increasing in number and refinement with every release. I also continue to update deprecated code, tweak to make sure they are only "active" for the image mode they are appropriate for, fix little glitches like leaving undo steps unaccounted for, etc.
  
  I update these as often as needed, when I can and I compressed them into both a zip and bz2-ed package (same, just compressed different) for folks to download. (No installer or anything, just plop them into your GIMP scripts folder.)

• Freetype plugin (used to angle/stretch text into images) is reported missing in the Windows 2.4.3 version of the GIMP. Happily, PhotoComiX over on DeviantART compiled it and put it in a download at:
  Lost-Found-Gimp-Freetype
  
  Includes usage tutorials in both English and Italian. Flatteringly, the tutorial from this site freetype plugin usage is included as a PDF.

• Printing - For Linux users, get the gutenprint package rather than the old gimp-print, if that's what you were using. You will need it. (It is nicer anyway. :)

Site Development

• Scripts and brushes are keeping my free time very occupied. I am not sure whether to focus more on the scripts (with individual download, link and description pages) or go back to working on tutorials, mentioned below.

• Trying to find the time to make better video demos. These will be AVI files (instead of flash) and include labels inside the videos for the step-by-step. I have already tested this (using ffmpeg and imagemagick and xvidcap) and it is MUCH better than what I have so far. Just very time-consuming. I'll get to it, just don't know how soon.