Tanked Up

Having a half hour free last night I decided to update my GIMP development version 2.3.9 to the latest installer version 2.3.12 from sourceforge.net.

A simple task I thought and a constructive way to fill a half hour. It never works that way with software does it?!

Having followed all the instruction to the letter, I started the new version to be confronted with numerous messages telling me that all the plugins could not be found and when it eventually started there were no filters and no script-fu menu.

After a few uninstalls and reboots it got worse and GIMP just crashed every time I tried to open it.

So for anyone else out there I’ll save you hours of frustration and searching internet forums by supplying the fix.

1. If you have a previous version of GIMP loaded go to the GIMP menu and uninstall it.

2. THE IMPORTANT BIT: If you did have a previous development version of GIMP loaded, go to your C:\Documents and Settings\user\.gimp-2.3\ directory and find a configuration file called ‘pluginrc’. Delete this file. The new version will create its own pluginrc file, I found this fix on a GIMP chat forum. I’m not sure if this is a bug in only the 2.3.12 version installer, but it will save you a lot of time and frustration.

3. Now click on the GIMP 2.3 executable (which includes the GTK+ Runtime Environment) and load this to your system.

The developement version 2.3 should now work perfectly. Well, as perfectly as a development package can anyway.

I hope this has saved you as much time and frustration as I wasted, if so feel free to leave a comment. There is a detailed tutorial for loading the stable V2.2 and development V2.3 GIMP on our main site.

Can anyone explain to me why GIMP V2.3.9 saves gif’s at a quarter the size of GIMP V2.2.11? I’ve noticed it while saving screenshots for one of the tutorials on the site. Not only are they 25% of the old file size, but the image is far better too!

I have gone through all the gif save settings for the two versions and I can’t find any difference at all.

I’ve attached the same screenshot taken with both versions. The first is V2.2.11 and as you can see it’s not very good and it’s also 38Kb big.

The second is V2.3.9 and is perfectly clear and 9Kb in size.

What gives? I’m really curious to know. Have I missed something obvious?

I’ve added a simplified bump map tutorial on the main site. The previous one was really for watermarking images, but this one is probably more useful for most types of bump maps. There are also the base layers included for download, so that you can get up and running quickly.

The tutorial can be found at simple bump map tutorial

The GIMP bump mapping tutorial has proved a bit of a hit, with other imaging sites now linking into it.
As it has proved so successful, I have revamped it to incorporate some improvements and reduced the image sizes, to speed up page load times. Continue to the bump mapping tutorial …

I’ve added an interactive map of Tottenham Hotspur’s full history in Europe, just because I can really. I’ll be adding a similar map for Pompey just as soon as I can find a map of the Isle of Wight

Continue to Spurs in Europe map …

A new tutorial has been added to the css section. it gives instructions on setting gradient background images in elements. There are instructions on setting background gradients for paragraphs, pages and on hover. It can be used in conjunction with the GIMP gradient tutorial.

Continue to css gradient tutorial …

Is there anywhere that you see on the internet, magazines or advertising hoardings, that drop shadows haven’t invaded?

Well just to expand their viral nature and eventual world domination, I’ve added a drop shadow tutorial under the imaging section of the site. I can’t apologise enough, so I won’t bother. I’ve included a link to the GIMP script-fu, instructions on how to implement it and a page on applying a drop shadow manually.
Continue to drop shadow tutorial …

Strange name eh? This is actually one of the best sharpening options available in any image manipulation program.

Unfortunately for us I’ve only just found out about it and all our images are already uploaded. Bugger! We’ve included a page with an explaination of this incredibly useful, but shockingly named filter. This includes image examples and tips for resizing images for the web. It applies to GIMP, but is relevent to Photoshop and PSP too.
Continue to unsharp mask page

A new tutorial has been added to the Imaging Tips section of the main site. This is for correcting underwater images, below 5m, taken without a flash. Photos taken this way will generally appear blue/green in colour and need a red enhancement to restore the natural colours to them. There are two methods described using GIMP and script-fu’s have been included. Continue to red enhance tutorial

A GIMP script-fu (macro) download page has been added for some of the tutorials in the imaging section. The scripts are my first attempt at writing script-fu’s, but before I put them up on the site they were thoroughly tested in GIMP version 2.2 and development version 2.3.
Continue to Script-Fu downloads