[weekly Tutorial] Photography And Art With Godpunk

If you visit Gooeylinux.org, talk to Liron, or have a buddy who runs Linux, then you have likely heard of The GIMP. The GIMP is open source image editing app- think of it as a free, open source alternative to Photoshop. The GIMP can flex much of the same muscle that Photoshop can, but sadly, is written for *nix platforms. Windows has a port of The GIMP availible, and there's a Mac port- MacGIMP- but alas, MacGIMP is not free, thus defeating The GIMP's biggest appeal. However, with a little know-how, you can have The GIMP running on your Mac in all it's free, open-sourced glory.

Follow me, please:

Step 1: X11

If you do not already have X11 installed, download and install it from Apple's Website (56k'ers- this is a 42MB download). X11 is an OS X implementation of the X Windows system, and you will need it to run The GIMP. The installation is a typical OS X installation procedure, and once it's finished, you'll find X11 installed in your '/Applications/Utilities' directory. Moving along...

Step 2: Download GIMP.app

Go to the SourceForge page for GIMP.app, a port of The GIMP for the X11 Window system. Download a .dmg file that corresponds with your preferred version. (56k'ers- this is a 38MB download)

Once the download is finished, mount the .dmg file and copy "Gimp" (and it's dog/weasel/racoon icon) to your 'Applications' folder.

Step 3: You're Done!

Ta-Da! The GIMP is ready to run on your Mac. Simply double-click it's icon as you would any other app, and The GIMP will begin to load. Don't be afraid when an extra icon appears in your dock- that's just the X11 environment starting up alongside The GIMP.

The GIMP takes a while to load, and its interface takes some time to adjust to, but it's a small price to pay considering you are saving $649US on Photoshop, and at least $30US for MacGIMP.

I hope some artists out there found this useful, and I will try to contribute more tutorials in the future.

-godpunk

#201160

Fink (http://fink.sourceforge.net/) also offers GIMP in its repositories. If you can get Fink working, it makes the installation even easier (though it is pretty simple right now), just "apt-get install gimp2". You would install any App in Fink like this.

Thanks for the tutorial. Got any screenshots of what GIMP2 looks like on OSX?

#201211

Thanks much! I now have the gimp on the g5 at my dad's lab!

#201275

lol, what happened to DeadZombie's post? I was kind of wondering the same thing.

#201325

What did happen to my post? It's not nice to remove members post without a PM explaining why. Bad moderation, IMO.

The original post was along the lines of asking godpunk if this 'tutorial' was a joke. While that might seem rude, on closer inspection I feel validated in asking, let me explain:

First, godpunk states that The Gimp "can flex much of the same muscle that Photoshop can", but does not eleborate. What exactly can Photoshop do that The Gimp cant? For someone thinking of installing and using The Gimp, this is necessary knowledge for the blossoming digital artist. Do they even want to install The Gimp? Sure it's free, but it might not meet their needs.

Second, and most importantly, the (lack) of focus on X11 for Mac OSX. X11 is a Nix windows management system that is fairly complex. The installation of this very important step IN DETAIL is completly ignored in the 'tutorial'. "Install X11" understates the process involved in getting this running. For example, under Apples FAQ page for X11, the simple process of Cut and Paste in X11 requires no less than 11 lines of explanation. Questions in the FAQ range from how to use simple process's to more complex items of interest. im sure Apple was being a little extreme by linking to 14 seperate documentations for X11. In comparison, it would be similar to a tutorial on photography stating "build a camera, then take a picture".

Third, (and most annoying,) is that the focus of this article is installing The Gimp on OSX. This site focuses on Windows customization! There is a simple, but somewhat elusive process to install The Gimp on Windows that could be bothersome for first timers. A tutorial more suited for this website would explain this process, the files required and the steps taken to install them on a Win32 system.

Overall, this tutorial is incomplete, completely not worthy of Aqua Soft, and this thread is pointless.

So, in conclusion, don't delete my posts without PM'ing me first. You'll look like an ass for doing it. :rant:

#201333

DZ, while you may not appreciate gp's tut, Im sure others do (Juno for example), let the mods decide what stays and what goes.

Although I agree, the topic title does rather exagerate the nature of this tut to installing GIMP

This site isnt all about windows emulation anymore, we already have tons of osx only files on Aqua-Net and theres alot of discussion on here about osx only applications.

#201359

First off, I don't have a Windows machine, so a tutorial for the Mac was my only option.

Second, I wasn't aware that complete history lesson was needed in order for someone to install some software. This tutorial was about installing The Gimp, not about the history and purpose of X11. True, I could have gone more in-depth about what exactly The GIMP can do, or at least provided a link to The GIMP's development site so that people could read about GIMP directly from the source.

I'm sorry that you feel that I have made a useless post, but I'm not about to apologize for making it. I felt that some could find it useful, speifically those who wanted a PS-like image editor at a good price (in this case, free). Yes, this is a Windows customization site, but a side-effect of running a Mac GUI emulation site is that people here will be buying Macs, and for those that did, this is for them.

And speaking of PM's DZ, I would have preferred being lambasted by you in a PM rather than in the forum.

-godpunk

#201364

Sorry, perhaps I was a little upset that the tutorial wasn't very in depth, required far more work than was actually needed and wasn't actually very helpful.

THEN my post was deleted. I'll go outside now, and look for where I left my nice personality.

#201366

Ok then, let's all take some deep breaths.

Originally, this was going to be a tutorial for installing GIMP via Fink, as Contra mentioned- a more ocmplicated process than the X11 method. As I was writing the tutorial though, I myself got lost in the final steps, and decided that an X11 installation would be much easier, especially for those who knew little about Fink or *nix in general. If I ever get the Fink method sorted out, I'll post that. Anyways, the title of the thread was left over from the Fink tutorial, thus making it sound more complicated than it actually was.

A more indepth explanation of The GIMP can be found here, and comes straight from the mouth of the developers. A better explanation of X11 can be found over here. These are links I should have provided in the first place for those who weren't familiar with X11 or GIMP in the first place.

Sorry for the confusion, and I hope my next tutorial will be much more clear.

EDIT: This what I get for thinking 3am is a good time to type out a tutorial. <_<

-godpunk

#201377

Sorry if I was a little harsh, and thank you so much for providing more links to help clarify!

The tutorial is better now, please proceed.

#201382