"IMHO": Getting Into GIMP

If you have either a yahoo e-mail address or already have a flickr account (both are free), you can do a search for "GIMP users" and click on the "Group" button to search for active Groups.

I *think* the Mod or Admin is a GIMP programmer and there are several others who post there regularly about updates/plugins/etc.

Edited by fmajor - 10 May 2009 at 00:38

A couple notes on EXIF data retention in GIMP:

1) When saving your image, be sure to monitor the Advanced settings in the save dialog:



Clicking on Advanced Settings will expand the dialog to include the following:



Make sure Save EXIF is selected. If the option is not available ('grayed out', can't click on it), that means either there was no EXIF data in the original image, or you are trying to save the image to a format that cannot contain EXIF data.

EDIT: the following "#2" note may or may not be incorrect - XCF is supposed to retain EXIF data - for me it doesn't, and I haven't figured out why...

2) GIMP's native format, XCF (or "*.xcf"), does not seem to retain EXIF data. This is somewhat of a problem, as XCF is nice for saving a work-in-progress that has layers (it might be nice to use XCF since JPGs do not contain layers). I hate losing the EXIF data. So, usually, if I have to use layers, I simply don't save my work until I'm done with the layers, and merge (flatten) all of the layers into a single layer, and save as a JPG. The other option is to save as XCF, then, when you make the final JPG, use an EXIF copying tool to copy the EXIF from your original RAW or JPG to the new, edited JPG.

Edited by alpha_in_exile - 26 May 2009 at 20:09

kangaroo wrote: I just bought Elements 6.0 for the Mac and noticed that GIMP will let you use some photoshop plug ins

Oh, don't worry too much -- probably Elements will work with a wider range of plug-ins. And more and more PS plug-ins are being written into new file types, ones that are not compatible with GIMP. I'm sure you'll be happy with Elements until/unless you find yourself wanting/needing a full version of Photoshop.

There are some tricks to Elements, too. For example, see MiPr's article, "Meet Frank," if you haven't already. He shows a work around for making a layer mask on a non-adjustment layer (assuming Elements 6 does not now allow this). MiPr's article, in fact, is where I first learned of the first PS plug-in I wanted to use in GIMP.