sophisticated capabilities that can import and export more than 30 different
graphics formats, including files created with Adobe Photoshop. It is often
compared with Photoshop, and GIMP represents one of the first significant
successes of GNU Project. Many images in Linux were prepared using GIMP.
GIMP is not installed by default, but you can easily install it from the Ubuntu
software repositories.
You see an installation dialog box when GIMP is started for the first time,
followed by a series of dialog boxes that display information regarding the
creation and contents of a local GIMP directory. This directory can contain
personal settings, preferences, external application resource files, temporary
files, and symbolic links to external software tools used by the editor.
WHAT DOES PHOTOSHOP HAVE THAT GIMP DOES NOT?
Although GIMP is powerful, it does lack two features Adobe Photoshop
offers that are important to some graphics professionals.
The first of these is the capability to generate color separations for
commercial press printers (CMYK, for the colors cyan, magenta, yellow,
and key [or black]). GIMP uses RGB (red, green, and blue), which is great
for video display but not so great for printing presses. The second feature
GIMP lacks is the use of Pantone colors (a patented color specification) to
ensure accurate color matching. These deficiencies might not last long. A
CMYK plug-in is in the works (an early version is available from
http://cue.yellowmagic.info/softwares/separate-plus/index.html), and the
Pantone issues are likely to be addressed in the near future, as well.
If these features are unimportant to you, you will find GIMP to be an
excellent tool. If you must use Adobe Photoshop, you might want to
explore using Wine or CodeWeavers; there have been consistent reports of
success running Photoshop on Linux with these tools. Bear in mind,
though, that both Ubuntu and Photoshop release regularly, so check
http://www.winehq.org and www.codeweavers.com for current info before
assuming it will work.Using Scanners in Ubuntu
With the rise of digital photography, there has been an equal decline in the
need for image scanners. However, there are still times when you want to use
a scanner, and Ubuntu makes it easy with a program installed by default
called Simple Scan. Simple Scan is designed to do one thing: scan photos or
documents easily. It has few settings or options but does all the things most
people would want or need.