You can also use many types of image scanners with GIMP, which is likely to
be the choice of people who like to tinker with settings and options or who
need greater flexibility than is offered by Simple Scan. If it wasn’t installed
when you installed GIMP, install the xsane package. Then, when you scan
from GIMP, you will have an abundance of settings and options that you can
use. You can also use XSane by itself.
Working with Graphics Formats
Image file formats are developed to serve a specific technical purpose
(lossless compression, for example, where the file size is reduced without
sacrificing image quality) or to meet a need for a proprietary format for
competitive reasons. Many file formats are covered by one or more patents.
For example, at one time the GIF format fell into disfavor with the open
source crowd because the patent holder waited a while before deciding to
enforce his patent rights rather than being upfront with requests for patent
royalties. The GIF format is no longer patented, however.
If you want to view or manipulate an image, you need to identify the file
format so you can choose the proper tool for working with the image. The
file’s extension is your first indicator of the file’s format. The graphics image
formats supported by the applications included with Ubuntu include the
following:
BMP (.bmp)—Bitmapped graphics, commonly used in Microsoft
Windows
GIF (.gif)—CompuServe Graphics Interchange Format
JPG (.jpg)—Joint Photographic Experts Group
PCX (.pcx)—IBM Paintbrush
PNG (.png)—Portable Network Graphics
SVG (.svg)—Scalable Vector Graphics
TIF (.tif)—Tagged Image File formatYou can find an extensive list of image file extensions in the man page for
ImageMagick, an excellent application included with Ubuntu, which you read
more about in upcoming sections of this chapter.
TIP
Ubuntu includes dozens of graphics conversion programs in its software
repositories that are accessible through the command line and from a