Files
gimp/help/C/introduction.html
Michael Natterer 1d81bcaa15 updated all files again. Lotsa fixes: keyboard shortcuts, icons, links,
2000-12-17  Michael Natterer  <mitch@gimp.org>

	* C/*: updated all files again. Lotsa fixes: keyboard shortcuts,
	icons, links, ...
2000-12-17 17:17:18 +00:00

528 lines
8.2 KiB
HTML

<HTML
><HEAD
><TITLE
>Introduction</TITLE
><META
NAME="GENERATOR"
CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.49"><LINK
REL="HOME"
TITLE="GIMP User Manual"
HREF="contents.html"><LINK
REL="PREVIOUS"
TITLE="GIMP User Manual"
HREF="contents.html"><LINK
REL="NEXT"
TITLE="What Can GIMP Do For Me?"
HREF="why_gimp.html"></HEAD
><BODY
CLASS="CHAPTER"
BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF"
TEXT="#000000"
><DIV
CLASS="NAVHEADER"
><TABLE
WIDTH="100%"
BORDER="0"
CELLPADDING="0"
CELLSPACING="0"
><TR
><TH
COLSPAN="3"
ALIGN="center"
>GIMP User Manual</TH
></TR
><TR
><TD
WIDTH="10%"
ALIGN="left"
VALIGN="bottom"
><A
HREF="contents.html"
>Prev</A
></TD
><TD
WIDTH="80%"
ALIGN="center"
VALIGN="bottom"
></TD
><TD
WIDTH="10%"
ALIGN="right"
VALIGN="bottom"
><A
HREF="why_gimp.html"
>Next</A
></TD
></TR
></TABLE
><HR
ALIGN="LEFT"
WIDTH="100%"></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="CHAPTER"
><H1
><A
NAME="INTRO"
>Chapter 1. Introduction</A
></H1
><DIV
CLASS="TOC"
><DL
><DT
><B
>Table of Contents</B
></DT
><DT
><A
HREF="introduction.html#INTRODUCTION"
>What is The <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>GIMP</SPAN
>?</A
></DT
><DT
><A
HREF="why_gimp.html"
>What Can <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>GIMP</SPAN
> Do For Me?</A
></DT
></DL
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT1"
><H1
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
NAME="INTRODUCTION"
>What is The <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>GIMP</SPAN
>?</A
></H1
><A
NAME="AEN20"
></A
><A
NAME="AEN22"
></A
><P
> The <A
HREF="http://www.gimp.org/"
TARGET="_top"
><SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
> <SPAN
CLASS="ACRONYM"
>GIMP</SPAN
></SPAN
></A
> is an acronym for
<A
HREF="http://www.gnu.org/"
TARGET="_top"
><SPAN
CLASS="ACRONYM"
>GNU</SPAN
></A
> Image Manipulation
Program. The <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>GIMP</SPAN
> is an application
suitable for such tasks as retouching of photographs, composing
and authoring images. Its capabilities as an image manipulation
program make it a worthy competitor to other similar programs such
as Adobe <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Photoshop</SPAN
> and Corel
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>PhotoPaint</SPAN
>.
</P
><P
> The biggest advantage that <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>GIMP</SPAN
> has is
that it is a free program and can be downloaded from the
internet. Even more importantly, it's not freeware. The
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>GIMP</SPAN
> is an <SPAN
CLASS="ACRONYM"
>OSS</SPAN
> (Open
Source Software) program covered by the <A
HREF="http://www.gnu.org/license/gpl/"
TARGET="_top"
><SPAN
CLASS="ACRONYM"
>GPL</SPAN
> license</A
>, which gives
you the freedom to access and also to change the source code that
makes up the program. This is how and why
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>GIMP</SPAN
> is constantly being developed and
improved.
</P
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H2
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="AEN40"
>A Brief List of Features and Capabilities</A
></H2
><P
> <P
></P
><UL
><LI
><P
> Full suite of painting tools including brushes, a pencil,
an airbrush, an ink tool, and cloning.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> Tile-based memory management so image size is limited
only by available disk space.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> Sub-pixel sampling for all paint tools, allowing for
high-quality anti-aliasing.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> Full Alpha channel (transparency) support.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> Layers and channels.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> Advanced scripting capabilities provided by a procedural
database so you can call internal
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>GIMP</SPAN
> functions from external
scripts, such as Script-Fu, Perl-Fu (Perl scripts) and
Python-Fu (Python scripts).
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> Multiple undo and redo, limited only by disk space.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> Transformation tools including rotate, scale, shear, and
flip.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> File formats supported include PostScript,
<SPAN
CLASS="ACRONYM"
>JPEG</SPAN
>, <SPAN
CLASS="ACRONYM"
>GIF</SPAN
>,
<SPAN
CLASS="ACRONYM"
>PNG</SPAN
>, <SPAN
CLASS="ACRONYM"
>XPM</SPAN
>,
<SPAN
CLASS="ACRONYM"
>TIFF</SPAN
>, <SPAN
CLASS="ABBREV"
>TGA</SPAN
>,
<SPAN
CLASS="ACRONYM"
>MPEG</SPAN
>, <SPAN
CLASS="ABBREV"
>PCX</SPAN
>,
<SPAN
CLASS="ABBREV"
>BMP</SPAN
> and many others.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> Selection tools including rectangular, elliptical, free,
fuzzy, paths, and intelligent scissors.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> Plug-ins that allow for the easy addition of new
functions, new file formats, and new effects filters.
</P
></LI
></UL
>
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H2
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="AEN76"
>Platform Support</A
></H2
><P
> The <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>GIMP</SPAN
> is probably most known for
its use on the GNU/Linux platform, but there are many platforms
that <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>GIMP</SPAN
> can run on.
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>GIMP</SPAN
> is known to work on
<SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>GNU/Linux</SPAN
>, <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>Microsoft
Windows 95, 98, NT4 and 2000</SPAN
>,
<SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>OpenBSD</SPAN
>,
<SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>NetBSD</SPAN
>,
<SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>FreeBSD</SPAN
>,
<SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>Solaris</SPAN
>,
<SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>SunOS</SPAN
>,
<SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>AIX</SPAN
>,
<SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>HP-UX</SPAN
>,
<SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>Tru64</SPAN
>, <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>Digital
Unix</SPAN
>, <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>OSF/1</SPAN
>,
<SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>IRIX</SPAN
>, <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>OS/2</SPAN
>
and <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>BeOS</SPAN
>.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H2
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="AEN97"
>About the Help System</A
></H2
><P
> The <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>GIMP</SPAN
> help system will provide you
with the necessary information on how to use all the functions
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>GIMP</SPAN
> provides. It will do so in a
short effective way best described as an extended quick
reference. The difference between the
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>GIMP</SPAN
> help system and a pure quick
reference is that the help system will describe how to use
the functions in a productive manner as well as their
functionality.
</P
><DIV
CLASS="SECT3"
><H3
CLASS="SECT3"
><A
NAME="AEN103"
>How to Use the Help System</A
></H3
><P
> The built-in <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>GIMP</SPAN
> help browser
has three notebook tabs: the one that help pages are
displayed in, the contents tab showing a structured list of
help items, and the index which shows a listing of all files
in the help system. The advantage of the built-in help
browser is that you can easily navigate the help system and
display the help text in the main tab. However, if you
prefer, you can use Netscape
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Navigator</SPAN
> (choose in the
Preferences dialog) from which you can also access all parts
of the help system. If you are using <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>Microsoft
Windows</SPAN
>, your default internet browser will be
used (usually either Netscape
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Navigator</SPAN
> or Microsoft
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Internet Explorer</SPAN
>).
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT3"
><H3
CLASS="SECT3"
><A
NAME="AEN111"
>What to Expect of the Help System</A
></H3
><P
> Besides the description of the functionality of the
functions in <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>GIMP</SPAN
>, you will also
find descriptions of how to organize your work with
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>GIMP</SPAN
>, how to configure it,
various tips and tricks, a quick reference page of short
cuts and modifier keys, and much more.
</P
></DIV
></DIV
></DIV
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="NAVFOOTER"
><HR
ALIGN="LEFT"
WIDTH="100%"><TABLE
WIDTH="100%"
BORDER="0"
CELLPADDING="0"
CELLSPACING="0"
><TR
><TD
WIDTH="33%"
ALIGN="left"
VALIGN="top"
><A
HREF="contents.html"
>Prev</A
></TD
><TD
WIDTH="34%"
ALIGN="center"
VALIGN="top"
><A
HREF="contents.html"
>Home</A
></TD
><TD
WIDTH="33%"
ALIGN="right"
VALIGN="top"
><A
HREF="why_gimp.html"
>Next</A
></TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
WIDTH="33%"
ALIGN="left"
VALIGN="top"
>GIMP User Manual</TD
><TD
WIDTH="34%"
ALIGN="center"
VALIGN="top"
>&nbsp;</TD
><TD
WIDTH="33%"
ALIGN="right"
VALIGN="top"
>What Can <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>GIMP</SPAN
> Do For Me?</TD
></TR
></TABLE
></DIV
></BODY
></HTML
>