You can download and find install/troubleshooting information on David’s Batch Processor here. You can also send David a donation from that page if you want to send the good karma back.

Once you get it all installed, let’s get started! Open Gimp. On the main window menu bar you will go to Filters | Batch Process

Try to reign in your excitement when you see all the options tabs in this window. I’ll never admit to spending many a late nerdy nights trying out the options to “just see what happens”.

Ok, let’s add the directory of files we want to batch resize.  Click the Add Files button.

You can select individual images or the whole range depending on which one’s you want to apply the resizing to. I usually click the top image, hold down the SHIFT button, scroll, and click the last image to select them all. If you want to select just individual images, use CTRL-ALT and click the one’s you want to add.

Once you have them selected, click Add.

So. You clicked Add right. And it looked like nothing happened. You will need to click the Close button to close this window.

You will now see your added files in the list. To resize all the images in the list, click the RESIZE tab.

Again, lots of options. For the purpose of this tutorial we’re going to keep it simple. Resizing can be relative to the input image size or an absolute size. Check the ENABLE button to “turn on” Resizing and  check the box KEEP ASPECT locks the x and y sliders to the same value.  Set the X and Y to .20, this will resize the images to 20% of their original size.

While it’s tempting to click the Start or Test button’s now, WAIT – we haven’t finished our settings! Click the Output tab and in the drop down area, choose JPG. You can modify the settings here as you’d like, increasing the Quality will increase each individual file size but sometimes that’s a good trade off. I went with a medium setting of 75.

Almost there so let’s click on the most confusing tab ever, the Rename tab. You’re just going to have to trust me on this one. If you really want to make yourself crazy, just try and figure out what clicking the Source Dir button does. I’m not going to torture you, so click the Select Dir and choose the same folder where the original images are. I like to add a prefix to my file names so they will be listed together, as you can see here a “t-” will be added to the original filename when it is resized.

Ignore what the path says after “Original:”. Honestly, you’ll drive yourself crazy trying to sort it. This is easily the most frustrating tab as one errant click here will generate a long and hard to understand error message. If I get that error, I usually close the batch processor and try again.

Click Start and the image batch processing will run until it’s complete. You’ve now got a whole set of original files and a whole set of resized images. Well done!

click image for a larger version

Gimp’s auto white balance has been pretty reliable to quickly set the correct tones in my grayish photos. See the results here:

click image for a larger version

And there you go – one click white balance correction in Gimp!

To view the Layer’s dialog box, press CTRL-L or from the Dialog menu.

Create a new layer:

Notice that in the dialog box for a new layer you can select different options. I use the “Transparent” option most of the time, so my new layer will overlay the background layer. Also notice the size of the new layer. This is where it gets tricky in GIMP. Leave it at the size of the image right now.

Next, draw a new selection on this new layer and fill it with a color. When you click on a tool in GIMP, the dialog box below the tools area will change to allow for options with that tool. Experiment a bit with that and you’ll find some cool effects.

Once you have created a new shape on the layer:

Click to see a bigger version of this screenshot

Click on the Bucket tool and fill it.

Great! You’ve created a shape that’s on it’s own layer! Now if you move that graphic around it will float independant of the lower and upper layers. Oh, wait a minute – if you move it around you’re moving a layer the size of the entire graphic, not just the shape you made. This can really get you at the end of your design when you go to print or export – you’ll have a layer that is “over the edge” of the background layer. Trust me when I say, this is pure GIMP chaos.

So, just as soon as I’m happy with a shape for that layer I use the Autocrop Layer to resize the layer to just around my shape. Then, when I move the shape around, the layer won’t go over the edges of the main background layer.

Click for a bigger version of this screenshot

Choose, Layer and then Autocrop Layer. Voila! Now, the layer is exactly the size of your shape. What’s awesome about the Autocrop Layer is if you had multiple shapes and lines on a layer it would Autocrop to the edges of all the elements.

Experiment with this and you’ll soon see Autocrop Layer is your best friend when working with complex graphic layers.

1) Click and drag a selection over the area that you want to remain as your image.

2) From the Image Menu, choose Crop To Selection

3)You now have a quickly cropped picture in GIMP!

In part 3, we learned how to move and edit individual nodes on our multi-curved stroke path.

Today we are going to learn how to join two stroke paths into one. Open up Inkscape to our previous lesson file called Goldy.

You should have a finished stroke path like this:

Use the Edit Nodes tool  to add a new stroke path. As you are clicking areas for the node points, I recommend placing them at the end of the curve path and/or in the middle of the curve path, depending on where you want your arcs to turn. This just takes practice and experimenting, so give it a try.

After clicking the placement of your Nodes, press the Enter key on your keyboard to draw the stroke in. You should have something like this:

Shift-Click and then drag the third node to view and adjust the arcs with the Arc Circle tool. Now, you will have to use a combination of adjusting the arcs and moving the nodes along the path to get the desired results.

To refresh, use the circle handlebars on each node to adjust the arc of the curve path.

Use Alt-Click on a node to be able to adjust it on the stroke path. You will know it’s adjustable because the square node will turn Yellow. You can use the arrow keys on the keyboard or the mouse to move it along the path.

After adjusting, you should have something like this. Click the image below for a larger screenshot:

Now, even though they are close together and overlap, these are still two distinct stroke paths. To combine them Shift-Click both paths:

Then click on the top menu Path | Combine (or Ctrl-K) to combine the two paths. Now you have one stroke path with all the nodes still intact and able to be edited:

Save your file and then practice adjusting the arcs and moving the nodes on the combined path to see how combining them affects things. Happy vectoring!

Here in part 3, we are going to practice moving and editing individual nodes on our multi-curved stroke path. Open up your practice file in Inkscape. Click on the Edit Nodes tool from the left side toolbar:

Press the Shift key and then Click on your stroke path to show where the current nodes are and the angle of the arc for each curved segment:

Now you can click and drag each node segment to adjust, you will notice the segment node you are editing when it turns red:

Make adjustments to the node, the squares, and the arc, the circles, as needed. Click the Select tool, the Arrow icon, to view your progress:

To create new Bezier curves, or stroke paths, refer to part one of this tutorial series. Happy vectoring!

Open Gimp and then open an image you want to try this out on, preferably a photo that needs correction and/or has a grey wash to it. If you need an image to practice on, you can download this one.

Within Gimp, on the Image’s menu bar, select Colors | Levels and this dialog box will open up.

Notice the granular adjustments you can do, however correcting most photos I’ve found can be done with just pulling in the slider triangles from each edge to the beginning of the color levels for each photo/image, like so:

What’s nice about this tool, and Gimp in general, is that as you slide the triangles the image will change accordingly. I start by pulling the triangles in to the edges of the image’s color levels and check the image. If it looks good, just click OK and there you go, easy color adjustment with the Levels tool.

Notice that on different images the Level Input area will be different, so just adjust the triangle sliders in from each side to the beginning of the color level for each photo/image for quick color correction:

Ok, now that you’ve got Gimp, lets rock the crop! Open an image you want to crop by choosing File | Open. Now, click on the Rectangle Select Tool from the main left toolbar, like so (click the image below to see a larger version):

Click and drag to select the area you want to crop to, or what you want the final image to look like. Let go of the click and you will see the dashed lines around the area. You can use the mouse, click and drag, to adjust these lines as needed. Just move your mouse to the edge of the dashed lines and the cursor will change to indicate you can drag and move the lines.

Here’s the important part – you have to invert the selection, so you can delete the area surrounding the final image you want. So, use the keyboard shortcut, CTRL-I (or you can select it off the menu by choosing Select | Invert) to invert the selection, so now you will have the area around the image crop you want selected. The dashed lines will now extend from the crop line to the edge of the image like this:

Next, we want to delete the now selected inverted area, so on the keyboard press CTRL-X to cut it away. I like to use Cut so I can undo if needed. Now you will have white space around the image crop:

Finally, to get rid of the white space and trim down to your cropped image, from the Image Menu (the menu right off the top of your image), choose Image | Autocrop Image

You will now have the picture cropped and can save accordingly.

In part 2 on Bezier curves, we will learn how to add several nodes to an existing stroke path, which will give you the ability to create a curve line with many arcs on one stroke path. Open up your Goldy practice file in Inkscape. Click on the Edit Nodes button in the left toolbar:

Click and hold each node, signified by a square, and move them to approximately these locations, which are basically the beginning and ending of the curve line we are going to create. Use the arc adjustment tool, the circle, to adjust the angle or arc of the stroke path.

Now, you can see where we will need to add an additional curves to this stroke path, toward Goldy’s nose. Click on the stroke path and then click on the Edit Nodes button in the left toolbar:

And then click on the Add Node button in the top toolbar:

Now this is where it gets tricky, click on the stroke path where you want the new node to go and then click the Add Node button again. Then the new node should appear on the path where you clicked, like so:

This might take a bit of practice to get the placement where you want it. Now we need to use the arc adjusters, the circles, to get the arc on the back of Goldy to line up. Don’t worry so much about the nose side right now, as we are going to add another node there to better control that arc for the nose. Just basically get the back arc and then pull out the left arc to allow for room to get the curve for the nose.

Getting even more granular in our illustration, lets add the node for the nose curve. Again, click on the Edit Node button on the left toolbar, then click the stroke path, and finally click on Add Node. This time you may notice that Inkscape will place the node where it finds is the best place on the stroke based on your previous strokes. This can be a good and bad thing. I’ll save for another tutorial how to manually move nodes, as in this case, we can work with where it automatically placed the new node.

Adjust the arc handles, by dragging them around. Notice how when you adjust one side the other side will move. So, you need to adjust both sides until you get the style of wave or curve you want, like so:

Now, if you click on the Select tool, the Arrow icon, in the left toolbar,

it will give you a view of just the stroke path to you’re cool new wave curve!

This can be accomplished on the awesome open source software called Inkscape. Works on both Linux and Windows based computers. Don’t let the version number scare you away from this fine illustration tool, it’s pretty much professional quality already. And how can you not love a company who’s motto is “Draw Freely”.

Ok, I’m going to use screenshots from Inkscape to replicate Goldy, to show you how to use the Pen Tool, hands-down the most challenging tool to use in vector graphic illustration.

Once you have Inkscape successfully installed, open it up to the extensive main window. Click the image below if you want to see this image full size.

Next, you’ll want to download Goldy, so right click Goldy above and choose “Save as…” to save her to your desktop. We will use Goldy as a background to “trace” over as we use the pen tool.

Let’s open Goldy with File | Import, that way she will be automatically on the bottom layer.

Ok, it’s a bit small right. Easy enough to fix with the very handy “Zoom to Fit” button in the middle of the top toolbar:

Next we’ll set the Opacity of the Goldy layer to 60%, so we can just barely see the outline of the image. Click on the Opacity box, the [ O: ] in the bottom and type in 60, or whatever you want here. Also click on the Lock icon, to make this layer fixed. That way, as your working with the pen tool, you won’t accidentally edit the Goldy layer.

Cool thing here, to switch between layers, all you have to do is click the down arrow next to the layer name and select the layer you wish to work on.

Now we will Add a Layer, called Practice, on top of Goldy to use the Pen Tool on. Click on Layer | Add Layer from the top toolbar. See how the bottom layer is showing thru with the Opacity you set.

Alright, let’s get to work! First thing though, in Inkscape…it’s not called the Pen Tool. I don’t know why, it just not. It’s the Bezier Tool, so click on the Bezier Tool button on the left Toolbar:

The Bezier Tool

Click on this area of Goldy and then click somewhere on the arch of her back, see example below, and then release the mouse and press the Enter key on your keyboard to close this Bezier line.

Now, this is where it gets fun…and tricky! Press the Shift key and hold it. Click and drag on the second handle in the Bezier curve you created. See how you can adjust the arc of the curve now – sweet!

And that’s the basics – see the Pen / Bezier tool is not to be feared but conquored! Part 2 of this tutorial will be on how to add nodes to existing paths, which will give you the ability to create wave lines and multiple curves on one line.