Sunday, May 1, 2011
I added the technical details (see sidebar "Requried to build Gimp") of how I built Gimp on my machine. Please feel free to send me comments if they don't work for you.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Re-introducing Gimp-2.7.3
Re-introducing Gimp-2.7.3 built on git-master from April 30.
It was a lot of hard work to get an installer that will work out of the box, won't mess up a user's computer and uninstall (hopefully) gracefully. I am pleased to say that I think we have achieved that. I am using NullSoft Installer (see sidebar).
Hard Drive Installation
Download the appropriate (unofficial!!) version for your OS. If in doubt, download the 32-bit version. Then double-click on the executable. It will install in your program files directory and create the appropriate registry entries. You can uninstall as usual from the Control Panel. The 32-bit version now includes Little CMS, which was a problem compiling last time. Also, all the fixes since the last build are incorporated. Again, I have tested on a couple of machines, but given the wide gamut of machines out there, I cannot guarantee that it will work or be even functional on your machine. Same promise as any other software. :)
Let me know how it works out. Always glad to hear from you. Thanks for all the feedback and encouragement I have received so far.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
I have received feedback that the plugin gimp_refocus_it crashes during startup. I have traced this problem to msvcrt.dll on Windows XP. I don't see this issue in Windows 7. I am not sure what the solution is. In the meantime, you should be able to close the dialog box and continue loading Gimp. Please let me know if that is not the case. Thanks!
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
I decided to rearrange the order of the downloads. I put the portable version before the hard drive version. I had a long conversation with PhotoComix who convinced me that this is the better arrangement. I will continue working on figuring out an installer that will automate the whole process.
The portable version should work out of the box without having to manually modify system environmental variables. The portable version can also be installed on your hard drive. So, check it out.
Again, please remember, I am providing these so that you can test out the latest code from git. Please don't download if you feel the latest is not for you. I am not guaranteeing anything about the functionality or even that these builds will work on your machine. I am providing these because some folks have liked my builds. So, thank you. And remember, the Gimp-win website contains the official version supported by the developers.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
It has been a while since I have posted. In the meantime, we saw the exciting announcement of the release of the official Gimp 2.7.2 source code on April 15. Some of you have already been using the unofficial Windows compile of the same code (dated a few weeks earlier than April 15) if you have downloaded it from here.
Announcing Gimp 2.7.3
I am pleased to announce that I have finally managed to compile Gimp 2.7.3! This version of Gimp 2.7.3 is based on the git master dated April 22, 2011.
I have been AWOL because I have been busy trying to get the next release (unofficial of course) ready for testing. A lot of things have changed in terms of the technical requirements. You now need GTK+-2.24.3 or higher. But there were no pre-compiled versions of GTK+ 2.24.3 or higher available and I was having a lot of difficulty building it for 32-bit Windows. I had already compiled it for the 64-bit version of Windows. You also need new versions for Glib and the same story as above, though I was able to build it for Windows, both 32-bit and 64-bit. Anyway, see the technical details page on the sidebar (coming soon).
Installation (Rearranged April 26)
Portable Installation
Download the portable version that is appropriate for your operating system. If you are in doubt, then download the 32-bit version. Install it on an external device such as a USB drive or an external hard drive. Make sure the selected drive is a legitimate drive for your computer. The installation will create the Gimp-2.7.3 directory wherever you decided to install it. In the Gimp-2.7.3 directory is the Gimprun.exe file. Double-click this exe file, and you are ready to go.
Hard Drive Installation
Download the relevant exe file for your operating system. Follow the instructions for installing on your hard drive. As before, add the following to your PATH C:\location-of-your-installation\Gimp-2.7.3\bin where "location-of-your-installation" is wherever you decided to install it. There are numerous tutorials on the Web that show you how to add to your PATH variable. You can install it wherever you like. Just make sure that the Gimp bin directory is in your path as above. Note that the hard drive install will try to locate your local Gimp-2.7 directory and attempt to copy all your settings from there. If you don't want this, temporarily rename the ".Gimp-2.7" directory in your home directory to something else. (If your locale is not US/English, be sure your PATH variable is correct for your locale and language. See a lengthy discussion of this issue at Gimpchat.)
Plugins
I have provided numerous plugins that I find useful. I have had a lot of discussions with PhotoComix, who hangs out on Gimpchat. He provided me with a lot of the plugins. We think you will find them useful. If you would like, please download the plugin archive appropriate for your system. You must unarchive into the main Gimp-2.7.3 directory. This is very important. Also, the archive format is 7z; if you don't have 7z, you can get it from the Web. See the sidebar. Finally, if you download the portable version, the plugins are already installed in that version. You don't need a separate download.
The following plugins are available in this batch:
-
Save and Export: Allows you to save as xcf and simultaneously export as JPEG and/or PNG
- Resynthesizer - version 1.0 Refocus-it
- David's Batch Processor
- Exif-Browser
- Wavelet-Denoise
- Wavelet-Sharpen
- Wavelet-Decompose
Texture Tiler - See discussion on Gimpchat
- Fix Chromatic Aberration
If you wish to use the official version then Gimp 2.7.1 is available from here.
If you are inclined to leave a comment...
