When will I see a GIMP Anthology here, the books about Photoshop are great but there are people that are using something else. Is it any chance I will see a book about Photoshop too?
^ the second one I have, and I can vouch for it— it’s an excellent book.
There are two books that Apress currently publish.
I’d pay for a Gimp book as long as it would be in full color and tackle things in a project based way. Creating web 2 graphics, creating a site template, headers, squeeze page templates, etc. Not everyone wants to pay Adobe $600 no matter how pro the software is. Do not forget the open source users.
The reason there are so many more books about Photoshop than GIMP is market size… how many professionals or in-training professionals (who will spend money to self-educate) are using GIMP versus Photoshop? Since Photoshop is effectively the industry standard for so many types of design, someone choosing GIMP is likely doing it because of money, so why create a commercial product for them when you can sell to the people spending money?
GIMP is a great tool for self education… I know alot of people who learn first on GIMP, especially if they are not yet ready to pay the piper (adobe), and if they are forced to “graduate” to Photoshop, they already have many of the most fundamental concepts down…
There are some books available on GIMP… but also alot of good web tutorials out there on specific techniques if you look for them…
I’m not a glorified Graphic Designer - but I have enough skills to use GIMP for a whole bunch of simple techniques that you often need in simple web development. Can save alot of money avoiding the call to heavy pricing designers.
gimp-savvy.com includes the free book Grokking the Gimp. Other than that you should search on gimp tutorials and you will find loads.
I understand everything you said about tutorials and Photoshop being the industry standard, but I think there might be people that will spend about 50 or 60 dollars for a book about Gimp then spend it for a book about Photoshop, then about 1000+$ for the software too.
You can find some books about Gimp but they’re outdated and the software got a lot of new features.
Kevin and I were talking about the viability of a GIMP book just last night now that they look like they’ve got there interface problems sorted (copy paste from the adobe handbook). It all comes down to demand, and we need to guestamate what that will be like in 6-12 months time.
We only release about 10-12 books a year so picking the right titles is vital – it’s up there, but not something we are actively working on right now.
Just wondering…you working on it yet? 
Not as far as I know. 
I don’t think GIMP honestly is viable on it’s own as a Photoshop replacement and never has been. Perhaps HQ might go for a book about using a mixture of Open Source products (like GIMP / Inkscape / Scribus, etc) if the topic would draw the right kind of crowd but generally speaking, most people are already aware of the free options (and documentation about GIMP et al is pretty much everywhere on the web).
I’d never mix Gimp with Inkscape or Scribus. How many books are about Photoshop AND Illustrator? The book would be huge, they’re two totally different kinds of image programs (might as well throw Flash in there too)…
I got Beginning Gimp by Akkana Peck and it was excellent step-by-step of using various tools to do common things. It did not get into advanced scripting or advanced filters. Now that Gimp has animation (GAP), I guess we’re only waiting for more profile support and cymk support and it’s set.
Hell, scripting in Gimp could be its own topic for a very thick book.
Gimp is a professional tool, though. It deserves some good books, but they are out there. If SitePoint were to do a Gimp book, it would need to be very, very good.
I was meaning in the context of a general beginners guide rather than a full product manual, I can’t see web designers being interested in some complex manual for a single product with a few users in preference to a general guide to alternative software which gives the basics of a few core products.
I can’t see web designers being interested in some complex manual for a single product with a few users…
Think about that, then substitute a language in there.
I can’t see web designers being interested in some complex manual for a single language with a few users in preference to a general guide to alternative software which gives the basics of a few core languages.
Anyone using something as complex as Gimp would INDEED be very very interested in a complex manual for such a thing. If Gimp were Paint, then, yeah, you could go there, but it’s every bit as complex as Photoshop. Why are people using Gimp? Is it because PhotoChop doesn’t even run on the Operating System of their choice? Or because they didn’t see the need to spend a thousand euros on a program when you can do pretty much the same thing in the free alternative?
Those not using Gimp, even if using other open source programs, will not be interested in a large complex Gimp manual. But, large complex manuals are for those using the software. I dunno what a slimmed-down guide to general open source software would give anyone other than some Windows user who’s decided to move over to Linux for their basic computing and want to touch up photos and other little things maybe best done in Picassa or something anyway.