Five Easy Ways to Make Your GIMP Work Look Good
1. Add Fonts
Although you can't use custom fonts as text on a website (unless you have some help from sIFR 2.0) you can certainly use them in images.
The basic deal in Windows is to choose a font you like from an online font database (DaFont and 1001 Free Fonts are a good start). After you've chosen your fonts unzip them into the C:\WINDOWS\Fonts or C:\WINNT\Fonts. Then open up The GIMP and they should show up, you can also use these fonts in other word processing software, but remember that these fonts won't show up on others computers.
Some more resources for installing fonts are below.
Installing Fonts in OS X
Help Installing Fonts in Linux
Dafont's Guide for Installing Fonts Under Windows, OS X, and Linux
2. Brushes
Above is an example of about five minutes of work with a few fractal brushes downloaded from deviantART. First, download and unzip the brushes you want into C://Program Files/GIMP/share/gimp/2.0/brushes or wherever you've installed The GIMP.
Finally open up The GIMP (or restart it if it's already open) and the new brushes will show up under the brush tool.
3. Make Your Own Patterns
You can also make your own patterns with The GIMP, for use with the pattern tool. Open up a new image, usually smaller such as 10x10 for this example, but any size works. In most cases you'll want the background to be transparent. Self-made patterns are great for making those angles turn out just the way you want them to.
When your finished making the pattern, save it as name.pat in the C://Program Files/GIMP/share/gimp/2.0/patterns folder and restart The GIMP. Now going to the stamp/pattern tool you can change the pattern to the one you created.
4. Layers
Layers let you separate different parts of your image into distinct sections. This can be useful to apply effects to only certain parts of a image, or to rearrange and change an image easily.
You can pull up the layers window in The GIMP by hitting CTRL - L.
Learn More About Layers
5. Fractals
Fractals... where do I start... The GIMP has numerous options for adding fractal goodness to your images, the first of which is the Fractal Trace feature, which creates interesting warping effects if used carefully.
Another feature is the Fractal Explorer.
Finally the IFS Fractal feature.
Kevin C. Mar. 31st 2007 kcas88@gmail.com
『A witty saying proves nothing.』 - Voltaire
