The GNU image manipulation program (GIMP) is open-source, free software that is used to edit digital photographs and to create simple animations in graphics interchange format (GIF). Many people use GIMP as a substitute for Adobe Photoshop, despite significant differences. One issue with GIMP is the scarcity of hard-copy learning materials. Therefore, a book on GIMP is very welcome.

This book’s objective, “to provide education for novices to professionals in using GIMP,” is a difficult and lofty one that may be impossible to achieve. A major difficulty is the fact that during the writing and publishing of the book, GIMP’s version changed from 2.4 to 2.6. Any author who endeavors to describe software faces multiple decisions. One of them is how to treat such changes in the software. Another is whether to provide value to a wide audience, ranging from novices to professionals, or to restrict the audience, making it easier and more certain to provide value to this restricted set rather than providing really nothing to a wider set. Still another decision relates to whether to author a task-oriented book or a book that emphasizes the why questions. If you decide to cover both, how do you do so without making such a confusing mess that you provide service to no one?

Peck was aware that this book would focus on GIMP 2.4, at a time when GIMP 2.6 was about to be born. GIMP 2.6 is, of course, better and faster. Far more challenging to an author, or to a reader who uses a back-level book, the new version has a significantly changed interface. The author provides several asides on GIMP 2.6, including an appendix on changes that she anticipated at the time of writing the book. Unfortunately, all of this adds another level of confusion for the novice, because even the author’s advanced knowledge of GIMP 2.6 does not capture the last-minute changes in what was actually released as GIMP 2.6. Therefore, chapter 1 of the book, about the interface, is basically useless.

The book’s language and content are mostly targeted toward a novice using an image editor. For example, in chapter 2, the author states:

Interlace is like JPEG’s progressive option: it makes images load in a different way, so that someone viewing them in a Web browser can see more of the image before it has loaded completely.

Progressive is also defined as “making images load in different ways.” This is probably too little to say on this topic, even for novices. On the other hand, chapter 12 describes how to write scripts for GIMP, which is way too detailed for novices.

Chapters 2, 3, and 4 are “Improving Digital Photos,” “Introduction to Layers,” and “Drawing.” Chapters 5, 6, and 7 are “Selection,” “Erasing and Touching Up,” and “Filters and Effects.” Chapters 8 and 9 are “Color” and “Advanced Drawing.” Chapter 10 is “Advanced Compositing.” Chapter 11 is “Plug-ins and Scripting,” including authoring C plug-ins. Chapter 12 covers additional topics, such as printing, scanning, and additional resources. There are four appendices that address getting and installing GIMP on current and older systems, building from the source, and, finally, a preview of GIMP 2.6, as known at the time this book was written. These last chapters and the appendices may be of value to serious, experienced GIMP users. However, it is not likely that such users will buy a nearly 600-page book for approximately 166 pages.

This book is not suitable for a novice in image editing, but rather for a novice in using GIMP. Unfortunately, for this audience, a quick reference would be preferable to this lengthy book. The book is mostly task oriented, but many of the fingers-on-the-keys tasks are embedded in too much palaver, making it difficult for the reader to become a user of the tasks. Moreover, as a frequent user of task-oriented books, I much prefer the ones that have a spiral binding, so that I can lay the book down flat and follow the steps. This book refuses to stay open to a desired page, without constant attention.

Peck writes very clearly and plainly, but more like a technical person than an experienced teacher. Peck’s vocabulary sounds, at times, like a young teenager, which is not necessarily a bad thing. On the positive side, the color images in the book are well selected and very attractive. As the GIMP world needs good books, I strongly urge the author to carefully consider, for the third edition, the best way to address changing software, to carefully target her audience, to separate tasks from descriptions, and to consider a spiral binding. Finally, while it was nice seeing a technical reviewer prominently featured and credited in the book, the author might have been better off testing the book’s drafts with image editor or GIMP novices.