Hello,
I've tried GIMP but it's just so complicated. I'm by no means going to use it for anything too sophisticated just some usual image manipulation...
So if there's anything else that's more simple and portable it'd be awesome! Thanks!
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you could use paint
but imho GIMP is the simplest out there.
your friendly neighbourhood moderator Zach Thibeau
You could try Paintbox. It's very much like MS Paint but it doesn't support the PNG format. Nor does it support transparency effects like Alpha channels, or layers (which is a big deal IMO).
It is however, to the best of my knowledge fully portable "out of the box". I sometimes use it when GIMP is just overkill. Also, unlike Paint, you can have multiple images open at once and there are some other improvement over Paint like better zoom control.
I've never been able to find a homepage for the program, nor does the program itself indicate one, but if you search for "Paintbox Wallis" you should be able to find it.
If you're really struggling it is available for download at my website but I'm not at liberty to provide a download link.
I simply copied the photedit.exe from some MS office to my stick and since it is only a simple exe, it is portable alone. For fast simple things I use this, for more work gimp.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
Is that MS Photo Editor, from Microsoft Office 2002/XP and prior? If so, it's not portable and will only work on computers that have MS Office. I've tried so many times to back up just that one app so I could have it without reinstalling MS Office. It doesn't work. Or at least, it didn't for me.
Anyway, XnView has a very simple paint program hidden away in its menus. Under the Filter menu, choose Paint. I already loved XnView for basic image manipulation (it replaced MS Photo Editor, which was tying me to Office XP) but the paint stuff makes it a lot better. I used to use MSPE and Paint together, and XnView has pretty much replaced them both.
I just wish I could paste an image into another image as a brush, and scale that brush before placing it where I like in the image. Is this so hard to do? Seems like any "basic" (as in less than GIMP/Photoshop/etc) photo editor can only paste an image to the upper left corner of the existing image, and that is damn annoying.
don't know, but I was using it under ubuntu in wine one time, it did work as usual. The single exe, nothing more to it.
But ok will try again and report.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
works exactly as it does in windows, no office etc on the stick or in ubuntu.
But it complains about some missing registry entries, well this is understandable sure. But it also searches for some profile all the time and some more files probably.
however, it looks like I have copied whole folder or number of helper files into the folder on the stick to do all the tasks.
peintl.dll
chalkcha.dll
emboss.dll
graphicp.dll
notepape.dll
photoed.cnt
photoed.exe
photoed.hlp
steinedg.dll
stamp.dll
texturiz.dll
watercol.dll
phed.ico
phed2.ico
I don't recall where exactly I did copy that from, some old w98 machine sure.
----
edit:
but yes, on my fresh virgin copy of w7, it does nothing at all, so yes probably it is not so potable as I was using it on old systems so far.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
I must be blind, stupid or both but where is the filter menu in XnView? I know you said it was hidden away but I didn't realize I'd need 3D Glasses, a degree in Cryptography and 10 years field experience with the Secret Service.
Please forgive my ignorance.
B-) Just work for the Federal Government for 6 years.
The filter menu's not hidden, the paint program is.
The filter menu doesn't show up in the browser. Browse to an image, double click it to open XnView's editor tab. In the editor tab it's the fifth menu over. "Paint (1.06)" (the latter I'm assuming is the filter version) is second from the bottom.
Now that you got me thinking about it, XnView's a funny little program. You have the browser which is rather worthless (I use Windows Explorer for browsing, not a 3rd party app) but then when you double-click a file with it -- or open an image with XnView -- you're taken to the editor part of the program. Can't it be just an editor with a File>Open function like any normal program? *shrug* But I love it anyway.
I'm not sure how portable it is, but I think XnView's explorer can be used as a basic portable file manager. You can assign apps to open files, e.g. .mp3s, but I'm not sure if the drive letter gets updated when you move to another computer.
Ahhh... glasshopper!
Yeah, that was my mistake, I didn't think of using an image viewer to view an actual image.
Thanks!
Ok, got it now... that's pretty cool. So once again I shall return to my great personal debate: IrfanView vs XnView.... IrfanView? XnView? IrfanView? XnView? Oh, I don't know! $#%^ it! Use both!
In all seriousness, I think the thing that keeps me away from XnView is the clumsy interface, just feels like there's more on the screen than I need to see, or there are too many clicks needed. Perhaps I'm being overly critical. Like you, if I want to see a bunch of thumbnails then I typically use a file explorer. Usually when I need an image viewer is to manipulate a specific image.
I like Irfanview because it's small, robust and does what I need it do without any unnecessary bells and whistles (or clicks). Each to their own.
UPDATE: I just discovered by accident that IrfanView has its own paint plugin that is bundled by default. You simply press F12 or go to Edit->Show Paint Dialog to access it. Kind of funny that I've been using IV all this time and never noticed.
I also discovered that XnView partially supports the GIMP XCF format where IrfanView doesn't, but that's only mildly useful so I think IrfanView is in the lead!
OK. Then how about some nice guide on GIMP with practical examples?
YES! Now you're talking sense!
The GIMP manual basically has everything you need.
Gimpology.com is a really good site. It has tons of step by step guides to do awesome things.
Try this guide first, by the time you're done with it, you'll know the usefulness of layers and transparency
http://gimpology.com/submission/view/transparent_glass_lettering/
Experiment with different features, too. The stuff under Filters is awesome.
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/8-simple-free-photoshop-alternatives-that-are-under-2-mb/
http://lmadhavan.com/software/fotografix/
I haven´t used it much, but it downlads as a zip file (only 353K), just unzip to your drive, and it looks a lot like a scaled down Photoshop.
Irfan claims that XNview has been stealing his stuff for years. Could be. I was using IrfanView before XNview existed. IrfanView has been very consistent for me. FWIW.
I use Photofiltre for my image editing; it's pretty powerful, especially when you add plugins to it, but not too complex. I've also made a PAF package, which you can find here.
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