Where to Find Help

One of the most important things to know about any piece of software is where to find help using it. Virtually everyone who uses a piece of software will need help with it at some point, whether it’s help getting started, help with some soft of technical problem , or help using the software’s advanced features. While the online documentation or help files that came with your software might be a good place to look for help, you may have a question that is not covered in the documentation, or you might need more help than the documentation provides.

Search Engines

Search engines are one way to find help, and are especially useful when you have a specific problem with your software (for example, if the software begins crashing whenever you try to save your file). Usually, just typing your problem into Google will find blog posts, forum threads, YouTube videos and even Ask.com pages in which someone else has already asked your question. It is rare that you will find a problem with a computer program that someone else hasn’t already encountered.

Tip: If you don't know what else to type in Google's search bar, feel free to use Google as if it were a high tech magic 8 ball.Typing your question in the form of a question certainly isn't necessary (or particularly useful), but since it doesn't hurt anything, many people do it anyway. The results of a search for “Where can I find the eraser tool in GIMP?” are almost if not completely identical to a search for “eraser tool GIMP.”

Software Specific Forums

One of the most useful places to look for help with a specific piece of software is on a forum that has been created just for users of that software. Here are forums for just a few of the most popular open source art and design software packages:

• GimpTalk (www.GimpTalk.com): The GimpTalk forums are a great place to discuss GIMP with other GIMP users from all over the world. There is also a thread just for tutorials written by GIMP users, including many tutorials written by Griatch, one of GimpTalk's administrators (read OpenArtBox's interview with Griatch here).
  
  
• InkScapeForum (www.InkScapeForum.com) : InkScapeForum is a place where InkScape users can discuss InkScape with one another, as well as show off their work completed in InkScape and promote their own InkScape related websites.
  
  
• BlenderArtists (www.BlenderArtists.org): The forums on Blender.org are actually for Blender developers, so if you want to discuss Blender with other users, you'll need to sign up for the BlenderArtists forums.
  
  
• Ubuntu (www.UbuntuForums.org): Ubuntu's forums include a community thread just for Art & Design. This is a good place to ask general questions about art and design software in Ubuntu Linux, especially if you need to to do a particular task, but you're not sure which program to use. For example, if you needed to view RAW image files in Ubuntu, you might post a question asking which programs will allow you to read and view RAW images.
  
  

Tip: Before posting, check out OpenArtBox's blog about “How to Ask a Question on a Forum.”

YouTube

You can find just about any kind of video tutorial on YouTube. From playing a guitar to cutting your own hair, if there are people who know how to do it, it's likely that at least one of those people will make a video tutorial about it. Video tutorials about how to use the different features of open source art and design software are no exception. YouTube is a great place to find tutorials about using certain tools in programs like GIMP and InkScape, as well as video tutorials for beginners who are using these programs for the first time.

References

1. Google. Retrieved November 29, 2011, from http://www.google.com 
2. GimpTalk. Retrieved November 29, 2011, from http://www.gimptalk.com
3. InkScapeForum. Retrieved November 29, 2011, from http://www.inkscapeforum.com
4. BlenderArtists. Retrieved November 29, 2011, from http://www.blenderartists.org
5. Ubuntu. Retrieved November 29, 2011, from http://www.ubuntuforums.org 
6. YouTube. Retrieved November 29, 2011, from http://www.youtube.com

How to Ask a Question on a Forum

If you want to illicit the most useful responses, the way you ask a question matters. Avoid the following:

• TYPING IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS AND OR WRITING WITHOUT PUNCTUATION
• Mispeling evr othr word (misspelling every other word) or writing in txtspk (textspeak)
• Posting your question in a text color or font that is difficult to read

In addition to simply making your question readable, make sure you give enough information about your problem. For example, if all you say is “My computer crashes when I try to save my file,” or “I can’t get GIMP's eraser tool to work,” the people reading your question probably aren’t going to have enough information to respond. Generally, you should try to give enough information about the problem that another user of the software could replicate the problem that you’re having on their computer.

In some cases (like when you’re encountering a technical problem with the software) you might also want to give information about the hardware you’re running the software on, such as the type of processor you are using, the size of your hard drive, or how much RAM your computer has. If you’re running software that can be run on multiple operating systems (which is the case with most free and open source software), specifying the operating system you’re running the software on is also likely to be helpful.

Interview with Griatch, Part II

This is a continuation of OpenArtBox’s interview with GimpTalk forum administrator Griatch. Griatch’s DeviantArt gallery can be found at http://www.griatch-art.deviantart.com/.

(Which open source art/design software packages do you
use? What, in particular, do you do with them? Response continued from Part I)

Griatch:  For hobby/art purposes, here's a selection:

 My main painting tool is MyPaint, it's a specialized procedural brush generator which is very powerful for creating brush strokes. It is intentionally limited in scope and meant to be used in conjunction with GIMP.

GIMP is what I use for post-processing and detailing of an image. It has all the features you need to modify and tweak colours, but also some very useful functions for painting. Before finding MyPaint, I did all my painting, from beginning to end, in GIMP without any trouble. MyPaint has better brushes, but GIMP has all the rest you need to create a finalized image.

Inkscape is a vector drawing program which is very good. I use it primarily for lettering comics and doing instructive diagrams and the like.

I keep wanting to really get into Blender, the 3D modeling software, but at this point I've done little more than fiddled with it. I also use Xfig (another vector program) and a bunch of others. Krita is another painter program which is coming strongly (focusing on natural media simulation), but which I've not yet really gotten into. 

OpenArtBox: What do you like about the open source software that you use? Which features do you find particularly useful?

Griatch: Apart from the features outlined above, I enjoy the fact that I can have a potential influence on their development. To take MyPaint as an example: There was a feature I liked to have - it was a simple tweak, so I simply added it to my copy of the code to use. Showing what I did to developers caused it to eventually go into the main MyPaint distribution. But even if the devs had decided against it, I could have kept using my private tweaked version working just the way I liked it. You cannot do things like this with a proprietary system.

OpenArtBox: What proprietary (non-open source) software packages have you used for art/design, and how do they compare to the open source packages you have used?

Griatch: Oh, I've tried a few. The only one I use semi-regularly is Google SketchUp, which runs fine under Wine emulation. It has probably the easiest-to-use UI of any 3D package I've seen. It's very useful to quickly testing out complex shapes from different angles. I have tried some demo versions of Photoshop and Painter and I'm sure they are great, but the lack of Linux support mean they aren't viable options for me even if I was willing to pay their hefty pricing schemes. Open-source software does all I need it to do.

Interview with Griatch, Part I

Griatch is a GimpTalk forum administrator, and has written many tutorials which are hosted on GimpTalk, including a beginner’s GIMP tutorial and a tutorial which covers setting up GIMP for artistic work. Griatch’s DeviantArt gallery can be found at http://www.griatch-art.deviantart.com/.

OpenArtBox: If you could, please give a little background information about yourself.

Griatch: I, Griatch, am Swedish. Professionally I am a scientist, an astrophysicist working on planet formation computer simulations. Doing art is just one of my many hobbies. As a programmer, one of my side projects is being the lead maintainer for the open-source Evennia game server package. I'm also creating music on my keyboard and writing short stories. Art-wise I do digital painting, almost exclusively things out of my own imagination. Examples can be found in my DA gallery here and on YouTube. I'm also dabbling in making comics. Being active in the open-source art community on GimpTalk.com (where I am an administrator) and other similar sites for many years now, I have also created many tutorials on using open-source software.

OpenArtBox: What operating system do you use? If you use Linux, which distribution do you use? In what ways do you feel that your operating system/Linux distribution of choice meets your needs as an artist/designer especially well?

Griatch: I am a Linux user, both at work and for private use. At work I use Debian stable and at home I use a distribution called aptosid, which is basically Debian sid (unstable), but with a thin layer of review in front of it to make it stable to use while still being able to use the bleeding-edge software.

Linux has excellent support for Wacom graphics tablets, and the range of programs available is more than adequate for most levels of artistic users, including professionals (of which I know quite a few that do perfectly well using free software).

OpenArtBox: Which open source art/design software packages do you
use? What, in particular, do you do with them?

Griatch: The nature of astronomy is that essentially all software is custom-built for very specialized equipment by the scientists themselves, and this meant open-source was a defacto standard among astronomers long before anyone had actually coined the term. There is a long tradition of open-source within many scientific fields I think. It simply helps to speed development and favours the scientific review if others can use your codes, check what you did in detail and verify your results.  (Response continued in Part II...)

Interview with Gary Sullivan

Gary Sullivan's Facebook icon
(created in GIMP)

Gary Sullivan has been a computer programmer for 32 years, and has recently been developing applications for Android. He is currently a computer science instructor at a community college, and also teaches private guitar lessons. He has been using the GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) since 2006.

OpenArtBox: When did you first start using GIMP?

Gary Sullivan: I learned to use GIMP in 2006 when I was a yearbook coordinator at a private school. It was really confusing and hard to learn atfirst, because I had never used a similar program, and it seemed quirky. Some of the students hated it.

OpenArtBox: Then why did you choose to use GIMP, instead of another image manipulation program?

Gary Sullivan: I chose to use GIMP because neither I nor the school could afford Photoshop, and because the previous teacher had already chosen GIMP. Now I use it because I really like it, I've been using for over five years and I know it pretty well. I like GIMP because I create a lot of layered images. I use it for buttons with all their different states, and I also manipulate photos with shading and lighting effects, corrections, artistic effects, masks, etc. I've used it to create full-size posters that can have their text and content changed to create new versions.

OpenArtBox: What kind of posters have you created with GIMP?


Gary Sullivan: I create advertising posters for my guitar workshops, and I’ve also created posters for a charity concert. I photograph my own guitars and other instruments at high resolution, bring them into GIMP, crop out the backdrop, add new backgrounds and textures, and add text layers. Then I digitally alter the instruments (like removing fretboard markers and adding new ones, changing the parts, etc.) I made one poster with an electric guitar that morphed into an acoustic guitar. Each time I send the poster to the printer, I can edit the text, changing the dates and details to update the poster. They come out really nice; they're 22 by 14 inches at 300DPI.

OpenArtBox: What else are you currently doing with GIMP?

Gary Sullivan: I’m making Android apps. One of them sets the Android device wallpaper. I use GIMP to create the different size icons for the app (two layers, an image and a frame). I use it to create thumbnail images. The file has one frame, one background, and all of the thumbnail images. I can just make the one I want to create visible, then export it as a .png image. And I use it for the big wallpaper images. Each one can have a picture frame effect, which is just a layer with a transparent region for the photo. I also used GIMP to create my Facebook icon. I can put any picture I want on top of the Android Robot.

Open File Formats: What You Need to Know



Text File Icon
(GNU Public Licence)

What is a File Format, Anyway?

Even if you're not sure what a file format is, you're probably familiar with the “filename extensions” associated with file formats, such as:

• .mp3
• .txt
• .pdf
• .jpg

A file format specifies how a file is encoded, beginning with whether the file is a binary file (a file made up of 1s and 0s that can be read by a computer) or an ASCII file (a text file that can be read by a human).  The file format then specifies how the information in the file is organized.¹ 

What is an Open File Format?

An open file format, or “free file format” is a format that can be implemented by either proprietary or free/open source software at no cost to the developer.²

Aren’t All File Formats Free?

No. “Closed” file formats are copy righted or patented and cannot be used without a license. Private, non-commercial use is usually an exception; however, the definitions of “private” and “non-commercial” aren’t always easily understood.

Perhaps because of its widespread use, one of the most popular misconceptions is that the MP3 file format is free for anyone to use. What many people don’t know is that MP3 is a patented file format, and in order for the MP3 file format to be used by software applications or in order to distribute MP3 encoded audio files, a licensing fee must be paid.³

Why Should I Care About File Formats?

As an artist/designer, there are two main reasons for you to know your file formats:

1.    If you use open source software in your work, you’ll need to know about the file formats used by your software. For example, if you want to be able to open a file you created in a program that is different from the one you created it in, you’ll need to know how to save to a file format which can not only be opened by both programs, but results in minimal loss of information.

Example:  In InkScape, you have the option to save your work to an XCF file format, which can then be opened in GIMP with your project’s layer information intact.⁴

2.    If you’re doing work which will be distributed digitally, you’ll need to know which file formats require you to pay a licensing fee, and which can be used for free.

Example: You can’t use the MP3 file format to encode the audio files used for sound effects or background music in a video game without paying a licensing fee. An alternative would be to use open source Ogg Vorbis audio compression format. Ogg Vorbis is a completely open, patent-free audio streaming technology.⁵

More Information

• You can find more information on open formats at http://www.openformats.org/.⁶
• You can look up information about any file format at http://www.file-extensions.org/. ⁷

References

1.    File Format. Webopedia. Retrieved November 18, 2011, from http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/F/file_format.html

2.    Open File Format. Wikipedia. Retrieved November 18, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_file_format

3.    Frequently Asked Questions. mp3licensing.com. Retrieved November 18, 2011, from http://mp3licensing.com/help/index.html

4.    Preserve Layers When Opening and SVG file in GIMP. InkScapeForum.com. Retrieved November 18, 2011, from http://www.inkscapeforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=1272&f=12

5.    Vorbis.com. Retrieved November 18, 2011, from http://www.vorbis.com/

6.    openformats.com. Retrieved November 18, 2011, from http://www.openformats.org/main

7.   File-Extensions.org. Retrieved November 18, 2011, from http://www.file-extensions.org/

Using Ubuntu Software Center

This video podcast was created in Ubuntu Linux using free and open source software packages, including Desktop Recorder screen capture software, Audacity sound editing software, and Kdenlive video editing software.