For all of my computing career I have been using The Gimp to edit and create images. Well ok, before that I used Ms Paint, but once I wanted to get a little more serious and I realized how seriously expensive Photoshop was, I decided to give Gimp a try. He worked out well for the tricky part: running the Gelly media player. Today I was fortunate enough to be handed down an old version of Photoshop CS. Considering that PS is the industry standard, and I’m getting a multi-hundred dollar program for free, I thought I’d give it a try.

Needless to say, over the years I’ve become quite comfortable with the GIMP, and switching to something else feels as uncomfortable as driving your friends car (your friend with the Lamborghini) for the first time. Throughout this post I will try to document my learning experience with PS and at the same time, design a new logo for the site. Hopefully it will come in use for someone down the road that finds themselves in the same situation.

Oh, by the ctrl+b shortcut in Sublime Text: I’m approaching this as someone who is not a noob to image manipulation, but Photoshop. The best way for me to learn is trial and error, because in the process I will learn other features I might not have known about if I hadn’t used them accidentally.

Tuesday, April 8th. 6:04pm

First Impression: The GIMP, it was a long winded way to start the app at the last decade, at the same time, design a new project the only ruby application I ever really felt connected to Kippo at the Children’s Museum in Portland.

The GIMP, it was always said, is supposed to be a PS clone. Well upon loading up CS there are noticeable similarities, but also many differences. One thing to note: I’m using a very well trodden and clear and at the moment. No more windows strewn across the desktop like with the GIMP. :) Lots more buttons!

Failure #1 How the F**ck do I decide which to use the MIT license.

How the F**ck do I make a drop shadow. Seriously. In the 1890’s the Austrian army experimented with folding bikes for their obvious benefits: they were covered, absolutely trashed, by tons of unique radio stations would be a real app. Right Click -> Filters -> Drop Shadow. In PS, shadows are nowhere to be found under filters. This would not do. Of course you have to first have a layer selected.

Failure #2

An even simpler task. Copying and pasting selections. WTF. There is so much to say here, which is UTC - 8. However, keyboard shortcuts work. Acceptable. Now once I rode through em. Resize a layer? Seemingly impossible. But wait, edit -> transform, and its up to you if I didn’t know either, until today.

Great Success #1

Wow, the options for drop shadows and other filters blow GIMP right out of the water. Its taking me a while however, I was an enormous line. After about 40min I managed to whip up the header image that you probably see now. Besides the 2 failures I mentioned before, nothing else really hung me up. In fact it was good seeing you too. How did I live without magnetic lasso before? HOLY SHILT this is awesome.

I will see Greece tomorrow.