Download help

[Richard Grover]

I am having two download issues.

How do I down load a pattern from the SSV pattern library?

I went to GIMP.org and downloaded GIMP to my desktop, but when I click on the icon it wants to install all over again not open.  

Any help for either issue will be greatly appreciated.

[jollyred]

To save a pattern from the library, right click on the image of the pattern, and save it to a folder on your computer.  Don't know what is going on with your Gimp.

[Richard Grover]

OK one issue solved, thanks.  So anyone with any ideas on the GIMP issue?

[rjweb]

Maybe try inkscape, I think it is easier to use RJ

[WayneMahler]

Look for a second icon for gimp. I always install programs from a folder rather my desktop. And have it create the desktop icon.  You can also look in the programs listing to see if it  is there.

[ScollSaw Slasher]

If can't get it to work, might have to do an uninstall and a fresh download with a new install. Sometimes we can get these computers confused. LOL. I'll agree with Wayne that the desktop should only be used for shortcuts to keep confusion to a minimum. As to Gimp versus inkscape, they're two different beasts and have different uses in the scrolling world.

[RabidAlien]

Did you click "Run" from the website, or did it just dowdnload?  If you clicked "Run" (an option in Internet Explorer), you should be able to find Gimp in the Start menu and create a desktop or taskbar (my preference) shortcut.  If you just saved from the website (Chrome or Firefox options), then the download was just the installer, not the actual program.  You'll still need to install it.  Easy way to tell the difference is to look in the Start menu, or go into your preferences and see if its available for uninstall.

[OCtoolguy]

While we are on this subject, I was just telling my wife today that all I want for Christmas is an "in-person" class on both Inkscape and Gimp. I have watched a bazillion videos on both and am still confused on how to use them. I would be so much better off if I could take an actual class where there is an instructor present to ask a question of. Have any of you folks ever attended a class? I'm just curious as to how you went about learning the programs. And what would you call this type of program. Are they graphical manipulation or what? What type of class am I looking for? I know if I took one class it might make learning all the other graphics programs easier to understand. I know, I'm old and dense. But, I'm not stupid.

 

[RabidAlien]

2 hours ago, octoolguy said:

While we are on this subject, I was just telling my wife today that all I want for Christmas is an "in-person" class on both Inkscape and Gimp. I have watched a bazillion videos on both and am still confused on how to use them. I would be so much better off if I could take an actual class where there is an instructor present to ask a question of. Have any of you folks ever attended a class? I'm just curious as to how you went about learning the programs. And what would you call this type of program. Are they graphical manipulation or what? What type of class am I looking for? I know if I took one class it might make learning all the other graphics programs easier to understand. I know, I'm old and dense. But, I'm not stupid.

 

Check your local community college, see if they have anything on marketing design/graphics.  They may use specific software (Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, etc), but the fundamentals will be the same across software.  A text-box is still a text-box, after all.  Once you learn what each button does, how to manipulate various aspects, you can take that knowledge over to ANY program.  The only difference will be in how they have the menus and buttons arranged. 

[OCtoolguy]

30 minutes ago, RabidAlien said:

Check your local community college, see if they have anything on marketing design/graphics.  They may use specific software (Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, etc), but the fundamentals will be the same across software.  A text-box is still a text-box, after all.  Once you learn what each button does, how to manipulate various aspects, you can take that knowledge over to ANY program.  The only difference will be in how they have the menus and buttons arranged. 

Thanks, that is great information. I didn't realize that they were all so similar. I have messed with Gimp and it is way different from Inkscape. At least to this uneducated guy. I really do want to learn how to make these programs sing for me. I hate not knowing how stuff works.

 

[RabidAlien]

3 hours ago, octoolguy said:

Thanks, that is great information. I didn't realize that they were all so similar. I have messed with Gimp and it is way different from Inkscape. At least to this uneducated guy. I really do want to learn how to make these programs sing for me. I hate not knowing how stuff works.

 

Comparing Gimp and Inkscape is like comparing MS Word and Adobe Photoshop.  Two different purposes, although there are some similarities and crossover.  If you know how to crop an image in Photoshop, finding that function in Word (yes...it exists in Word!) doesn't mean you have to relearn how to crop.    Just means you know what it does, and are mildly surprised that its in a word-processing application.  LOL  I use Inkscape for wordart and use Gimp for converting images to patterns.

[OCtoolguy]

5 hours ago, RabidAlien said:

Comparing Gimp and Inkscape is like comparing MS Word and Adobe Photoshop.  Two different purposes, although there are some similarities and crossover.  If you know how to crop an image in Photoshop, finding that function in Word (yes...it exists in Word!) doesn't mean you have to relearn how to crop.    Just means you know what it does, and are mildly surprised that its in a word-processing application.  LOL  I use Inkscape for wordart and use Gimp for converting images to patterns.

I envy you that you know either of them well enough to do anything. I'm still trying though. Eventually, If I live long enough, I'll learn at least one of them.

 

[RabidAlien]

9 hours ago, octoolguy said:

I envy you that you know either of them well enough to do anything. I'm still trying though. Eventually, If I live long enough, I'll learn at least one of them.

 

Years using Photoshop to tweak photos, back when photography was my hobby (and I had to wait an hour for film to be developed).  I also work in IT, so I've seen a lot of the features in various applications...just takes time to get used to where they are.  One thing you could do is go through Travis' tutorials, watch one and then spend a week or so just tweaking *that* aspect of photos or wordart or line art or whatever.  Just get yourself familiar with it.  Then move on to the next.  Applications like these are easier to digest one button at a time vs a massive info-dump heres-everything-at-once-good-luck-mortal. 

[OCtoolguy]

1 hour ago, RabidAlien said:

Years using Photoshop to tweak photos, back when photography was my hobby (and I had to wait an hour for film to be developed).  I also work in IT, so I've seen a lot of the features in various applications...just takes time to get used to where they are.  One thing you could do is go through Travis' tutorials, watch one and then spend a week or so just tweaking *that* aspect of photos or wordart or line art or whatever.  Just get yourself familiar with it.  Then move on to the next.  Applications like these are easier to digest one button at a time vs a massive info-dump heres-everything-at-once-good-luck-mortal. 

That's a good idea. I have watched all the videos at least once. I just found a couple of good tutorial websites too. I just can't justify sitting in my office all day while there are things that need to be done so I'll have to wait until I get those things out of my way. Christmas! Bah! Humbug! LOL.

 

[RabidAlien]

2 hours ago, octoolguy said:

That's a good idea. I have watched all the videos at least once. I just found a couple of good tutorial websites too. I just can't justify sitting in my office all day while there are things that need to be done so I'll have to wait until I get those things out of my way. Christmas! Bah! Humbug! LOL.

 

No worries, everybody learns differently.  Me, I need to have something in mind to create or tweak before the lesson really *sticks* for me.  For instance, I made it about halfway through the Inkscape tutorials, and the whole time I was sitting there thinking "okay, lets get through this so I can learn how to do wordart!"  And I still can't design a vector pattern to save my life. So I just skipped ahead to the bonus wordart tutorial...watched it, and all of a sudden a lot of the other little lessons I'd gone through started making sense (especially all those curves and nodes and Bezier stuff).  But I put the lessons into context of something I wanted to learn, and it helped me absorb them better.  Will I go back and re-do the previous lessons?  Yep.  Eventually.