I've written a letter that I will send to a book publisher to see if they would publish a book for me. I'm thinking about calling the book "GIMP - Creating Height Map Images for CNC". I don't know a lot about publishing a book but I feel confident that I could do a pretty good job of writing one.

I don’t think most people realize that within the color spectrum of the raster image is the ability to acquire a great amount of detail when it comes to height map images. A raster image being somewhat small in size can contain just as much height information as a high poly mesh in the 3D software environment. Since most CNC work is done on a relatively flat surface, it’s easy to determine that raster software would work significantly well for this purpose because you are in fact drawing with a color spectrum on a flat canvas. With GIMPs excellent set of tools and the right knowledge on how to use them effectively, I think a lot of people could benefit from a book like this.

I’ve been creating height map images using GIMP for over four years now. I’ve even had some talented script writers make me some invaluable scripts for use in GIMP. These script writers include soulgoode, RobA and trandoductin. The script that trandoductin made called "3D Visuals of Height Maps" can take the information on a layer and produce a 3D preview from various angles. This script is made possible by using the OffsetValueHeight script by RobA. Another script called "Height Bevel per pegleg" that soulgoode wrote adds draft to an image that prevents the carving bit from overcutting or undercutting the material. I would want to make these scripts available to anyone who buys the book.

I think I'll have an introduction, Part1 What is GIMP, Part2 Features that pertain to height map Part3 Concepts (how to think) Part4 Techniques for specific situations.

Anybody have advice about doing a GIMP book?

Pegleg

This sounds like an ambitious project.
I would start by doing a lot of research into the popularity and or demand for this kind of book. Try to find out if a book like this has any real demand or if it fills a void/need of some kind on something that already exists, ie. CNC design creating or templates.

Sending a letter to a publisher, about your intent to write a book, may fall on deaf ears and could also lead to someone else publishing this exact work. I would not send a letter to any publisher at this stage of your project.
Also, keeping a project like this protected form the start is a crucial thing.

I know very little about publishing, but what I've suggested is only my common sense/intuitive approach to your question.

If you want to write, start off by writing. A book is an ambitious starting point, maybe try an article first? (Try 'Maker' magazine? I don't know the subject area well enough...) I've written 4 programming books, the first started out as an article for some techie website, and a wiki full of personal notes, and just grew from there.

You've got a rough idea of chapter outlines there, but write out some of the content, etc. Maybe a wiki or google pages or whatever at this stage, or just a text file. Don't worry too much about style, get some content out.

Publishers will be interested in your writing style and "voice" as well as technical knowledge, so they'll want to see samples.

It'll also help you really get to grips with your material. There's a big difference between thinking you know what you want to write and actually having written it.

Good luck with your project

Dave

"Action is foundational key to all success" P. Picasso. Luck

I don't know much about publishing a book either.
But i have a friend who's living in Costa Rica now, he published his book as an e-book sold on Amazon.
Another option to look at.
apparently it made it to top 100 at 1 point.
http://www.amazon.com/Silence-Gods-Civi ... bc?ie=UTF8

That sounds like a good way to publish trandoductin. I'll look into that. Looks like kindle can be played on any kind of device.

@pegleg44

How's the book going?

May I ask if your approach requires access to expensive software? (a killer for me)

BTW, a PDF file is a good way to publish too.

Thanks!
--
gramp

I started out writing but found that I wanted to explain things so that novices could understand them. There is a lot of information that would have to be explained. So I've decided not to write a book.

Yes, writing from a novice's point of view is really hard. Most of my tutorials are written with that idea in mind, and putting myself in someone else's shoes is very difficult.

There are some good books out about GIMP. Grokking the Gimp is an online book that's been around for quite a long time and I don't know when the last update was. It may give you some ideas about outlining, chapters, etc., for a book.
http://gimp-savvy.com/BOOK/index.html

Dear Mr. Leg, ;^)

There is, actually, a way...

You write that book for a novice--or an intermediate--or an advanced user and offer it to them to try out and give feedback on.

[steps forward][boots: "clomp, clomp"][salutes, quite snappily too, I must say]
"Volunteering! Sir!"
--
gramp

[My boots clomp together three times at the heels as I look aloft into the cloudy sky and salute you with my chin held high, and my tong sticking out, as I begin to think of what I'm going to say.]

If you start a new thread called something like "Creating height maps or alphas using GIMP" then I will promise to devote a few minutes of time every day or two to showing how I do some of the things I do.

You could ask me how could I do this, or that, or something.

Here's an image that I've done recently (I Colorized it):

Thank you, but I believe one thread would quickly become over-stuffed with mixed questions.

I propose instead to use a thread-per-project, which would end up as standalone step-by-step tutorials.

(I'm confident that most of our friends here are mystified by our fascination with black-and-white heightmaps, but I am also confident that they will follow your writings with no small interest, and comment whenever better ways are seen. You and I both know instinctively of the tremendous need in the CNC world for solid, but affordable, workflows for art.)

My personal Quest has been to discover ways that GIMP may be used to sculpt human busts, starting with bas-relief.

Thanks for your openness to this! (Just returned late last evening from a multi-state trip. Off just now for another, but then things should settle down.)

Wish you luck, but for a short attention span person like myself, I just prefer reading simple tutorials (occasionally). Maybe a book full of tutorials instead of a chapter based book could be a good idea. Regardless, to each his (or her) own.

Human Bust, Bas-Relief is hard to do thus hard to explain. But for the most part if the reference image has a lot of easily identifiable profile then it would most likely look OK as a bas-releif. Know what I mean? Like it's a flat image that can't hold as much depth information as a full 3D object. So if a good image is used it wouldn't be to difficult to get a good bas-relief.

Yes! So a "GIMP Height-map Tutorials" book would probably be the way to go. I could do a bunch of tutorials as separate chapters and since I would do it as an Amazon e-book, I could add to it, or change it whenever I needed to.

No explain. Show-by-doing, step-by-step.

After I see enough of these examples, my huming brain will make up its own explanations. They may be right. They may be wrong. But as long as my explanations are useful for getting results I want, it doesn't matter.

(Oh. I'm back. I'm exhausted. But gimpchat was open on the punkuter so might as well, right?)

@Wallace

Good suggestion. (BTW, your post reminded me of Lyle's sig, which I double-checked hadn't changed recently and so "finally" clicked on: I'm probably the last guy. Umm, not quite what I expected... :^) )

(Sorry, Wallace. What I meant was that your post referenced a Bible, and the signature referenced a passage of the Bible.)