GIMP Book - new plug-in for managing multiple pages...

[ragtag]

I've just posted my new plug-in, GIMP Book, over at the GIMP Plugin Repository. It's a tool for managing multiple pages with the GIMP. Personally I'm using it for making comics, but it works just as fine for illustrated books, sketch books and more. It's a bit similar to the story mode in Manga Studio, for those of you who are familiar with it.

Note, I've only tested it on Ubuntu 10.04 and 11.10 so far, and it should definitely be considered beta software. It requires Python and PyGTK to work. In theory it should work on Windows and OSX too, as I'm not doing any OS specific stuff, but I haven't tested it.

Oh...and this is my first post here. So hi all... I've been on GimpTalk for a while, but it was down again today , so I figured I'd give GimpChat a shot.

[Draconian]

Welcome to Gimp Chat Ragtag! I think you'll really like the folks here, they are.....well, more chatty.

Not to mention friendly!

[molly]

Welcome ragtag, very nice to have you aboard. You will find we are all very friendly here so don't be shy to ask for help or to offer help in any of the threads.
Cheers

[2-ton]

Welcome Ragtag...just wondered if your plug-in would be useful for setting up a story board or working out layers for simple animations?

[ragtag]

Sure, it could be used for storyboards, though I would do one tweak. Currently the Book window shows all the pages in two columns, like a book spread. For a story board, it would probably me more convenient to have them just flow to the width of the window.

You can change this in the code at line 1264, by replacing "self.thumbs.set_columns(2)" with "self.thumbs.set_columns(-1)".

I'll probably add a menu with this option in future versions, so you don't have to change the code to change the layout.

[Rod]

Thanks ragtag and welcome to Gimp Chat.
I use Windows XP 32 bit with Python26 , and your plug-in doesn't show in the Windows menu.

[ragtag]

Thanks for letting me know. I need to get around to installing GIMP on Windows soon to test it. I also found a bug in the script, that means it only work if you set the thumbnail size in GIMP to Large, which should be an easy fix. Hmm...I guess there was a good reason I marked it as a beta version.

Btw....you do have working Python in GIMP on Windows, right? It needs Python, PyCairo, PyGObject and PyGTK, as far as I know.

[Rod]

You are welcome.No reason to be embarrassed.
I do have Python fu working in Gimp-2.6.11.

[molly]

What version of Gimp do you have ragtag? In Windows, 2.6.11 doesn't come with Python, PyCairo, PyGObject and PyGTK, You download them separately and install them.

If you download 2.7.5, it already has Python installed plus, Gap, MathMap and GMIC.

If you are using Ubuntu, you install Gimp from their repository. It comes with Python and G'MIC

[ragtag]

I'm using Gimp 2.6.11 on Ubuntu 11.10. Python is installed by default on Ubuntu, so the only thing I had to do was install Gimp from the repository. I do have a Windows XP and a Windows 7 machine lying around, so I just need time to install Gimp on them and test it there. Though I'll probably test it first on Gimp 2.6 under Windows, before trying 2.7.

[molly]

On two separate hard drives, I run Gimp 2.6.11 In Linux Fedora and it works there perfectly. and in windows 7. I run gimp 2.6.11, and 2.7.

[Griatch]

This sounds like a very interesting and worked-through plugin! Will check it out soon as time permits.
.
Griatch

[Rod]

The plug-in works for you in Gimp-2.6, and Gimp-2.7 on Windows 7 Molly?

[paynekj]

I've found it doesn't work on Windows XP and I've found one reason why:

In the register block, it's registering itself in a non-existent menu location:
"<Toolbox>/Windows/Book...",
Although it does actually appear under the Windows menu item, it just doesn't do anything if I click on it.

If I change Toolbox to Image, then I get a dialog box.

I've not tried it beyond that point and I can see definite potential for further Windows failure as there are Linux specific paths specified: '~/.thumbnails/large'

[Rod]

It doesn't even appear for me under the Windows item if i change the menu location to <Image>

[paynekj]

It doesn't even appear for me under the Windows item if i change the menu location to <Image>

If you're still interested, let's try a bit of diagnostics:

Open up the Python-Fu console (Filters/Python-Fu/Console...)
What version of Python does it report? (Mine reports Gimp 2.6.7 and Python 2.6.3)

Now let's see if your Python installation has all the required modules:
Into the Python console type each of these lines and make sure you don't get any errors:

Code:

import os
import hashlib
import json
import shutil
import gtk
import gobject
import urllib
import re
from gimpfu import *
from gimpenums import *
from time import strftime


If you don't get any errors, then I'm at the end of my suggestions.

Kevin

[Rod]

GIMP 2.6.11 Python Console
Python 2.6 (r26:66721, Oct 2 2008, 11:35:03) [MSC v.1500 32 bit (Intel)]
>>> import os
>>> import hashlib
>>> import json
>>> import shutil
>>> import gtk
>>> import gobject
>>> import urllib
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<input>", line 1, in <module>
File "C:\Python26\lib\urllib.py", line 26, in <module>
import socket
File "C:\Python26\lib\socket.py", line 46, in <module>
import _socket
ImportError: Module use of python27.dll conflicts with this version of Python.
>>> import re
>>> from gimpfu import *
>>> from gimpenums import *
>>> from time import strftime
>>>

[ragtag]

I've installed GIMP on Windows 7 now, and got Python working, but I am stumped on one silly issue (or maybe it's just late).

On Linux, I generally run GIMP from the terminal, and any Python errors in my script will show up there. When I try to do the same on Windows, running gimp from the Command prompt, I don't get any errors showing up. How would I go about debugging my script under Windows?

Btw...I got GIMP Book to start, but it fails on generating thumbnails for a new book. It's probably something simple, like me using forward slashes, rather than os.path.join in the thumbnails path.

[merrak]

This sounds like just what I need If only GIMP's Text tool were a little better.

[GnuTux]

This is pretty cool plug. I'd like to try my hand at a comic strip or two. That kind of art is probably more in my wheel house, at least at this point, given my limited experience at hand drawn art.