I downloaded Gimp and am trying to edit a .gif file. When I want to change a color it tells me that I can only edit colors on RGB color layers. I was able to convert it to a .jpg and edit it, then convert it back but I'd prefer to figure out why it is telling me this.
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David
The chief cause of failure in this life is giving up what you want most for what you want at the moment. -
How are you trying to change the colors?
GIF uses indexed colors, so each color must be specifically defined as Color #1, Color #2, Color #3... set up to a max of 256. Jpeg doesn't have this restriction. So I bet that's probably what you're running into...online at http://www.theFrankes.com
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"Life is short, Art long, Occasion sudden and dangerous, Experience deceitful, and Judgment difficult." -Hippocrates -
GIFs and JPEGS have very different color palettes not least of which in quantity as GIFs have only 256 colors.Jon
Phoenix AZ - It's a dry heat
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We all make mistakes and I should know I've made enough of them
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Here's a little more detail, in case anyone is interested.
Usually when a full color image is saved as a GIF the software will assign a 256-color color palette based on the colors in the image -- so the palette is finely honed to the image and represents the most common colors in the image. But every color in the full-color version is boxed into one of the 256 colors, so a full color image often looks grainy when converted.
So if your original image was black and white, then the color palette will all be shades of gray. If you try to color something red, the software needs to pick the closest match within the palette (a shade of gray) because it only has those colors in the palette to choose from.
GIF is great for images like line art, icons, text, etc, where there are relatively few colors, and especially if repeated colors more otfen occur horizontally instead of vertically. (This is because GIFs are encoded by scanning the image horizontally.) Also GIF is lossless, which means that you can open it and re-save it a million times and you won't degrade the quality. JPEG on the other hand is usually lossy -- the more you open/edit/save, the worse the quality gets.
The compression used in GIF (LZW) was protected by patent, though (by Unisys), which was probably the driving force behind the PNG file format. Those patents expired a few years ago, though -- at least in the US.online at http://www.theFrankes.com
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"Life is short, Art long, Occasion sudden and dangerous, Experience deceitful, and Judgment difficult." -HippocratesComment
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Alex,
The original image(s) are blue-gray. They are all the title bars, buttons, etc for a forum. I couldn't find a prebuilt theme I liked so I am creating a new one. However I did find a theme editor and will play with that some - it looks like it will give me what I want.David
The chief cause of failure in this life is giving up what you want most for what you want at the moment.Comment
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I've tried GIMP several times over the past few years. If you're really interested in photo editing, you may want to look at Photoshop Elements. I've been able to get up and going relatively easily with it. With GIMP, it was taking me forever just to navigate the GUI. Since I'm not a pro editor, I need a little hand holding. PE gives me that without getting in the way (too much). GIMP was just too difficult for me to figure out.
PE can be had fairly inexpensively. I've seen the student/education version with Premeire Elements for a little over a C-note at the online stores. If you've got a kid in school, you most likely meet the licensing agreement. So, for a $100, you can edit photos and videos.
Disclaimer: I know one tool isn't right for all uses. For those of you who prefer GIMP, I respect your decision. Just didn't work for me."It's a dog eat dog world out there, and I'm wearing Milk-Bone underwear."- Norm (from Cheers)
Eat beef-because the west wasn't won on salad.Comment
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The GIMP is every bit as good, or better in many respects (cost, liberty, flexibility) compared to Photoshop. But yes it IS a new program with a new way of doing things. There are several VERY good manuals for this application.
There is an excellent manual / howto book that is available online free called Grokking The GIMP however it is a bit dated as of this writing. I do not believe Corey Bunks has updated the book since GIMP released the 2.x series. However it should be more than enough to teach you how to get around in this application and do some very powerful graphics editing.Please like and subscribe to my YouTube channel. Please check out and subscribe to my Workshop Blog.Comment
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Like you I respect everyones decsion to choose whichever solution they feel fits their needs and budget however I will admit I am an Adobe bigot.
I have tried so much software over the years and nothing comes close to the levels of functionality and integration that the Adobe suites have achived (IMHO). I now have one of the full CS3 suites including Photoshop, Indesign,dreamweaver and much more. I am also a big Lightroom fan and have been with that package since it was first pre-release beta a few years ago. If there are any other photographers out there that shoot RAW (you should if you can) then give the LR demo a try if you havent before it will change your life - OK maybe not that drastic but it enables a really easy and adaptable workflow and is super easy to use.
PS Elements has come a long way from the underfeatured cut down versions that were first released. If you think you ever will do any serious photo work then do consider the full on version of PS.
Do check out the education discounts - if you have a family member or friend that is a student you can get the prices to a much more affordable level. You can save hundreds of dollars.
Given what many of us spend on our wood working tools and how we avoid the cheap nasty ones, think of this in the same way - Get the PM of photo and graphics tools not the HF version
Jon
Phoenix AZ - It's a dry heat
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We all make mistakes and I should know I've made enough of them
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Jon, JSUPreston,
I agree with you on PS and GIMP. They are heavyweights, and even beyond that, the relationships of color formats (RGB, CMYK, GIF/CLUTE, Bitmap) and sizes (print/web) are beyond the comprehension of many computer graphic wannabes. I don't say that arrogantly, but from years of trying to explain just the simple relationships of "print vs web" or "RGB vs CYMK vs GIF" to people who thought that they could do computer graphics art simply because they were good at art.
I, myself am not a power PS user, but have been using it since version 2.5.1. If I had started from version 4, I doubt that I could use it. My youngest daughter started using PS when she was 10 and is good with it, so my greatest contribution with PS has been for her benefit.
Hank Lee
Experience is what you get when you don't get what you wanted!Comment
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HankJon, JSUPreston,
I agree with you on PS and GIMP. They are heavyweights, and even beyond that, the relationships of color formats (RGB, CMYK, GIF/CLUTE, Bitmap) and sizes (print/web) are beyond the comprehension of many computer graphic wannabes. I don't say that arrogantly, but from years of trying to explain just the simple relationships of "print vs web" or "RGB vs CYMK vs GIF" to people who thought that they could do computer graphics art simply because they were good at art.
I, myself am not a power PS user, but have been using it since version 2.5.1. If I had started from version 4, I doubt that I could use it. My youngest daughter started using PS when she was 10 and is good with it, so my greatest contribution with PS has been for her benefit.
You are spot on with your comments and you havent even mentioned the whole issue of colorspace and profiles e.g sRGB vs AdobeRGB or even PhotoPro. You would be amazed at the number of so called proffesionals who dont get this let alone understand it and dont even have basic color calibration for their monitors. I understand all the issues but even so I can run into problems getting what is seen on the screen to print the same way. If somebody could figure out an EASY way to solve this they would make millions.
I actually did start with PS4 but probably didnt get really into it until PS7. As I mentioned I am completley in love with Lightroom from a photo point of view. it is the most awesome tool. I just got home from a shoot about an hour ago and the raw proofs are already uploading to the web as we speak all automated by Lightroom. If anybody is even remotely interested I can send you a link. I shouldnt post here on a public website as it is for my client.Jon
Phoenix AZ - It's a dry heat
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We all make mistakes and I should know I've made enough of them
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For me, my high school and college physics laid a good foundation in the differences in "pigment" prime colors versus "light" prime colors. Moving from that concept to CMYK (pigment) and RGB (light) was easy but I have never been able to explain it in an understandable manner - except to my youngest daughter who majored in Physics.
The Web versus Print "sizes" was never a problem either because of the "light" versus "Pigment" understanding, and then watching 300 dpi files eat up HD space, and at the same time watching 72 dpi prints look like blocks. The 4 to 1 (300/72) connection and relationship along with the converse actions between the two - just "fit". It is simple for me to "see" it and make calculations on the fly with reasonable accuracy between the two.
But I still can't explain it to someone who doesn't "know" the concepts already.
Last edited by leehljp; 06-12-2008, 03:00 AM.Hank Lee
Experience is what you get when you don't get what you wanted!Comment
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