Installation
The current version of AdaptableGimp is based on Gimp 2.6.10. If you are using Gimp 2.6.11 (the default in Ubuntu repsitory), or the latest 2.6.12, you will have to first uninstall your version of Gimp and downgrade to the older version. For Windows, you can simply download the .exe file and install in your system. For Linux, if you are using 32bit Debian/Ubuntu-based distro, you can download the deb files. For other distro or 64-bit Linux system, you will have to compile and install from source. On a 32-bit Ubuntu/Debian system, first install the libgimp2.0_2.6.10-0ubuntu0_i386.deb, followed by gimp-data_2.6.10-0ubuntu0_all.deb, and lastly adaptablegimp_2.6.10-0ubuntu0_i386.deb.
Usage
To run AdaptableGimp, press “Alt + F2” and type “adaptablegimp“. You should see Gimp start loading. Once it is loaded up, it will prompt you to login to an AdaptableGimp account. This will link you to the AdaptableGimp wiki and you will be given recognition for the taskset that you have created. If however, you don’t wish to login to any account, you can simply select the “Start without an AdaptableGimp account” option.
The interface is almost identical to Gimp except for the toolbar. Instead of a list of tool icons, it now shows a search box allowing you to search for taskset. To perform tasks, you just perform a search in the search field and it will retrieve the relevant instructions. For example, when I search for “Selective colorization”, it retrieve the taskset from the wiki and display them in the toolbar: Do a Fuzzy Select, Feather, Invert, Channel Mixer, Free Select, Rectangle Select. Seldom is the instruction more than 6 steps as that is usually the average to complete a task.
For more detail instructions, you can even click the “i” beside the step to open up the wiki.
Creating your own taskset
With such a useful tool available, you might also want to create your own tasksets, either to share with others, or just to keep a record of the various steps you have done to accomplish a complicated task. To create a new taskset, you just have to click the dropdown on the toolbar and select the “Create New Taskset” option.
You can then add the required tools to the taskset command and the description. Once you have completed, click the Save Changes button and your taskset will be saved to the AdaptableGimp wiki.
Conclusion
If you are already an expert Gimp user, you won’t really have much use for AdaptableGimp. However, for those who wish to master Gimp, and don’t mind using an older version of Gimp, AdaptableGimp is one useful tool that can help you out. It is also a good thing that AdaptableGimp works in an open community environment where users can manage existing tasksets and submit new one. The more tasksets it has in its library, the more powerful and useful it is. What do you think? Is AdaptableGimp a useful tool for you?
