July 24, 2007--The GIMP, an image editor whose power and ease-of-use rivals that of Adobe Photoshop, is one of the world's most popular free software tools. Artists and designers rely on the GIMP to retouch photographs, composite multiple images, and create artwork from scratch. The Artist's Guide to GIMP Effects (No Starch Press, August 2007) is a beautiful 4-color book that shows how to harness all of the GIMP's powerful features. Author Michael J. Hammel's extensively illustrated, step-by-step tutorials are perfect for hands-on learning and experimentation.

After a crash course in using the GIMP's interface and core tools (such as brushes, patterns, selections, layers, and masks), readers learn:

• Photographic techniques to create ripped edges or sepia-tones, swap colors, produce motion blurs, even fix rips in an old photograph
• Web and interface design techniques to create patterns, navigation tabs, and fancy buttons and border
• Type effects to create depth, perspective, and neon- and graffiti-style lettering
• Special effects to simulate clouds, textures, cracks, lighting, and underwater effects
• And much more

The Artist's Guide to GIMP Effects is sure to teach readers some new tricks, whether they are new to the GIMP or have been playing with it for years.

July 18, 2007, San Francisco--Cross-platform development is a kind of holy grail, and Trolltech's Qt toolkit may well be the most promising solution yet to this development challenge. Qt is widely used for the development of GUI applications as well as console tools and servers, and it's especially appealing to programmers who need to write cross-platform applications to run on Linux/Unix, Mac, and Windows machines without having to rewrite for each.

The Book of Qt 4 offers an in-depth explanation of Qt 4 that goes beyond the common focus on C++ programming. Author Daniel Molkentin, a core KDE developer, uses practical examples to explain features like the signal/slot concept and the event system, as he guides readers through developing applications with and without Qt's graphical GUI builder, Qt Designer.

The Book of Qt 4 is packed with useful information on topics like:

• Tools for creating dialogs * GUI design with the Qt Designer
• Widget layout and dialog construction
• Data visualization using Qt's model/view concept
• The QtSql module and the graphics library Arthur
• File handling, XML, processes, and network connections
• Databases and threading; event handling and drag and drop
• Internationalization and debugging

As well as lots of useful hints on how to use Qt's datatypes, containers, and algorithms and how to develop user-friendly applications.

Whether a rank beginner or a Qt developer, readers interested in using Qt for development will find The Book of Qt 4 to be indispensable.

Additional Resources from No Starch Press:

• Table of Contents
• Sample Chapter

This article looks at tools (including iPhoto and iTunes), as well as third-party applications built to offer PDF document management features. It also looks at alternatives to that Apple's Preview.
Read More...