420 CHAPTER 11 PLUG-INS AND SCRIPTING Finding
420 CHAPTER 11 PLUG-INS AND SCRIPTING Finding Plug-Ins Using a Web Search A web search often works much better for finding GIMP plug-ins. Lots of people develop plug- ins and never get around to listing them on the registry. Maybe they don t know about the registry, or they don t think their plug-in is quite polished enough to list there, even though it might be good enough for your purposes. Use gimp as one of your search terms, along with the functionality you re looking for, such as gimp redeye. If you get too many hits (sometimes you ll get a lot of mailing list traffic discussing how to do things by hand), you could try adding plug-in or plugin or script to your search query, for example, gimp redeye plugin OR script. Installing a Plug-In With any luck, the plug-in you find will come with installation instructions. But some don t. Here s what you need to know about installing plug-ins. You first need to know what type it is: whether it s a C plug-in or a script. Usually the page where you found the plug-in will tell you. In addition, a script will usually have an extension such as .scm (Script-Fu), .py (Python), or .pl (Perl), while a C file will end in .c. If the file you downloaded has the extension .zip, .tar.gz, or .tar.bz2, that means it s part of a compressed archive. You must unpack the archive first (using a program such as unzip or tar) before you can install the plug-in. Installing a Script Installing a script is easy. For a Script-Fu, just take the file.scm and copy it to the folder named scripts inside your GIMP profile. For Python or Perl, copy the file to the plug-ins folder instead of scripts. If you don t remember where your GIMP profile folder is, check the Folders category in the File . Preferences window. That s all! The next time you start GIMP, the new script should register. If GIMP is already running, you can tell it to look for new Script-Fu scripts from the Toolbox menu: Xtns . Script-Fu . Refresh Scripts…. If the script is Python or Perl, you ll have to restart GIMP. Tip If you have the gimptool program installed, you can use it to install Script-Fu scripts. In a terminal window, type gimptool –install-script file.scm (that s two dashes together). For Python or Perl plug-ins, use gimptool –install-bin file. This shortcuts the need to find your GIMP profile, if you don t mind typing commands. You ll need gimptool for installing C plug-ins anyway (see below). Installing a C Plug-In Installing a C plug-in is no more complicated if the plug-in has already been compiled for your platform. C is a compiled language, which means that in order to run anything written in C, it has to be translated (compiled) into machine language first. The compiled version is referred to as an executable or a binary.
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