Graphics/Paint

digiKam

• digiKam imports images from your digital camera.
• KDEPrint configures your printer.
• kooka controls your scanner.
• KSnapshot records an image from your computer screen.

Once you have an image file available on your computer, you can edit it with the GIMP.

Using digiKam

digiKam is more than a digital camera tool: it is in reality a complete system for organizing, viewing, and archiving your digital images. But you are likely to first encounter the program in connection with your digital camera. To learn about an analagous tool for organizing, playing, and archiving your sound files, read about amaroK.

To import the images from your digital camera, you need two other things: a computer with a USB socket (only really old computers lack one of these), and a USB cable to connect it. The great thing about USB is that it permits you to connect external devices even while the computer is running, so go ahead and connect the camera to the computer any time you like! Then start the program.

The first step is to make the program recognize your camera. Proceed as follows:

1. From the menus, choose Settings -> Configure Digikam.
2. In the Configuration window, set your Album Library Path (example: /home/knoppix/Pictures). This is the directory where all of your albums will be saved.
3. In the Configuration window, click the Cameras tab, followed by Auto-Detect.
4. If you get an error message, make sure the camera is turned on. If the camera is recognized, choose OK.
5. From the menus, choose Camera and the menu item for your camera. Your pictures will be displayed as thumbnails.

At this stage, the pictures have still not been downloaded from the camera to the computer. To download them, click on New Album, and give a name to your album. For our example, we chose the name Pumpkins.

At this stage, the pictures have been downloaded into the Pumpkins album, and the camera can be disconnected.

Once your pictures are installed into albums, you can make use of all the other tools that digiKam provides.

Notice that you can take any folder/directory containing your images, and place it together with the other albums in the Album Library Path, and digiKam will display it, even if the images were not produced by a digital camera. To archive your digital image data, digiKam calls K3B.

• Improving your digital photos with the GIMP