So I have a new laptop. Good news. But I can’t afford Photoshop ($650). Bad news. There’s an open-source equivalent called The Gimp. Which I was able to download. And install. Tripleplusgood.
Here’s the bad news: The Gimp supports RGB color, not CMYK. Cartoonists need CMYK for print.
There’s a plug-in for The Gimp called “Separate+” but it’s written by non-English speakers and there are no discernible ways I can find on the Internet to tell you how to install it on Mac’s Lion OS.
So this one is for the geeks: Anyone know how to install Separate+ and start using CMYK on The Gimp?
15 Comments.
Dear Ted,
Gimp doesn’t run under OS X, it runs under Darwin. You have to install X-Windows, which is the Unix point-and-click interface (much older than the Mac, and it shows). You probably have to use fink in Terminal to get all the stuff you’ll need.
How far have you gotten?
Have you downloaded XQuartz? You also need to download the Developer toolkit from the Apple install disk?
Those are steps 1 and 2.
If I can help, I’d be happy to try.
Dear Ted,
Gimp doesn’t run under OS X, it runs under Darwin. You have to install X-Windows, which is the Unix point-and-click interface (much older than the Mac, and it shows). You probably have to use fink in Terminal to get all the stuff you’ll need.
How far have you gotten?
Have you downloaded XQuartz? You also need to download the Developer toolkit from the Apple install disk.
Those are steps 1 and 2.
If I can help, I’d be happy to try.
I’ve got Gimp installed, along with those other items. The problem now is Separate and CMYK.
Hey Ted – I will try installing it on my Mac tonight and let you know how it goes. I know it’s been done, but is complicated.
In the meantime, you may just try this (it’s what I will be trying after I get gimp installed later):
Start Terminal, move to the folder that was generated by the Separate+ ZIP file decompression, and run the following commands:
$ make -f Makefile.macosx
$ sudo make -f Makefile.macosx install
NOTE : If you use it for GIMP.app, copy separate, separate_import and
icc_colorspace generated by the procedure as above into plug-in folder.
See Preferences dialog to check the location of the folder.
Well, Ted: after 4 hours of trying to figure this out for you (as I have little money to donate to you – I wish I did), I can honestly say it’s damn near impossible. I installed every darn thing needed to compile this plugin and use Gimp (update to 10.7.3, XQuartz, Xcode 4.3 install, Xcode command line tools), and whenever I try to compile the plugin, all I get is a long list of errors. 🙁 If you know any techie folks like myself who also happen to be OSX and graphic designer geeks, you might ask one of them if they have a “pre-built” seperate+ 0.5.8 binary you could just use. My guess is you’ll get funny looks, and people asking WTH Gimp is. 🙂 Good luck. Sorry I couldn’t help you. Keep it up – you are an inspiration my friend.
Separate+ for Dummies
Any 1st grader with a PhD in IT can easily understand the instructions on the Separate+ website.
1. I assume you’ve got XQuartz up and running, and, also Gimp. I have no idea why you need XQuartz, since Gimp seems to run fine in the X11 that comes with XCode.
2. Next, you must download and install Macports:
https://distfiles.macports.org/MacPorts/MacPorts-2.0.4-10.7-Lion.dmg
3. Next, you must open the terminal window and run $sudo port selfupdate
4. Next you must run $sudo port install gimp
This will take at least an hour with a fast Internet connection and an upscale Macbook Pro.
5. Now (I assume you’ve downloaded and unzipped separate+) select the separate+-0.5.8 folder with Terminal and the
$ make -f Makefile.macosx
should run.
6. Assuming 5 works, proceed to
sudo make -f Makefile.macosx install
After running this command, you should have created three binaries:
separate
separate_import
icc_colorspace
7. These three files must be copied to ~/Library/Application Support/Gimp/plug-ins
8. Now start XQuartz and Gimp and, under the Image menu you’ll have a Separate sub-menu.
***
Caveats:
1. I have Snow Leopard, not Lion, so your mileage might vary.
2. There are more steps involving Adobe and , but I think those are best left to someone who knows how to use graphics and PhotoShop.
***
Please let me know if this helps, or if there is anything more I can do.
Thanks, Michael! Did all that. Got it to “work”…then learned that Separate is an old PowerPC program no longer supported by Lion. So I do believe that that is…that.
This whole thread is a first class lesson as to why open source is a pile of shit. Repeat: A pile of shit. You just spent hours on end trying to install something that doesn’t even work. Whoops! Call Linus Torvalds, maybe he can install it. That is, if he can tear himself away from telling you how brilliant he is.
@exkio: I wouldn’t go that far. I’ve used some great Open Source software in the past. This blog, WordPress, is an example. It sure beats Blogger! But a program as complicated as Photoshop is obviously too hard for coders working for free to replicate at this point. The Gimp simply doesn’t work for professional graphic artists.
@exkiodexian: I’m a Windows Admin, and I am glad there are nice solid installers out there for most Windows apps, but this is not proof that Open Source software is a “pile of shite”. It’s proof that “Seperate+” has a gawd awful installer for Unix/Linux/OSX and there are ZERO good howto guides out there.
@Ted: “Seperate” is an older plugin made back in the PowerPC days.
“Seperate+” is supposed to work on Intel Snow Leopard and Lion installations.
Here is the link for the newer version (which I could never get to compile):
http://cue.yellowmagic.info/softwares/separate-plus/
Good luck.
According to the Separate+ website, aabrown1971 is right. The latest stable version, separate+-0.5.8.zip SAYS it runs on Mac Intel x64 machines, and that 0.5.8 ‘fixes’ the problem of crashing on Mac Intel machines found in 0.5.7 So it SHOULD
If you’re using 0.5.8 and it won’t run, another option is to install Snow Leopard with Rosetta on your new PowerBook. I refused to upgrade to Lion because of lack of support for Rosetta, which, impecunious cheapskate that I am, I need to run all my old software. There should be some copies of Snow Leopard (or even just Leopard) around. It means re-formatting and starting over, but since it’s a brand-new PowerBook, maybe that’s not yet as painful as it would be later.
Good luck.
@aabrown1971: The key words you had for Ted are “good luck”.
Yep. That sums it up.
I ran into this same problem using GIMP when I needed to do the layout for CD inlay art; to print properly I needed to define the colours with CMYK. Unfortunately I didn’t find a solution native to GIMP and ended up downloading Photoshop and using the 30 day free trial period to get done what I needed to accomplish.
While that doesn’t help you out, it did alert me to something which you should be aware of: when you save a document created in GIMP in .psd format, it doesn’t convert properly. When I opened my GIMP documents in Photoshop, there was all manner of oddness which needed to be corrected. I was using Windows XP, so your Mac mileage may vary, but there’s the heads up, regardless.
@Seth et al:
Looks like I’ll be getting Photoshop after all. It’s $300 this week under a special promo offer. Still too much, but not crazy expensive like the $650 list price.