Tutorials/InstallingFocusBlur

Tutorial: Installing the Focus Blur plugin

• This tutorial was last tested on Ubuntu 6.10 and Windows XP Pro with SP2 installed.

Overview

• The Focus Blur plugin is very useful and can be used to create different effects, amongst them is simulating a shallow Depth of Focus (tutorial coming soon)

Prerequisites

• None

Steps

Windows

1. Close GIMP

2. Download the binary of the Focus Blur plugin here -> http://www.tux.com.au/files/fblur.zip

3. Unzip it.

4. Copy/move the fblur.exe file to C:\Program Files\GIMP-2.0\lib\gimp\2.0\plug-ins

Linux

It's a little more involved but you get the benefit of having a preview

1. Close GIMP

2. Install the libgimp2.0-dev package, this has the tool (called gimptools) to compile plugins from source.

3. On Ubuntu (and most Debian based systems) just run the command:

   • sudo apt-get install libgimp2.0-dev

4. Download the focus blur source file from the homepage -> http://sudakyo.hp.infoseek.co.jp/gimp/fblur/focusblur_e.html (direct link to version 2.3 of FBlur http://sudakyo.hp.infoseek.co.jp/gimp/fblur/fblur-2.3.c.gz)

5. Unzip it

6. Compile and install the plugin using the command:

   • CFLAGS="-O2 -DG_DISABLE_ASSERT -DFBLUR_PREVIEW=2" gimptool --install fblur-2.3.c

Tips

1. The windows install is a global install, anyone that uses Gimp on that PC will have it available.

2. The Linux install is a single user only install.

3. To make the Linux install a global one copy it to the global plugin directory with the command:

   • sudo cp ~/.gimp-2.2/plug-ins/fblur /usr/lib/gimp/2.0/plug-ins/