@subsection Goals

This section describes how brushes are organized in the repository and

how to make them available for you to use in @acronym{GIMP,GNU Image

Manipulation Program}.

@subsection Description

A brush is a pixmap or set of pixmaps used for painting through an

image manipulation program like GIMP.  Inside the repository, we've

organized brushes in @emph{common brushes} and @emph{theme-specific

brushes}.  In both cases, brushes are created under a @file{Xcf}

directory as @file{.xcf} files first and later exported to @file{.gbr}

or @file{.gih} format in the same level of @file{Xcf} directory.

@float Figure, Brush file format and directory structure

@verbatim

1. Common brushes       2. Theme-specific brushes

----------------------  -----------------------------------------------------------

trunk/Identity/Brushes  trunk/Identity/Themes/Motifs/THEMENAME/THEMEVERSION/Brushes

|-- Xcf                 |-- Xcf

|   |-- 1.xcf           |   |-- 1.xcf

|   |-- 2.xcf           |   |-- 2.xcf

|   `-- 3.xcf           |   `-- 3.xcf

|-- 1.gbr               |-- 1.gbr

|-- 2.gih               |-- 2.gih

`-- 3.gbr               `-- 3.gbr

@end verbatim

@caption{Brush file format and directory structure.}

@end float

In order for both common brushes and theme-specific brushes to be

loaded by GIMP, they need to be stored under

@file{~/.gimp-2.2/brushes} directory. Since files related to brushes

already exist in the repository, there is no need to duplicate them in

@file{~/.gimp-2.2/brushes} directory, too.  Instead, we make use of

symbolic links and file name convenctions to ``connect'' brushes

created in the repository with the standard location they need to be

stored in for GIMP to recognize them. In this configuration, when

links to brushes are created, if someone commits a change for a brush

you are using, that change will be immediatly available for you the

next time you update your working copy and refresh the Brushes panel

of GIMP.

When new brushes are added to or removed from the repository, it is

required to update the connection between the brushes inside the

repository working copy and the links created in the predifined

location that GIMP uses to retrive them.  Otherwise you may end up

with broken links or brushes in the repository which are not linked.

Inside the repository, common brushes and theme-specific brushes are

created individually in different locations. However, they all are

linked from one unique directory (i.e., @file{~/.gimp-2.2/brushes}).

This configuration may provoke overlapping of brushes if a name

convenction is not implemented correctly.  In that sake, file names

used for brushes inside the repository must be unique, no matter where

they be.

As convenction inside the repository, brush files are named using a

numerical value that start at 1 and increment one unit when a new

brush is added to the same directory. Later, when links are built, we

use one suffix for those brushes retrived from

@file{trunk/Identity/Brushes} and another suffix for those brushes

retrivided from theme-specific directories. Using both the numerical

value and the suffix information,  it is possible to build unique

names for links under @file{~/.gimp-2.2/brushes} directory, scalably.

@float Figure, Common brushes path relation

@verbatim

trunk/Identity/Brushes

|-- 1.gbr (file) <-- ~/.gimp-2.2/brushes/centos-1.gbr (link)

|-- 2.gbr (file) <-- ~/.gimp-2.2/brushes/centos-2.gbr (link)

`-- 3.gbr (file) <-- ~/.gimp-2.2/brushes/centos-3.gbr (link)

@end verbatim

@caption{Common brushes path relation.}

@end float

@float Figure, Theme-specific brushes path relation

@verbatim

trunk/Identity/Themes/Motifs/THEMENAME/THEMEVERSION/Brushes

|-- 1.gbr (file) <-- ~/.gimp-2.2/brushes/centos-THEMENAME-THEMEVERSION.1.gbr (link)

|-- 2.gbr (file) <-- ~/.gimp-2.2/brushes/centos-THEMENAME-THEMEVERSION.2.gbr (link)

`-- 3.gbr (file) <-- ~/.gimp-2.2/brushes/centos-THEMENAME-THEMEVERSION.3.gbr (link)

@end verbatim

@caption{Theme-specific brushes path relation.}

@end float

Each brush produced with GIMP has a description field associated which

is shown in the Brushes panel of GIMP.  This description is set when

the brush is created as @file{.xcf} file and can be updated when it is

exported either to @file{.gbr} or @file{.gih} format. It wouldn't be

too useful to have two or more brushes using the same description. So,

in order to have unique descriptions in brushes it is required to

provide them that way. In that sake, we use the same name schema used

to name brush files as description but without including the file

extension.  This way, if we have the @file{centos-flame-3.gbr} brush,

its description would be @code{centos-flame-3}.

@subsection Usage

How to use brushes is up to your creativeness. You can use brushes as

you consider them more appropriate for your graphical compositions.

However, adding and removing them from the repository is something we

need to standardize. It would be terribly sad being using one brush

and suddenly find out that it no longer exists, the next time you

update your working copy.

@subsection Common brushes

Common brushes exist to organize brushes that can be used anywhere

inside the repository. Inside the repository, common brushes under

@file{trunk/Identity/Brushes} are mainly used to hold brand

information related to The CentOS Project (e.g., symbols, logos,

trademarks, etc.).

Common brushes are always made available under

@file{~/.gimp-2.2/brushes} directory after preparing the repository

(@pxref{Directories trunk Scripts Functions Prepare}).

@subsection Theme-specific brushes

Theme-specific brushes exist to organize brushes that can be used

inside specific artistic motifs only. Inside the repository,

theme-specific brushes are stored in a directory named @file{Brushes}

which is stored in the first directory level under the artistic motif

directory structure. Each artistic motif inside the repository has the

@file{Brushes} directory and uses it to store brushes that can be

considered auxiliars to that artistic motif construction.

Theme-specific brushes aren't made available under

@file{~/.gimp-2.2/brushes} directory after preparing the repository.

In order to make theme-specific brushes available under

@file{~/.gimp-2.2./brushes} it is required to activate/deactivate them

using the @code{brush} functionality of @command{centos-art.sh} script

().

@subsection See also

@itemize

@item

@url{file:///usr/share/gimp/2.0/help/en/gimp-concepts-brushes.html,Brushes}

(from GIMP's manual) 

@end itemize