GIMP Brush Manager
Reduces clutter in brushes list by alowing for easy activation/deactivation of sets of brushes.


Download and Installation instructions avalible here.

Updated 1/23/2008: Beta support for .zip compressed brush sets
Updated 12/31/2007: Rewritten for GIMP 2.4 with support for Windows

useful...but only for Linux

Yah, a Windows version is in the works, but unfortunatly Windows doesn't support symlikns, so I'll have to actualy copy the files to the active directory, also I don't currently have a Windows install of GIMP so I can't test to make sure it'll works either.

Spbogie ^_^

I do... (have a win version) can I try it?

is it a Script-Fu? if so where the h*** do I install it (wait not where, HOW!!!)

Updated/rewritten for GIMP 2.4 with support for Windows. More features possibly to come, let me know what you want.

Is Python there is a sticky on this board on gimp Python and windows

PhotoComix, you do realize that post is over a year old right? And completely irrelevant now that I have updated the script.

Not sure that this works on windows even though all my other python scripts are working.


Ok I created a folder inside the [C:...\.gimp 2.4\brush\brushes] as the active directory
---and then edited in the script the active directory line

I then did the same for the install directory.

When I open brush manager I can see the install directory brushes, but when I make a brush directory active i do not see the brushes as being active in the gimp. What am I possibly doing wrong?

Did you add the active directory to your brushes folders in gimp (File -> Preferences -> Folders -> Brushes)?

i think is just question of language, linux "slang" is a bit intimidating, but then is also quite clear

maybe you forget to make writable the active folder...that may be tricky because to be writable must satisfy not only 1 but 2 condition

1 in the propriety of the folder (right click to get it) the checkbox READ ONLY should be UNchecked...check subfolders too, if are all in "read only" that prevail

2 then in the gimp preference you must check that "writable" box on the left of the path

only 2 may be not sufficient, even if checked "writable" by gimp, gimp could not write on folders that are for windows os "read only" (as very often brush packs are)

the problem is that all the folders in windows xp are read only by design. You can make the files inside not read only but not the folder

The writable part really applies more to *nix. If you can create files within the folder without needing to invoke any extra privileges then that should not be your problem. Double-check the path you put in ACTIVE_DIR to make sure it is correct, and also correct in your folder preferences. Run the script and select a few brush sets, then open explorer and check to see if the files actually copied to your ACTIVE_DIR. If that doesn't work, try running the script outside of GIMP (if python is installed properly just double-click it) and see if it copies the files over. If it is copying the files correctly then try hitting the reload button on your brushes window (the script should be refreshing it, but just in case).

Ok, that's enough to try right now. Come back with the results.

Problem the active directory was not typed correctly, just copied the location from explorer and everything if fine now. Will adding .abr to the file cause the Gimp to recognize photoshop brushes?

This script won't change in any way what brush types GIMP can recognize, but adding .abr to the EXTENTIONS list will allow it to copy .abr files over to the active brushes directory. I just tested one quick and it seems gimp can open them so just add it to the list.

that a nice idea, i didn't thought that abr were not copied
:h:

I didn't want it copying over useless/unwanted files ( like thumbs.db, readme.txt, etc...), but I knew I'd miss some valid ones, so I put the list right at the start to make it easy to add anything I missed.

Brush Manager Rocks :l:

@bsponge

really handy...

when i installed python on windows i did mostly to be able to use a brush manager, i'm happy now is available again

one thing about the preview, will be useful not only for the most obvious reason , but also to clean up the brush folder

I explain better before gimp 2.4 brushes could not be resized on the fly,...so most of the brush pack contined few brushes, but with tons of duplicates one for each different size


Now this is no more needed,Gimp 2.4 resize on the fly so a large size , and a medium size are usually sufficient and all intermediate size no more needed, a preview will help to find the duplicate

I've done some looking into adding a preview feature, and it seems I would either have to write my own parser for each supported brush type, or copy the brushes across to the active directory. I could perhaps write a "Preview Active" function that would make an image showing what all the currently available brushes looked like and their name. There are unfortunately no bindings (at least that I can find) for getting the filename of a brush, nor setting the current brush by filename.

Does it work with mac?

I don't have a Mac to test on myself, but assuming you can manage to satisfy all the requirements, and get Python working in GIMP it should work. I can't provide a whole lot of help with that, but you might try http://www.macports.org. If you do get it to work, some simple instructions for others would be wonderful.

Edit:
I have uploaded a new version with support for zipped brush sets. When compressing, make sure all files are in the top-level of the .zip (no sub-directories). The current version doesn't do any checking to make sure the structure of the .zip file is correct, so if it encounters a sub-directory in the zip it will error.

(new) Linux user here, need Linux instructions.

I am using PC Linux OS 2007, do I need PyGTK, PyGObject, PyCairo?

Where is GIMP Plugins?

You should be able to find PyGTK in the repos for your Linux distro. It will most likely be listed as "py-gtk" or "python-gtk". You may also need to install a "gimp-python" (or similar) package depending on how it is distributed. With little research I found PCLinuxOS uses Synaptic, so it should resolve all other dependencies with those two.

Your gimp plugins directory should be somewhere like "~/.gimp/plugins/" (~ is a shortcut to your home folder). Check the Folders section in your gimp preferences if you aren't sure.

Hi, all.
I'm trying to get this to work in linux (Debian lenny/sid) and gimp 2.4.4 but I get the following error (on console):
:s:
I installed/had the required dependencies gimp-python python-cairo-dev python-cairo python-gobject-dev python-gobject python-gtk2 python-gtk2-dev and this is part of the code around line 126:

thanks for any hints.
*note:Forgot to say that the Xtns->Python-Fu->Brush Manager option is not available.

Hmm, it seems to be working fine for me, though I haven't had a chance to test this version on Linux. Which version of python are you running, all development and testing I have done under Python 2.5.