> An examination of the man page for pbm, the portable bitmap file format, reveals no conversion utilities. It's a monochrome format and serves as the foundation of the other related formats.
Capturing Screen Images
You can use graphics manipulation tools to capture images that are displayed on your computer screen. Although this technique was used for the production of this book, it has broader uses; there is truth to the cliche that a picture is worth a thousand words. Sometimes it is easier to show an example than it is to describe it.
A captured screen image (also called a
When using the GNOME desktop, you can take advantage of the built-in screenshot mechanism (gnome-panel-screenshot). Access this tool by pressing the Print Screen key. (Alt+Print Screen takes a screenshot of only the window that has focus on a desktop.) Captured images are saved in .png format.
Using Digital Cameras with Fedora
Most digital cameras used in connection with Fedora fall into one of two categories: webcams (small, low- resolution cameras connected to the computer's interface) or hand held digital cameras that record image data on disks or memory cards for downloading and viewing on a PC. Fedora supports both types. Other types of cameras, such as surveillance cameras that connect directly to a network via wire or wireless connections, need no special support (other than a network connection and viewing software) to be used with a Linux computer.
Fedora supports hundreds of different digital cameras, from early parallel-port (CPiA chipset-based) cameras to today's USB-based cameras. You can even use Intel's QX3 USB microscope with Fedora. If you prefer a standalone network-based webcam, explore the capabilities of Linux-based cameras from Axis (at http://www.axis.com/products/video/camera/productguide.htm). The following sections describe some of the more commonly used still camera hardware and software supported by Fedora.
Handheld Digital Cameras
Digital cameras are one of the major success stories of the last few years. Now you can take pictures and see previews of your pictures immediately. The pictures themselves are stored on discs or memory cards that can be easily plugged into Fedora for further manipulation, using The GIMP or other software. Unfortunately, most of the supplied software that comes with the cameras tend to be for Windows users only, making you reliant on the packages supplied with Fedora.
The good news, though, is that because of the good development carried out in Fedora and GNOME, you are now able to plug pretty much any camera into your computer through a USB interface and Fedora automatically recognizes the camera as a USB mass storage device. You can even set Fedora to recognize when a camera is plugged in so that it automatically imports your photographs for you.
To do this, you need to set up your settings for removable drives and media. You can find this in the System, Preferences, Hardware menu. Click the Cameras tab and select the option to import digital photographs when connected (see Figure 7.6).
FIGURE 7.6 Use GNOME's intelligent handling of removable media by setting it to import your photographs automatically.
Now whenever you connect a digital camera to your computer GNOME automatically detects it (see Figure 7.7), and asks whether you want to import the photographs.
FIGURE 7.7 GNOME detects the presence of a digital camera and asks whether the photos should be imported.
By default GNOME uses the excellent gThumb package (see Figure 7.8), which, although basic-looking, offers an easy-to-use interface and powerful cataloging capabilities.
FIGURE 7.8 Make use of gThumb to manage your extensive photo collection.
Using F-Spot
With the inclusion of Mono into Fedora Extras, Fedora now has access to the superb F-Spot photo management application. You can find F-Spot under the Applications, Graphics menu listed as F-Spot Photo Manager. If you have used the popular Google Picasa application, you will feel instantly at home with F-Spot because it is similar in many ways.
The first time you open F-Spot, you are asked to import your first batch of photographs, as shown in Figure 7.9. You can also assign a tag to them, if you want to track particular types of photographs. You might want to allow F-Spot to copy the photograph to a new directory, Photos — something that may help you organize your photos on the system.
FIGURE 7.9 The versatile F-Spot makes adding photos to your library easy.
When you are ready, click Import to let F-Spot import the photos into the library. The pictures appear in the F-Spot library, and are stored according to the date they were taken. This information is given to F-Spot by the EXIF information that your camera stores each time you take a picture. In Figure 7.10, you can see the standard F-Spot window.
FIGURE 7.10 Browse through your extensive photo collection and correct minor problems using F- Spot.
Use the timeline across the top of the window to browse through your photographs, and you can do some minor editing by double-clicking on any photograph. F-Spot is still in its infancy, but development is ongoing, so keep a eye open for any major updates.
Burning CDs and DVDs in Fedora
Linux is distributed across the Internet through the use of ISOs that are waiting to be written to CDs or DVDs. Therefore, learning how to burn discs is essential if you have to download and install a Linux distribution. Not
