Eureka!! The GIMP runs smoothly from a flash drive. This means GIMP for my classes. Life is good! I have to be honest, I downloaded the GIMP a couple of releases ago and I was underwhelmed. It seemed clunky and difficult compared to Photoshop and Fireworks. Today I put some time in getting to know version 2.4.5. Not too shabby.

Check out The Gimp
Get right to business and download GIMP 2.4.5

Step by Step - download and install Portable GIMP. Set up is easy. Install to your portable device. You’ll end up with these files and folders in your PortableGIMP folder:

Now you can go back and delete the installer -

The GIMP has a huge support community. There are all kinds of things you can add to give GIMP more options and functionality. Let’s start with adding some brushes. This is a bit technical. First you have to download the brushes and unpack them. By “unpack” I mean get them out of the zip folder. Two excellent sources for brushes -

Brushes - Click on starterpack.zip and save on your portable drive
1100 Brushes - Click the Download link

Once you have your brushes, you need to unzip or unpack them. Most of the time this can be done by simply clicking on the zipped folder. Once you see all the files, select them all (via the edit menu) and copy and paste them into the brushes folder. The brushes folder is found in:

GIMPPortable\App\gimp\share\gimp\2.0\brushes

Now you’re ready to roll. Save the link to the GIMP manual somewhere handy. I’d throw it up on your bookmark toolbar in Firefox.