This sounds very cool. I will tinker with it this weekend. I just created
the album cover for my upcoming CD with Ubuntu Studio. I used xsane to scan
the photo I wanted to use and used GIMP to do the layout along with
downloading a free font from http://www.dafont.com/ since the fonts that
come with US didn't tickle my fancy. Of course, I had to put that font in
~/.fonts and refresh the fonts cache. With any luck, this entire project
will be done with open source.

I like Gimp and not quite yet Photoshop as you said but for
sure getting closer every time.

Now my question is, is there a book out on using Gimp. Yes I know you can find
answers online, but sometimes I don't want to leave what I am doing and do a
search, where if a manual/book was readily available I could use it.

Color me impressed. I just did a quick search on Amazon and found more
titles than I would have expected.

www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keyword\
s=GIMP&x=0&y=0

never thought of Amazon, but I do check everytime I go into the
local bookstore. Guess I will have to do some further checking.

Now my question is, is there a book out on using Gimp. Yes I know you
can find answers online, but sometimes I don't want to leave what I am
doing and do a search, where if a manual/book was readily available I
could use it.