Sorry, GIMP is basically the PHOTOSHOP of the Freeware world. In terms of superior graphics, I prefer to work with vectors and then rasterise them. I can suggest Inkscape for this. It's not very use-friendly (IMHO) but you can produce resizable images that'll neve loose quality.
As for
Quote: "blending colours instead of just smudging them"
I can suggest using Photoshop and mult-layering. What you do is create a cloned layer of the image you wish to blend. Then cut out what you don't want. Now grab the "Blur Tool" and blure that clone as much as you need blending. Now place the clone 1 layer above what you want to blend with. Now go to Layer --> Layer Style --> Blanding options and adjust the Opacity until it looks right. Now take the original and place it above the clone. You can also use this technique for illumination (eg the font in my sig). Sorry I can't tell you how to do this in GIMP but I'm not really a GIMP user. I've only just started on Inkscape and I'm already overwhelmed by everything it can do, so I'm sure it'll also have blending. Another option (should work in any software) is to usea gradient fill on a dummy layer, adjust it's opacity/alpha and place it above the rest of the image. Then trim what you don't want from your dummy.
You could also write your own blending script (Although I don't think DBPro is optimised for this, you may want to look at Python/C++ here as you'll want to do something lightweight).
Adjacent blending:
Etc: get colour value, target pixel
Etc: get colour neighbouring pixel
Calculate different.
Use a STEP to decide the increment of each cycle, based of the area to blend.
This can theoretically be done in DBPro, using a totally different method:
CREATE BITMAP 30, [canvas x], [canvas y]
SET CURRENT BITMAP 30
INK mycolour, mycolour
BOX 0, 0, 2, 2
GET IMAGE 1, 0, 0, 2, 2
LOAD IMAGE myimage$, 99
CLS
SPRITE 99, [picture x], [picture y], 99
decrement = [blending step]
FOR i = 1 TO howmuchblending
SET SPRITE ALPHA 1, (255 / 100) * (100 - decrement)
PASTE SPRITE 1, [startdrawingarea] + [formula for desired increment]
NEXT i
GET IMAGE 1000, 0, 0, [convas x], [canvas y], 1
SAVE IMAGE imagefile$, 1000
SET CURRENT BITMAP 0
DELETE BITMAP 30
SPRITE 1000, 0, 0, 1000
WAIT KEY
Of course this is theoretical code based on a project I'm working on atm, but there's now reason it shouldn't work.
There are also plugins available with blending filter available for many for graphics apps. You may wanna look there too.
Well, it was a long enough response that I'm sure you found something in my trash heap worthwhile
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