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For other uses, see Gimp (disambiguation).
GIMP
Developer(s)The GIMP Development Team
Initial releaseJanuary 1996; 28 years ago (1996-01)
Repository
Written inC and GTK+
Operating systemGNU/Linux, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, FreeBSD, Solaris, AmigaOS 4
Available inMany languages (52 languages, 37 full translations)[1][2]
TypeRaster graphics editor
LicenseGNU (L)GPLv3+ v2.7+[3]
Websitewww.gimp.org

GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a free and open source software image retouching and editing tool[4] and is freely available in versions tailored for most popular operating systems including Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS X, and Linux.

GIMP has tools used for image retouching and editing, free-form drawing, resizing, cropping, photo-montages (combining multiple images), converting between different image formats, and more specialised tasks. Animated images such as GIF and MPEG files can be created using an animation plugin.

The developers and maintainers of GIMP have a product vision for GIMP to strive to be a free software graphics application for the editing and creation of original images, photos, icons, graphical elements of web pages and art for user interface elements.[5]

History

Main article: GIMP release history
GIMP 2.6 manipulating an image

GIMP was originally released as the General Image Manipulation Program,[6] by creators Spencer Kimball and Peter Mattis. Development of GIMP began in 1995 as a semester-long project at the University of California, Berkeley; The first public release of GIMP (0.54) was made in January 1996 [7][8] and in the following year (1997) GIMP became a part of the GNU Project. The acronym GIMP was changed to the GNU Image Manipulation Program in reflection of its existence under the GNU Project.[9] Currently GIMP is developed by a self organized group of volunteers under the banner of the GNOME Project.[10][11]

The number of computer architectures and operating systems GIMP supported has expanded significantly since its first release. The first release supported UNIX systems such as GNU/Linux, SGI IRIX and HP-UX.[6][12] Since the initial release, GIMP has been ported to many operating systems, including Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X; the original port to the Windows 32-bit platform was started by Finnish programmer Tor Lillqvist (tml) in 1997 and was supported in the GIMP 1.1 release.[12]

GIMP saw formation of a community and rapid adoption following the first release. The community that formed began developing tutorials, artwork and shared better work-flows and techniques.[13]

A new GUI tool kit called GTK+ (GIMP tool kit) was developed to facilitate the development of GIMP. GTK+ replaced its predecessor GTK (no plus symbol) after being redesigned using a modern software design technique called object oriented programming. The development of GTK+ has been attributed to Peter Mattis becoming disenchanted with Motif the GUI toolkit GIMP originally used; Motif was used up until GIMP 0.60.[8][14]

User interface

GIMP, version 2.8.0 RC1 demonstrating single-window mode

The user interface of GIMP is designed by a dedicated design and usability team; This team was formed after the developers of GIMP signed up to join the OpenUsability project.[15] A user interface brainstorming group has since been created for GIMP,[16][17] where users of GIMP can send in their suggestions as to how they think the GIMP user interface could be improved.

GIMP is presented in two forms single and multiple window mode; [18] GIMP 2.8 defaults to the multiple window mode. In multiple window mode a set of windows contain all GIMPs functionality. By default, tools and tool settings and other dialogues are on the right.[19]

GTK+ (GIMP tool kit) is the GUI toolkit to construct GIMPs interface. GTK+'s creation and history regarding GIMP is described in the history section above.

Media attention

GIMP's fitness for use in professional environments is regularly reviewed; as such, GIMP is often cited as a replacement for Adobe Photoshop.[20][21] The maintainers of GIMP state that GIMP seeks to fulfil GIMP's product vision rather than seek to replicate the interface of Adobe PhotoShop.[22]

GIMP 2.6 has been reviewed twice by Ars Technica. In the first review, Ryan Paul noted that GIMP provides "Photoshop-like capabilities and offers a broad feature set that has made it popular with amateur artists and open source fans. Although GIMP is generally not regarded as a sufficient replacement for high-end commercial tools, it is beginning to gain some acceptance in the pro market."[20] While previously it had been recognized that GIMP had extensive capabilities, few reviewers have cited GIMP as a tool used in professional environments.[citation needed] Dave Girard also reviewed GIMP 2.6, specifically with the aim of testing GIMP's fitness for professional tasks. He noted at the beginning that GIMP was a high-end tool, but the review conclusion noted that, although many of GIMP's tools were of high quality, he felt that GIMP lacked in some areas such as non-destructive editing, and that it was missing select tools (such as a desaturation brush).[23][24]

Features

Further information: Comparison of raster graphics editors
Animation Showing Brushes, Patterns, Gradients Created in gimp on Mac OS X Lion

Tools used to perform image editing can be accessed via the toolbox, through menus and dialogue windows. They include filters and brushes, as well as transformation, selection, layer and masking tools.

Color
GIMP has several ways of selecting colors including palettes, color choosers and using an eyedropper tool to select a color on the canvas. The built-in color choosers include RGB/HSV selector or scales, water-color selector, CMYK selector and a color-wheel selector. Colors can also be selected using hexadecimal color codes as used in HTML color selection. GIMP has native support for indexed color and RGB color spaces; other color spaces are supported using decomposition where each channel of the new color space becomes a black and white image. CMYK, LAB and HSV (hue, saturation, value) are supported this way.[25][26] Color blending can be achieved using the blend tool, by applying a gradient to the surface of an image and using GIMP's color modes. Gradients are also integrated into tools such as the brush tool, when the user paints this way the output color slowly changes. There are a number of default gradients included with GIMP; a user can also create custom gradients with tools provided.
Selections and paths
In GIMP, tools for creation of selections include a rectangular and circular selection tool, free select tool, and fuzzy select tool (also known as magic wand). More advanced selection tools include the select by color tool for selecting contiguous regions of color and the scissors select tool which creates selections semi-automatically between areas of highly contrasting colors. GIMP also supports a quick mask mode where a user can use a brush to paint the area of a selection. Visibly this looks like a red colored overlay being added or removed. The foreground select tool is an implementation of Simple Interactive Object Extraction (SIOX) a method used to perform the extraction of foreground elements, such as a person or a tree in focus. The Paths Tool allows a user to create vectors (also known as Bézier curves). Paths can be used to create complex selections around natural curves, paths can also be named, saved, and painted (or "stroked") with brushes, patterns, or various line styles.
Image editing
There are many tools that can be used for editing images in GIMP. The more common tools include a paint brush, pencil, airbrush, eraser and ink tools used to create new or blended pixels. Tools such as the bucket fill and blend tools are used to change large regions of space in an image and can be used to help blend images. GIMP also has a selection of smart tools, which are tools that use a more complex algorithm to enable a user to do things that otherwise would be time consuming or impossible; these smart tools include the clone tool that copies pixels using a brush, the healing brush which copies pixels from an area and corrects the tone and color where it is being used. The perspective clone tool works in a similar way to the clone tool previously mentioned but also allows a user to correct for distance changes. The blur and sharpen tool is a brush that blurs and sharpens. Finally, the dodge and burn tool is a brush that makes target pixels lighter (dodges) or darker (burns).
A list of GIMP transform tools include the align tool, move, crop, rotate, scale, shear, perspective and flip tools.
Animation showing three docked and tabbed dialogs: layers, channels, and paths.
Layers, layer masks and channels
An image being edited in GIMP can consist of many layers sitting in a stack. The GIMP users' manual suggests that "A good way to visualize a GIMP image is as a stack of transparencies," where in GIMP terminology, each transparency is a layer.[27] Each layer in an image is made up of several channels. In an RGB image there are normally 3 or 4 channels, each consisting of a red, green and blue channel. Color sublayers look like slightly different gray images, but when put together they make a complete image. The fourth channel that may be part of a layer is the alpha channel (or layer mask), this channel measures opacity where a whole or part of an image can be completely visible, partially visible or invisible.
Text layers can be created using the text tool, allowing a user to write on an image. Text layers can be transformed in several ways, such as converting them to a path or selection.[28][29]
GIMP architecture
Automation, scripts and plug-ins
GIMP has approximately 150 standard effects and filters, including Drop Shadow, Blur, Motion Blur and Noise.
GIMP operations can be automated with scripting languages. The Script-Fu is a Scheme based extension language implemented using TinyScheme. GIMP can also be scripted in Perl, Python (Python-fu), or Tcl. New features can be added to GIMP not only by changing program code (GIMP core), but also by creating plug-ins. These are external programs that are executed and controlled by the main GIMP program.[30] MathMap is an example of a plug-in written in C.
Droste effect using Mathmap plug-in
File:Generated Flames - Gimp.jpg
A rendered flame using the flame plug-in
GIMP has support for several methods of sharpening and blurring images including the blur and sharpen tool. The unsharp mask tool is used to sharpen an image selectively — it only sharpens areas of an image that are sufficiently detailed. The Unsharp Mask tool is considered to give more targeted results for photographs than a normal sharpening filter.[31][32] The Selective Gaussian Blur tool works in a similar way, except it blurs areas of an image with little detail.
GEGL
The Generic Graphics Library (GEGL) was first introduced as part of GIMP on the 2.6 release of GIMP. This initial introduction does not yet exploit all of the capabilities of GEGL; as of the 2.6 release, GIMP can use GEGL to perform high bit-depth color operations; because of this less information is lost when performing color operations.[33] When fully integrated, GEGL will allow GIMP to have a higher color bit depth and also a better non-destructive work-flow.
File formats
GIMP supports importing and exporting with a large number of different file formats,[34] GIMP's native format XCF is designed to store all information GIMP can contain about an image; XCF is named after the eXperimental Computing Facility where GIMP was authored.
File formats
Import and export GIMP has import and export support for image formats such as BMP, JPEG, PNG, GIF and TIFF, along with the file formats of several other applications such as Autodesk flic animations, Corel Paint Shop Pro images, and Adobe Photoshop documents. Other formats with read/write support include PostScript documents, X bitmap image and Zsoft PCX. GIMP can also read and write path information from SVG files and read/write ICO Windows icon files.
Import only GIMP can import Adobe PDF documents and the raw image formats used by many digital cameras, but cannot save to these formats. An open source plug-in, UFRaw, adds full raw compatibility, and has been noted for being quicker than Adobe in updating for new camera models, several times.
Export only GIMP can export to MNG layered image files (GNU/Linux version only) and HTML (as a table with colored cells), C source code files (as an array) and ASCII Art (using a plug-in to represent images with characters and punctuation making up images), though it cannot read these formats.

Derived applications

GIMP 2.2.8 running under X11 on Mac OS X

Several variations and derived graphic applications exist today. These applications can exist because GIMP is released under the GNU General Public License, GPL, which specifically allows anybody to take the source code and use it as they see fit, so long as they follow the rules laid out in the license. GIMP is available on many popular operating systems; even so, some variants of GIMP exist for OS-specific modifications.

The GIMP website only offers source code downloads; executable versions of GIMP are made available by other sources.

CinePaint
Formerly "Film Gimp", this is a fork of GIMP version 1.0.4, used for frame-by-frame retouching of feature film. The present version supports up to 32-bit IEEE-floating point color depth per channel. CinePaint supports color management and HDR. CinePaint is used primarily within the film industry due mainly to its support of high-fidelity image formats.[citation needed] The current release supports BSD, GNU/Linux, and Mac OS X.
GIMP classic
is a patch[35] against the 2.6.8 GIMP source code that was created to undo the changes made to the GIMP user interface between the 2.4 and 2.6 versions. A build of GIMP classic for Ubuntu is available.[36] As of March 2011, a new patch can be downloaded from the sourceforge site that patches against the experimental 2.7 version of GIMP.
GIMP on OS X
is a project that provides pre-built and easy to install application bundles of GIMP for Mac OS X. These include Universal binaries for Tiger (10.4.x) and Leopard (10.5.x), as well as Intel binaries for Snow Leopard (10.6.x) systems. These require X11 to run.[37]
GIMP Portable
is a portable version of GIMP that can be installed on a USB hard drive such that brushes and presets are the same from one computer to the next. GIMP Portable is only portable between different computers running Microsoft Windows (XP or later).[38]
GIMP.app
is a distribution of GIMP built for Mac OS X. It has all the features of the default GIMP distribution. GIMP.app has a version using X11, and a version native to the Mac, but the latter is considered experimental.[39]
GimPhoto
has a similar aim to GIMPshop, but has been made using a more recent version of GIMP.[40] GimPhoto is targeted toward photographers who have previously used Adobe Photoshop. It is available for both Microsoft Windows and GNU/Linux.
GIMPshop
is a derivative of GIMP that re-arranges the user interface to mimic Adobe Photoshop. This is achieved by modifying menus and user interface items. GIMPshop is released on Mac OS X, GNU/Linux, Microsoft Windows, and Solaris. The project is stagnant and has not been updated since 2006.
Instrumented GIMP (ingimp)
was created at the University of Waterloo to track and report user interaction with the program to generate statistics about how GIMP is used.
osx-gimp
provides a Mac PowerPC-native beta build of GIMP 2.2.14. It uses GTK+ built for Quartz. It is mostly functional, but support is limited for the Quartz back-end of GTK+.[41]
Seashore
is a program derived from GIMP running in native Mac OS X. The program is currently in beta and includes a subset of the tools and features in GIMP.

Extensions

GIMP Animation Package (GAP)
is an advanced plug-in for GIMP for creating animations, extending GIMP's normal capabilities. GAP can save animations in several formats including GIF and AVI.[42] The animation function relies on GIMP's layering capability. Animations are created by placing each image on its own layer (in other words, treating each layer as an animation cel), then placing and rotating the layers within time constraints. The resulting project can be saved as an animated GIF or encoded video file. GAP also provides programmed layer transitions, timing, and move paths, allowing the creation of sophisticated animations.
GIMP Paint Studio (GPS)
is a collection of brushes and accompanying tool presets for GIMP aimed at artists and graphic designers. It speeds up repetitive tasks and allows tool settings to be saved between sessions.[43]

Mascot

Wilber, the mascot of GIMP

Wilber is the official GIMP mascot. Wilber has relevance outside of GIMP as a racer in SuperTuxKart and was displayed on the Bibliothèque nationale de France as part of Project Blinkenlights.[44][45][46]

Wilber was created at some point before 25 September 1997 by Tuomas Kuosmanen (tigert) and has since received additional accessories and a construction kit to ease the process.[47]

Development

GIMP is primarily developed by volunteers. The GIMP project has a development branch, unstable branches and stable branches. New features are added to the development branch of GIMP, when the developers decide that there are enough new features they begin the process of creating a release. The process starts off by creating an unstable branch from the development branch; this unstable branch will be stabilized and will receive bug-fixes until it is ready to replace the existing stable branch. GIMP has adopted a scheme also used by many other FOSS projects: the second number in a version (for example, the "6" in 2.6.11) denotes whether a GIMP release is stable or unstable. An odd number means an unstable version and an even number means a stable version. The final number represents the number of bug-fix releases after a stable or unstable branch is released. As of May 2012, the current stable version of GIMP is 2.8.0.

Each year GIMP applies for several positions in the Google Summer of Code (GSoC),[48][49] to date GIMP has participated in all years except 2007.[50] From 2006 to 2009 there have been 9 GSoC projects that have been listed as successful,[48] although not all successful projects have been merged into GIMP yet. The healing brush and perspective clone tools and Ruby bindings were created as part of the 2006 GSoC and can be used in the current version of GIMP, although there were three other projects that were completed and are not yet available in a stable version of GIMP; those projects being Vector Layers, and a JPEG 2000 plug-in. Several projects were completed in 2008, but none are yet a part of a stable release of GIMP.

Libre Graphics Meetings

Main article: Libre Graphics Meeting

The Libre Graphics Meeting (LGM) is a yearly event where developers of GIMP and other projects meet up to discuss issues related to free and open source graphics software. The GIMP developers take the opportunity to hold birds of a feather (BOF) sessions at this event.

Distribution

GIMP is released under the GNU General Public License (version two or later) as free software.[51] The current version of GIMP works with numerous operating systems, including GNU/Linux, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows. Many GNU/Linux distributions include GIMP as a part of their desktop operating systems, including Debian and Fedora. Due to file size constraints, Ubuntu no longer includes GIMP by default as of Ubuntu 10.04, but it remains available for installation via the package manager.

A port of GIMP to Microsoft Windows was started by Tor Lillqvist in 1997. The GIMP website links to binary installers compiled by Jernej Simončič for the platform.[52] MacPorts is listed as the recommended provider of recent Mac builds of GIMP.[53] MacPorts also provides builds of other free and open source software applications and provides tools to make doing so simpler.[54] GTK+ was originally designed to run on an X11 server. Because Mac OS X can optionally use an X11 server, porting GIMP to Mac OS X is simpler compared to creating a Windows port.

There is no stable 64-bit Windows distribution version of GIMP available as of March 2011, although there have been experimental 64-bit versions like GIMP 2.6.10 for Windows.[55]

See also

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References

  1. ^ "GIMP - Documentation". GIMP documentation. GIMP Documentation team. 2001–2009. Retrieved 2 July 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: date format (link)
  2. ^ "GNOME GIMP translation statistics, see GIMP 2.6".
  3. ^ "GIMP 2.7 RELEASE NOTES". 15 April 2011. Retrieved 3 May 2012.
  4. ^ Peck, Akkana (2006). Beginning GIMP: From Novice to Professional. Physica-Verlag. p. 1. ISBN 1430201355. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  5. ^ "GIMP UI Redesign". GIMP UI redesign. GIMP UI team. 17 May 2008. Retrieved 2 July 2009.
  6. ^ a b Spencer Kimball & Peter Mattis (11 February 1996). "readme" (tarred and gzipped text, see README). Retrieved 23 March 2008.
  7. ^ "GIMP - Prehistory - before GIMP 0.54". GIMP history. Peter Mattis. 29 July 1995. Retrieved 2 July 2009.
  8. ^ a b GIMP - ancient history
  9. ^ GIMP - Documentation
  10. ^ "GNOME: The Free Software Desktop Project". gnome.org. The GNOME Project. 2005–2009. Retrieved 2 July 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: date format (link)
  11. ^ "gimp - GNU Image Manipulation Program". gnome.org. The GNOME Project. Retrieved 2 July 2009.
  12. ^ a b "why port to windows".
  13. ^ Bunks, Carey (2000). Grokking the GIMP. New Riders. p. 14. ISBN 0735709246. Retrieved 8 July 2009.
  14. ^ LinuxWorld — Where did Spencer Kimball and Peter Mattis go?
  15. ^ Ellen Reitmayr (1 January 2008). "2007 Success Stories". openusability.org. Retrieved 5 July 2009. [dead link]
  16. ^ GIMP usability team. "GIMP UI Redesign". gimp.org. Retrieved 5 July 2009.
  17. ^ GIMP usability team. "GIMP UI brainstorm". gimp-brainstorm.blogspot.com. Retrieved 5 July 2009.
  18. ^ http://www.gimp.org/release-notes/gimp-2.8.html
  19. ^ "The standard windows of GIMP". GIMP User Manual. The GIMP Documentation Team. Retrieved 24 April 2011.
  20. ^ a b Ryan Paul (1 October 2008). "GIMP 2.6 released, one step closer to taking on Photoshop". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2 July 2009.
  21. ^ "A Thrifty Photoshop Built for the Web". wired.com. 17 March 1998. Retrieved 31 July 2009.
  22. ^ "GIMP Developers Conference 2006". the GIMP project. 2006. Retrieved 2 July 2009. [dead link]
  23. ^ Dave Girard (13 January 2009). "Suite freedom: a review of GIMP 2.6.4". ars technica. Retrieved 5 July 2009.
  24. ^ Dave Girard (13 January 2009). "Suite freedom: a review of GIMP 2.6.4 (page 11)". ars technica. Retrieved 5 July 2009.
  25. ^ Yoshinori Yamakawa (6 January 2007). "Separate+". cue.yellowmagic.info. Retrieved 2 July 2009.
  26. ^ The GIMP documentation team. "Decompose". GIMP user manual. docs.gimp.org. Retrieved 2 July 2009.
  27. ^ GIMP documentation team. "Introduction to layers". GIMP user manual. docs.gimp.org. Retrieved 2 July 2009.
  28. ^ GIMP documentation team. "Paths and Text". GIMP manual. gimp.org. Retrieved 5 July 2009. [dead link]
  29. ^ GIMP documentation team. "Text and Fonts". GIMP manual. gimp.org. Retrieved 5 July 2009.
  30. ^ Earl Oliver, Jaime Ruiz, Steven She, and Jun Wang, The Software Architecture of the GIMP, December 2006.
  31. ^ "Sharpening - Unsharp Mask". www.scantips.com. Retrieved 8 August 2009.
  32. ^ "Unsharp Mask". GIMP manual. manual.gimp.org. 2002, 2003. Retrieved 8 August 2009. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  33. ^ GIMP development team. "GIMP 2.6 Release Notes". gimp.org. Retrieved 2 July 2009.
  34. ^ "File formats supported by the GIMP". gimphelp.org. 2007. Retrieved 2 July 2009.
  35. ^ Peter Hartshorn. "gimp classic patch". sourceforge.net.
  36. ^ Alastair M. Robinson. "GIMP-classic". launchpad.net. Retrieved 23 March 2010.
  37. ^ Simone Karin Lehmann. "GIMP on OS X". gimp.lisanet.de. Retrieved 19 October 2010.
  38. ^ John T. Haller (22 March 2009). "GIMP Portable". ProtableApps.Com, The GIMP team. Retrieved 2 July 2009.
  39. ^ "GIMP.app". GIMP.app team. Retrieved 2 July 2009.
  40. ^ zenith. "GimPhoto - free Photoshop alternative for photo and image editor". gimphoto.com. Retrieved 2 July 2009.
  41. ^ "Native GIMP for Mac OS X". osx-gimp.sourceforge.net/. Retrieved 2 July 2009.
  42. ^ Jakub Steiner. "Advanced Animations Tutorial". GIMP user manual. the GIMP documentation team. Retrieved 2 July 2009.
  43. ^ christophe. "GIMP + GPS (gimp paint studio)". code.google.com. Retrieved 2 July 2009.
  44. ^ SuperTuxKart changelog, see 0.6
  45. ^ Gallery of WarMUX characters, which features Wilbur
  46. ^ Wilber on the Bibliothèque nationale de France
  47. ^ GIMP - linking to us. For Wilber kit see /docs/Wilber_Construction_Kit.xcf.gz
  48. ^ a b "SummerOfCode - Wilber's Wiki". Wilber's Wiki. GIMP developers. 30 April 2009. Retrieved 30 June 2009.
  49. ^ "GNU Image Manipulation Program". Google Summer of Code 2009. Google. 2009. Retrieved 30 June 2009.
  50. ^ "GSoc 2007 - we didn't make it..." lists.xcf.berkeley.edu:gimp-developer. Michael Schumacher. Thu Mar 15 05:01:42 PDT 2007. Retrieved 2009-06-30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  51. ^ "GNU General Public License". license. Free Software Foundation. June 1991. Retrieved 29 June 2009.
  52. ^ "GIMP - Windows installers". The gimp-win project. Retrieved 2 July 2009.
  53. ^ GIMP download/Macintosh "GIMP for Mac OS X". GIMP Project. 2001–2009. Retrieved 2 July 2009. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)CS1 maint: date format (link)
  54. ^ "The MacPorts Project -- Home". MacPorts. 2002–2009. Retrieved 2 July 2009.
  55. ^ "GIMP 2.6.10 for Win64". 6 March 2011. Retrieved 6 March 2011.
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