GIMP

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Often, the name GIMP is used erroneously for the Gimp-Print printer driver set.
The GIMP
Developer(s)The GIMP Team
Repository
Operating systemCross-platform
TypeBitmap graphics editor
LicenseGPL
Websitewww.gimp.org[1]

The GNU Image Manipulation Program or The GIMP is a bitmap graphics editor, a program for creating and processing raster graphics. It also has some support for vector graphics. The project was started in 1995 by Spencer Kimball and Peter Mattis and is now maintained by a group of volunteers; it is licensed under the GNU General Public License.

Overview

File:Padlock2.png
A padlock
File:Padlock3.png
The same padlock after being touched up with the clone tool

GIMP originally stood for General Image Manipulation Program; in 1997, the name was changed to GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is an official part of the GNU project.

The GIMP can be used to process digital graphics and photographs. Typical uses include creating graphics and logos, resizing and cropping photos, changing colors, combining images using a layer paradigm, removing unwanted image features, and converting between different image formats. The GIMP can also be used to create simple animated images.

File:IBook gimped.jpg
An Apple iBook after it has been "Gimped"

The GIMP is also notable as perhaps the first major free software end-user application. Previous work, such as GCC, the Linux kernel, and so on, were mainly tools by programmers for programmers. The GIMP is considered by some to be proof that the free software development process can create things non-geeks can use productively, and as such psychologically paved the way for such efforts as KDE, GNOME, Mozilla Firefox, OpenOffice.org, and various other applications that followed.

Features

File:GIMP-1.2.5.png
GIMP 1.x, with GTK+ 1.x interface

The GIMP was intended as a free (as in speech) competitor to Adobe Photoshop, but the latter still dominates the printing and graphics industries.

As well as interactive use, the GIMP can be automated with macro programs. The built-in Scheme can be used for this, or alternatively Perl, Python, Tcl and (experimentally) Ruby can also be used. This allows the writing of scripts and plugins for the GIMP which can then be used interactively; it is also possible to produce images in completely non-interactive ways (for example generating images for a webpage on the fly using CGI scripts) and for batch color correction and conversion of images. For simpler automatable tasks, a package such as ImageMagick is likely to be quicker, but the GIMP has much more powerful features.

The GIMP Logos with Wilber, the GIMP mascot

The GIMP's mascot is called Wilber, drawn with the GIMP itself.

GIMP uses GTK+ as its widget toolkit (the part of the program that builds the user interface); in fact, GTK+ was initially part of the GIMP, intended as a replacement for the commercial Motif toolkit, which GIMP originally depended upon. GIMP and GTK+ were originally designed for the X Window System running on Unix-like operating systems, but have since been ported to Microsoft Windows, OS/2, Mac OS X and SkyOS.

The current stable version of the GIMP is Template:Latest stable release/GIMP. Major changes compared to version 1.2 include a more polished user interface and further separation of the user interface and back-end. For the future it is planned to base GIMP on a more generic graphical library called GEGL, thereby addressing some fundamental design limitations that prevent many enhancements such as native CMYK support.

Shortcomings compared with Adobe Photoshop

There is a plugin called PSPI for the Microsoft Windows version of the GIMP only, which allows the use of the 8bf Adobe Photoshop filters in the GIMP.

File Types

The GIMP can open and save the following formats:

The GIMP can only open but not save the following formats:

  • PDF document (.pdf)

The GIMP can also save to the following formats which it cannot open:

  • HTML as a table with coloured cells (.html)
  • C source files as an array (.c or .h)
  • MNG animations (.mng)

GIMP for Windows

The GIMP (along with the GTK+ toolkit) has been ported to the Microsoft Windows platform by Finnish programmer Tor "tml" Lillqvist[4] who started that project in 1997.

Currently, the Windows port is practically identical to the original version in terms of features and stability. The installation has been tremendously eased with the introduction of the binary installers[5]compiled by Jernej Simoncic[6]

GIMP can be difficult to use on Windows because of the number of windows it uses (toolbox, colours, brushes, one for each image...). Without Unix-style focusing, or multiple virtual desktops (which are only available on the Windows platform by installing special add-ons), the windows are difficult to move between. For this reason, some users prefer the Photoshop-style layout of a single window for everything by adopting the GIMP Deweirdifyer plugin[7] (See this GUG discussion, although that doesn't work as well on multiple-monitor setups).

Film Gimp/CinePaint

Film Gimp, now known as CinePaint, is a tool specially tailored to paint on and retouch frames of movies, using a frame manager and onion skinning. It also offers greater color depth than the GIMP — 32 bits (floating point) per channel, rather than 8. It was forked from GIMP version 1.0.4.

File association "trap"

GIMP has a famous trap, which users have contested, but with no success: If you install GIMP and happen to select File Associations in the initial Wizard, you will not be able to undo this unless you manually remove them file by file or you uninstall the program. There is a separate application which comes with the program to alter file associations, but this fails to work because file types are never again selectable. Annoyingly if you install GIMP again, File Associations of the debut installation will be back, and again you'll have to uninstall them one by one.

See also

External links

Official

Third-parties

GIMP Manual & Tricks

GIMP Tutorials

GIMP Community

Notes

  1. ^ "GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program". November 20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  2. ^ "GIMP Plugin for CMYK separation". November 20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  3. ^ "LittleCms, Great color at small footprint". November 20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  4. ^ "Tor "tml" Lillqvist". November 20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  5. ^ "GIMP - Windows installers". November 20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  6. ^ "SourceForge.net: Developer Profile". November 20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  7. ^ "GIMP Deweirdifyer plugin". November 20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
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