GIMP (abbreviated from GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a lightweight,
highly capable and free graphic manipulation tool, offering some really
advanced features which can be used to create or edit images. It is
highly customizable and expandable, supports various plug-ins, and can
be used with scripts. Even though it was created in an open source
environment, its development team strived to create highly capable image
editing suite that can be used for image manipulation, editing and
polishing of the highest degree, rivaling the capabilities and the user
interface of any modern professional solutions (most notably Adopbe
Photoshop).
First version of GIMP appeared online in distant
January if 1996, created under the leadership of computer programmers
Spencer Kimball and Peter Mattis during one semester at the Berkley,
famous University in California. As years went on this great raster
graphics editor was ported to many operating systems, from ancient
AmigaOS, to the all versions of Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Free BSD,
OpenBSD and Solaris. Internet and written media often portrayed GIMP as
very viable replacement for other professional solutions, which only
fueled GIMP’s developers to enhance its capabilities with the new tools
and features that will cater both novices and professionals.
Modern
interface of GIMP does not differ much from the other professional
image editors. Basic painting tools are on the left, large painting
canvas takes majority of the screen, and advanced tool and layer
controls are on the right. Using wide variety of contextual menus and
fixed menus on the top of the app, users can control literary anything
image editing related, with tools that are even expandable by third
party plugins.
GIMP Main Features:
Customizable InterfaceEach
task requires a different environment and GIMP allows you to customize
the view and behavior the way you like it. Starting from the widget
theme, allowing you to change colors, widget spacings and icon sizes to
custom tool sets in the toolbox. The interface is modulized into so
called docks, allowing you to stack them into tabs or keep them open in
their own window. Pressing the tab key will toggle them hidden.
Photo EnhancementNumerous
digital photo imperfections can be easily compensated for using GIMP.
Fix perspective distortion caused by lens tilt simply choosing the
corrective mode in the transform tools. Eliminate lens' barrel
distortion and vignetting with a powerful filter but a simple interface.
Digital RetouchingGIMP
is ideal for advanced photo retouching techniques. Get rid of unneeded
details using the clone tool, or touch up minor details easily with the
new healing tool. With the perspective clone tool, it's not difficult to
clone objects with perspective in mind just as easily as with the
orthogonal clone.
Hardware SupportGIMP
includes a very unique support for various input devices out of the box.
Pressure and tilt sensitive tablets, but also a wide range of USB or
MIDI controllers. You can bind often-used actions to device events such
as rotating a USB wheel or moving a MIDI controller's slider. Change the
size, angle or opacity of a brush while you paint, bind your favorite
scripts to buttons. Speed up your workflow!
File FormatsThe
file format support ranges from the common likes of JPEG (JFIF), GIF,
PNG, TIFF to special use formats such as the multi-resolution and
multi-color-depth Windows icon files. The architecture allows to extend
GIMP's format capabilities with a plug-in. You can find some rare format
support in the GIMP plugin registry.
To save disk space, any
format can be saved with an archive extension such as ZIP, GZ or BZ2 and
GIMP will transparently compress the file without you needing to do any
extra steps.
Download Link
