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GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It earliear stood for General Image Manipualtion Program.
GIMP is a raster graphics editor. It does have limited capability for vector. (If you are looking for a full blown vector graphics editor, try Inkscape). It is often used as a free option instead of Adobe Photoshop – as it is released under the GNU General Public Licence.
It has several features that are common to other raster graphics editors.
- Selection tools – to select part of the image (rectangular, eleptical, free-form)
- Color selection tools – either from palette ( RGB, HSV, color wheel, CMYK) or from the image itself
- Image transormation – flip, rotate, scale, crop, move
- Layers – to organized parts of the image
- Undo History – To undo and redo changes
- Image creation – pen, pencil, paintbrush, airbrush, eraser, blur, sharpen, dodge, burn
- Filters – Basic set of filters for applying effects
There are some features that are not available in GIMP (as opposed to Adobe Photoshop).
- No Pantone color matching system, or spot color
- No color models other than RGB (note that, color selection is different from the output). This is a disadvantage if the end product is aimed for print media.
- No way to group and organize layers
The advantages of GIMP is that it is a free and open source software. It allows for plug-in and scripting – and as it is open source, there is a large developer community. Other than that, GIMP also has a small footprint – it is small in size compared to Adobe Photoshop.
GIMP can be used for graphics and logos, altering photos, altering colors, and converting between different image formats. I have been using it for creating digital paintings lately.
You can say that I have been quite a fan of
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