GIMP stands for the GNU Image Manipulation Program, a freely distributed program for photo retouching, image composition and image authoring.
It has a large feature set. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter, etc. It also makes the task of screenshots easy.
GIMP is expandable and extensible. It is designed to be augmented with plug-ins and extensions.
The advanced scripting interface allows everything from the simplest task to the most complex image manipulation procedures to be easily scripted.
Key Features
- A full suite of painting tools including brushes, a pencil, an airbrush, cloning, etc.
- Digital retouching.
- Tile-based memory management, so image size is limited only by available disk space.
- Sub-pixel sampling for all paint tools for high-quality anti-aliasing.
- Full Alpha channel support for working with transparency.
- Layers and channels.
- Scalable Brushes.
- Fullscreen Editing.
- Color Management and Soft-proofing.
- A procedural database for calling internal GIMP functions from external programs, such as Script-Fu.
- Advanced scripting capabilities.
- Multiple undo/redo.
- Transformation tools including rotate, scale, shear and flip.
- File formats supported include GIF, JPEG, PNG, XPM, TIFF, TGA, MPEG, PS, PDF, PCX, BMP and many others.
- Selection tools including rectangle, ellipse, free, fuzzy, bezier and intelligent.
- Plug-ins that allow for the easy addition of new file formats and new effect filters.
- Support for vector layers using the GFig plug-in.
- Support for various input devices out of the box. Pressure and tilt sensitive tablets, but also a wide range of USB or MIDI controllers.
Website: www.gimp.org
Support: Documentation
Developer: First version written by Peter Mattis and Spencer Kimball. Thousands of individuals have contributed since.
License: GNU General Public License v3.0
GIMP is written in C. Learn C with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| Painting Tools | |
|---|---|
| Krita | Edit and paint images; part of the KOffice office suite |
| MyPaint | Paint program with dynamic brushes for graphic tablets |
| GIMP | GNU Image Manipulation Program |
| Drawpile | Draw, paint, sketch and animate |
| AzPainter | Full color painting software |
| GrafX2 | Inspired by the Amiga programs Deluxe Paint and Brilliance |
| Pinta | Mimics the usability of Paint.Net |
| Photoflare | Cross-platform image editor |
| LazPaint | Image editor with layers and transparency |
| Tux Paint | Drawing and painting software designed for children |
| KolourPaint | Easy-to-use paint program by KDE |
| CinePaint | Tools for painting, manipulation and image processing |
| Milton | Infinite-canvas paint program |
| VPaint | Experimental prototype based on the Vector Graphics Complex |
| dibuja | Simple to use paint program like Paintbrush for Mac or classic MS Paint |
| Drawing | Basic raster image editor similar to Microsoft Paint |
| Vara | Minimalist digital painting tool |
| Textual Paint | MS Paint in your terminal |
| CorePaint | Paint app for C Suite |
| BlockPaint | Terminal-based painting tool |
| InfiniPaint | Collaborative, infinite space, infinite zoom, canvas note-taking/drawing app |
| Alchemy | Non-orthodox painting tool experimenting with alternative ways of drawing |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
| Screen Capture Tools | |
|---|---|
| Spectacle | Simple KDE application for capturing desktop screenshots |
| Ksnip | Qt-based cross-platform tool that provides many annotation features |
| Shutter | Feature-rich screenshot program |
| flameshot | Complete screen capture and snipping tool with unique features |
| ScreenGrab | Competent Qt-based tool |
| swappy | Wayland native snapshot editing tool |
| CoreShot | Simple lightweight screen capture utility for C-Suite |
| gscreenshot | Graphical interface and command line frontend for multiple backends |
| GIMP | The GNU Image Manipulation Program |
| GNOME Screenshot | Screen capture tool for GNOME |
| wayscrollshot | Scrolling screenshot tool for Wayland |
| SnipText | Screen capture OCR tool |
| Perl Screenshot Tool | Works best on X11. It also supports Gnome Wayland |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
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