GIMP

No, it is not a Photoshop buster. Yes, for the use of all but a graphic artist capable of leveraging the full power of Photoshop, GIMP is a mighty good image editor. And of course, the one aspect where it unarguably trumps Photoshop is price: it is free!

^_01. What is it?

The GNU Image Manipulation Program (“GIMP”) is free open-source software (“FOSS”). It can be used as an alternative to Photoshop for photo editing and creating digital art.

See the post GIMP vs Photoshop: Do you need to spend money to edit your photos? ^[1]

^_02. Download and install

GIMP is available as a free download from the GIMP website: GIMP – Downloads. ^[2]

^_03. Interface

The complexity of the interface is one of the biggest challenges when starting with GIMP. The huge selection of tools, filters and other features, all with their settings, makes learning the software daunting. The interface is highly customisable and it is worth yourself with the various menus and panels.

If in the process of customising the interface, it becomes unusable, you can reset all changes to the default settings as follows:

1. Edit » Preferences » Reset
2. Do you really want to reset all preferences to default values?
3. Click the Reset button

^_04. Layers

In image editing software such as Photoshop and GIMP, layered files are created. Each layer in the “stack” can contain one or more things and the layers can then be arranged at will. The final image is then exported from this layered artwork file.

Learn how in the Working with Layers in GIMP tutorial.

References:

1. Carrasqueira, J. (2024) GIMP vs Photoshop: Do you need to spend money to edit your photos?, XDA. Available at: https://www.xda-developers.com/gimp-vs-photoshop/ (Accessed: 29 August 2024).
2. David, P. (no date) GIMP – Downloads, Tiny Wilber. Available at: https://www.gimp.org/downloads/ (Accessed: 11 August 2024).
3. David, P. (no date) GIMP – Tutorials, Tiny Wilber. Available at: https://www.gimp.org/tutorials/ (Accessed: 11 August 2024).