Thread: Edit images on Gimp

Gimp is the Linux alternative for Photoshop. However, it's nowhere close to Photoshop, but still does a lot of things that are simpler to understand and operate on for the lay user. Gimp is now a standard issue with most distros. Photos hop works perfectly fine with Wine, if you absolutely must use it.

You would notice three different applications are registered on the task bar. This is because the main application. the toolbox and the layers, channels and patterns window are independent applications although they all work together. In this aspect, the Gimp is totally unique from other image manipulation software.

Gimp makes it easy for everyone to jump right in. Go to File> Create to get a jumpstart on common photo editing activities. This includes buttons, logos and web page templates, all with tweakable presets.

In four clicks, a logo complete with layer effects, transparencies and gradients is ready, which would have taken much longer in Photoshop. The toolbox of Gimp is organised in an intuitive and uncomplicated way. All the tools available are in front of you from the start, with no hidden tools in tool suqmenus. There is a lot possible with each tool and the interface to tweak shows up in the bottom half of the toolbox when you select a particular tool. Look at the wealth of options available for the brush. Such options are available for all the tools.



Hover around any tool to get a concise description of what the tool does. The right side of the screen is divided into two panels. The top panel has layers, channels, paths and the change history in tabs. The bottom half has brushes, patterns and gradients where relevant.


A much wider selection of filters than Photoshop are available with Gimp. The filters are located in their own menu, and even something like the render menu includes fractals and a spirographer. Most of the filters are community-made python scripts, and a lot more are available online.

The hue/saturation and brightness/con trast options are available in the colors menu. There are sliders for tweaking all effects, along with a numerical value.

To crop an image, go to Tools > Transform Tools > Crop. Or just use the shortcut key [Shift] + [e]. Select the area of the image you want cropped, and click OK. To resize an image, go to image > scale image and enter a different dimension in anyone of the fields .. The other dimensions will change automatically by default.