Thread: GNU Image Manipulation Program

The GIMP, or the GNU Image Manipulation Program, is one of the most powerful free and open source raster image editing software. It rose from the ashes of a
hideously crafted class project under the name of General Image Manipulation Program by Spencer Kiniball and Peter Mattis. Later on, it was merged into the GNU Project and is often considered a replacement for the icy-pricey Adobe Photoshop.
Until recently, the diverse GIMP was acceptance and future development.

very much a mixed bag-too perplexing for newbies on the one hand while requiring high-end colour channels and plug-ins support. Besides, its meagre 8-bit 'colour support (instead of 32-bit) and complex VI was a major barrier in its adoption among professionals. Finally, after eight years of planning, the developers took a major leap in GIMP development. The spanking new GIMP 2.6 was introduced, loaded with GEGL, a CMYX/32-bit colour channel, minor VI changes and a plethora of nifty add-ons and plug-ins.

On October 1, 2008, the venerable raster image editor got refurbished with a new version 2.6.x. The major change in this version lies in the core ofthe software-the addition of GEGL, a powerful graph-based image-editing framework. Let's take an in-depth look at what the newer GIMP has to offer. In this review, I will be using the third revision of the latest GIMP¬that is, GIMP 2.6.3, which provides significant improvements over the basic release.



When initiating the GIMP, you will be greeted with the latest splash screen-not the best, but certainly much better than its previous version. I always felt that if a bigger and wider splash were added by default, like Photoshop [PS], it would provide a more aesthetic feel. Unlike other image editing applicationf, GIMP's hardware resource expectations aren't that high, and likewise the application is quite responsive despite being one of the most feature rich editors.

The first thing you will notice about GIMP is its rejuvenated interface. Yes, it has finally gone through some VI changes. A new permanent 'empty' window will appear next to the toolbox and layer box. In addition to this, the toolbox, layer box, and active image editing window list has been merged into one window list, making GIMP more aesthetically appealing.

Apart from that, the current VI changes are too minimal and experimental-it seems developers were uncertain about what to implement and what not to. The current VI development indicates that developers intend to evoke community feedback for further VI development. On the templates front, GIMP hasn't added new 'window sizes and ratios, and it would have been a welcome change if the developers had added the HD template by default.

In a nutshell, it's the tools, plug-ins and the core that have witnessed a major facelift. With the inception of GEGL, a few new image editing plug-ins and enhanced editing tools .are now available. We'll take a look at some of these new additions.