CNET Editors' review
The volunteer developers of The GIMP have been working hard to develop a polished, user-friendly, and freely distributed image editor. Although the separated palette windows may disturb those users who are used to more traditional layouts, your comfort level should grow exponentially as you discover how pain-free the program is.
One of the most powerful general-purpose image editors around, the upgrades make the GNU Image Manipulation Program eminently comparable to Photoshop. Older features include channels, layers and masks, filters and effects, tabbed palettes, editable text tools, perspective clone, improved printing, and color operations such as levels. New improvements include GEGL integration for 32-bit color support, dynamic brushes, and more options for the free select tool. It even has regex-based pattern matching for power users.
The application provides professional tools that can stand against the big boys without the hefty price tag. Even the installation process has gotten simpler, with no need to download and install the GTX Runtime Environment separately. Extremely powerful and easy to work with, GIMP is ideal for both amateur and pro photographers, Web designers, or anyone who wants to create and edit professional-quality digital images on a budget.
Publisher's Description
From Gimp:
GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a freely distributed piece of software suitable for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition, and image authoring. It is a powerful piece of software with capabilities not found in any other free software product. 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, or an image-format converter. GIMP is modular, expandable, and extensible. It is designed to be augmented with plug-ins and extensions to do just about anything. The advanced scripting interface allows everything from the simplest task to the most complex image-manipulation procedures to be easily scripted.
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All versions:
4.0 starsout of 819 votes
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Current version:
3.5 starsout of 2 votes
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My rating:
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"Gimp is a extremely great toolbox!"
Version: GIMP 2.8
Pros
The toolbox for the carpenter does not make him a skilful carpenter but it is a condition for his work and his skills, the same goes for a photographer, Gimp or alternative professional editing program is a condition for his work, but you yourself must be skilful to do skilful editing. Gimp gives you just the tools.
Cons
It could be a bit more stable.
Summary
The toolbox for the carpenter does not make him a skilful carpenter but it is a condition for his work and his skills, the same goes for a photographer, Gimp or alternative professional editing program is a condition for his work, but you yourself must be skilful to do skilful editing. Gimp gives you just the tools.
I think that I should mention that in this new version of Gimp 2.8 you have the option to open Gimp in a single window mode, that is if you dislike opening Gimp in a three windows mode, you can now change this by choosing the single mode instead!
It has total flexibility.
The programs total flexibility is one reason why it is so great.
People who says that Gimp is complicated or that the GUI is bad etc. do not actually know what they are talking about.
Gimp is a very simple program to edit professional work with. If you find it complicated, it is not because the program is complicated but because the task you are going to do is complicated.
That Gimp opens in three windows might be a good or might be a bad thing, but I find this debate about this as a extremely minor issue.
I think that Gimp is a gift from heaven as you get this great program for nothing.
I also think that it is great that it is open source. No nagging about upgrading. You can install in how many computers you like. No one cares! That is worth a lot! You do not either need to buy a new computer to use it, the old one will do!
Bjorn Lundahl
Gothenburg, Sweden
Updated on May 30, 2012 -
"Not user-friendly enough"
Version: GIMP 2.8
Pros
many features
Cons
too many features; too complicated
Summary
After using Photoshop for a while, I tried this in lieu of buying the full Photoshop program. Maybe I didn't give it a fair shot, but I want a program that is simple to use but also has easy-to-use effects and features, and Gimp wasn't it. This is 2012 and if you want to compete, then you'd better have one-click everything. Gimp tried my patience.
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