Platform: Windows, Mac, others. Skill level: Intermediate. Best for: Photo editing. GIMP is an acronym that stands for 'GNU Image Manipulation Program.' It's long been popular online as an open-source free graphic design software. GIMP is used for producing icons, graphical design elements, and art for user interface components and mockups. GIMP is a high quality framework for scripted image manipulation, with multi-language support such as C, C, Perl, Python, Scheme, and more! GIMP is a flexible, powerful, multi-purpose and, most importantly, free image editor, which is not much inferior to Photoshop. Perfect for drawing, and for the development of web-design, and for graphic design. Allows you to apply special effects to your graphics, tools and other actions identical to Photoshop. I spent many hours on this cool little program.For newer users for graphics and photo editing, GIMP serves as a nice introduction to graphic designing. As I said before, I sat in front of Photoshop confused by its very presence. Reasons for Switching to GIMP: I made the switch mainly because of price. Gimp is free while Adobe Creative Cloud is a monthly based subscription which offers you a lot more software - a complete design package and access to everything you will ever need if you are at least a little in design.
5 Graphic Design Software Options for Beginners
If you're new to graphic design and not sure what software to start with, we've got you covered. From the top-of-the-line industry standards that employers will expect you to know, to free and lower-cost alternatives you can experiment with, below are five types of graphic design software that can help you start turning your creative ideas into reality.
1. Adobe Creative Suite
If you're serious about pursuing graphic design professionally, Adobe Creative Suite contains much of the standard software you'll use as a graphic designer—including Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop. Sure, these applications might take a little extra time to learn, but if they help you land a job, it'll be worth your investment. You can start with a 30-day free trial and then pay on a monthly basis after your trial ends. Plus if you decide to go all in and study graphic design, Adobe offers all students a 60% discount on their Creative Suite software.
2. GIMP
GIMP—short for GNU Image Manipulation Program—is one of the most popular free (and open source) alternatives to Photoshop. Compatible with Linux, Mac, and Windows operating systems, GIMP includes a comprehensive set of tools for everything from image editing and retouching to full blown creation of artwork, icons, and other graphic design elements using layers, masks, and more. GIMP supports all popular file formats (and a few rare ones too) and is easy to use, even if it's your first graphic design software.
3. Inkscape
A strong alternative to Adobe Illustrator, Inkscape is another free and open source graphic design software program. It's a vector graphic editor that works for Windows, Mac, and Linux with a relatively simple interface and flexible tools for print, logo, and web design. These tools allow object creation, object manipulation, fill and stroke, text formatting, and operations on paths. (Many designers find cloned objects particularly useful.) Inkscape is primarily for working with SVG, but allows for export to PNG, PDF, EPS, PostScript, and more.
4. Affinity
Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer are relatively new competitors in the world of graphic design software. As you might expect, Affinity Photo is focused on photo editing, while Affinity Designer is vector graphic design software great for branding work, concept art, print projects, icons, and web mockups. Affinity software is designed to be fast regardless of the size or complexity of your work. It's also highly customizable, with an intuitive, modern interface, advanced layer controls, the ability to undo up to 8,000 steps, and standard file format compatibility. This software is available on Windows or Mac at the reasonable price of $50 each.
5. Sketch
While it's only available for Mac users, the vector editor software Sketch is quickly becoming a favorite for many in the design industry, especially those focused on web, app, user experience, or interface design. Priced at $100, this graphic design software is comparable in many ways to Illustrator and, in some aspects, Photoshop as well. Features include support for multiple pages and artboards, symbols and styles that can be easily repeated and updated across a design, and the ability to edit and merge vectors without destroying their original shapes. Sketch however is not a photo editing tool or ideal for print work, so you'll have to rely on something else for that.
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Filed under: Visual Design
May 25, 2017
graphic designgraphic design programGimp is a cross-platform image editing software or tool available for Windows, Linux, macOS, and more operating systems. It is open-source and free software, so you can change its source code and distribute modified software. It does not care what you are if you are a graphic designer, video editor, photographer, illustrator, or scientist GIMP provided you sophisticated tools to get your job done.
High-Quality Photo Manipulation
To do high-quality photo manipulations, GIMP provides you all tools you needed. It works beyond your imagination.
Original Artwork Creation
It provides you flexibility and artistic power so that you can transform images into a truly unique and advance creation.
Graphic Design ElementsMaking
It is wisely used for producing or creating graphical icons, graphical design elements, and user interface components.
GIMP is an excellent open-source photo editing program
It has a list of tools for the user to edit their photos. It has plenty of brushes (all of them are customizable), filters, auto image-enhancement tools, and compatibility for a wide range of pre-installed plugins, as well as more available for download. It also allows you to add filters. Gimp was built in Python, making it so flexible to use. They built it very adaptable because most of the users want to build their own photo editor. With this, you can add or remove any wanted and unwanted tool. All of this within the user-interface.
How to Use GIMP
GIMP is a package that works a lot more than Adobe Photoshop. But the main difference is, it is 100% free!
Step1: Installing GIMP
Download the latest version of the GNU image manipulation program. Open the downloaded file and select your preferred language. Run the installer, if you want to install it in the default folder then click on install. To change any install setting select customize and wait until the installation process gets finished.
Step2: Starting GIMP
Now open the installed program. At the start, it will load some necessary data files. When it finishes loading, several windows will appear on your screen. To start the blank page, click the file menu at the center and open a new file. Then, create a new image window will open, will ask you what size you will prefer, you can enter it manually or select preformatted sizes from the dropdown. Click ok when you have done selecting an image.
Step3: Cropping Image
Open an image you wish to crop, right-click on the image, and select a tool to transform tools then crop. You can also adjust the crop box by pixel, use the tool option at the bottom of the toolbox. Once all the adjustments have been made, click the center of the image to crop the image. It will automatically delete all unnecessary elements.
Step4: Flipping and Rotating Image
For flipping, select the image, then in tool option you can check the checkbox option you can choose between flip-type (horizontal or verticle). To perform rotation right click on image select tool->transform tools-> rotate. Then select whether you desire to rotate 90° clockwise, counterclockwise, or 180°.
Step5: Mastering Other Basics
Change the size of the image: Right-click on the image. Select an image from the menu, then click on scale image. The Scale Image window will open, and you can alter the size of the image. Enter value for the height or width and the image will adjust accordingly.
Draw straight line: Pick a drawing tool, such as Pencil or Airbrush. Click on the image to create a starting point for your line. Hold the Shift key and pass your mouse to where you want your endpoint.
Add text to an image: Press 'T' on your keyboard and click where you want to insert text. This will open the text toolbox you can start typing immediately.
What is great about GIMP?
It has a wide range of features, in a lot of ways you can touch up your photos. Features like color adjustment tools, gradients, layer masks, filters, customizable brushes, Bezier curves plus an animation package. You can also use channel mixer to create professional-quality black and white photographs. The retouching features are very useful to edit photographs professionally.
There is another special reason why GIMP is very popular. Because it provides an open-source code. It is available to everyone so, anyone can create their version of GIMP. You can create a better-advanced version of the GNU image manipulation program but yes! off-course it needs codding skills.
GIMP was initially developed for Linux but developers have expanded programs for use on Mac and Windows. For windows, you need Windows 7 or newer.
How does GIMP compare with other photo editors?
There are other different software you could compare GIMP to, including DxO Optics Pro, Corel PaintShop Pro, Capture One, and Adobe Photoshop. Although Adobe Photoshop is best like gold and GIMP deserves to compare it with the best. Adobe has a few different editors you can work with. There is not only the famous ‘Adobe Photoshop' but also Adobe Photoshop Elements, and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.
The simple answer is if you want to go with the premium version then adobe is best for you. And if you are searching for free with the same quality then GIMP is the best option for you.
How would you summarize GNU Image Manipulation Program?
It is free to download and use. It has excellent functionality and a habitual user interface. From pre-installed plugins to color adjustment tools, retouching photos, and layer masks, you can do most of the things with this free version. If you don't like anything about it you can change it.
Is downloading GIMP safe?
It is a free open-source graphics editing program and is not inherently unsafe. If you found any warning by your system at the time of installation then you should uninstall it immediately and download it from another source.
Do professionals use Gimp?
Yes, professionals use GIMP as it provides the same quality features as adobe Photoshop does.
How to remove background in GIMP?
The work of this tool is the same as the magic wand tool of photoshop. There are some simple steps you need to follow:
- At first, you need to open your image.
- Go to the layer of the image, right-click on it and select Add Alpha channel. If you choose this channel after removing the background, you will get a transparent background.
- Then, select the Fuzzy Selection Tool and simply click on the background and hit delete.
How to make a gif in GIMP?
Creating a GIF with GIMP photo editing is a straightforward and quick process.
- Create a new file in your GNU Image Manipulation Program with selecting height and width.
- Open each frame of animation as a new layer. Hold shift while selecting multiple image frames. Click open when you finish selecting.
- Add frame rates in milliseconds to each layer of the image frame, by the default frame rate of 10 frames (100ms) per second.
How to install brushes in GIMP?
Installing brushes is as simple as finding your favourite Brushes online and paste them into brushes folder.
STEP1: Find the brush pack online and download it. To begin to find a brush pack like this Powder Explosion pack.
STEP2: locate the brushes folder and drag brush kit into Program files->GIMP->Share->Gimp->2.0->Brushes folder.
STEP3: Refresh your brushes in your GNU Image Manipulation program.
How to install fonts in gimp?
Installing new fonts to your GIMP photo editing tool is a straightforward process. Especially when you are using a windows machine:
- Find the font you want to install from the Web.
- Download and extract the font
- Double click on OTF file and install fonts.
- Find + Use your new fonts in GIMP.
What is a layer in GIMP?
Draw straight line: Pick a drawing tool, such as Pencil or Airbrush. Click on the image to create a starting point for your line. Hold the Shift key and pass your mouse to where you want your endpoint.
Add text to an image: Press 'T' on your keyboard and click where you want to insert text. This will open the text toolbox you can start typing immediately.
What is great about GIMP?
It has a wide range of features, in a lot of ways you can touch up your photos. Features like color adjustment tools, gradients, layer masks, filters, customizable brushes, Bezier curves plus an animation package. You can also use channel mixer to create professional-quality black and white photographs. The retouching features are very useful to edit photographs professionally.
There is another special reason why GIMP is very popular. Because it provides an open-source code. It is available to everyone so, anyone can create their version of GIMP. You can create a better-advanced version of the GNU image manipulation program but yes! off-course it needs codding skills.
GIMP was initially developed for Linux but developers have expanded programs for use on Mac and Windows. For windows, you need Windows 7 or newer.
How does GIMP compare with other photo editors?
There are other different software you could compare GIMP to, including DxO Optics Pro, Corel PaintShop Pro, Capture One, and Adobe Photoshop. Although Adobe Photoshop is best like gold and GIMP deserves to compare it with the best. Adobe has a few different editors you can work with. There is not only the famous ‘Adobe Photoshop' but also Adobe Photoshop Elements, and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.
The simple answer is if you want to go with the premium version then adobe is best for you. And if you are searching for free with the same quality then GIMP is the best option for you.
How would you summarize GNU Image Manipulation Program?
It is free to download and use. It has excellent functionality and a habitual user interface. From pre-installed plugins to color adjustment tools, retouching photos, and layer masks, you can do most of the things with this free version. If you don't like anything about it you can change it.
Is downloading GIMP safe?
It is a free open-source graphics editing program and is not inherently unsafe. If you found any warning by your system at the time of installation then you should uninstall it immediately and download it from another source.
Do professionals use Gimp?
Yes, professionals use GIMP as it provides the same quality features as adobe Photoshop does.
How to remove background in GIMP?
The work of this tool is the same as the magic wand tool of photoshop. There are some simple steps you need to follow:
- At first, you need to open your image.
- Go to the layer of the image, right-click on it and select Add Alpha channel. If you choose this channel after removing the background, you will get a transparent background.
- Then, select the Fuzzy Selection Tool and simply click on the background and hit delete.
How to make a gif in GIMP?
Creating a GIF with GIMP photo editing is a straightforward and quick process.
- Create a new file in your GNU Image Manipulation Program with selecting height and width.
- Open each frame of animation as a new layer. Hold shift while selecting multiple image frames. Click open when you finish selecting.
- Add frame rates in milliseconds to each layer of the image frame, by the default frame rate of 10 frames (100ms) per second.
How to install brushes in GIMP?
Installing brushes is as simple as finding your favourite Brushes online and paste them into brushes folder.
STEP1: Find the brush pack online and download it. To begin to find a brush pack like this Powder Explosion pack.
STEP2: locate the brushes folder and drag brush kit into Program files->GIMP->Share->Gimp->2.0->Brushes folder.
STEP3: Refresh your brushes in your GNU Image Manipulation program.
How to install fonts in gimp?
Installing new fonts to your GIMP photo editing tool is a straightforward process. Especially when you are using a windows machine:
- Find the font you want to install from the Web.
- Download and extract the font
- Double click on OTF file and install fonts.
- Find + Use your new fonts in GIMP.
What is a layer in GIMP?
Layers are features which are used in advance image editing software like GIMP. Layers are like a stack of images, one on top of the another.
You can open an image, and add another image on top of it, move it around, resize/transform it, erase parts of it, add layer masks, etc.
Gimp Graphic Design Software Free
What is the best way to mastering GIMP?
Gimp Graphic Design Software
To master GIMP, there are several MOOC sites which you can try. Some MOOC sites offer free courses, or some offer both free and paid internships. For Video Tutorials, you can try UDEMY and Alison.com.
Gimp Free Software
Else, you can go through the official GNU Image Manipulation tutorials step by step to becoming master of GIMP photo editing tool.