The GIMP - an Adobe Photoshop Alternative for Linux

The GIMP is the premiere graphics program for Linux today. GIMP (which stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program), is also available for Mac and Windows, and can be used for such basic graphics jobs as retouching photos, compositing multiple images into one, and creating an image from scratch.

As well, the GIMP can be used as a painting program, to convert images from one format to another, to do mass adjustments (such as resizing a folder full of images), and more. The GIMP has plugins and extensions to augment its already full complement of features, and also includes a scripting interface that allows for mundane tasks to be automated.

Whew... so what does all that mean? Basically, GIMP is the open-source equivalent to Adobe Photoshop. For many users, the GIMP will be sufficient. I've used many of the features listed above, and have been quite successful at accomplishing what I set out to do. In fact, for most people, the GIMP has more features than they'll actually need.

For instance, the GIMP includes tools for painting, color alteration, sliders for adjusting brightness and hues, as well as cropping and rotating of the image. The GIMP also supports layers, which means a user may have one image on a particular "level," then text on top of it. Why this is a good thing is that after text is entered, it is still alterable, so that if a change is desired, the user doesn't need to start again. Similarly, if a particular alteration is made to a photo, then undone, the rest of the layered image remains the same.

Like Photoshop, the GIMP includes a wide variety of filters, which are one-trick scripts to enhance an image. Some of these are a variety of blur filters, which gently (or drastically) soften an image, a sharpen filter (which does the opposite), and a variety of colorizing filters, which can add a variety of different color tones to an image.

Also, the GIMP includes a good selection of lighting effects, so that highlights, flares, and realistic light reflection can be added to an image. Some of the filters are subtle, while others - such as the newsprint filter - drastically alter the image, making it look pixelated and grainy.