GIMP is a free and open-source raster graphics editor used for image editing and manipulation. It has tools for tasks like photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. GIMP features layers, an unlimited undo system, adjustable brushes, and various selection tools. It supports many file formats and can open and edit images in layers. The main interface includes a toolbox, color picker, layers panel, and other panels to manage tools, colors and image layers. GIMP is available for Windows, Mac and Linux and provides a powerful yet free alternative to proprietary photo editing software.

1. GIMP

2. Plan
I. Introduction
II. Definition
III. Advantages and features
IV. How to use Gimp
Download
The setup
Main Windows in GIMP
The Toolbox
Foreground/Background colors Dialog
Tool Options dialog
The Channels, Undo, Layers dialog
Brushes, Patterns, Gradients dialog
Create and open an image
The active image
Tools descriptions
The menu Bar
V. Conclusion

3. I. Introduction
Image editing software has become necessary in this digital age. To create a web interface or simply cropping and enhancing your family
photos you need softwarelike Photoshop, Fireworks and GIMP. GIMP is a powerful open source image editor that can be used in all major
operating systems. It has a huge set of retouching tools that will allow you to perform advanced image retouching and manipulation.
II. Definition
GIMP stands for the GNU Image Manipulation Program, is an image retouching and editing tool. There are versions of GIMP tailored for
most operating systems including Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. GIMP has tools used for image retouching and editing, free-
form drawing, resizing, cropping, photo-montages, converting between different image formats, and more specialized tasks.Gimp is a free
software graphics application for the editing and creation of original images, photos, icons, graphical elements of web pages and art.
III. Advantages and features
Gimp hasmany advantages and features:
Touch up photos,Resize graphics, Scan photos, Export graphics to web format, Create animated GIFs, and much more.
Support for a wide range of file formats, including GIF, JPEG, PNG, XPM, TIFF, TGA, MPEG, PS, PDF, PCX, BMP and many others.
GIMP's most advantage is its price. The entire program is free for anyone to download, and its use is not restricted.
Supporting layers and layer masks, and tools needed specifically for photo enhancement.
Animated images such as GIF and MPEG files can be created using an animation plugin.
A full suite of painting tools including brushes, a pencil, an airbrush, cloning, etc.
Full Alpha channel support for working with transparency.
Transformation tools including rotate, scale, shear and flip.

4. IV. How to use Gimp
Download
You can download GIMP for free from the GIMP website, http://www.gimp.org. Gimp is an offline program once downloaded you can
work without an internet connection.

5. The setup
Installing GIMP is just a matter of clicking on the installation file that you downloaded. Clicking on the file will launch an installation
wizard.Gimp shortcut will appear on the desktop and when u click on it Gimp software will open.

6. Main Windows in GIMP
The screenshot above shows the most basic arrangement of GIMP windows

7. 1. The Toolbox
The toolbox is the heart of GIMP. Here is a quick tour of what you will find there. In the Toolbox, as in most parts of GIMP, moving the
mouse over something and letting it rest for a moment, usually displays a “tooltip” that describes the thing. Short cut keys are also
frequently shown in the tooltip. In many cases, you can move the mouse over an item and press the F1 key to get help about the thing
that is underneath the mouse.
Tool icons: These icons are buttons which activate tools: selecting parts of images, painting an image, transforming an image, etc...
You can add a Tool icon, Brush-Pattern-Gradient icons through Edit → Preferences → Toolbox: Tools configuration.
The tools can be thought of as falling into five categories, you can open a tool by clicking on it in the toolbox windows or by opening
the tools option in the menu bar:
- Selection tools: specify or modify the portion of the image that will be affected by subsequent actions; Rectangle Select, Ellipse
Select, Free Select, Foreground Select, Fuzzy Select, By Color Select, Intelligent scissors.
- Paint tools:alter the colors in some part of the image; Bucket Fill, Blend, Pencil, Paintbrush, Eraser, Airbrush, Ink, Clone, Heal,
Perspective Clone,Blur/Sharpen, Smudge, Dodge/Burn.
- Transform tools: alter the geometry of the image;Align, Move, Crop, Rotate, Scale, Shear, Perspective, Flip, Cage transform.
- Other tools:don't fall into the other four categories; Paths,Color Picker, Zoom in & out, Measure, Text.
2. Foreground/Background colors or FG/BG Color Dialog
The Color dialog lets you manage and pick up new colors. You can use it into five different modes: GIMP, CMYK, Triangle, Watercolor and
Scales. It has an interesting eyedropper to pick up a color anywhere on your screen. The color areas here show you GIMP's current
foreground and background colors, which come into play in many operations. Clicking on either one of them brings up a color selector
dialog that allows you to change to a different color. Clicking on the double-headed arrow swaps the two colors, and clicking on the small
symbol in the lower left corner resets them to black and white.

8. 3. Tool Options dialog
The Tool Options dialog appears below the Toolbox. It is very difficult to use tools effectively without being able to manipulate their
options. The Tool Options appear beneath the Toolbox. If you lose it somehow, you can get it back by creating a new Tool Options dialog
using Windows → Dockable Dialogs → Tool Options and then docking it below the Toolbox. Each tool has its own specific set of options.
4. The Channels, Undo, Layers dialog
The following dialogs let you control and manipulate image structures. There are multiple dialogs like Channels, Undo History dialog;
Layers, Paths, Undo, Colormaps, Histogram and Navigation. You can access all the dialogs:
- From the image menu: Windows → Dockable Dialogs → Layers; Channels, Tool options, BG/FG colors, Brushes, Gradients..
- From the Tab menu in any Dockable dialog by clicking on and selecting Add Tab → Layers, Tool options, FG/BG colors, Brushes...

9. Channels: An image is composed by three colors Red, Green, Blue. The rectangular array of every color is referred to as a Channel. You
can see these color channels with the Channels dialog. Channels can be useful when you are working on an image which needs
adjustment in one particular color. For example, if you want to remove “red eye” from a photograph, you might work on the Red
channel.
Undo History: This dialog shows you a list of actions you have recently performed on an image. You can Undo, Redo or Clear History.
Layers: The Layers dialog is the main interface to edit modify and manage your layers. You can think of layers as a stack of slides or
clothes on your body. Using layers, you can construct an image of several conceptual parts, each of which can be manipulated without
affecting any other part of the image. Layers are stacked on top of each other. The bottom layer is the background of the image.
Other dialog: The Paths dialog is used to manage paths, allowing you to create or delete them, save them and convert them. The
Histogram dialog shows you information about the statistical distribution of color values in the active layer or selection. This
information is often useful when you are trying to color balance an image. Navigation Dialog and Colormap dialog.

10. 5.Brushes, Patterns, Gradients dialog
Brush/Pattern/Gradient: The Brushes dialog is used to select a brush, to use with painting tools. You can select a brush by clicking on
it in the list. It will then be shown in the Brush/Pattern/Gradient area of the Toolbox. GIMP comes now with 56 brushes, the size, the
ratio and the angle of every brush can be set in the tool options dialog. You can also create brushes. For the Pattern, In GIMP, a pattern
is a small image used to fill areas by placing it side by side. And the Gradients dialog offers a gradient palette which is used to select a
gradient. Clicking on any of these symbols brings up a dialog window that allows you to change it.

11. Other dialog: Palettes Dialog set of discrete colors, in no particular order. Fonts dialog used for selecting fonts for the Text tool. The
Buffers dialog is created when you cut or copy part of image. The Images dialog displays the list of open images on your screen.
Document History dialog displays the list of the documents you have opened in previous sessions. The Templates dialog allows you to
manage all templates and create one.

12. Create and open an image
1. To create an image you can Use File → new: to open the Create a new image dialog, allowing you to name the image and choose the
size of the width and height in pixels, inches…
2. The most obvious way to open an existing image is the menu. Use File → Open: to open the Open Image dialog, allowing you to
navigate to the file and click on its name. This method works well if you know the name and location of the file you want to open.
3. Drag and drop an image from a file browser into the Toolbox window to open the image in its own Image window or tab.

13. The active image

14. Tools descriptions
Rectangle Select Tool: Select a rectangular region (R)Ellipse Select tool: Select an elliptical region (E)
Free Select tool: Select a hand-drawn region with free Fuzzy Select Tool: select a contiguous region
and polygonal segments (F)on the basis of color (U)

15. Select by Color Tool: Select regions with similar colors (Shift + O) Scissors Select Tool: Select shapes using intelligent edge-fitting (I)
Foreground Select Tool: Select a region containing foreground objects. Paths Tool: Create and edit paths (B)

16. Color Picker Tool: Set colors from image pixels (O) Zoom Tool: Adjust the zoom level (Z)
Measure Tool: Measure distance and angles (Shift + M) Move Tool: Move layers, selections, and other objects (M)

17. Crop Tool: Remove edge areas from image or layer (Shift + C)Rotate Tool: Rotate the layer, selection or path (Shift + R)
Scale Tool: Scale the layer, selection or path (Shift + T)Shear Tool: Shear the layer, selectio or path (Shift + S)

18. Perspective Tool: change perspective of the layer,Cage Transform: Deform a selection with a cage (Shift + G)
selectionor path (Shift + P)
Flip Tool: Reverse the layer, selection or path Text Tool: Create or edit text layers (T)
horizontally or vertically (Shift + F)

19. Bucket Fill Tool: Fill selected area with a color or pattern (Shift + B) Blend Tool: Fill selected area with a color gradient (L)
Pencil Tool: Hard edge painting using a brush (N)Paintbrush Tool: paint smooth strokes using a brush (P)

20. Eraser Tool: Erase to background or transparency using a brush (Shift + E) Airbrush Tool: Paint using a brush, with variable pressure (A)
Ink Tool: Calligraphy-style painting (K) Clone Tool: Seletively copy from an image orpattern using a brush (C)

21. Healing Tool: Heal image irregularities (H) Blur/Sharpen Tool: Selective blurring/unblurring using a brush (Shift + U)
Smudge Tool: Smudge selectively using a brush (S) Dodge/Burn Tool: Selectively lighten or darken using a brush (shift+D)

22. The menu Bar
All the commands are accessible from the image menu bar or you can get it by right clicking on the page:
File: In the File menu you cancreate a new image, Open an image from your computer or load an image from a network. You can also
SaveClose andQuit.
Edit:In the Edit menu you can Undo, Redo, cut, copy, paste, clear, Fill with FG color and pattern.
Select:In The Select menu you can make all kinds of selections like Select All,select by color,Cancel selections, Invert color or layer.
View: The View menu commands affect the visibility or appearance of the image like menu bar, rules, scrollbars, full screen…
Image: The Image menu contains commands which use or affect the entire image, like Scale, Crop, Duplicate the image.
Layers: The items on the Layer menu allow you to work on layers. Like New layer, delete layer, Duplicate layer, scale layer.
Colors:the Colors menu contains commands that affect the color of the image. The Colors tools (Color Balance, Hue-Saturation,
Colorize, Brightness-Contrast, Threshold, Levels, Curves, Posterize, and Desaturate) alter the distribution of colors across the entire
image.
Tools: Tools menu access all the GIMP tools and the Toolbox dialog, like Selections tools, paint tools, etc...

23. Filters: Filter modifies the appearance of an image.You can achieve some seriously cool effects with filters. For example, there are
filters to help you distort your image or turn your basic drawing into an artistic sketch or lighting effects. There’s plenty more filters for
all sorts of other effects. The filters are: Blur Filters, Enhance Filters, Distort Filters, Light and Shadow Filters, Noise Filters, Edge-Detect
Filters, Generic Filters, Combine Filters, Artistic Filters, Decor Filters, Map Filters, Rendering Filters, Web Filters, Animation Filters,
Alpha to Logo Filters. For example If you Select Filters > Map Filter> Fractal Trace> page curl. A dialog will open so you can change the
settings for this filter. Don't be afraid to experiment, you can always Undo. Here's what the image looks like in the end after applying
another effect.
Windows: This menu allows you to manage GIMP windows dialogs. Multi-window mode,single window mode, recently closed doks.
Help: The Help menu assist you while you are working with GIMP. The GIMP-Help provides you with the information necessary to
understand how touse The GIMP. You can get context by pressing the F1 key
V. Conclusion
Gimp is one of the best image manipulation software specially that it can be downloaded for free. But no version of GIMP has yet been
absolutely perfect. Everysoftware has its own advantage and disadvantage. Gimp Text tools can’t display all the languages and comparing
to Photoshop creating text effect is difficult and managing the layers in not easy.