GIMP is a multi-platform program for editing raster and bitmap images or graphics files.
The GNU Image Manipulation Program is a GNU-licensed computer image manipulation program, a type of license that allows you to use, copy and redistribute the program for free, and is a software for creating and editing graphics, animation, and digital imaging.
This application is usually used as free software and as an alternative to Adobe Photoshop, which is a fairly expensive commercial software.
In 1995, students Peter Mattis and Spencer Kimball began working on the GIMP program, and a year later, on February 15, 1996, the first version of 0.54 was released, with the Motif-based interface (a licensed application for interfacing programming graphics), but shortly afterward they created a free alternative GTK.
After graduating from the faculty in 1997, the two abandoned work on the program, but some volunteers recovered the code and released in June 1998 the GIMP 1.2 version, which improved the interface, brushes and bug fixes versions of previous versions.
The GIMP 2.0 program first used the GTK2 + toolset, the ability to edit text, and support for the CMYK color space.
Program features include 48 standard brushes plus features to create new ones, about 150 filters and effects, layer options, selections, color channels and masks for both digital images, vector graphics, and animations.
With GIMP, you can open, edit and save a variety of files such as JPG, PNG, GIF, TIFF, BMP, PSD, EPS, PRN, PS, etc. compatible with most image processing programs including Adobe Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro or Postscript.
The user can import Adobe PDF documents and RAW formats from most digital cameras into GIMP, but can not save them. The software runs on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X platforms, making it one of the most popular free graphics, animation, and digital imaging software.
If you are not familiar with such programs, the principle of operation is the following, either upload an image into the program, for example, a photo created with a camera or create a work space where graphics will be added.
The user then edits the uploaded or created content through the editing options and program tools that are applied to the general image, and are related to all aspects of graphic content and quality.
Finally, the user saves the resulting image in the desired format.
Specifically, the regular user can use GIMP to:
1. Cut a part of an image and move it to another image. For example, you can crop a person from a photo and add it to the content of another photo
2. Remove red eyes that appear in pictures in some people.
3. Mask elements of a photo so that certain areas disappear insensibly, for example, one element or any other area considered imperfect can be eliminated;
4. Change the color of a person’s eyes or hair from a photo;
5. Add text to an image;
6. Filter the picture according to specific criteria; for example, you can turn a color photo into black and white, or improve visibility by changing the degree of brightness and contrast;
7. Rotate a photo with a certain angle; for example, you can straighten a picture if you have kept the camera or phone in a position other than the usual;
8. Delete a specific area within an image;
9. Change the size and quality of images – useful for example when you want to integrate images into your projects/reports and take pictures for social networks, and you do not want them to be zoomed too much in detail.
For other types of users, GIMP can be used to:
1. Design the appearance of a website; a process called web design;
2. Draw and design architectural models;
3. Improve the visual quality of an image.