The many features available to Linux make it one of the favorite operating systems of many types of graphic artists, since it has very interesting tools for image editing.
Among these tools we can mention the GIMP editor, an imaging program that offers a wide variety of tools and options to modify the composition of your files for your visual projects.
In this article, We will explain in detail what you need to know to master this powerful and versatile photo editor to give the perfect touch to your visual projects.
What is GIMP and what is the use of this program for graphic designers on computers with Linux OS?
It is a program of Free and open source software image editing available under the LGPL license as part of the GNU project. It works by converting digital images, be they drawings or photographs, in bitmaps.
It is available in a multitude of operating systems and its interface is translated into several languages. It has all the tools required for image editing, from filters to cropping tools and image scaling. Besides that, includes free drawing imaging tools, so it is also a useful digital sketch tool for graphic artists, although it does not have many sections in the drawing area.
What are the main functions and features of GIMP that make it a unique image editing software?
The appeal of a tool like GIMP is that, in addition to supporting multiple visual file formats, has a large number of design tools.
Among its most outstanding characteristics we can mention:
- Supports formats JPG, GIF, PNG, PCX, TIFF, BMP and PIX, among others.
- It’s compatible with files psd (Photoshop format) and has its own file storage format, the XCF.
- Multiple tools of selection.
- Tool of smart clipping.
- Manager of text.
- Manipulation of layered shapes, colors and textures.
- Meter of lengths and symmetries.
- Filter focus, handling of exposure and degradation of colors.
In addition to these features, GIMP supports the automation of task sequences by means of commands. For this you have the language Scheme, although it also supports the use of Python, Ruby, Perl Y Tcl, being able to also save these commands for future use. GIMP also includes a wide catalog of plugins, of varying complexity, some of which may request to enter usage parameters. Through these extensions, it is possible to expand the base functions of the image editor.
GIMP vs Photoshop Which is better to edit and retouch images of all kinds on the computer?
Photoshop is considered by many the best photo editor currently available, and it is certainly the most popular of all, being seen as a benchmark in terms of editing tools. But nevertheless, GIMP, despite its considerably less popularity, has many of the functions available in Photoshop, so a more in-depth comparison is necessary to give a verdict.
Taking the price as the first category to be discussed, GIMP is the clear winner, since only you must go to their website gimp.org/downloads, to obtain it, while Photoshop requires a payment of approximately 12 euros to acquire its functions. In the ease of use section, we can consider a draw, since although some tools are not difficult to use the first few times, it is necessary to dedicate several hours to be able to master both options.
Nevertheless, Photoshop has some advantage, since it has more tutorials available than GIMP. At the interface level they are equally even, since GIMP inspires its interface in Photoshop. However, it suffers certain disadvantages by spreading its functions in multiple windows, instead of integrating everything in one, as is the case with Photoshop, although it is a problem that has been solved in its latest versions.
As far as available functionalities and tools are concerned, again both softwares are very close, since they have very similar tools and functions, and you will not see much difference in this aspect unless you are a professional photography with high demands. In this case, Photoshop is more complete, outperforming GIMP for minimal details such as the number of brushes available. While Photoshop has three brushes, GIMP only offers one.
In addition, the fill-by-content feature (used to remove unwanted elements from the background of photos) it is not available in GIMP, unless it is installed via a plugin. In conclusion, the best option is Photoshop, since its features are more complete than those of GIMP. Despite this, Photoshop is paid, so unless you are going to use all the mergers, GIMP is the most recommended option, since it offers very similar features and at no cost.
Learn step by step how to use GIMP to edit any image easily and quickly
For the image editing it is necessary to know certain basic aspects, since the image modification tools can be difficult to handle for those who are starting. For this reason, we will explain the simplest methods to perform some basic functions in GIMP.
Go for it:
Remove background
For remove background from an image in GIMP, you just have to crop the section you want to keep, suppress the background and save the image as PNG file.
The steps for this process are as follows:
- Open the image you want to modify.
- Choose the tool “Cap” on the top tab.
- click about option “Transparency”.
- Press about “Add alpha channel”, which will put a transparent background on the image
- In the upper left, select the icon “Free selection tool” and carefully delimits the outline of the image.
- As soon as the image is cropped, click on “To select” in the top bar, and press the option “Invest”.
- Click on the background you want to delete and select the option “Delete”.
- For Finalize, click on “Archive”, Choose “Export as” and click on “PNG”.
Apply an effect
Visual effects in GIMP they will allow you to add a layer of colors to the image you want to edit. In addition to this, you can find a large number of effects and filters to edit your photos.
All you have to do is guide yourself through the following steps:
- Select image to edit.
- If you don’t want to apply the effect to the whole image, select the part you want to modify.
- In the upper tab select “Image”.
- Click on the option “Mode” and select “RGB”.
- Once this is done, in the upper tab you will see the option “Filters”.
- Select the desired effect and click “Accept”.
Enhance an image
GIMP has very interesting tools that will serve to greatly improve the quality and resolution of your photos, and to give them a more professional touch:
- Open the image to improve.
- From the upper tab follow the path “Filters> Enhance> Blur Mask ”.
- Centers the values in Radius: 0.9, Quantity: 0.40 Y Threshold: 1.
- Open the option “Colors”, Choose “Brightness and Contrast” and adjust the values in Brightness: 0 Y Contrast: 10.
- Follow the path “Colors> Hue and Saturation”. Sets the value of Saturation: 5
- Open the option “Colors” and enter “Levels”. For most cases, the option “Car” It will be the ideal, although you can always adjust the values according to your requirements.
- Add a touch of depth to your photo using the path “Filters> Blur> Gaussian Blur”.
If you followed the steps correctly, the result will be an image enhanced to a much more professional quality that you can use both for your advertising projects and to publish on your social networks.
These are the best alternative image editing programs to GIMP that you can use on Linux
Regardless of the versatility of GIMP, there are many perfectly functional alternatives to replace it if necessary. All these softwares fulfill the function of image editor and offer a large number of very complete editing features.
Let’s see:
Krita.org
It is an image editing and drawing software with a large number of tools. It is included in the Calligra Suite office automation pack, and is geared towards creating images from scratch, more than the edition, for which it has very few instruments. It was originally intended as a Photoshop clone, and was released under the name Kimage Shop. It is based on the KDE libraries, and includes among its tools a large number of brushes, gradients and filters, among other functions.
Vectr.com
It is a vector image editing project, which is designed to run on very low-resource computers. It has a fast learning curve since its controls and tools are simple and to the point. It has a graphical interface created in electro that displays in a single window all the necessary tools to load the desired image and edit it according to your needs.
MyPaint.org
It is a free software application designed for illustration and digital drawing by means of Tablet. Its simple interface offers all the drawing and editing tools at the user’s fingertips through a previously assigned keyboard shortcut. It has the function of hide the graphical interface to focus all attention on the image you are working on, without the distraction of buttons or toolbars.
DigiKam.org
It is a software written in C ++ that, more than in the edition, focuses on modifying tags and organizing images. It uses the KDE desktop environment libraries and is available for most Linux distributions. Its compatibility range covers the most popular image formats, as well as more than 800 raw image formats. You can organize images by dynamic albums based on date, timeline, tags, or other specific user-defined parameters.
DarkTable.org
Unlike raster photo studio, as is the case with GIMP, or Photoshop, DarkTable has tools focused on the processing of photography in raw format (digital negative). Its applications are focused on non-destructive post-production work and the processing of large quantities of images through a database, allowing the user to review, improve and store them locally or remotely.