If you want an excellent and completely free photo editor, you should not miss the new GIMP 2.6! GIMP is a kind of an open source Photoshop that can be run on all existing platforms (Windows, Mac OS, Linux). The 2.6 version brings several changes that will satisfy even the most experienced users. Many times it happens that we need a crop, a select tool, a wind tool or other decent instruments. Paint can’t be an option and Photoshop costs a lot of money. GIMP 2.6 gives all the necessary tools for editing, composing and creation of new pictures. The kit can be downloaded from here.
After the installation, the application starts on-the-fly displaying three modules: the toolbox, the working window itself and the layer option box, patterns and history. Almost all the Photoshop filters can be found here in one way or another. In the toolbox appeared the Free Select Tool which facilitates the work of cutting a picture. For a free program, GIMP 2.6 has a lot to offer.
GIMP stands for “GNU Image Manipulation Program” (a type of license that allows the using, copying and distribution of this software for free).
In 1995, students Peter Mattis and Spencer Kimball started working on GIMP, and a year later, on February 15, 1996 the first version 0.54 was released, with the “Motif” based interface (an application with the license for programming graphical interfaces), but quickly created a free alternative named GTK. After graduation, the two abandoned the work on the program, but some volunteers have recovered the coding and launched in June 1998 the 1.0 version. GIMP 1.2 had a lot of interface improvement, the ability to use the brushes and repaired bugs from previous versions. GIMP 2.0 used for the first time the GTK2+ set of instruments, the ability to edit texts and CMYK color range support. The major changes occurred with the 2.2 up to 2.4 versions and included improved support for RGB, HSV, CMYK color ranges, Pantone colors, gray tints, new instruments for selections and a whole interface change. With the launch of 2.6 version, the interface and program interaction with the user has improved.
The features of the program includes 48 standard brushes plus facilities to create new ones, about 150 filters and effects, options for layers, selections, color channels and masks for digital images, vector graphics and for animations as well.
With GIMP you can open, edit and save many types of files like: JPG, PNG, GIF, TIFF, BMP, PSD, EPS, PRN, PS, and others compatible with the majority of image processing programs such as Adobe Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro or with the Postscript language. The user can import Adobe PDF documents, and RAW formats from the most digital video cameras, but he can’t save them.
GIMP runs on Windows, Linux and MAC OS X platforms, which makes it one of the most used free programs in the graphics, animation and digital imaging domain.
