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The GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is an excellent free computer graphics
program which exists for many computer platforms including
PC and Mac. You can almost certainly find a version for
your computer on the GIMP site,
www.gimp.org . This course
was written with PCs in mind but if you use a
Mac or other platform you will easily be able to
adapt the instructions here to match your
operating system. |
This program is so good that it can compared
to well-know and rather expensive programs such as Adobe
Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro or many other well-know graphics
programs (see this page
for a comparison table).
Like Photoshop, the GIMP is designed mainly for working with
digital photographs - it would not necessarily be the best
program to use to make artwork, drawing or animations.
Although the GIMP is powerful and free it had a major
weakness until recently - the way it spawned many windows
all over the place, leading to some confusion. But GIMP 2.8
and later has the option of running in single-window mode,
removing the weakness and making the GIMP my graphics
program of choice. Download a copy today but make sure it is
2.78 or later!
The GIMP has many uses:
 | It can be a useful utility for converting images
between different file formats such as gif, jpeg, tiff,
etc. (more on file formats later). Or it can be used to
adjust image size or file size e.g. for faster loading
on a web page.
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| It can be used to correct faults in individual
photographs, by adjusting colors, contrast, brightness,
sharpness etc to give an image that is as true to life
as possible.
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| Without falsifying the image, the image can often be
improved by trimming the edges, a technique known as
'cropping' the image.
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| At the next level, the GIMP can be used improve the
photograph in ways that deliberately falsify the image.
For example, unwanted parts of the image could be
removed, such as the lamppost that appears to be growing
out of someone's head, or the unwanted 'red-eye' effect
in a flash photograph. Or the wrinkles in the face of an
older person might be softened or removed. A boring
white sky could be replaced with a blue one...
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| the GIMP can also be used to incorporate text into
an image
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| At the highest level, it is possible to be highly
creative and artistic when using the GIMP, combining
images together to form montage effects or changing
colors and using special effects to give the photographs
a surreal quality... |
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