GIMP

GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP)
Company type	Free software
Industry	Software
Founded	1995; 31 years ago
Founder	Spencer Kimball, Peter Mattis
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Community of volunteers
Products	Raster graphics editor
Owner	GNU Project
Number of employees	0 (volunteer-based)
Website	www.gimp.org

The GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) is an open-source and free-to-use raster graphics editor.

Frequently employed for tasks such as photo enhancement, image modification, freehand sketching, and converting between various image formats, GIMP is compatible with Windows, Linux, and macOS platforms. It is distributed under the GNU General Public License (GPL version 3.0 or newer) and maintained by a community of volunteers who actively encourage user involvement.

GIMP’s capabilities can be expanded through plugins and scripting, facilitating workflow automation. Although it was not originally intended mainly for digital painting, it remains favored by a segment of artists and content creators.

History

Development of GIMP began in 1995 when Spencer Kimball and Peter Mattis initiated it as a semester endeavor at the University of California, Berkeley within the eXperimental Computing Facility. Initially called the General Image Manipulation Program, the acronym GIMP originated by adding a “G” to “-IMP,” inspired by a mention in the 1994 movie Pulp Fiction.

The first public version, 0.54, was released in 1996 and swiftly gained traction among users and developers who contributed tutorials, artwork, and workflow improvements.

In 1997, during a visit to UC Berkeley, Richard Stallman from the GNU Project approved renaming “General” to “GNU,” officially incorporating GIMP into the GNU software suite.

Originally created for Unix-based environments such as Linux, SGI IRIX, and HP-UX, GIMP was subsequently adapted for other operating systems including Microsoft Windows (1997 with GIMP 1.1) and macOS.

To aid GIMP’s development, a graphical user interface toolkit named GTK (initially the GIMP ToolKit) was developed. Peter Mattis created GTK after dissatisfaction with the Motif toolkit used until GIMP version 0.60.

Mascot

Wilber serves as GIMP’s official mascot, designed using GIMP itself by Tuomas Kuosmanen (known as tigert) on September 25, 1997. Contributors later added various accessories forming the Wilber Construction Kit, which is included in GIMP’s source code at /docs/Wilber_Construction_Kit.xcf.gz.

Development

GIMP is mainly developed by volunteers as a free software project aligned with the goals of the GNU and GNOME communities. Its development takes place openly in a public git source code repository, with collaboration occurring via mailing lists and GIMPNET IRC channels.

New functionalities are crafted in isolated branches and merged into the primary branch only after extensive testing to prevent disruption of existing features. This approach can postpone feature integration despite completion.

The source code is freely available; however, installers for different operating systems are typically produced by third parties not directly affiliated with core maintainers.

Version numbering follows a major-minor-micro scheme: major versions (currently at 3) denote significant changes; minor versions increment with feature additions—odd numbers indicate development builds while even numbers mark stable releases; micro versions address bug fixes and snapshots.

Between 2006 and 2009, GIMP participated in the Google Summer of Code, successfully completing nine projects. Some were integrated immediately while others took several years to merge. Important contributions from this period include tools like the healing brush and perspective clone, Ruby language bindings (introduced in version 2.8.0), Vector Layers support, and a JPEG 2000 plugin.

Public development releases advanced through the 2.9.x series, introducing major enhancements such as lifting the 4 GB XCF file size restriction and enabling support for up to 64 CPU threads—optimizing performance on modern AMD Ryzen and Intel Xeon processors. Version 2.10 emphasized performance improvements; its macOS beta became available starting with release 2.10.4.

The initial release candidate for version 3.0 was announced on November 6, 2024, followed by the official launch on March 16, 2025. This marked seven years of extensive feature development and dependency updates.

GIMP contributors gather annually at the Libre Graphics Meeting, where interaction designers connected to OpenUsability contribute to enhancing user experience design elements.

Distribution

The latest GIMP release is compatible with various operating systems, such as Linux, macOS, and Windows. Numerous Linux distributions, including Fedora Linux and Debian, incorporate GIMP within their default desktop setups.

Following the cessation of its presence on SourceForge in 2013, GIMP transitioned to self-hosting its download files. Subsequently, SourceForge reclaimed the inactive GIMP account and began distributing Windows versions bundled with adware.

In 2022, GIMP became accessible through the Microsoft Store for Windows users.

Features

GIMP offers a comprehensive suite of image editing utilities accessible through its toolbox, menus, and dialog panels. These tools encompass filters, brushes, transformation options, selection mechanisms, layer management, and masking capabilities. The development team strives to deliver features on par with Photoshop while maintaining a unique user interface.

Color

Color management in GIMP includes palettes, various color pickers, and an eyedropper tool. The integrated selectors support multiple color models such as RGB, HSV, LAB, LCH, watercolor simulation, CMYK, and color wheels. Users can also define colors using hexadecimal values commonly used in HTML. GIMP inherently supports indexed and RGB color spaces; other spaces like CMYK, LAB, and HSV are processed via channel decomposition into grayscale images. The Blend tool facilitates gradient-based color mixing across different modes and integrates with brushes. Default gradients come preloaded, with options for users to design custom gradients or add extra gradient plug-ins.

Selections and paths

GIMP provides a variety of selection instruments: rectangular and elliptical selections, freehand selection, fuzzy select (magic wand), select by color for contiguous areas, and scissors select that performs semi-automatic edge detection between contrasting hues. Quick mask mode allows painting selections with a red overlay for precision. The foreground select tool uses Simple Interactive Object Extraction (SIOX) to isolate foreground objects such as individuals or foliage. The Paths Tool enables creation of vector shapes (Bézier curves) for intricate selections following natural contours; these paths can be stroked using brushes or patterns and saved for future use.

Image editing

A range of image manipulation tools are available in GIMP, including paintbrushes, pencils, airbrushes, erasers, and ink tools for pixel creation or blending. The Bucket Fill tool applies color or patterns to selected areas, while the Blend tool adds gradients to regions or custom paths.

Sophisticated "smart" tools automate more complex edits:

Clone tool replicates pixels via brush strokes
Healing brush adjusts tone and color by copying nearby pixels
Perspective clone tool compensates for changes in distance
Blur and sharpen tools enhance fine details
Smudge tool gently smears pixel areas
Dodge and burn tools lighten (dodge) or darken (burn) targeted pixels

Layers, layer masks and channels

GIMP images consist of multiple stacked layers resembling transparent sheets. Each layer contains several channels—usually red, green, blue in an RGB image—and may include an alpha channel that controls transparency. Different layer modes can be applied to modify coloration.

Text created with the text tool can be converted into paths or selections, offering increased versatility in design composition and layout adjustments.

Automation, scripts and plug-ins

GIMP provides approximately 150 built-in effects and filters, including options like Drop Shadow, Blur, Motion Blur, and Noise.

The software supports automation through multiple scripting languages. Script-Fu, which is based on Scheme, operates via an embedded TinyScheme interpreter. Additionally, GIMP allows scripting with Perl, Python (known as Python-Fu), and Tcl by using external interpreters. Functionality can be expanded through plug-ins—external applications managed by GIMP’s core system. For instance, MathMap is a plug-in created in the C programming language.

Tools for image sharpening and blurring include blur, sharpen, and the Unsharp Mask tool, which enhances detail selectively for more accurate photo refinement. The Selective Gaussian Blur tool targets areas with low detail for blurring purposes.

GIMP-ML adds 15 machine learning-powered filters to GIMP, improving automated image processing capabilities.

GEGL

The Generic Graphics Library (GEGL) was introduced in version 2.6 of GIMP to improve image manipulation processes, initially enabling high bit-depth color operations to minimize data degradation during color adjustments.

While color depth was restricted to 8-bit in GIMP 2.8, version 2.10 incorporated full support for high bit-depth images and introduced hardware acceleration for certain tasks via OpenCL. With GIMP 3.0, non-destructive filters were implemented, allowing users to apply effects that can be modified, toggled on or off, or removed without altering the original image data. Support for third-party filters exists but requires compatible plug-ins.

CTX

CTX is a vector graphics rasterizer introduced in GIMP 3.0 that converts basic shapes such as lines and circles into vector objects, thereby enhancing GIMP’s vector editing capabilities.

File formats

GIMP is compatible with a broad array of file formats for both importing and exporting images. Its native format, XCF, retains detailed image information and has supported files larger than 4 GB since version 2.9.6.

	File formats
Import and export	Common image types like BMP, JPEG, PNG, GIF, TIFF, and HEIF are both imported and exported by GIMP. It also supports formats from other software such as Autodesk flic animations, Corel PaintShop Pro files, and Adobe Photoshop documents. Additional readable and writable formats include PostScript, X bitmap images (xwd), and Zsoft PCX. Moreover, GIMP can process path data from SVG files as well as Windows icon files (ICO).
Import only	Adobe PDF documents and numerous digital camera raw image formats can be imported but not exported by GIMP. The open-source plug-in UFRaw (and its fork nUFRAW) provides comprehensive raw file support with continuous updates for new camera models.
Export only	Export capabilities include layered images in MNG format (available on Linux), colored-cell HTML tables, arrays in C source code, and ASCII art through plug-ins; however, these formats cannot be imported back into GIMP.

Professional evaluations

In March 2019, Lifewire published a favorable assessment of GIMP, describing it as "a highly capable image editing software, especially for users unfamiliar with Photoshop." They highlighted that with some dedication to learning, it serves as a proficient tool for graphic design.

Release history

Version	Most recent release	Initial launch date	Key updates and remarks
Template:Version	1.0.3	1998-06-05	First stable edition. Shifted from Motif to GTK+ 1.x framework. Introduced image layering, the XCF format, a new memory manager featuring disk caching for handling large images, plug-in and extension APIs, Procedural Database (PDB), and Script-Fu scripting.
Template:Version	1.2.5	2000-12-25	Enhancements made to the user interface.
Template:Version	2.0.6	2004-03-23	Transitioned to GTK+ 2.x toolkit. Added tabbed interface and dockable dialogs, improved Script-Fu capabilities, enabled text re-editing, and introduced CMYK color model support.
Template:Version	2.2.17	2004-12-19	Added support for plugins, keyboard shortcut customization, previews in transform tools, hardware controller compatibility, improved drag-and-drop and copy-paste integration with other applications. This was the final major release supporting Windows 98/Me.
Template:Version	2.4.7	2007-10-24	Implemented color management features, scalable brush tools, new selection and cropping utilities, full-screen editing mode, refreshed icon set, expanded file format compatibility, along with enhanced printing and external device support.
Template:Version	2.6.12	2008-10-01	Partial integration of GEGL and initial redesign of the user interface. Marked the last primary release compatible with Windows 2000.
Template:Version	2.8.22	2012-05-03	Introduced single-window mode, multi-column dock layouts, separation of save/export functions, layer grouping capability, on-canvas text editing, Cairo-rendered tools, and simple mathematical expressions in size inputs; last major release supporting Windows XP and Vista.
rowspan="10" Template:Version	2.9.2	2018-04-27	Migration to GEGL with new and enhanced tools; improved file format and color management support; advanced layer blending and metadata processing; updated UI themes; on-canvas gradient editing; Wayland support on Linux; initial HiDPI support.
2.10.4	2018-07-04	Added a straightforward horizon straightening tool; asynchronous font loading introduced.
2.10.6	2018-08-19	Included vertical text layers and additional filters.
2.10.10	2019-04-07	Introduced line art detection functionality.
2.10.18	2020-02-24	Debuted a new three-dimensional transform tool.
2.10.24	2021-03-29	Expanded file format support (HEIF, PSP, TIFF, JPEG, PNG, PDF, DDS, BMP, PSD); added "Negative Darkroom" feature for negatives; restored Windows Vista compatibility.
2.10.32	2022-06-14	Backported enhancements from version 2.99.8 including improvements to TIFF and JPEG XL handling.
2.10.34	2023-02-27	Incorporated backported features from the 2.99.x series: file format improvements, template selector in Canvas Size dialog, refined color picker; macOS optimizations; GEGL/babl updates; experimental builds for Windows ARM architecture.
2.10.36	2023-11-05	Added support for ASE and ACB palettes; introduced foreground-to-transparent transitions; better GIF image ratio handling; multiple bug fixes; final major version compatible with Windows Vista through Windows 8.1.
2.10.38	2024-05-05	Included backported features from the 2.99.x branch; enhanced tablet support on Windows platforms.
Template:Version	3.0.2	2025-03-16	Full migration to maintained GTK+ 3 toolkit; non-destructive editing capabilities; improved HiDPI and Wacom device integration; Linux Wayland compatibility; multi-layer selection support; extensions available in Python 3, JavaScript, Lua, and Vala; better native XCF saving functionality.
Template:Version	—	Template:TBA	Planned enhancements include non-destructive filters, animation and multi-page document support, macro recording with scripting capabilities, extended plugin system, and improvements to canvas and toolsets.

Forks and derivatives

Given GIMP's status as free and open-source software, numerous forks and variations have emerged to address particular user requirements. Although GIMP itself is cross-platform, some of these offshoots may lack compatibility across all operating systems. These alternative versions are neither hosted nor endorsed on the official GIMP website, which also does not provide direct downloads for Windows or Unix-like platforms, though it does link to a Windows installer.

Forks

CinePaint, initially known as Film Gimp, is a derivative of GIMP 1.0.4 designed specifically for detailed frame-by-frame film editing. It supports up to 32-bit IEEE floating-point color depth per channel, includes color management capabilities, and handles HDR imagery, making it popular within the film industry. It is available for BSD, Linux, and macOS.
GIMP classic is a modification of GIMP version 2.6.8 that reinstates the user interface style from versions 2.4 through 2.6. Ubuntu builds are available, and as of 2011, patches adapted for the experimental GIMP 2.7 were offered.
GIMP Portable provides a Windows version that retains brushes and presets when used across multiple devices.
GIMPshop sought to mimic the look and feel of Adobe Photoshop but was discontinued in 2006 following domain disputes that halted development.
GimPhoto delivers a Photoshop-like interface similar to GIMPshop’s approach, enhanced with additional customization through GimPad. It supports Linux and Windows (based on GIMP v2.4.3) as well as macOS (based on v2.6.8). Due to being maintained by a single developer, updates are rare, and there are no current plans to support versions beyond GIMP 2.8.
McGimp was an independent macOS adaptation that incorporated photo-optimization plug-ins.
Seashore is a macOS port emphasizing a simplified user interface built using Cocoa frameworks.
Glimpse was a fork created in response to concerns about the word "gimp" being offensive to disabled individuals but has since been discontinued.

Extensions

GIMP's functionality can be significantly extended through various plugins, such as:

GIMP-ML, which provides image enhancement powered by machine learning, with ongoing development aimed at Python 3 support.
The GIMP Animation Package (GAP), an official animation extension supporting file formats including GIF and AVI.
Resynthesizer, a content-aware fill plugin originally developed from Paul Harrison’s doctoral research and currently maintained by Lloyd Konneker.
G'MIC, offering a broad collection of image filters and effects.

External links