GIMP is a digital photo manipulation tool for Windows (and many other platforms) that’s considered to be the open source (free) answer to Adobe Photoshop. Like Photoshop, GIMP is suitable for a variety of image manipulation tasks, including photo retouching, image composition, image construction, and has many other capabilities. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter, and so much more.
GIMP is amazingly expandable and extensible – it is designed to be augmented with plug-ins and extensions to do just about anything. The advanced scripting interface allows everything from the simplest task to the most complex image manipulation procedures to be easily scripted.
One of GIMP"s strengths is its free availability from many sources for many operating systems. So, if you don’t want to pay the price for Photoshop, GIMP is definitely the app for you!
GIMP features:
- Full suite of painting tools including Brush, Pencil, Airbrush, Clone, and more – including the support of custom brushes & patterns
- Extremely powerful gradient editor and blend tool
- Transformation tools including rotate, scale, shear, flip, and more
- Supports a variety of selection tools such as rectangle, rounded rectangle, ellipse, free, fuzzy, and more
- Supports many file formats – including bmp, gif, jpeg, mng, pcx, pdf, png, ps, psd, svg, tiff, tga, xpm, and more
- Advanced path tool doing bezier and polygonal selections
- Supports a virtually unlimited number of images open at one time
- Load, display, convert, and save to many different file formats
GIMP 3.2 changelog highlights:
- New non-destructive Link Layers for smart-object-like editing
- New Vector Layers with on-canvas controls and live transform support
- Updated MyPaint brush set with improved dynamics and pressure behavior
- Reworked Text Tool with draggable on-canvas editor and better shortcuts
- New Overwrite Paint Mode for clean pixel-by-pixel painting and sprite work
- Non-destructive filter workflow improvements and new Vibrance filter
- Faster tool switching with Shift + X and improved drag-and-drop interactions
- Updated Welcome dialog with clearer shortcuts and user guidance
- Enhanced file format support: improved SVG import/export with vectors, better PDF support, JPEG 2000, DDS BC7, PSB export, additional retro formats
- Dozens of UX refinements across dialogs, sliders, and tool settings
- Major bug fixes, performance enhancements, and restoration of previously broken features
- New developer APIs, updated plug-in interface, and built-in GEGL Filter Browser
- End of 32-bit binary distribution, moving fully to modern 64-bit platforms
- Internal engine and rendering improvements for more stable and predictable output
- Expanded color management and metadata handling for advanced workflows
- Better tablet, stylus, and device-input behavior across tools
- More reliable undo/redo with complex layer and filter stacks
- Improved default presets and cleaner tool defaults for new users
- Better cross-platform consistency (Windows, Linux, macOS) in UI and rendering
- Continued groundwork for future fully non-destructive editing pipelines
Download: GIMP 3.2.0 | 294.0 MB (Open Source)
View: GIMP Website | Screenshot | Release Notes
