Posted by A. Chavez on Oct 12, 2012 | 1 comment

Software Review
Gimp 2.8
Publisher: Spencer Kimball, Peter Mattis and the GIMP Development Team
Platforms: PC & Mac
Description: Image Manipulation Program  
MSRP: Free
Expected Release: Available Now
Official Website: http://www.gimp.org
Samples: Click Here 
Demo: Click Here 
Special Discount: N/A
Review Issue: #80 (10/12)
Review By: A Chavez
Final Score: 8.3

GIMP is an open source alternative to Adobe PhotoShop, which specializes in editing and retouching images. The software can work with all kinds of images, be it photos, icons, drawings, fonts, even layered graphic designs. With cross-platform compatibility and support of an exhaustive list of file formats, GIMP is a viable resource for beginner to intermediate image editing tasks, albeit limited in its ability to handle print files.

Ease of Use

There aren’t many things more daunting than having to learn a new software program as robust and multi-faceted as GIMP, and yet for those familiar with PhotoShop, the learning curve will be surprisingly low. Although the maintainers of GIMP “seek to fulfill GIMP’s product vision rather than seek to replicate the interface of Adobe PhotoShop” (according to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GIMP), it is impossible to avoid comparison with so many similar tools and commands. The GIMP toolbox, for example, is basically filled with standard photoshop icons, such as the lasso, wand, magnifying glasss, text, stamp, blur, and eraser tool. Such obvious adoption of Photoshop elements is a major advantage for many users who will probably have at least dabbled in Adobe’s cornerstone program.

Even for the true software neophyte, GIMP’s interface is accessible. It seems that GIMP creators have considered the simplicity of use, as there is easy interactivity for the more basic functions. One useful link, http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/Lite_Quickies/, can help those first-time users in a crunch with quick tasks such as re-sizing, cropping or rotating an image, finding image information, and saving for the web.

Depth of Options

Let’s delve into the program. For starters, GIMP has an impressive number of files it can read. Along with the usual suspects of JPG, GIF, TIF, PNG, and some PSD files, GIMP was able to open raw photo files from both Canon (CR2), Nikon (NEF), and PhotoShop (DNG), though the raw files were not viewable in the preview screen of the “Open Image” dialog box. Furthermore, GIMP enabled a pre-screen dialog box for raw images, allowing photo literate users to dabble with temperature, tint, interpolation, and brightness before importing into GIMP. Versions as late as PhotoShop CS4 had issues with reading newer versions of both Canon and Nikon raw files, and could require a codec installation.

Surprisingly, though, GIMP does not handle CMYK files natively. When I opened a CMYK TIF file in GIMP, it automatically changed the mode to RGB. I tried to convert it back by assigning a generic CMYK color file under Mode>Assign Color Profile, but received an exclamation error, “Destination profile is not for RGB color space.” Well, duh! So quite early on I stumbled upon a major handicap of GIMP, which it does not support print-ready files. There is a plugin called “separate+” that allows some CMYK access, but not PSD CMYK files. This can be limiting if you are hoping to utilize GIMP for poster or DVD art as there could be noticeable shifts from viewable to printed versions. So until GIMP gears itself to work with CMYK files, it will primarily be a non-professional resource that outputs for the web.

A new feature with version 2.8 is the single window mode. Found as a toggle option in the Windows tab, the single window mode allows for a more cohesive, less cluttered, working environment. Open images appear as thumbnail tabs top center, with dialog boxes affixed to the left and right of the main window. I found this option to be an improved working environment.

Once you get an image into GIMP, you’re going to be working with tools. Transforming the image by cropping, rotating, flipping, scaling can be done with ease. There are many tools for selecting parts of an image, including the ability to draw a rectangle or circle selection, a magic wand, which will select all areas of similar color where you click the mouse, and a lasso tool that allows you to draw around an area to select. There’s the nifty clone tool, which allows you to draw over an object that needs to be removed. For example, let’s say there’s a telephone line cutting through a picture of a sky. The clone tool can grab a patch of image from the sky and “clone” over the telephone line, making it disappear! The blur and healing tools will help blend these areas into a uniform image. Lastly, there’s drawing tools, such as the pencil, paintbrush, airbrush, and bucket tool that allows for users to add all kinds of doodling to an image, or even create a work of art from scratch.

The toolbox is the first of many dialogue boxes: pop-up display windows for special tasks. Dialog boxes line up on the left and right side of an open image, with the toolbox locked in the upper left as the primary box. “Windows>Dockable Dialogs” will bring you to the list of available dialog boxes. First and foremost are layers, the definite graphic manipulation tool. Like pages in a book, layers stack on top of one another. Each layer can be a separate image, a line, or text. Multiple layers can be viewed at one time, as each layer has adjustable opacity levels. And like PhotoShop, there are adjustment modes which allow two layers to commingle. For example, I can choose “Multiply” for a text layer and it will become semi-transparent, making the darker areas of the underlying image darker through the text layer.

New to version 2.8 are layer groups. For graphic designers who enjoy mounds of layers, the group layer option allow layers to be organized in groups, which will make locating problem layers more efficient. Any filmmaker designing key art will be thankful for this feature, as filters, effects, and text boxes will inevitably create a file with a multitude of layers.

The filter tab is loaded with other useful actions for creating snappy poster art. Filters are the go-to resource for enhancing titling and images. Let’s say you want to create a nice brushed steel texture for your font, add a lens flare, or make a photo have a cartoon effect. All of these options are preset actions available in the filters menu. I took a public domain image and applied these effects and came up with this in a manner of minutes:

“Undo history” is another noteworthy dialog box. Although GIMP has the added value of having the undo option (control-z) go back as far as your computer memory allows (which Photoshop does not, by default, have), the undo history dialog is a much faster way of going back to past actions. Each action is recorded sequentially and given a thumbnail with the action listed. From this dialog box, one can easily find any past action.

A very essential element made user friendly is the text tool. Click on the “A” icon in the toolbox, click onto the image and a cursor will open up for typing. Beside the typing canvas is a floating dialog box that displays edit capabilities. Here, it’s easy to change font size, color, and type as you go. Overall, I’d say this is an improved feature over PhotoShop with one exception: the font type selection tool has no drop down menu. instead, there’s a blank text box with smart type functionality. When you type the first letter, fonts which contain that letter appear in a drop down menu as an option . But what if you don’t know what font you want to use? Not that an image program is the ideal place to select fonts (there is plenty of font viewing software which works faster), but for some last minute text editing, it would be helpful to have a listing of fonts to peruse.

Drawing features are up to speed with ample brushes and real time display. While I read about some users having installation problems with Windows 7, I didn’t run into these issues on my Mac Dual-Core Intel chip running OS 10.6.8 with 6 GB of memory. There was instant recognition when plugging in my Wacom tablet, and no lag time when drawing with brushes. The program comes with a scant selection of brushes, but there are many ways of adding brushes, either from scratch or by via import. Creating brushes is a cinch with the slider tools in the new brush dialog box. Start by going to the arrow in the Brushes dialog box (below the tool box), select Brushes Menu>Edit Brush… and on the upper right a new brush dialog box will appear. Here you can click the desired shape and drag the sliders for quick results. One major plus is that GIMP reads PhotoShop brushes, and with the plethora of CBR brushes available, the Wacom-ready user will be up and running in no time.

Adding brushes is one of many tweaks to pimp GIMP, making the user experience that much more akin to Photoshop capabilities. For starters, installing plugins is relatively straight forward, with plugins being copied to the plugins folder found in “Edit>Preferences>Folders”. Moreover, GIMP has an entire website (http://registry.gimp.org/) dedicated to plugins which cover the gamut of image manipulation bells and whistles. Here you can find ways to add filers, layer styles, even animation creation. Thankfully, GIMP also supports Adobe PhotoShop plugins.

Performance

Overall performance is more functional and less wonky than most free software. Running the same task on PhotoShop is perhaps about 20-30% faster for very intensive filters, but for the majority of basic tasks turnaround time was fast. Additionally, without print file functionality, general file sizes are probably smaller, and so, efficient enough to get the job done. For my own curiosity I tested larger files (about 50-100 mb), and GIMP was able to handle tasks with no freezing. There was an occasion where the effect did not complete on the entire layer, but GIMP got it right the second try.

Value 

Nothing beats the amazing price of free. For an open source program GIMP really delivers above and beyond other free software. Considering the high price of proprietary image editing software, it’s a wonder that such a competent program is available to all.

Final Comments

Kudos to the GIMP team for distributing an incredible, totally FREE program for image manipulation. GIMP offers a bounty of ways to radically improve and alter images from basic image cropping to complicated key art creation. There is still a missing link with no CMYK support, but regardless, the jobs done by GIMP are handled well and intuitively. GIMP is a real alternative to expensive proprietary software for most of your image handling needs.

Breakdown
Ease of Use	8.0
Depth of Options	7.0
Performance	8.0
Value vs. Cost	10.0
Overall Score	8.3