GIMP

GIMP an impressively powerful and freely-distributable Adobe Photoshop-alternative open-source application for digital image composition, authoring, retouching and processing.

GIMP is short for GNU Image Manipulation Program}, and is licensed under a cost-free, GNU license. You can read up on the exact terms and conditions here: GNU General Public License.

The GIMP operates on a wide range of platforms {including Mac, Linux and PC}, and in numerous languages, simply by changing the “LANG” environment variable to “en”, to view in English, for example.

GIMP Image Manipulation Tips

The following will help you start unleashing the power of the GIMP for making parts of your image transparent, removing transparency information, and changing the size of your picture:

• To add transparency information, you need to create an Alpha-channel for your picture {Layer >> Transparency >> Add Alpha Channel} and erase what you don’t want after choosing the eraser tool.
• To make a specific area transparent, isolate the area you’d like to make transparent by choosing a selection tool, such as the Magic Wand and click on Edit >> Clear {or use the hot-key combo, CTRL+K}.
• The simplest and easiest way to remove undesirable Alpha-channel information, is to ‘flatten’ the image- click on Layers >> Flatten Image.
• To change the scale {size} of your photo, click on Image >> Scale Image {the default is in pixels} or you can also choose percent. Keep in mind that by default, your image will change proportionally… when you alter the width the height will change proportionally,and vise-versa.
• A great depository of GIMP tutorials and scripts: GIMP User Group and The GIMP’s manual.
• In order to use a wide variety of Photoshop filters and plug-ins, you’ll want to download pspi.exe {for Windows} and extract it to the default GIMP installation directory (lib/gimp/2.0/plug-ins folder). After restarting the GIMP, your Xtns-menu drop down window will have a new addition – Photoshop Plug-in Settings.