GIMP

About

GIMP

GIMP, the GNU Image Manipulation Program, is a free open-source raster graphics editor released under the GNU General Public License. First made public in 1996 and maintained today under the GNOME Project, the application covers photo retouching, image composition, and image authoring across Windows, macOS, and Linux, and has served as the reference free alternative to Adobe Photoshop for creators, designers, and photographers for nearly three decades.

GIMP began at the University of California, Berkeley in 1995 as a semester project by undergraduates Spencer Kimball and Peter Mattis for the eXperimental Computing Facility, and the first public release followed in early 1996. The project quickly attracted volunteer contributors, adopted the GNU General Public License, and moved onto the GNU infrastructure that later became part of the GNOME desktop ecosystem. Version 2.0 in 2004 introduced the multi-window interface that defined GIMP for the next two decades, and the long-awaited 2.10 release in 2018 landed high-bit-depth precision, GEGL-based non-destructive processing, and modern color management. The 3.0 generation, culminating in the 3.2 branch now shipping, brought a GTK3 port, non-destructive filter workflows, linked layers, and vector layers that expand on the raster core. Feature coverage spans layers with masks, channels, curves, levels, paths, cage transforms, healing and clone tools, customizable brushes, filter effects, and a comprehensive plug-in and scripting layer through Script-Fu and Python. GIMP supports its native XCF format alongside PSD, TIFF, PNG, JPEG, WebP, EXR, and dozens of niche formats, and exchanges cleanly with RAW processors such as Darktable and RawTherapee. The application permits commercial creative work under the GPL, and the Batch Image Manipulation Plugin (BIMP) family extends its automation surface for studios that rely on bulk processing. The GIMP Project publishes source, binaries, and development snapshots through the GNOME infrastructure, coordinates development on GitLab, and maintains community channels across Mastodon and public IRC. Documentation, tutorials, and the GIMP Magazine ecosystem have grown alongside the codebase, and the software remains freely redistributable, translatable, and packageable by distributions worldwide. That combination of longevity, free licensing, and cross-platform reach continues to make GIMP the default recommendation when a creator or educator asks for a Photoshop equivalent that costs nothing and can be shipped inside a school or studio computer image without a license audit.