The Gimp – image Manipulation

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I’m  a big fan of Open Source Free software… the real kind of free, like ‘Here have this beer’ kind of free. Not the gotcha on the other end kind.

Open source software has it’s code open and available for anyone to examine and modify at any time. Aside from some levels of complexity, it’s VERY hard to hide nefarious goals within Open Source work, and so it is safer to use (generally and relatively) than pay for software, for which the Terms of Service change around your will.

With that tidbit of info taken care of I’d like to introduce you to ‘The Gimp’ an image manipulation software, that directly and ‘competently’ competes with the likes of Adobe’s photoshop and others.

This isn’t sketchy or crude. It’s not buggy or faulty. It runs stable and secure. This is world class, leading the charge image editing. Tons of tutorials, plugins, and well… just about anything you could want from a program to edit 2D images.

Make your concert poster. Edit uncle Bob out of your wedding photo… add some color to a black and white, stitch a panorama or create a collage… or whatever else it is you want to do.

…. AND NOT PAY EVEN A SINGLE DIME… to do it.

I cannot recommend this enough. I’ve been using it for many years and have found it to be just fantastic.  I think you’ll like it too.

https://www.gimp.org/

Bonus: Tutorials.

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Dude hell yeah. I’m also a huge fan of open source software.

Fun fact – the original Extra Chill logo was designed with Gimp. So were our tie-dye stickers.

The one thing about it is the learning curve, it’s kind of difficult to figure out. I’ve never used photoshop, but someone I talked to said it’s basically the same learning curve that you’d have with PS, except for free. I find myself using Canva more these days because it’s super easy to use, but definitely not as powerful.

Adobe software is all ridiculously expensive.

Another fun fact – Extra Chill is basically powered by open source software. WordPress is also free and open source, and probably my favorite open source software ever. This forum is run by another open source software too, bbPress, created by the WordPress folks.

I love how you can get super creative with open source software. Not only is it legal, but it’s encouraged! Badass.

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Agree about the learning curve, and also… it’s really no different than diving into PS – which costs an arm and a leg and is subscription based.

There are a ton more of these free photo/image manipulation, and photography and even video related softwares. Many of them curated at https://pixls.us/

Another one that I recommend that is a sweet replacement for Adobe’s “Lightroom” is “Darktable”.

https://www.darktable.org/

For artists looking to make vector work – stickers, t-shirts, band/concert posters and the like, a couple of highly recommended softwares are Krita, and Inkscape.

https://krita.org/en/

https://inkscape.org/

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I’m checking Gimp out now, it seems super cool. I have been wondering about a cheap/free version of Photoshop and this seems to fit that description. Thanks for sharing all these resources!

 

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If it turns out that you like the Gimp, and I think you will… one of the most powerful plugins, that adds just a ton of functionality is called G’mic… ostensibly “gimmick”.

Here’s an article explaining what it is, does, and how to get and use it.

I personally use this for creating montage/collage images for my photos, so that I can post multiple images in one, where otherwise it’s not easy to share more than one image at a time. You can see at least one example in my other thread here about the Jerkweed show last weekend.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/what-is-gmic-for-gimp-and-how-do-you-use-it/

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I have this tour poster from Twen that has dummy data on it for date/venue, and I want to print it out and get it hung up around town this week.

I’m gonna use Gimp to replace the “DATE TIME” and “VENUE” with the date/time and the venue.

They sent me a .psd file. I opened it up and I can see all the layers but I’m not sure exactly how to edit the text layers without simply deleting what’s there and replacing it with my own.

Is that the proper way to do it?

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@chubes answering my own question here – that’s how I ended up doing it. And then the band sent me a new poster so it was a waste of time anyway! Lol

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Well, at least you’ll know how it works for the next time you need it! 🙂

But yes, unless the text in the layer remains editable… ie, hasn’t been “flattened” then just replacing it would be the way to go.

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Long time Gimp user and lover here, checking in 🙂 Photoshop is for old saggy people!