CASE STUDY ON

GIMP
Written and presented by

Archie Bhartari Enroll No. :A7605219033

Hafsah Iqbal Khan Enroll No. :A7605219062
INTRODUCTION

• GIMP is a free and versatile open-source graphics

editor written in C language, owing its user interface
to GTK+ which assists in building GUIs.

• GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulation

Program. GIMP is used for image manipulation and
editing, this includes retouching images and photos,
changing their composition (arrangement of
elements), and authoring them(working around with
image texture).

• Free-form drawing and transcoding (interconversion

of different encoded formats) are some of its other
key features.
DEVELOPMENT METHODOLOGY AND
PROCESS
• GIMP was developed in 1995 by Spencer Kimball and Peter Mattis,
students at the University of California, Berkeley.
• It was primarily developed by volunteers as a free and open-source
software project associated with both GNU and GNOME projects.
• GIMP development takes place at a public git source code repository
on public mailing lists and chat channels on the GIMPNET IRC
network.
• New features are held at separate public source code branches and
GIMP developers conference 2006
merged into the main (or development) branch when the GIMP team is
sure they won't damage existing functions.
• GIMP's released as source code. Once this source code is released,
different installers and packages are made for different types of
operating systems by volunteering parties who may or may not be a
part of the maintainers of GIMP.
• GIMP has also applied for many positions in the Google Summer of
Code (GSoC). There have been nine GSoC projects listed as successful
from 2006 to 2009, although not all successful projects were merged
into GIMP immediately.
LICENSE
• The GIMP software follows the GNU GPL (General Public
License) copyrighted under the FSF in 2007. As per the
copyright, distribution of exact copies of the licensure
document by persons is allowed. Any change in the wording
and structure of the licensure is strictly prohibited. It is to be
word for word.
• The GNU General Public License guarantees the freedom to
share and change free software. It is a copyleft license, which
means that any modified or derivative work under it must be
distributed with the same or equivalent license terms.
• It does not permit the incorporation of programs into those
that are proprietary.
• There is no applicable warranty on the software or program
unless explicitly stated. Risks in negative adherence to quality
and performance are completely under the user, not liable to
the developers.
FEATURES
• The GIMP interface is modular (into “docks”) and
customizable. It allows one to change it as per their
preferences. The sizing of widgets and choice of
colors are both customizable to the user’s taste.
• Its most salient editing features include perspective
and barrel distortion, digital retouching through
cloning, channel mixer, gradient editor, and blend tool.
And a suite of painting tools such as brush (custom
brushes too!!), pencil, airbrush, etc., sub-pixel
sampling for all paint tools for high-quality anti-
aliasing (smoothing overjagged parts).
• There are multiple Undo/redo options and editable text
layers; transformation tools including rotate, scale,
shear, and flip.
EDITING TOOLS (FEATURES Contd.)
COLOR:
There are several ways of selecting colors, including palettes, color
choosers, and the eyedropper tool to select a color present on the
canvas. The built-in color choosers include RGB/HSV/LAB/LCH
selector or scales, water-color selector, CMYK selector, and a color-
wheel selector. Colors can also be selected using hexadecimal color
codes as used in HTML. GIMP has native support for indexed color and
RGB color spaces. Color blending is achievable using the Blend tool by
applying a gradient to the surface of an image and using GIMP's color
modes.
SELECTION AND PATHS:
GIMP selection tools include a Rectangular and Circular Selection tool,
Free Select tool, and Fuzzy Select tool (also known as Magic Wand).
Some advanced selection tools include the 'Select by Color' tool for
selecting contiguous regions of color, and the 'Scissors Select' tool,
which creates semi-automatic selections between areas of high contrast
in color. The 'Paths' tool allows a user to create vectors
EDITING TOOLS (FEATURES Contd.)

IMAGE EDITING:
The GIMP image editing tools include a paintbrush, pencil, airbrush, eraser, and
ink tools used to create new or blended pixels. The 'Bucket Fill' tool can be used
to fill a selection with a color or pattern, similar to the one present in MS Paint.
The 'Blend' tool can be used to fill a selection with a color gradient. GIMP also
provides "smart" tools that use a more complex algorithm to do things that
otherwise would be time-consuming or impossible. These include:
• Clone tool, which copies pixels using a brush
• Healing brush, which copies pixels from an area and corrects tone and color
• Perspective clone tool, which works like the clone tool but corrects for
distance changes
• Blur and sharpen tool blurs and sharpens using a brush 11
• The Smudge tool can be used to subtly smear a selection.
• Dodge and burn tool is a brush that makes target pixels lighter (dodges) or
darker (burns).
CONTRIBUTION TO GIMP
• Having an opensource architecture means anyone can
modify its code and develop new plugins and features.
There is no difference between a user and a developer in
that sense.
• For those wanting to contribute to its source code can do so
through GitHub. GIMP’s source code is openly available
for all to see.
• One can simply go to GIMP’s official website and navigate
through it to find the source code for the version of their
desire. Also, the GNOME Foundation (The GNOME
Project is the community facilitating and working behind
the GNOME desktop environment) hosts all of GIMP’s
code repositories.
• This includes the plugins and application (gimp), website
repository (gimp-web), developer repository (gimp-web-
devel), and user manual (gimp-help).
VERSION HISTORY AND POPULARITY

• GIMP was announced on 21st November 1995. On 15th

February 1996 GIMP 0.54 was released.
• In the years 200-2003 GIMP versions 1.2.0 to 1.2.5 were
released.
• In the year 2004, versions 2.0.0 to 2.2.1 were released.
• In the year 2005, versions 2.2.2 to 2.2.10 were released.
• In 2006 versions 2.2.11 to2.2.13 were released.
• In 2007 versions 2.2.14 to 2.4.3 were released.
• In 2008 versions2.4.4 to2.6.3 were released.
• In 2009 versions 2.6.4 to 2.6.8 were released.
• From 2010-2012 versions 2.6.9 to 2.8.2 were released.
• From 2013 onwards version 2.8.4 to 2.8.10 on 14th October
2018 were released.
• Currently the team is working on version 3.0 which may or
may not be released this year.
VERSION HISTORY AND POPULARITY
POPULARITY
• It was a very popular design software in the early 2000s
before Photoshop took over as the professional and advanced
paid alternative for the same. To date, it is considered the
most popular alternative to Photoshop.
• GIMP provides many features free of cost which do serve as
an advantage, but the problem lies in the marketing, which
explains GIMP's loss of popularity and moving of rank from
first to second.
• Almost all design classes teach using Photoshop. One reason
for GIMP's decline in popularity is due to the lack of tutorials
and classes on it.
• This is not only because of Photoshop's popularity but also
because GIMP is open-source software, and many hobbyist
individuals and established design firms still have the
perception that open-source applications are distributed with
spyware or are susceptible to crashes and data loss.
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF
GIMP
ADVANTAGES
• It is one of the best photo editing software for
beginners and small businesses.
• GIMP has a large number of tools for manipulating
any type of image and exporting it in any necessary
format. It supports a wide range of file formats such
as jpeg, pdf, gif, png, jpg, mng, BMP, ps, PSD, SVG,
xpm, and more.
• It provides all essential editing features and tools.
You can use GIMP to create GIFs using many layers.
• Considering the small install, it is appropriate to
comment that it is lightweight on resources. This
makes it portable and easy to install on laptops and
digital notebooks. There also exists a version that
can be loaded onto USB drives.
DISADVANTAGES
• Even though GIMP is one of the best free editing
software it is still less used by hobbyists, individuals,
and big editing firms because it is a less marketed
product than Photoshop.
• Limitations on the number of layers that can be used.
• Lack of GIMP support and tutorials
• GIMP can do more than what most hobbyists would
ever need. But, as mentioned before, there are fewer
tutorials, so it becomes difficult to understand how to
work using these advanced features.
• Perception that open source is always distributed with
spyware or susceptible to crashes and data loss can
turn some users off, whether the perception is valid or
not.
CONCLUSION
GIMP, a free and open-source raster graphics editor software, can
be concluded in no doubt to be a phenomenal software in what it is
meant for and can take the first position in its field if some essential
steps are taken. The biggest factor that makes GIMP superior to any
other photo editing software is that it is open-source software, and
hence, it is quite an in-budget investment for anyone who is a
beginner or a small business owner. It provides a variety of features
and tools for its users to manipulate and edit any image, and export
it in any form. Even after the many advantages provided by GIMP,
we see that its popularity is still less in parallel to Photoshop
because of 2 main reasons that overpower any other. The first one is
that people still do not fully trust open-source software and think
that they are free software that comes with spyware or is susceptible
to crashes. The second reason is that GIMP is a very good choice as
a photo editor software, and some of its features are even superior
to that of Photoshop, but still, it is not taken as a choice because it is
not as popular out there as Photoshop.
THANK YOU