GIMP Photo Editor – Introduction, Download, Review and Alternative 2023
Last Updated on February 22, 2023 by Peter Wood
You can see many similar questions about GIMP photo editor, like “Is GIMP safe?”, “GIMP vs Photoshop” and others. Well, Adobe Photoshop is one of the most popular photo editors at present. Many people know Photoshop well.
Therefore, this article focuses on introducing the advantages and disadvantages of GIMP photo editor. And you can get some GIMP photo editing basics here as well. Now come to read and do as the following paragraphs show to know more about GIMP.
Part 1. GIMP Tutorial – How to Edit Pictures Professionally in GIMP
Step 1: Download and install GIMP photo editor free
Head to the gimp.org website on your web browser. Choose the Download icon to download this free and open-source image editor. The latest GIMP version is 2.10.32. Well, GIMP Photo Editor works well with GNU/Linux, Mac OS X, Windows, and other operating systems. It does not matter if you download GIMP Photo Editor for Mac or Windows. After the installment, launch it on your computer for editing the photos.
Step 2: Get GIMP photo editing
Select the picture you want to import to GIMP. Then open the Toolbox bar to access various editing tools. If you fail to find it, then you can choose Windows on the top to find Toolbox. Choose the dotted rectangle pattern on the top of the toolbox bar. As a result, you can click and drag your mouse to select the area to crop. When the process finishes, select Copy from the Edit drop-down list. Then click File > Create > From Clipboard to get the cropped image.
Step 3: Turn your photo to be the black and white effect
Hold and press Ctrl and D options together on your keyboard. Later, you can create a copy of your original file in the GIMP photo editor. Choose Desaturate from the Colors list. Then you can get a black-and-white picture directly. Moreover, there is a new window that pops up with three options. You can go on the GIMP photo editing effects with ease.
Note: If you want to undo your changes, you can choose Windows on the top toolbar. Click Dockable Dialogs and select Undo History to move back. You can undo multiple changes by repeating the above operations as well.
Part 2: GIMP Online – Get an Online Image Editor and Paint Tool
Step 1: Add a picture to the online GIMP program
Get the GIMP online photo editor on your browsers like Google Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and more. When you locate its web photo editing program, choose File on the top. Select Import to get a window with the name Open Image. Select which picture you want to import, and then click Open to confirm.
Step 2: Customize your picture with GIMP online
You can get widely-used tools in the left panel directly. It has a similar design to Adobe Photoshop, while you can get a much easier experience with GIMP photo editor online. It supports users to crop, resize and edit pictures in batch for free online. So choose the option you need.
Well, you can apply other photo effects from the GIMP photo editor online as well. And it is also supported to convert any picture to PNG, GIF, and other formats effortlessly. Just do not forget to save your change.
Part 3: GIMP Review – See What Others Say about GIMP Photo Editor
GIMP (the GUN Image Manipulation Program) is a free photo editor, which provides many photo-editing tools. You can get layers, highly customizable brushes, filters, and other photo enhancing tools from GIMP photo editor software. It supports many plugins, and you can download any extra plugin separately.
Pros:
- It is easy to edit a picture with a GIMP photo editor.
- Provide many basic and advanced features and tools for free.
- You can download this open-source photo editor on any operating system directly.
- Widely support most file formats like JPEG, GIF, PSD, PNG, TIFF, and more.
Cons:
- Its user interface is kind of cluttered.
- Poor help with no guidance.
- GIMP photo editor may not be friendly enough to novices.
GIMP is considered the best Photoshop alternative or killer. However, it still cannot satisfy most photo-editing activities. If you need more professional tools, Adobe Photoshop may suit you better. For people who are looking for an easy-to-use but powerful photo editor, you can try the program.
Part 2: Best GIMP Photo Editor for Windows and Mac
WidsMob AI Retoucher
When you need to touch up photos with advanced AI algorithms, WidsMob AI Retoucher is the best GIMP Photo Editor alternative you should choose. It enables you to tweak the HSL settings, reduce noise, recover low light, remove haze, touch-up portraits, mosaic faces, and convert photos to paintings/pencil sketches/cartoons with AI technologies. Moreover, there are multiple editing features, stunning filters, B/W films, and more to polish photos.
1. Adjust saturation, brightness, temperature, highlights, shadows, sharpness, tint, and others.
2. Provide AI Cartoon, AI Style Transfer, B/W films, and light correction to touch-up photos.
3. Polish portrait with facial detection, like skin smoothing, shine removal, and blemish removal.
4. Edit images with the crop, rotate, flip, mirror, photo comparison, color adjustments, and more.
Step 1: Adjust parameters for photos
Once you have imported the desired photos, you can click the Adjust menu to tweak the settings for contrast, saturation, brightness, temperature, and more. It enables you to adjust the color parameters. Moreover, you can change the settings for chrominance, luminance, sharpness, and more easily.
Step 2: Enhance photos with AI
If you need to enhance photos, like Noise Reduction, Lowlight Recovery, and Haze Removal, you can simply choose the desired one from the AI Retouch menu. It enables you to minimize image noises, recover lowlight photos, and remove haze from the pictures automatically within one click.
Step 3: Touch up portraits with AI
As for the portrait images, it will detect the facial point automatically. After that, you can choose the Face Clean menu to optimal the portrait images, such as skin softening, skin whitening, shine removal, eye circle removal, and blemish removal. There are more advanced portrait editing features to touch up photos.
Step 4: Apply stunning filters/effects
Besides the AI Style Transfer menu and the AI Cartoonization menu that converts photos to multiple paintings and cartoons. You can also use HDR effects, light adjustments, B/W films, and others. Moreover, there are multiple editing features to crop, cut, comparison, and others as GIMP Photo Editor.
WidsMob ImageConvert
WidsMob ImageConvert is another GIMP Photo Editor that enables you to convert different photo formats resize photos, add watermarks, and more. Besides, it has the AI image up-scaler that enables you to enhance the images to 4X their original size without losing quality. You can also resize photos with 4 different methods, rotate and flip images, add text/image watermarks, and more. It enables you to custom presets with multiple actions.
- Convert RAW to JPEG AVIF, WebP, PNG, GIF, and other photo formats with 6X fast speed.
- Resize photos in 4 different modes, rotate and flip images, add text/image watermark, etc.
- Upscale images to up to 4X the original size with the advanced AI Image Upscaler option.
- Apply and customize presets to apply a series of editing settings to touch up the photos.
Step 1: Resize and convert photos in batch
Once you have imported the desired photos into the program, you can select the desired photos or all files for a batch process. It has multiple editing features, like resizing, rotating, flipping, cropping, adding borders, and more before conversion. It enables you to convert RAW, AVIF, WebP, PNG, JPEG, and others, or vice versa.
Step 2: Upscale image resolution with AI
Even if you need to upscale the image resolution, choose the AI Image Upscaler to enlarge the photos with the original quality with up to 4X file size. It also provides 2X, 3X, and 4X options to enhance image quality. Compared to the online image up-scalers, it supports up to 3000 pix X 3000 pix with optimal quality.
Step 3: Custom presets to apply multiple actions
When you need to make photos for certain sizes or add watermarks frequently, you can customize a preset to apply a series of actions within one click. If you need to edit and convert the photo the next time, you can simply choose the desired preset from the drop-down list to apply a series of actions within one click.
Conclusion
GIMP Photo Editor is a free and versatile photo-editing software. It is a detailed review of the photo editing program you should know, including the features, reviews, and usage. But when you need to explore more advanced features, especially for AI algorithms, WidsMob AI Retoucher is the optimal choice you should know.