The GIMP 2.0
GIMP—its name stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program—was first released by two Berkeley students in 1996. Since then, this free open-source program has matured into a powerful image editor. It's developed a fairly large user base, and it has been ported to multiple platforms, including Windows. The latest release, The GIMP 2.2, has a completely revamped interface that makes it a more legitimate player in the world of mainstream image editors. GIMP is best known to Linux and Unix users, so we tested the new release on SUSE Linux 9.1 Personal. The last generation of GIMP supplied many of the features you get in an application like Adobe Photoshop: It offered layers, channels, paths, and a spate of painting tools. Unfortunately, the interface was awkward and sometimes confusing. The new UI takes giant strides forward, making GIMP simpler and more flexible. For example, the old interface made you right-click on the image window in order to choose almost any function in the program. Now a menu at the top of the image window (as you get into the more mainstream programs) offers easy access to GIMP's wide array of commands. We especially like what GIMP has done in the way of palettes. First off, the new tabbed palettes are nestable and dockable, making GIMP more streamlined while also making more efficient use of screen real estate. A Histogram palette displays a constantly updated graph of the brightness levels in the current image, and a handy Navigation palette helps you steer your way through an image when you've zoomed in to work on details. Meanwhile, the new Fonts palette lets you choose a typeface for use with GIMP's new editable text tool. We also tested the Windows version and were impressed to see that GIMP installs painlessly on Windows XP and runs just as well as it does on Linux. But there is more competition on the Windows platform, and in terms of feature breadth and ease of use, GIMP just can't compete with products like Adobe Photoshop Elements 2 and Jasc's Paint Shop Pro 8 (both of which are available for less than £70). Still, GIMP 2.2 is a powerful program, and its price certainly can't be beat.