GIMP 2.8.4

We’ve all heard of Photoshop and the great things it could do when it comes to photo manipulation, but for those who need an open-source free of cost alternative there is an answer: GIMP. Far from being a complete Photoshop replacement, it can easily play its role in many basic operations.

Installing GIMP is indeed a really simple task and if you want to customize the installation, there is a setup mode that accommodates this need. If you do choose to go for the latter variant, you can select the file types this software will handle, plus the tools that should be deployed on your computer.

Just like Photoshop, GIMP might seem impossible to use if you're not an experienced user, but it’s only a matter of time until you get used to the interface. The toolbox has all the basic elements you need to work with photos, but the interface can become a lot more difficult if you wish to do more complex things.

GIMP has everything from the most common tasks to more complex things such as effects and layers. Applying gradients and custom patterns will require minimal resources and on a fairly average system configuration batch processing can be successfully accomplished in quite a short time.

With GIMP you can retouch digital photos and create bitmaps from scratch, but it can work as well as an image format converter. Furthermore, the functionality of this tool can be extended by using one of the hundreds of plugins available.

All in all, GIMP can perform a wide variety of tasks and is suitable for novice and advanced users alike. The powerful feature pack and the multiple possibilities for customizing it make this software a must have for anyone who needs an extensible and expandable image manipulation utility.