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GIMP
Open Source Image Editor
4.3
(1,437)
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GIMP Reviews & Product Details

GIMP Overview
What is GIMP?

The Gnu Image Manipulation Project, or GIMP, is a well-known alternative to Photoshop, given its affordability and similar features, including the ability to work with professional layers and fine-tune snap functionality. GIMP has a full photo editing interface available which you can customize to suit your needs. It features photo enhancement features that allow users to fix perspective distortion and explore filters. Digital retouching tools are also available, and users can save work in multiple file formats, including PNG, TIFF, and GIF. Because the GIMP environment is powered by a community of developers, you can expect a lot of regular updates and new features as well.

Company The GIMP Development Team
Year founded 1995
Company size Myself Only employees
Headquarters The GIMP project is developed by volunteers and does not have a physical headquarters.
Social Media
GIMP Categories on Findstack
Ask Questions about GIMP
What GIMP is best for?
How does GIMP compare to Adobe Photoshop Elements?
What are the pros and cons of GIMP?
GIMP Product Details
Capabilities
CLI
OSS
Segment
Small Business
Enterprise
Deployment Cloud / SaaS / Web-Based, Desktop Linux, Desktop Mac, Desktop Windows
Training Documentation
Languages English
GIMP Pros and Cons
Pros
  • Regular updates: Because the GIMP environment is powered by a community of developers, you can expect a lot of regular updates and new features.
  • Tons of flexibility: Aside from offering a range of file formats, GIMP also supports a host of platforms, including GNU, Linux, Microsoft, Mac, and more.
  • Community: Community support is excellent, with plenty of brushes, texture packs, and extra features to download online.
  • Free open-source software
  • Excellent digital retouching and touch-up tools
Cons
  • The adjustment layers are difficult to work with at times, and can be quite buggy
  • The interface isn’t well-suited to mac users.
  • Learning curve for beginners
GIMP Features
3D Editing
Automatic Adjustments
Background Removal
Batch Processing
Brush Tools
Clone Stamp
Color Correction
Cropping
Custom Brushes
Face Recognition
Filters and Effects
Gradient Editor
HDR Imaging
Healing Tools
Image Resizing
Layer Management
Lens Correction
Masking
Metadata Editing
Noise Reduction
Panorama Stitching
Perspective Correction
Photo Enhancement
Red Eye Removal
Support for RAW Files
Templates
Text Overlay
Undo/Redo
Vector Drawing
Watermarking
GIMP Media
GIMP 0
GIMP 1
GIMP 2
GIMP 3
GIMP Screenshots
Disclaimer
Our research is curated from diverse authoritative sources and meant to offer general advice. We don’t guarantee that our suggestions will work best for each use-case, so consider your unique needs when choosing products and services. Feel free to share your feedback.
Last updated: November 24, 2024
GIMP Logo
1,437 GIMP Reviews
4.3 out of 5
Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Nov 11, 2021
 Source
Overall Rating:
5.0
DO
Dave O.
Project Engineer
Share
"Easy entry level software"
What do you like best about GIMP?

Free, simple, and there were plenty of youtube videos to help with basics, how-to's etc, which enabled me to get started very quickly. Did i mention it is free!!? I definitely would recommend it!

What do you dislike about GIMP?

There was no particular thing that i disliked about it. As long as you are patient and can follow instructions, then it does what it needs to do. It is a free photoshop alternative.

What problems is GIMP solving and how is that benefiting you?

I have used it for removing the background of photos, creating logos and general editing of images etc. I am still fairly new to using GIMP but I am finding my way around easily.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Oct 30, 2021
 Source
Overall Rating:
5.0
Bailey N. avatar
Bailey N.
Embroidery Manager Embroidery Machine Operator
Share
"Powerful open source software"
What do you like best about GIMP?

You can do a lot of the basic functions you might be used to using in photoshop without paying a steep subscription fee.

What do you dislike about GIMP?

If you're used to the adobe suite, you might find the user interface a little awkward abd clunky. Doing things like resizing and rotating images, adding text, and making selections can feel like they take longer.

What problems is GIMP solving and how is that benefiting you?

GIMP is great for putting together quick mockups, adjusting the levelsbon images, cropping, and adding text.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Oct 28, 2021
 Source
Overall Rating:
5.0
BM
Becky M.
Student
Share
"Great, FREE Alternative to Photoshop"
What do you like best about GIMP?

I love that it costs nothing and that it has so many tools available! The brushes, colors, etc., are numerous, and the software is easy to operate.

What do you dislike about GIMP?

The only thing I dislike about GIMP is that there are fewer tutorials on how to use the software than there are with other applications such as CLIP STUDIO or Photoshop.

What problems is GIMP solving and how is that benefiting you?

My hobby is art, so I use it to create pictures. I have realized that it's a great tool to use that is entirely accessible to me and that it has a lot of technical components that place it against other competitors.

Mid Market (51-1000 emp.)
Oct 28, 2021
 Source
Overall Rating:
5.0
Mike B. avatar
Mike B.
Human Resources Manager
Share
"Open Source Photoshop Clone"
What do you like best about GIMP?

GIMP has every feature that PS has at $0. Prior experience with image editing software is a plus if you're looking to jump right it. Otherwise, online help manuals provided by the creators and the community at large are beneficial. I've used this software since 2012 and haven’t missed PS yet

What do you dislike about GIMP?

Minor complaint, but the aesthetics could use a bit of a refresh. There is very little to complain about, especially given that this software replaces PS entirely.

What problems is GIMP solving and how is that benefiting you?

GIMP meets all of my image editing needs. Realized benefits include not spending $$$ on image editing software and having full access to all features PS offers.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Oct 26, 2021
 Source
Overall Rating:
5.0
CS
Corrine S.
Children's Specialist
Share
"Depth and skill for free"
What do you like best about GIMP?

Accessible tools, plenty of plugins, and high-quality photo editing for free.

What do you dislike about GIMP?

Coming from Adobe, it has a different interface that took some getting used to. But it was easy to get there.

What problems is GIMP solving and how is that benefiting you?

GIMP helps eliminate the cost barrier to Adobe and helps create amazing graphics free of charge. It's a perfect fix.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Oct 20, 2021
 Source
Overall Rating:
5.0
SB
Subash B.
Co Founder
Share
"Free Open Source Image Editor"
What do you like best about GIMP?

First & foremost - it is free open-source tool! In a world where we pay a lot of money for image editing tools like Adobe Photoshop, a free tool is always welcome. Even though GIMP is free, it is a feature-rich image editor. The vast feature-capability makes GIMP is a real alternative to popular paid options like Adobe. The best part is you can enhance the feature further by adding other plug-ins. In photo editing & creativity space - your imagination should be the limit & yes GIMP can enable you to accomplish anything be it simple image editing like retouching to complex artwork development (simple icons to graphic design elements). Another key feature is you can work with any image format your original file is in - this versatility is rare.

What do you dislike about GIMP?

It is not easy to use. You need to spend a lot of time in getting to know the tool before you can use it to get what you want. I would say the user interface lacks ease of use - if you are new to the tool, it will be hard to even find some functions in the menu. This can cause frustration when you want something quick, but over a period of time it becomes easier & you enjoy using it as you get more & more familiar with the tool.

What problems is GIMP solving and how is that benefiting you?

I use GIMP for a range of things from simple image editing (retouching) to complex artwork development (simple icons to graphic design elements).

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Oct 12, 2021
 Source
Overall Rating:
5.0
SN
Sibongakonke N.
P
Share
"Best Open Source Alternative to Photoshop"
What do you like best about GIMP?

GIMP is a fully-featured image editing software. I use GIMP to edit images for websites. The application is free to use and has a large community of users eager to help you get started. GIMP allows you to edit pictures in layers, and you can export the final file in your desired file format.

What do you dislike about GIMP?

The user interface is congested, and it isn't easy to find features

What problems is GIMP solving and how is that benefiting you?

Image editing for web design

Mid Market (51-1000 emp.)
Oct 11, 2021
 Source
Overall Rating:
5.0
Cherry Ann O. avatar
Cherry Ann O.
Customer Service Representative
Share
"A great alternative tool for Photo Editing!"
What do you like best about GIMP?

It contains all of the tools that you are accustomed to seeing in other picture editing applications like Photoshop. It does an excellent job of keeping up with the times and incorporating new tools. The program's animation add-on is also quite cool. You may also discover what you need to make your photographs ideal; I'm still quite pleased with the filter. It's fantastic because it's free and may be used for quick and easy picture editing. Simply open the image, load it, and begin editing vector graphics with the use of various authoring resources. The clean interface and, notably, the ease of usage. Working with development teams is also made easier owing to the conversion into matrices.

What do you dislike about GIMP?

Although it has many user instructions and videos on its usability, it still needs guidelines on various filters, effects, and color management. While the full-screen mode is inactive, its GUI lacks a solid backdrop and borders, which may be distracting and distinguishing for a user.

What problems is GIMP solving and how is that benefiting you?

I can edit, fix, combine, and trim various images for our social media platforms, as well as restore old photos. I also don't have to pay a membership fee to utilize it. It is also a good alternative for the newbies having a hard time learning photoshop and the storage needed is quite small than the other editing tool.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Oct 08, 2021
 Source
Overall Rating:
5.0
HD
Huseyin D.
System Specialist
Share
"One of the best alternative for Photoshop"
What do you like best about GIMP?

GIMP is the best alternative application instead of Photoshop. If we compare it to Photoshop, GIMP is totally free. We use it to edit our stocks photos to share them on our company's social media accounts. Our team is delighted with the performance of GIMP. We are thinking of using it wider inside the organization.

What do you dislike about GIMP?

With current conditions, our clients are happy with the results now. Nothing to dislike yet.

What problems is GIMP solving and how is that benefiting you?

We use it to edit our stocks photos to share them on our company's social media accounts.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Oct 01, 2021
 Source
Overall Rating:
5.0
Jennifer H. avatar
Jennifer H.
P
Share
"Best freeware for image editing!"
What do you like best about GIMP?

While there is a little bit of a learning curve if you are coming from adobe products, Gimp is relatively easy to use and extremely robust.

What do you dislike about GIMP?

Some things are hard to find in the program.

What problems is GIMP solving and how is that benefiting you?

A free way to edit and create images for marketing, emails and our website.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Sep 25, 2021
 Source
Overall Rating:
5.0
Sbu M. avatar
Sbu M.
Manager
Share
"Exceptional performance"
What do you like best about GIMP?

Gimp is the free software however it is one of the best editing, designing and creative software for all your graphic designing projects

What do you dislike about GIMP?

None, it is simply the best. User friendly and easy to navigate.

What problems is GIMP solving and how is that benefiting you?

My graphic designing, almost all my projects are done on this platform.

Mid Market (51-1000 emp.)
Jul 22, 2021
 Source
Overall Rating:
5.0
ZC
Zachary C.
Tier 3 Engineer
Share
"Free tool with all the bells and whistles"
What do you like best about GIMP?

GIMP provides professional level control and tools in an open source package

What do you dislike about GIMP?

There is a steep learning curve for those not familiar with GIMP or similar products

What problems is GIMP solving and how is that benefiting you?

Photo editing which is its intended use, it is open source, regularly updated and free

Mid Market (51-1000 emp.)
Jul 06, 2021
 Source
Overall Rating:
5.0
SK
Scott K.
Senior Agency Analyst
Share
"Open-Source Image Software That Does It All!"
What do you like best about GIMP?

GIMP is a hugely powerful, modular-extensible image system that can tackle the toughest retouch jobs, but also creates images and animations and allows for an almost limitless translation between formats. I've used it for years, I greatly prefer it to its Adobe competitor, and it just keeps getting better, thanks to open-source development.

What do you dislike about GIMP?

GIMP has a bit of a learning curve, particularly if you're going to install any of the huge selection of plug-ins and filters that are available. It rewards your patience in spades, but it's not something you're going to be productive on in 10 minutes.

What problems is GIMP solving and how is that benefiting you?

I have done hundreds of photo retouch jobs with GIMP, and it's done everything I asked. It saves hundreds of dollars over professional retouching, and best of all, it's free! What I really love, though, is using its image manipulation tools to turn photographs into works of art.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Jun 22, 2021
 Source
Overall Rating:
5.0
RC
Rolynn Anne C.
Volunteer
Share
"GIMP for life"
What do you like best about GIMP?

Ease of usage. It is straightforward to understand, and it's open-source.

What do you dislike about GIMP?

The first time I used it in class, I was disoriented, but after a few misses, I managed to work on it.

What problems is GIMP solving and how is that benefiting you?

The need to pay for softwares for image editors! HUGE SAVINGS indeed!

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
May 26, 2021
 Source
Overall Rating:
5.0
JH
Jenni H.
Realtor
Share
"One of the best design tools out there"
What do you like best about GIMP?

There are so many things I can do to create the perfect graphic, whether for my website, my social media, a logo...it doesn't matter

What do you dislike about GIMP?

It takes a bit to learn. It's not intuitive

What problems is GIMP solving and how is that benefiting you?

My graphic design game is off the charts now. I have amazing graphics and logo for my company

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Apr 05, 2021
 Source
Overall Rating:
5.0
GH
Graham H.
Student
Share
"Very user and beginner friendly, would highly recommend for those looking for an alternative to PS"
What do you like best about GIMP?

I like that it is simple for the basic user to pick up. I originally started using gimp maybe a decade ago because of how much easier it was to compare it to competitors such as adobe photoshop. Additionally, it is also a free service to use instead of having to pay for services like photoshop. I did at one point use photoshop, and honestly wasn't impressed when I compare it to GIMP. GIMP just simplifies the layout giving a more user-friendly, especially for beginners, experience.

What do you dislike about GIMP?

There really isn't much to dislike about this program. Everything about it is likable.

What problems is GIMP solving and how is that benefiting you?

I am just using it for gigs, to make little flyers here and there, as well as sometimes my own personal fulfillment such as art and the such.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Apr 05, 2021
 Source
Overall Rating:
5.0
Valadi K  J. avatar
Valadi K J.
Cto
Share
"Awesome Opensource image editing software"
What do you like best about GIMP?

Very simple to use with beautiful plugins and a codebase that makes image manipulation and image editing an instant work of art. The software is unique in that most of its features can be unlocked from the massive list of add-ons that are available to make image manipulation and edit a tremendous effort.

What do you dislike about GIMP?

Maybe there was an excellent way to adjust the screens and menu options and change the looks of GIMP with some perfect image screens.

What problems is GIMP solving and how is that benefiting you?

Gimp helps you convert, modify, vectorize or edit raster as well as vector images from different image formats. It helps to do color corrections, gaussian blur, apply filters and modify pictures with some cool effects to manipulate and edit as a piece of art.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Mar 23, 2021
 Source
Overall Rating:
5.0
Abhishek B. avatar
Abhishek B.
Founder
Share
"Viable free alternative to photoshop"
What do you like best about GIMP?

GIMP is a free and open source image editing tool. It is extremely lightweight and doesn't eat up all system resources. It also works almost all popular formats. It's the best alternative to Photoshop.

What do you dislike about GIMP?

GIMP has a very opinionated and non standard UI that may not suit all users. When you launch the application, it brings up three windows, one for the editing viewport and main menu, and the other two for toolbars. It seems like a very unintuitive UI.

What problems is GIMP solving and how is that benefiting you?

Since Photoshop is not available for Linux, I found GIMP to be a great replacement, and a very good one. It is feature complete and supports almost all file formats.

Mid Market (51-1000 emp.)
Mar 22, 2021
 Source
Overall Rating:
5.0
Nithin J. avatar
Nithin J.
Software Engineer
Share
"GIMP Review"
What do you like best about GIMP?

What I like best is that GIMP is totally free to use and it's by far the best image editing software that you can get that acts as a huge upgrade from the default MS Paint that comes pre-installed with Windows. It contains more image editing tools compared to the basic ones of Paint while offering image scaling and cropping abilities without damaging the original quality. It allows easy conversions from one image format to another while retaining the original quality and also allows any compression to be removed so that the image comes out looking as you'd want. Not only can you work on images of any format with GIMP, you can also edit and create GIFs through the use of different layers.

What do you dislike about GIMP?

The one thing I don't like about GIMP is that it isn't very intuitive when you want to crop an image by a small number of pixels. It's selection tool isn't very precise and often times you have to guess to find exactly how many pixels you're cropping out until the final image is of the size that you're looking for.

What problems is GIMP solving and how is that benefiting you?

I rely on GIMP a lot for editing and rescaling the size of images. For the images that we use on our website, having to use HTML code to change the size of the image often makes them a little blurry or poor in quality. Even for our presentations, sometimes the cropping tool isn't particularly accurate and giving us satisfactory results. This is where GIMP has been of great help as it allows us to crop and scale down the size of images without changing the quality of the original image. Furthermore while making logos and backgrounds for presentations, it's incredibly helpful that we can create additional layers for the images. This allows editing to be done in an easier fashion for certain parts of the image and reduces any misplacement or any errors in the whole picture. The biggest benefit of GIMP is that it allows you to convert from one image format to another with ease.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Feb 16, 2021
 Source
Overall Rating:
5.0
Tom P. avatar
Tom P.
Senior Data Scientist
Share
"Freeware alternative to photoshop"
What do you like best about GIMP?

Available as a free download for all common computer operating systems and as an Android app, GIMP is a full-featured image editing application that competes with the likes of Adobe Photoshop. With its intuitive interface and extensive documentation, it is straightforward for even a casual user to touch up photos and create graphical images.

What do you dislike about GIMP?

To create vector images, you will want to use a different application such as Adobe Illustrator or the freeware alternative, Inkscape.

What problems is GIMP solving and how is that benefiting you?

It's ideal for editing photos and graphical images, and graphical layout for single page documents. Although anything involving extensive textual layout you will probably prefer a desktop publishing application.