But what excactly is The GIMP?

Photoshop is a powerful application to create bit based artwork. Editing of images is very effective through it's layers and other advanced functionality. This is worth a couple of hundred pounds to people who buy it.

The Gimp has the same purpose and comes on your desktop at no cost since it falls under an Open Source GNU license. It is also available for different Operating Systems and has the support of a great community who develop and document it. There is a wealth of tutorials to help you getting started. Have a look at www.gimp.org to find out more.

The interface is slightly different to Photoshop's but every person who has worked with Photoshop or other similar programs before will quickly find their way through the menu's. There is hardly anythingin functionality you will miss.

One thing in common with the known competitor is the fact that you really need to learn the principles of editing digital images in order to create stunning effects. Alpha channels, feathering, filtering, etc all these tools need to be understood to create something great. The online tutorials and documents are brilliant.

 A Windows installer can be found on Sourceforge. Two downloads are required: Install the 'GTK+ 2 Runtime Environment' first before you run the 'The GIMP for Windows' installer.  You can then also add the Help package (even all is available online) and an animation package.

Enjoy!