The GIMP – Image Processing

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The GIMP – Image Processing

The GIMP is another excellent and successful open source project. It was originally developed for the Linux operating system, but is now available on most of the major operating systems, including Windows and Macintosh OS X.

It provides a series of powerful image processing tools, and is more sophisticated, and thus more complicated than normal painting type programs. It is generally compared favourably against top line professional commercial image processing software.

This article will limit itself to explaining how to install and uninstall the program. The guide also provides its own pragmatic tutorial, Using The GIMP, which explains using the program, and also gives links to other sources of information about the program.

Alternative Image Processing Software

The GIMP may not be your favourite choice of image processor. Fortunately, there are plenty of alternatives. The guide lists a few here, but makes no judgements, as it is impossible to analyse all of them in depth.

Picasa:	Free photograph editing and organising software from Google. Windows only.
Paint.NET:	Open source image editor which uses the .Net platform. Windows only.
Corel Paint Shop Pro:	Commercial image editor. Windows only.

The Wikipedia also provides a comparison list of image processing software.

Installing the Program

The GIMP web site, http://www.gimp.org/, provides links, on the left hand side of the home page, to downloadable versions of the program for Unix, Mac OSX, and Windows. I chose the Windows version, which has a link to the automated installers. This page (http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/) provides a link to the latest stable version of the program.

There are three installation packages to download; the GIMP itself, the GTK+ runtime environment (this is the GIMP toolkit, which the GIMP requires), and the help documentation.

As for all guide downloads, I have saved these files in my downloads folder creating a www.gimp.org sub folder. The downloaded files are gtk+-2.10.13-setup.exe, gimp-2.2.17-i586-setup.exe and gimp-help-2-0.12-eng-setup.exe (or gimp-help-2-0.12-setup.exe, for the multi-language help files).

The first program to be installed is the GTK+ runtime environment. Use Explorer to open the www.gimp.org sub folder, then double click on the gtk+-2.10.13-setup.exe file and you will see the following dialog box:

Click on Next >.

Once you have read the license agreement, click on Next >.

The default setup folder is perfectly satisfactory (at least for me), so click on Next >.

Since the amount of disk space used for all of the components is quite small, I have left the settings unchanged. Click on Next >.

This is your last chance to make any changes to the installation parameters. If you are happy with the values (as I am), then click on Install. This starts the installation process. The following progress dialog is displayed:

Once the installation has finished, the following dialog is shown:

Click on Finish to complete the installation.

The next program to install is the GIMP itself. Use Explorer to open the www.gimp.org sub folder, then double click on the gimp-2.2.17-i586-setup.exe file and you will see the following dialog box:

Click on Next >.

Once you have read the license agreement, click on Next >.

The default setup folder is perfectly satisfactory (at least for me), so click on Next >.

Since the amount of disk space used for all of the components is quite small, I have left the settings unchanged. Click on Next >.

Choose any additional file types that you want to associate with the GIMP, then click on Next >.

Again, the start menu folder is satisfactory, so once more, click on Next >.

Choose if you want any or all of the additional icons. Now click on Next >.

Once the installation has finished, the following dialog is shown:

I would suggest that you uncheck the “Launch The GIMP” box for now, as we still have the help files to install. Click on Finish to conclude the installation.

Finally, the GIMP help files can be installed. Use Explorer to open the www.gimp.org sub folder, then double click on the gimp-help-2-0.12-eng-setup.exe file (or gimp-help-2-0.12-setup.exe file, for the multi-language help files) and you will see the following dialog box:

Click on Next >.

The help setup program should find your newly installed The GIMP program, so click on Install. The installation process will then start, and a progress dialog will be shown:

Once the installation has finished, the following dialog is shown:

Click on Finish. This concludes the installation, you'll be glad to hear.

Using the Program for the First Time

The first time you use the program the User Installation wizard will be run. Basically, this sets default values for the GIMP when you are logged on to your computer. The following dialog is displayed:

Click on Continue.

You can browse the files and folders shown in the left hand pane. When you're satisfied, click on Continue.

As the various property files are transferred, they will be added to the list above. Once all files have been transferred, click on Continue.

The User Installation wizard will calculate the image data cache, based on the amount of memory your computer has. This calculated value is probably satisfactory for the type of work you will be doing. If you expect to do a lot of complex work on large images, then consider increasing the cache size. Now click on Continue.

The GIMP will now, finally, be launched. Since this is the first time the program has been used, it will take some time to query and register the various plugins available, as shown below:

Fortunately, the GIMP will start up much faster the next time you launch it. Once start up is complete, you will see the two main working windows of the program:

The GIMP tip of the day window is an optional extra. Personally, I don't mind learning something new each time I use the GIMP, but you can disable this feature by unchecking the “Show tip next time...” box.

Finally, check that the help system is working, from the Toolbox window (shown on the left hand side, above), click on Help, then Help, or press the F1 key. If you don't see the help window after a few seconds, this probably means that the default web browser help system can't find the web browser. From the Toolbox window (shown on the left hand side, above), click on File, then Preferences, as below:

The Preferences dialog will appear. Click on Help System in the left hand pane, then select GIMP help browser as the Help browser to use, in the right hand pane, as shown below:

Now click on OK. Try pressing F1 again, and you should now see the help browser window.

Next Steps

You are now ready for the guide's pragmatic tutorial in the Using The GIMP article.

Uninstalling the Program

The GIMP provides uninstall commands directly from the programs menu. Click on Start, then Programs, GIMP, and then Uninstall, as shown below:

At this point you will be presented with the following warning dialog:

Click on Yes. This starts the uninstall process. A progress dialog will be displayed, thus:

Once the program has been uninstalled, the following dialog is shown:

Click on OK to terminate the uninstall process.

Next, the GTK+ can be uninstalled. As for the GIMP, it provides an uninstall command directly from the programs menu. Click on Start, then Programs, GTK+ Runtime Environment, then Uninstall, as shown below: