Stills, alive and well: GIMP

This week I was going to make a big fuss about this less than stellar Bastarache commission, but I thought everybody had enough of politics. I sure have..! Suffice to say that once again we are being screwed over by a bunch of lawyers to the hefty tune of 6 million smackeroos. At least for that kind of money they could try and make it interesting and possibly funny. The plot stinks, there’s no drama and I doubt that any of the leading roles will make it to the Oscars.

This morning ...very early , I started playing around with my GIMP. For those who don’t know what it is, I can assure you it’s not an acronym for a body part. It’s Gnu Image Manipulation Program.

GIMP strives to stand up to Photoshop, but in my honest opinion it’s better. Why..? Because it’s free....You heard me right. Free as it doesn’t cost a cent.

My first try at GIMP dates back a few years, I wasn’t impressed then, 15 years and more of working with Photoshop had spoiled me and I thought at that point that the learning curve would be too much to handle. But boy..! has this little program come of age. Fast, efficient and with all the trimmings you would come to expect from expensive image software.

True, some of their filters could use some more adjustable variables but to compensate, it comes with extras like GAP, the Gimp Animation Package, enabling you to conjure up simple yet effective animations and also a plugin browser.

Gimp has a huge dedicated following and it’s very easy to get started and to get help like tutorials, tips and tricks to enhance, transform your images or create new ones.

GIMP is now available for all platforms, Linux (where it started), Mac OSX and Windows.

You can read about it and get it at http://www.gimp.org/
You'll be amazed at the features included in this freebie and how it packs a punch.

Here are a couple of interesting examples of it’s fun filter capabilities...

You pros out there might find this quite obvious, but believe me there's enough in GIMP to satisfy everybody.