The images in the tutorials below show GIMP 2.10 for Windows, but the GIMP interface is very similar for all operating systems.

Choose the direct download option for your operating system.

When the download has finished, open the programme and click ‘Install’. This may take several minutes.

The latest version of GIMP will now be installed and ready to open.

The GIMP interface is split, by default, into four sections:

1. The left sidebar contains a variety of editing tools and their settings (see below).

2. The central canvas displays your images. You can have multiple images open in different tabs.

3. The boxes at the top right manage fonts, brush shapes, and pattern swatches.

4. The bottom right-hand panel offers options for using layers (see Adding text or logos).

For most simple image-editing, you’ll only need to use panels 1 and 2.

GIMP groups similar tools together to save space on your interface. For example, the paintbrush and pencil tools (for drawing different styles of lines) are grouped together, as are the various tools for selecting different shapes (rectangles, ellipses, etc).

You can see which tools are grouped together by right-clicking on a group and then selecting the tool that you want.

• The default toolbox with tools grouped together by category:

You can also ungroup the tools so that all tools are visible as separate icons. To do this click Edit (GIMP on Mac)> Preferences > Interface > Toolbox and deselect 'Use tool groups'

• The ungrouped toolbox showing all 39 tools from GIMP 2.10:

You will find that you use some of these tools all the time and never use others at all. Hovering over the icon will tell you the name of each tool. Details of what each tool is for can be found in the GIMP manual.

1. To adjust the theme go to Edit (GIMP on Mac) > Preferences > Interface > Theme and switch to ‘Light’ or ‘Gray’.

2. To increase the size of the tool icons, go to Edit (GIMP on Mac)> Preferences > Interface > Icon Theme.

   1. Change the drop-down menu from ‘Guess icon size from resolution’ to ‘Custom icon size’.

   2. Choose from ‘small’, ‘medium’, ‘large’, or ‘huge’.

   3. If you are using the Light theme you may also wish to change the Icon Theme to Symbolic Inverted

Example of Light theme using large icons.

1. Open your image file in GIMP by dragging and dropping it onto GIMP’s central canvas space or by going to File > Open and choosing your file.

2. View the image at its true size by selecting View > Zoom > 1:1 (100%).

An information box at the bottom of your image also gives you quick information about the zoom level of your image and its current file-size:

The image in this example is very large and has a correspondingly large file-size (206 MB). It should be resized for use in documents or online.

1. With your image open in GIMP go to Image > Scale Image

2. Here you will see the width and height of your image in pixels. Enter a new value to change the image to a specific size. (A width of between 600px and 800px works well for images on Moodle.)

   

If you do not wish to enter a size in pixels you can also choose a relative size for the image by changing the dropdown menu from px to percentage.

When scaling an image you have the option to set the resolution. The higher the resolution, the clearer the image will remain at larger sizes when printed. Changing this will have no impact on your file size or how your file displays onscreen.

Important: By default, GIMP locks your image ratio: if you increase the width the height will automatically adjust to keep the image in proportion and vice versa. Clicking the link icon will break it allowing you to enter your own value in each box; however, this may skew your image. In most cases, it is best to keep the chain closed.

When you increase the size of an image, GIMP will automatically try to optimise the image.

You can also try to boost image quality by changing the method of interpolation (the way in which GIMP guesses how and where to add area to an image without distorting it). When scaling your image up, select the ‘Cubic’ ‘NoHalo’ or ‘LoHalo’ modes to see which gives the best results.

If the image is still unclear see the section below on Retouching images.

When you are satisfied with your edited image you should save it to work on again later and then export it into an image file format that can be used by other programmes and browsers.

• File > Save This will save your project in GIMP’s .xcf format for you to work with again later.

• File > Export This will create a new image file for you to use in documents and websites. The default format is .png.

Exporting creates a new file, separate from the .xcf file. If you continue to work on your file after exporting, changes will be made to the .xcf file but not to your exported image.

To set the file format for your image you can choose from a dropdown menu or type the file extension yourself. By default, GIMP will automatically save images as .png:

Click export and then click export again to confirm your settings on the pop-up window.

In the vast majority of cases, you will not need to change any of the export options. If your file-size is still too large you can experiment with adjusting the quality slider.

1. Open the file in GIMP.

2. Click File > Export as.

3. Choose the format you want (eg PNG format) and new file location and click export.

4. Click export again to confirm your settings on the pop-up window.

1. Choose the crop tool from the toolbox. If you cannot see the cropping tool go to Tools > Transform Tools > Crop to select it.

2. In the tool options on the left make sure ‘Delete cropped pixels’ is selected.

3. Click and drag on your image to draw a rectangle around the area of your image you wish to keep.

4. Release the mouse then drag the corners of the box until you are satisfied that everything you want to keep is inside the box and everything you want to cut out is outside it.

5. Hit enter to crop your image to its new size.

Note: If you wish to crop your image to a specific width, height, or aspect ratio you can set these options in the tool menu on the left.

In this example. the cropping window will always maintain a 2:1 width-to-height ratio.

Choose the flip tool from the toolbox. If you cannot see the cropping tool go to Tools > Transform Tools > Flip to select it.

1. Choose whether you wish to flip the image horizontally or vertically.

2. Click anywhere on your image to flip it.

Note: If you have part of an image selected only the selected section of the image will be flipped. To make sure there are no active selections click Select > None first.

1. Choose the rotate tool from the toolbox. If you cannot see the cropping tool go to Tools > Transform Tools > Rotate to select it.

2. Click and drag your image or selected area to turn it clockwise or anti-clockwise.

3. Change the clipping options on the left to choose how your rotated image should be displayed.

   1. Adjust keeps your image intact. The corners that disappear outside the visible area are still there. (You may need to click Image > Fit canvas to layers to see them.)

   2. Clip cuts off any corners that move outside the visible canvas.

   3. Crop to result cuts off everything outside the largest possible rectangle in the rotated image.

   4. Crop with aspect, like crop to result, creates a rectangular image, but retains the aspect ratio of the original.

1. Choose the clone tool from the toolbox. If you cannot see the cropping tool go to Tools > Paint Tools > Clone to select it.

2. Choose an area of your image as a source - you will clone this area and use it to cover over the mark you are removing. To set the source area place your mouse over it, hold CTRL and click. A circle will appear indicating the area that will be used as your source.

3. Now use your mouse to paint over the section you want removed. You will see two brushes moving on your page - the one under your mouse shows where you are drawing. The second circle shows you where the new pixels are being sourced from.

4. You can adjust the size of your brush to change how large or small an area you cover.

Tip: choose an area close to the stain and paint in small sections for the best results.

1. First, prepare your logo and save it somewhere where you can easily find it.

2. Open the image to which you wish to add your logo. Adjust it to a size with which you are happy.

3. Click File > Open as Layers and select your logo.

4. You will now see two layers in your layer menu - whichever layer is selected here is the one to which any edits will be made as you work. Make sure the new layer with your logo is selected.

5. You can use the scale tool to resize your logo, and the move tool to drag it into the right location on your image.

6. You can also retouch your logo just like any other image.

7. When you are happy with the placement of your logo use the export tool to save a new version of your image with the logo.

1. Open and prepare the image to which you wish to add text.

2. Select the text tool from the toolbox. If you cannot find it click Tools > Text

3. Drag your mouse over your image to create a rectangular box for your text (you can move and resize this later). You will see a new ‘floating layer’ appear in your layers menu – because the text is technically on a new layer you can adjust it without affecting the main image.

4. Type your text into the box.

5. Drag your mouse over the text to select it and use the text options box on the right to change the size, font, or colour. If your text is too large for your textbox just click and drag a corner of the box to make it larger.

To reposition your text

1. Make sure the correct text layer is selected.

2. Select the move tool from your toolbox. If you cannot find it, click Tools > Transform Tools > Move

3. Click on your text and drag it into place. (Note: you must click on the text itself for this to work, not on the surrounding area.)

1. Complete the steps above to add text to your image.

2. Now click Layers > New layer

3. Make sure the Fill with dropdown menu is set to ‘foreground colour’, ‘background colour’ or ‘white’ and click OK.

4. Initially, your new layer will completely cover your whole image and will be whatever colour you selected. We will now adjust it to make it smaller, slightly transparent, and to place it between the text and the background.

5. Move your new layer between your base layer and your text by clicking and dragging it in the layers menu so that it appears just beneath the text layer.

6. Now move the opacity slider down so the image beneath begins to show through. About 75% is a good setting for a label, but you can experiment.

7. Now click Layer > Scale Layer to make the layer small enough to work as a label.

8. Use the move tool (Tools > Transform Tools > Move) to reposition the label behind your text. You can use the scale tool to continue to adjust the size.

9. You can also use the bucket fill tool (Tools >Paint Tools > Bucket Fill) to change the colour of your label.

10. Adjust the positioning, opacity, and colours of your text and labels until you are happy with the result.

1. Select the paintbrush tool or pencil tool from the toolbox. If you cannot find them look in Tools > Paint Tools. The pencil tool draws lines with a hard edge, the lines drawn with the paintbrush are softer. (These tools may be grouped together: see our section on ungrouping tools.)

2. Choose the colour you wish to use.

3. Set the brush size (this controls the thickness of your line) and shape.

4. To draw freeform just hold down your mouse button and drag your mouse.

5. To draw a straight line click on your starting point, hold the Shift key, then click on the end point.

1. To draw a polygon you must first use one of the selection tools to mark out your shape. (These tools may be grouped together: see our section on ungrouping tools.) Different selection tools can make different shapes:

   1. Rectangle select marks out a rectangle. Set the fixed ratio option to 1:1 for a square.

   2. Ellipse select marks out an oval. Set the fixed ratio option to 1:1 for a circle.

   3. Free select can be used to draw a free-form shape with the mouse.

2. Once you have created your shape you can use the Edit menu to fill the shape with colour or to give it a solid outline.

   1. Edit > Stroke Selection paints a solid line around the selected area. You can choose the colour and thickness of the line.

   2. Edit > Fill with FG Color fills in the shape with whatever colour is currently selected. You can also choose to fill the image in with the background image or with a pattern.