Completing image manipulation tasks without the aid of Photoshop has provided an opportunity for me to learn new software while supporting my workflow. Below is a synopsis of what I have encountered while using an open source program called GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program).
Over the years, I have amassed a large collection of photographic prints and slides as well as scrapbooks of my travels abroad. While images taken with cell phones and digital cameras can be easily offloaded to desktop computers, the same cannot be said for photos shot using a box or single lens reflex camera manufactured decades ago.
Having decided to test drive GIMP as my new image editor, I used my Epson scanner to digitize a roll of Kodachrome slides that I produced during a trip to China. A photo that I had taken of a ticket taker at the Summer Palace in Beijing was noticeably underexposed, so I decided to try my hand at color correction using GIMP 2.10.32. Just using the Levels slider and no other color adjustment tools, I show what the original scan looked like and compare it to my edited image:
The result was an improvement from the original shot, but far from perfect. By taking time to master many of the other color correction and enhancement tools inside of GIMP, I could do a much better job of image editing.
Which GIMP version to use?
An issue I did not expect to encounter when I elected to install and use GIMP as my image editor was learning about the different versions and add-ons that are available. Most users would probably be satisfied by running the latest stable release, which is GIMP 2.10.32.
As an experienced Photoshop user, I was intrigued that developers had come up with a patch for GIMP 2.10+ called PhotoGIMP that provided features familiar to the Photoshop community. In my case, installing PhotoGIMP created an annoying user interface glitch: the inability to open the GIMP Preferences drop-down menu.
Just uninstall and reinstall, right?
When I first installed GIMP 2.10.32 in my Mojave 10.14 virtual machine that I use as a test bed, I noticed that I could open the GIMP Preferences menu in a normal manner.
Based on that experience, I knew that the problem was not due to either macOS or GIMP 2.10.32. Instead, it was somehow related to PhotoGIMP and its impact on the GIMP installation.
You might assume that the matter would resolve itself by simply:
- Deleting GIMP-2.10.app from the Application folder.
- Deleting the GIMP folder from ~/Library/Application Support
- Restarting my Mac
- Reinstalling GIMP 2.10.32
As I learned afterward, clicking the GIMP Preferences menu still froze the system after completing the above steps. Going one step further, I found that I could not open the GIMP Preferences menu when I logged into a second user account on my Mac. It was at this point that I decided to consider other GIMP releases.
Evaluating my options
For users who like to live on the “bleeding edge”, the open source community has come up with a GIMP 2.99.14 development release that is prone to bugs and missing features. I found that while I am able to install 2.99.14 on macOS 10.12.6 (Sierra) or 10.14 (Mojave), this beta version will not launch using either operating system.
While I am to access the Preferences menu using the stable release of GIMP 2.8.22, exporting jpg and png images from the File menu was implemented in a clumsy manner that requires hopping over to another window before the export could be completed. I would be wasting time and getting frustrated doing this repeatedly.
Finally, I tested a customized version of GIMP 2.8.2 for Mountain Lion (GIMP-2.8.2-p4-Mountain-Lion.dmg) that installs menus in the Japanese language by default. While there is an English language user manual for this release that can be downloaded (GIMP-2.8-User-Manual-en.pkg), the installer doesn’t indicate where the manual is installed or supply its file name, so it did not help me change the GIMP 2.8.2 menus from Japanese to English.
Conclusion
Despite the Preferences menu anomaly that was apparently caused by installing PhotoGIMP in conjunction with GIMP 2.10.32, I decided it was my best option, so I am going to use this configuration for the time being. Most web tutorials that I found on GIMP focus on the 2.10 release, so it makes sense to learn it. All the while, I leave the door open to consider other software offerings that may prove to be better suited for my needs.
Resources
Main GIMP website to download version 2.10.32.
Download previous stable version 2.8.22 dated 2017-05-11.
GIMP 2.99.14 development release download page.
Download GimpShop 2.8.2 for Mac (Mountain Lion 10.8)
PhotoGIMP – Install patch for optimizing GIMP 2.10+ for Adobe Photoshop users.
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