GIMP, sometimes referred to as “The Gimp,” is a freely available open source application for creating and manipulating graphic images that runs on Linux, other Unix-based operating systems, and also on Windows and Mac OS X. GIMP is distributed under licensing terms defined by the GNU project. You are likely to find GIMP as one of the optional applications that come in any large Linux package such as those distributed by Debian and Red Hat. You can also download it directly. GIMP offers photo retouching, image composition, and image authoring and is favorably compared by users to Adobe’s Photoshop and Illustrator applications. GIMP was created by Peter Mattis and Spencer Kimball.

Revived from the “Digg” effect by the Google cache – for a how to read on here.