GIMP 1.0: Open Source Image Manipulation Arrives

It’s 1998, and if you’re a Linux user who needs to edit photos, you’ve mostly been out of luck. Photoshop is the king of the hill, but it only runs on Windows and Macs. But Spencer Kimball and Peter Mattis have changed the game. GIMP 1.0 is here, and it’s a powerhouse.

The GTK Legacy

One of the most interesting things about GIMP isn't the image editing—it's the toolkit. To build GIMP, the authors ended up writing their own UI library, the "GIMP Toolkit" or GTK. It’s so good that it’s already being used to build an entire desktop environment (something called GNOME).

Features for the Professionals

GIMP 1.0 isn't just a toy. It supports layers, channels, and a wide array of filters. The "Plug-in" architecture is particularly clever—almost everything in GIMP is a plug-in, making it incredibly extensible.

/* A taste of GIMP plugin development */
static void query (void) {
  static GimpParamDef args[] = {
    { GIMP_PDB_INT32,    "run_mode",  "Interactive, non-interactive" },
    { GIMP_PDB_IMAGE,    "image",     "Input image" },
    { GIMP_PDB_DRAWABLE, "drawable",  "Input drawable" }
  };
  // ...
}

The "Floating Windows" Workflow

The UI is… unique. Instead of one big application window, GIMP uses multiple floating windows: one for the toolbox, one for the image, and others for layers and brushes. It takes some getting used to, especially if you’re coming from the Mac, but it’s highly flexible for multi-monitor setups.

A Viable Alternative

Is it as polished as Photoshop? Not yet. But for an open-source project, it’s a staggering achievement. We’re already using it in our office for web graphics and texture work for our internal 3D projects. It’s proving that "Free" software can be every bit as professional as its commercial counterparts.