The GNU Image Manipulation Program is more commonly known as GIMP and comes bundled free with various versions of Linux such as Ubuntu. The program was originally created by Spencer Kimball & Peter Mattis, who said, "GIMP is our answer to the current lack of free (or at least reasonably priced) image manipulation software for GNU/Linux and UNIX in general." GIMP is a raster editor (pixel by pixel) used for photo editing and some graphics, and it is not a vector editor, which is something that graphic designers and professional illustrators may prefer.
Gimp has many drawing tools and features similar to Adobe Photoshop, however it does not have all the highly developed tools that comes with Photoshop, and likewise it does not have the Adobe Photoshop price tag. Users can edit photos pixel by pixel, apply masks, use layers and adjust the opacity of layers. Besides Linux, GIMP software is also available in a Windows and Mac OS X version. Gimp has basic support for art tablet tools such as Wacom.
Basic tools that users enjoy are:
drawing straight lines
drawing circles
create outlines around text
build layers and edit them independently
enlarge, shrink, crop and color-adjust photographs, JPEG and GIF images.
Overall GIMP has the basic functionality needed for a tablet program where a user wants to draw on a layer over a picture or lecture slide. The icons for most features are fairly standard, and recognizable to Photoshop users. The down-side of the user interface is that there are a lot of icons on the screen and finding what you want to do takes time and experience.
Good Features:
free to use and there are Linux, Windows and Mac versions
all the basic drawing functionality is provided: lines, brushes, shapes
source code is available
True-Type fonts are supported
the software supports plug-ins and is adaptable to multiple uses
Bad Features:
layers feature is not intuitive for new users and may take some time to learn
public license software means no dedicated support team, only community bug support
limited functionality compared with a COTS product like Photoshop
a little bit complicated to draw lines and arrows, menus could be more straightforward
users report trouble adding fonts on certain machines (like Solaris)
Missing Features:
if anything the program has too many features for the purpose of E-Class. It would be great if there were a super-simple version of GIMP, with just the basics to draw lines, make shapes and manipulate layers. That way new users can pick up the U.I. quickly.