Software for digitization projects or digital collection management can get expensive, particularly when you need multiple programs for different purposes (editing, converting, renaming, etc.) and formats (images, documents, video, audio, OCR, etc.). The Digital Initiatives Department is all for low-cost options when it comes to software, especially when that cost is $0.
When it comes to image editing on a budget, there is nothing better than GIMP. GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program, and it’s a free and open-source image editor.
It’s a powerful and useful program that’s comparable to Photoshop, but it may not be as user-friendly. However, GIMP is significantly cheaper than Photoshop because it is completely FREE. There are also many resources available online for GIMP that can be consulted if assistance is needed, such as the user manual, tutorials, and, of course, Google to find help from the substantial online GIMP community.
GIMP has numerous capabilities, but at its core, it still retains the basics: cropping, rotating, flipping, resizing, and converting. Digital Initiatives put together a guide for GIMP that provides instructions on how to perform the beforementioned tasks.
To learn more about GIMP or download the latest version, go to https://www.gimp.org/. For information on additional low-cost software that Digital Initiatives recommends, consult the Hardware & Software page on LibGuides.
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