If you go to File > Save as, you will only get the option to use the. First note the difference between “saving” and “exporting”. Now that the image looks better, you may want to save it for use in your presentation. If the image is much too dark, it wouldn’t be possible to fix it without creating heavy noise and artifacts. But be aware that no process can do miracles. Looks much better, doesn’t it? The opposite is also possible: if an image looks too bright, you can correct it. The controls are very intuitive, and if the “preview” option is checked, you should be able to see results on the fly.

These operations are accessible in the menu : Colors > Brightness-Contrast. The basic way to handle this is to modify brightness and contrast. If it were used in a presentation, it would probably be hard to see the details. The first thing we can notice about our image is that it is a little bit too dark. Dragging & dropping over the interface also does the job. Opening the image with GIMP is easy: just go to File > Open and select your file. We’re going to use this image as an example throughout the tutorial. The image below is a microscopy image of a cattle blastocytst, an early stage of the embryo. This being said, let's begin with an example. Keep in mind that you should modify an image so as not to interfere in the essence of it. A small warningīefore starting to really work on images, a small disclaimer : when handling scientific images, we need to be really careful not to modify our data! To increase contrast for a better display in a presentation is one thing, yet to modify the image enough to change the way we interpret it (like erasing something that shouldn’t be there) is something else, and unethical. To do this, in the GIMP menu, go to “Windows” and then select “Single-Window mode”. A rather exhaustive one can be found here.Īmong all the possible interface tweaks, the first thing that really makes our lives easier is to set GIMP to work in single-window mode. If you have some experience with Photoshop, you may want to tweak the interface to something you’re more familiar with. GIMP can be downloaded free of charge here, with versions for Linux, OS X or Windows. Here we’re going to look into some of the basic features that can make our lives much easier, and solve most everyday situations.

Gimp open source photoshop