Adaptable Gimp Makes Using The Gimp Easy [Windows & Linux]

Adaptable Gimp Makes Using The Gimp Easy [Windows & Linux]:

Do you love using the Gimp, but feel lost amongst all the tools and options? Find just the things you need for the job at hand, instantly, with a simple search. With Adaptable Gimp, you’ll even find step-by-step instructions for accomplishing precisely the thing you want to do. This software, powered by user contributions, makes it easy for just about anyone to use The Gimp. It all revolves around “TaskSets”, a concept so amazingly useful you’ll wonder why it wasn’t in The Gimp all along.

Want to remove red eye from a photo? There’s a TaskSet for that. Same for adding drop shadows to text, cropping and resizing photos and drawing basic shapes. Stop stumbling through controls. Whether you consider it a Gimp training tool or a full-blown replacement for the image editing suite, Adaptable Gimp is something you should check out.

Introducing TaskSets

For the most part, Adaptable Gimp looks like The Gimp. The main difference is the left sidebar:

As you can see, there is a search bar and a box containing a subset of Gimp tools. Search for a given TaskSet and you’ll quickly find results:

I’m constantly cropping and resizing photos for MakeUseOf, so “Crop and Resize” is the TaskSet for me. When I select this TaskSet, this is what I see:

As you can see, only the tools I need to crop and resize images are here, and nothing else. Even better, they are here in the order that I need them, and there are instructions for using them. This makes my job a lot easier.

Naturally, many of the toolsets are more complicated than this. Are you curious about the kinds of TaskSets that are out there? Find them all on the Adaptable Gimp wiki. This wiki isn’t just a fan-created list of all TaskSets: it’s the actual database used by Adaptable Gimp.

New sets are added constantly, which is really nice. Users of the software keep making it better, meaning you can accomplish more and more with this software as time goes on.

Creating TaskSets

Do you want to help make Adaptable Gimp better yourself? Simple. A built-in TaskSet creation tool makes this easy:

Just add the tools needed for a given job, then provide instructions. Your TaskSet will be saved to the wiki, making it available to all Adaptable Gimp users. You’ll be sharing your Gimp expertise with the world, and making this software better for everyone. So don’t complain if Adaptable Gimp doesn’t yet do something you want to do. Instead, add your own TaskSet and it will help everyone out.

Download Adaptable Gimp

Ready to start using Adaptable Gimp? Download it here. You’ll find an installer for Windows, and installation instructions for Linux. Sorry Mac users!

Once you check it out, be sure to let us know what you think of the software. Can you see yourself using it regularly? If not, do you think it’s a useful tool for teaching others? Or do you prefer websites with instructions for learning The Gimp? Should Photoshop add something similar to Adaptive Gimp? Share these thoughts and more in the comments below.