GIMP
GIMP is a desktop image editor for photo retouching, image composition, painting, and graphics work on macOS and other platforms.
What is GIMP?
GIMP is an open-source graphics editor used for photo editing, image composition, digital painting, and preparing graphics for web or print workflows. It is aimed at hobbyists, students, designers, photographers, and other users who need a capable desktop editor without a subscription. On macOS, GIMP provides tools for working with layers, masks, selections, brushes, text, and color adjustments, making it useful for everything from simple touch-ups to more detailed creative projects. It also supports common image formats and can be extended with plug-ins and scripts for specialized tasks. Many users choose it for tasks such as cropping and retouching photos, creating illustrations, editing transparent PNG assets, and converting or exporting images for different uses. GIMP is published by the GNOME Foundation and is also available on other desktop platforms, which helps when sharing workflows across mixed environments.
Key features
- Edit photos with selection, crop, paint, retouch, and color adjustment tools.
- Work with layers, layer masks, and blending modes for non-destructive image composition.
- Create graphics, illustrations, and transparent assets with brushes, text, and transform tools.
- Open, edit, and export common image formats for web, print, and general design work.
- Extend the editor with plug-ins and scripts for specialized workflows.
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Safety overview
Status: Safe
GIMP is legitimate image-editing software. Its normal access to files, folders, and user-selected images is consistent with its purpose. Downloading the macOS build from the official GIMP site is the safest option; the GIMP team states that it does not publish a Mac App Store version, so store listings using the GIMP name may be unrelated third-party products.
Recommendation: Keep GIMP if you use it for photo editing, drawing, or graphics work. If you no longer use it, you can remove the app and its support files to reclaim space, but doing so may also remove your preferences, plug-ins, and personal GIMP settings.
Common paths
/Applications/GIMP.app
Cache paths
~/Library/Caches/org.gimp.gimp
Support paths
~/Library/Application Support/GIMP
Preference paths
~/Library/Preferences/org.gimp.gimp.plist
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