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GIMP, Inkscape and other image tools

Photo editing with GIMP, vector drawing with Inkscape, sketching with MyPaint, pixel art with GrafX2 and mtPaint, and batch work with ImageMagick.

2DimagesGIMPInkscapeMyPaintpixel artImageMagick

Program Best for Start
GIMP 3.2 fixing and retouching renders and photos, textures, cut-outs, batch editing gimp
Inkscape 1.4 logos, titles, clean character designs, backgrounds: shapes that stay sharp at any size (SVG) inkscape
MyPaint 2.0 fast sketching and concept painting on an endless canvas mypaint
GrafX2 2.8 pixel art and sprites with palettes grafx2
mtPaint 3.40 very quick pixel edits mtpaint
ImageMagick changing hundreds of images at once from the terminal convert, mogrify

GIMP#

GIMP with the render from the first tutorial.
GIMP with the render from the first tutorial.

Common jobs:

  • Adjust a render: Colors → Curves or Levels; Colors → Hue-Saturation.
  • Cut out a background: Tools → Selection Tools → Foreground Select, then Layer → Transparency → Add Alpha Channel and delete.
  • Make a texture tile seamlessly: Filters → Map → Tile Seamless.
  • Resize: Image → Scale Image. Export: File → Export As (GIMP's own format is .xcf; Export writes PNG/JPEG).
  • Non-destructive filters (new in GIMP 3): filters stay editable on the layer; click the fx icon in the Layers panel to change or remove them.
  • G'MIC (hundreds of extra effects: painterly looks, denoise, cartoon) is not available for GIMP 3.2 on Animux yet. The previous GIMP 2.10 with G'MIC is still installed: type gimp.debian in a terminal and use Filters → G'MIC-Qt there.

GIMP 3.2, Krita 5.3 and Inkscape 1.4

Animux r16.1 (_25) includes them; Debian's Krita 5.1 and Inkscape 1.2 are no longer on the ISO, and GIMP 2.10 stays as gimp.debian for G'MIC. Animux r16 (_21) shipped only GIMP 2.10, Krita 5.1 and Inkscape 1.2 from Debian 12; there, the packages animux-gimp, animux-krita and animux-inkscape add the official current versions (the menu entries and the commands gimp, krita and inkscape then start the new versions). Install them like a guide update (package files or, once online, sudo apt install animux-gimp animux-krita animux-inkscape).

AI assistants in GIMP, Krita and Inkscape

An AI assistant can work in the new GIMP, Krita and Inkscape through MCP: animux-mcp gimp on, animux-mcp krita on, animux-mcp inkscape on. See AI agents.

Inkscape#

Inkscape.
Inkscape.
  • Draw with the rectangle, ellipse, star and Bézier pen tools; colour with Object → Fill and Stroke (Ctrl+Shift+F).
  • Text for titles: T tool; convert to shapes with Path → Object to Path before sharing the file.
  • Export PNG at any size: File → Export (Ctrl+Shift+E). Inkscape files (SVG) also open in Blender (File → Import → SVG) and Synfig.

From the terminal: inkscape title.svg --export-type=png --export-width=1920.

GIMP also works without a window, for scripts and AI agents, with Python (GIMP 3 API):

gimp-console -i --batch-interpreter=python-fu-eval -b "exec(open('my_script.py').read())" --quit

MyPaint#

MyPaint.
MyPaint.

Press Tab to hide the panels and paint full screen. The canvas grows as you paint. Save as .ora (OpenRaster, opens in Krita and GIMP).

ImageMagick: many images at once#

mogrify -resize 50% *.png                         # make every PNG half size (overwrites!)
mogrify -format jpg *.png                         # convert all PNG to JPEG
convert in.png -gravity south -pointsize 48 -annotate +0+20 "Shot 10" out.png
montage frame_*.png -tile 6x -geometry 320x180+4+4 contact-sheet.png

Work on a copy of your files: mogrify changes them in place.