GIMP Practical (v2.
0)
Introduction
In this practical we will work through some of the relevant basic features of GIMP, useful for bitmap
image editing.
Software
This practical is based on GIMP and the instructions were based on v 2.8.10 and v 2.10 (although
they should be very similar on other versions).
GIMP (www.gimp.org)
Data
All of the input data used in this practical can be downloaded from the Babraham Bioinformatics
web site (http://www.bioinformatics.babraham.ac.uk/training.html).
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Licence
This manual is © 2019, Boo Virk and Jo Montgomery
This manual is distributed under the creative commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0
licence. This means that you are free:
to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work
to make derivative works
Under the following conditions:
Attribution. You must give the original author credit.
Non-Commercial. You may not use this work for commercial purposes.
Share Alike. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting
work only under a licence identical to this one.
Please note that:
For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the licence terms of this work.
Any of these conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder.
Nothing in this license impairs or restricts the author's moral rights.
Full details of this licence can be found at
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/legalcode
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Exercise 1 –Brightness/Contrast and Cropping an Image
We are going to start by creating a standard page layout and importing an image so that we can
optimise brightness and contrast levels.
Open GIMP and import the TIFF file called ‘Western_blot.tif’ from the Data/GIMP practical folder
using:
File > Open
Alter the view so that the image is zoomed to 50% of its original size.
Save the image as a working XCF file so we have a backup of the raw image before we start editing:
File > Save As
Now we are going to check the brightness and contrast levels of the image. Edit the brightness and
contrast manually using the sliders, then reset the brightness and contrast and edit them using
colour levels.
Straighten the western blot image as you see appropriate.
Crop the western blot image to an appropriate size and export the final image as a TIFF file using:
File > Export As
Exercise 2 –Adding and assigning a colour to Alpha Channels
In the Data/GIMP practical folder there is a file called ‘bioinformatics_logo_square.png’, it is an
image of the Babraham Bioinformatics logo.
Import this image into GIMP and add an alpha channel. Edit the alpha channel settings so that the
white background is transparent.
Export this image in an appropriate format to maintain the transparency.
Exercise 3 –Pseudo-colour Overlays
In the Data/GIMP practical folder there is a folder called ‘FISH image practical’. This folder contains
grayscale images for red, green and blue channels.
Import all three images, making sure that they are RGB colour mode, and then reduce each image to
the appropriate colour using levels.
Once all images are the correct colour, combine images into a single image and ensure that the
underlying layers are visible.
Export the overlay image in an appropriate format onto the desktop.
