2. Using Gimp

2.1. Running Gimp

Most often, you start Gimp either by clicking on an icon (if your system is set up to provide you with one), or by typing "gimp" on a command line. If you have multiple versions of the Gimp installed, you may need to type "gimp-2.0" to get the latest version. You can, if you want, give a list of image files on the command line after the program name, and they will automatically be opened by Gimp as it starts. It is also possible, though, to open files from within Gimp once it is running.

In most operating systems, you can set things up so that various types of image files are "associated" with Gimp, and cause it to start automatically when icons for them are double-clicked.

[Tip] Tip
If you want to cause a certain file type to automatically open in Gimp, you should associate it with "gimp-remote" rather than with "gimp". The gimp-remote program is an auxiliary that comes with gimp. If gimp is not already running on the system when gimp-remote is executed, it is started and the image given as argument to gimp-remote is loaded. If gimp is already running, though, the image is simply loaded into the already-running program.