GIMP may be a free photo editor, but it has amazing capabilities when it comes to graphic design. With its myriad shape and free-hand selection tools, paths tool, text tool, and live-preview filters (known as GEGL filters) that make certain graphic design techniques quick and easy, you can create some really awesome works using this program.
In this GIMP video tutorial list, I provide my 21 favorite GIMP graphic design tutorials that either show you just how powerful this program is, or help you accomplish common design tasks. Regardless of what your skill level is in GIMP or what you came to learn, you should leave this page with a much higher level of understanding of creating amazing digital designs. Enjoy!
1. Top 5 Text Effects in GIMP
A great place to start with graphic design in GIMP is knowing your way around the various effects and filters you can apply to your text. These effects will help give your text more depth with drop shadows, gradients, 3D effects (using the long shadow filter), and more! Apply what you learn in this tutorial to any of your future design works that contain text to instantly up the aesthetic.
2. How to Make a Monochrome Collage That POPS in GIMP
The first tutorial on this list combines several techniques – from erasing an image background to drawing shapes and lines, to combining and blending images and gradients – to create a mixed-media poster. This is a great graphic design AND photo manipulation tutorial!
3. How to Design YouTube Thumbnails in GIMP
Have a YouTube channel or have always wanted to start one? Learn how to design better thumbnails for your videos using simply graphic design techniques in GIMP. Better thumbnails get you more clicks on your videos while also helping you develop a branding style. Learn how to combine images, outline your subject, add text and shapes, and add your logo with this tutorial.
4. Outlined Interactive Picture in Text | GIMP Text Effect Tutorial for Beginners
This simple method uses text and text outlines to create more eye-catching, interactive text. By having main objects or subjects in your photo masked out of your text, you help isolate the most important parts of your design while also drawing more attention to the overall message written in the text. This is a great way to add depth to your images – especially when used for promotions or ads.
5. Create a Movie Poster with Multiple Characters in GIMP
This tutorial was born out of many requests for creating a movie poster featuring multiple characters. Whether you need a professional looking poster design for your next Netflix film or series, or want to create fan art for your favorite movie or streaming series, this is a super easy-to-follow tutorial to help you make great art. Combine multiple photos with text and color overlays to create this movie poster!
7. Easily Design a Professional Logo in GIMP 2.10
Design a simple yet professional logo in GIMP using shape tools, the paths tool, and the text tool. Though GIMP is primarily a raster-based software (i.e. used for photo editing more than graphic design), it is still fully capable of producing professional quality logos in a short amount of time.
8. How to Create Pixel Art in GIMP
8-bit digital art has been back in style for a while now – and luckily it’s really easy to create using GIMP. This tutorial shows you how to design a pixel art character using a simple sketch. I also show you how to use GIMP’s grid and pencil tool for more precise pixel art drawing.
9. GIMP 3D Sphere Logo Design Tutorial
Use GIMP’s build-in sphere designer to easily generate 3D spheres which you can then utilize to create incredible 3D logos! This tutorial shows you the basics of generating a 3D sphere in GIMP, while also showing you how to add text and wrap that text around the sphere. I also show you how to create realistic shading for your lettering and sphere, and how to add a drop shadow to make the composition appear to float on your canvas.
10. GIMP Tutorial – Create Multi-Platform Content for Social Media in 4 Easy Steps
Having to create content pieces for multiple social media accounts and site pages has become commonplace in the business and marketing world. I discuss a method in this tutorial for cutting the time it takes you to create a single piece of content for multiple platforms. Save time on your marketing with GIMP!
11. Photoshop vs. GIMP: 5 Graphic Design Features Compared
In this Photoshop vs. GIMP comparison video, I cover the common graphic design features found in both programs. This video shows that GIMP keeps pace with this Adobe Powerhouse, offering plenty of graphic design tools to help you get the job done.
12. Create Gold Leaf Textures and Realistic Gold Text in GIMP
In this GIMP tutorial I show you how to combine text with textures to create realistic gold text or text with a gold leaf texture.
13. How to Design a Book Cover in GIMP 2.10
Are you an author looking to self-publish your first e-book? Do you own a business and want to start releasing white papers or free guides? This tutorial show you how to easily design a digital book cover using photo manipulation and graphic design tools found in GIMP.
14. Design with PSD Templates in GIMP
GIMP developers have spent a lot of time over the years improving GIMP’s ability to open and edit Photoshop Document (PSD) templates. As a result, GIMP has gotten really good at supporting these filetypes, which means you can take advantage of the huge library of PSD files out there to use in GIMP. In this tutorial, I show you how to use a PSD to customize a template with your own graphics.
15. How to Create Seamless Repeating Patterns in GIMP
GIMP has some built-in features that make it extremely easy to turn any design or PNG image into a seamless pattern. This opens up a world of design possibilities, aiding you in the creation of unique textures and designs for your works. Learn how to easily create seamless patterns using GIMP!
16. 5 Easy and Awesome Text Shadow Effects in GIMP
Make your text stand out with these 5 text shadow styles available in GIMP! From a simple drop-shadow to more advanced styles, this tutorial at the very least will give you some ideas on how to spruce up your text in your graphic designs.
17. GIMP Logo Design Tutorial | Honeycomb Logic Modern Logo
In this GIMP logo design tutorial, I show you how to use the paths tool to create custom shapes for more advanced logo designs. I also show you how to add gradient text as well as shape outlines and drop shadows.
18. How to Create Cubic Typography in GIMP
Ready to take your text designs to new heights? In this tutorial, I show you how to create a 3D text design that wraps around a cube or a corner. This tutorial is accompanied by a 3D cube template, which is available to DMD Premium Members, to save you a ton of time when mapping your text to a 3D cube (I show you how to perform this process manually in the tutorial).
19. Wrap Text Around a Cylinder in GIMP | 3D Typography
This next tutorial follows the trend of advanced 3D typography, showing you how to easily wrap text around a 3D cylinder. This tutorial uses all built-in tools found in GIMP, making it easy to create incredible 3D designs.
20. GIMP 2.10 Tutorial: Design a Business Card for Print
Learn how to design your own business cards for your small business, side-project, or for any other reason using this step-by-step GIMP tutorial. Learn how to place text and logos, as well add icons and other design elements. You’ll also learn how to get your cards ready for sending them to the printer!
21. Create Better 3D Text in GIMP with This Ingenious Method
GIMP allows you to easily create 3D text designs in a single perspective, but what if you want your perspective to shift as the text moves across the page? Such an effect looks more realistic, especially when the text is centered on the page, and adds additional depth to your design. In this tutorial, I demonstrate a very simple method for upping your GIMP 3D text designs.
