Summary: This page shows over 130 examples of what you can accomplish with filters and other effects in Gimp. If you know how to use Gimp and just want a reference page of what the effects look like, I hope these examples are helpful.

Gimp filters

There are so many filters available with Gimp — and no simple way to preview them all — that I forget what they all look like. To help with this problem, I created this page as a “Gimp filters cheat sheet” to help remind me of what all the filters look like.

As a result, this page shows over 130 examples of Gimp effects that are applied one at a time to a photograph I took of Denali when I lived in Talkeetna, Alaska. I put the name of each filter/effect to the right of each image.

Note that these are “one at a time” effects; you can combine filters together to achieve an infinite number of possible effects. Also, most of these effects have different controls that you can adjust; in most cases here I have just used the default values.

The original image

Before showing all the different Gimp effects, here’s the original image:

Artistic effects

These examples show the effects you can find under the Filters > Artistic menu:



artistic > apply canvas



artistic > cartoon



artistic > cubism



artistic > gimpressionist

(There are many Gimpressionist options.)



artistic > glass tile



artistic > oilify



artistic > photocopy



artistic > predator



artistic > softglow



artistic > van gogh



artistic > weave

Beautify

These are examples of the filters you can find under Filters > Beautify > Beautify.



beautify > art > color pencil



beautify > art > life sketch



beautify > art > relief



beautify > art > sketch



beautify > black and white



beautify > fashion > astral



beautify > fashion > pick light



beautify > gradient > beam gradient



beautify > gradient > rainbow gradient



beautify > gradient > sunset gradient



beautify > invert



beautify > lomo > recall



beautify > lomo > retro



beautify > smart color



beautify > smart color (50) + strong contrast (20)



beautify > studio > abao



beautify > studio > cold blue

Blur

These are examples of the filters you can find under the Filters > Blur menu:



blur > blur



blur > focus blur



blur > pixelize (3 pixels)



blur > pixelize (rectangular selection)



blur > gaussian blur

In the next image I (a) quickly selected the trees, (b) inverted that selection, then did a Gaussian blur on the background. This is a really nice technique to use when you have people in the foreground and stuff in the background that you don’t care about. The result in this case is that the trees look sharp, and the background is blurred:



gaussian > blur (background blur only)

Combine

This is an example of an effect under the Gimp Filters > Combine menu:



combine > filmstrip of several images

Decor

These images show the effects under the Filters > Decor menu:



decor > coffee stain



decor > fuzzy border



decor > old photo



decor > perspective reflection



decor > rounded corners



decor > slide

Distorts

These images show examples from under the Gimp Filters > Distorts menu:



distort > apply lens



distort > blinds



distort > curve bend



distort > emboss



distort > erase every other row



distort > iwarp (move down)



distort > iwarp - swirl



distort > lens distort (main +45)



distort > lens distort (main -45)



distort > lens (edge, negative)



distort > mosaic (many options)



distort > mosaic (squares)

(I should have made the next two images “transparent” PNGs. The lines/stripes are because I did not do that.)



distort > page curl



distort > polar coordinates



distort > ripple (many options)



distort > shift horizontal



distort > value propagate (many options)



distort > video, striped



distort > waves (many options)



distort > whirl and pinch



distort > wind (many options)

Edge detect

These examples show the effects under the Gimp Filters > Edge menu:



edge > detect edge



edge > detect neon



edge > detect sobel

Generic



generic > dilate



generic > erode

Light and Shadow

These examples are under the Filters > Light and Shadow menu:



light-shadow > gradient flare, bright star



light-shadow > gradient flare



light-shadow > lens flare



light-shadow > lighting effects, default



light-shadow > lighting effects, drop shadow



light-shadow > lighting effects, more glowing, less shiny



light-shadow > lighting effects, sparkle



light-shadow > lighting-effects, supernova



light-shadow > lighting-effects, xach effect

Map

These examples show the effects under the Filters > Map menu:

map > bump map (many options)

map > displace, cartesian

map > displace, pinch, polar smear

map > fractal trace

map > illusion (2)

map > illusion (7)

map > make seamless

map > map to object, cylinder

map > map to object, sphere

map > resynthesize

map > small tiles

map > warp (default)

Noise

These examples show the filters under the Filters > Noise menu:

noise > hsv noise

noise > hurl (low values)

noise > noise generator, gauss (13)

noise > noise generator, laplace(9)

noise > noise generator, lorentz(2,5)

noise > noise generator, photons

noise > pick (higher values)

noise > pick

noise > rgb noise

noise > slur (5 times)

noise > spread(6)

Render

These example show the effects under the Filters > Render menu:

render > clouds > difference clouds

render > clouds > fog

render > clouds > plasma (as a layer)

render > clouds > solid noise (as a layer)

render > lava (as a layer)

render > lava

render > line nova (more options)

render > nature > flame

render > pattern > grid

render > pattern > jigsaw

Rip border

These examples show the effects under the Filters > Beautify > Border > Rip Border menu:

rip-border > 1

rip-border > 4

Simple Border

These examples show the effects under the Filters > Beautify > Border > Simple Border menu:

simple-border > 18

simple-border > 2

simple-border > 25

simple-border > 27

simple-border > 3

simple-border > 5

simple-border > 6

Texture Border

These examples show the effects under the Filters > Beautify > Border > Texture Border menu:

texture-border > 1

texture-border > 8

Gimp Script-Fu

Paul Sherman at gimphelp.org has kept many of the Script-Fu scripts running. (You have to install these scripts manually, and I’ll write about that process soon.) I run into errors when running some of the scripts with Gimp 2.8 on Mac OS X, but these scripts work well:

effects > reflection

photo > pastel portrait

sketch > line sketch

sketch > pastel sketch

sketch > pencil sketch

sketch > pencil sketch(2)

sketch > quick sketch

sketch > roy lichtenstein

sketch > synthetic edges

sketch > toned line art

Tools

There are a million things you can do with the tools in Gimp. Here is just one example (so far), showing the effect of the Smudge tool across the trees:

tools > smudge

More examples

If that’s not enough to whet your appetite (and offer a little inspiration), click the following link (or image) for even more examples of Gimp filters and effects.

Summary

I hope these examples of Gimp filters are helpful. I’ll add more filters over time, especially the Script-Fu filters I just downloaded. In the meantime, if you use Gimp and can’t remember what all of those filters do, I hope these examples are helpful.