The first issue of The GIMP Magazine is on track for an autumn release.

Despite the project being less than 3 months old all 50 pages in the user-contributed publication have been completed, creating a compelling list of contents aimed at casual and pro Gimp users alike.

Amongst the features and articles included in Issue #1 are:

Feature on a photographer who uses only GIMP and UFRAW

Master Class tutorial in GIMP of a real location in France

HDR photography story using GIMP and related software packages

A “Back to School” list of essential GIMP resources

Design gallery featuring contributions from the GIMP Community

A unique non-technical GIMP 2.8 review

‘Professional Magazine’

We first wrote about plans for the magazine, along with a call for contributions, earlier this year. Since then the project has gone from strength to strength.

Project lead Steve Czajka told me that the team have been working hard to ‘get the magazine right’ from the off, securing an ISSN International Number to help ‘uniquely identify’ the magazine from other titles, ‘and to assist with searching and cataloging [the] publication.’

“And we wrapped all of this content in a professional, yet cool looking layout magazine design where any artist would feel comfortable presenting their works within, and we are attracting some outstanding artists and photographers who are all exclusive to GIMP.”

The digital magazine uses a traditional dimensioned layout (8.125″ x 10.75″) and, Steve tells me, is best viewed using facing page mode.

PDF and ePub versions will be available, as will an online version of the PDF through issuu.com/GIMPMagazine

No word yet on whether the team will also publish the magazine to the Ubuntu Software Center, though they are said to be open to the idea.

For more information on the title check out their newly launched website @ gimpmagazine.org