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.
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