GREYC Magic for Image Computing (G'MIC) [1] offers a seemingly limitless library of simple and advanced filters you can apply to images. Filter, in this case, is a bit of a misnomer. Filters are usually associated with presets that modify an image's overall appearance, and normally they don't offer much in terms of customization. G'MIC filters couldn't be more different. Think of G'MIC filters as actual tools that are designed to perform specific image manipulation tasks. Each tool offers a number of configurable options that allow you to achieve the optimal result. More important, unlike traditional filters, G'MIC tools can be used not only to change the overall look of an image but also to perform a multitude of other tasks, from making basic adjustments (brightness, contrast, saturation) to denoising and applying custom CLUT presets.

Objectively, not all of the G'MIC filters are equally useful, but as a photographer or a digital artist, you will likely find plenty of powerful filters in G'MIC's library worth adding to your image processing and manipulation toolbox. In this article, I'll show you how to put G'MIC to practical use.

Installation and First Steps

Although G'MIC is available as a command-line tool and a web service, you will most likely want to use it as a regular graphical application. You'll find the G'MIC plugin for Gimp and Krita in the official repositories of many mainstream Linux distributions. To plug G'MIC into Gimp on Ubuntu, run the command:

[...]