Gegl
Gegl
GEGL (Generic Graphics Library) or (GIMP's Engine Graphics Library) or (Genetically Engineered Goat Large) is a graph based image processing framework that is used as GIMP's main engine as well as other software like GNOME photos. It allows users to apply and re-edit image modifying filters in GIMP, chain filters non-linearly in a GEGL graph, or do command line image editing.
GEGL is an free software project debuted in year 2000 that began with a Hollywood studio named Rhythm and Hues (R&H) and its engineers particularly the work of Calvin Williamson who invented it. His team at R&H had an interest in GIMP and their fork FILM GIMP of the 2000s as a serious alternative to commercial industry software of the time, but apparently they lost interest and abandoned GEGL in a few years when they assumed it stood no chance against commercial proprietary software of the early 2000s. But because the code was free and open GEGL was not dead only taking a 3 year break. And in 2005 an individual named Pippin took over the GEGL project and revitalized it and giving it associations with GNOME project. This first began with his GGGL experiment which gave GEGL a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) and composers which are like blend modes or layer groups that other filters can go inside. Before Pippin's GGGL in 2005, GEGL only supported linear chaining of filters. (filter 1, filter2, filter 3,) Pippin's GGGL is what allowed non-linear chaining of filters with composers and ID and Reference system. GGGL also introduced a color management system that would later be known as BABL, a separate program that GEGL depends on.
During the GIMP 2.6 days in 2010 GEGL first was introduced into GIMP in a "GEGL Operation" menu of its own showing off live preview abilities, though with frequent crashes. In 2012 with GIMP 2.10 GEGL became GIMP's main engine though it was strictly destructive not able to re-edit filters. In 2022 an individual named Beaver pioneered the first wave of third party GEGL plugins for GIMP with live canvas previews.In mid 2023 GIMP dev CMYK Student implemented non-destructive editing in an experimental build of GIMP 2.99x and it was merged with GIMP's master branch in December 2023. After long development since that time to stabilize bugs and help from contributors, it was announced on March 16-17th 2025 that GIMP 3 was released shipping with GEGL 0.4.56 with non-destructive editing re-editable filters.
GEGL's original goal in year 2000 was 1. To give GIMP and FILM GIMP live preview re-editable filters and 2. color space and color profile conversion management. 3. To be a standard program of its own called MicroGIMP. However as history showed it took until 2025 for GIMP to officially release with non-destructive editing, in 2005-2006 BABL for filled color profile conversion, and MicroGIMP was just a vaporware idea by Rhyhm and Hues engineers that never came into existence.
GEGL is an advance image processing library that works through a node based system that chains operations known as GEGL ops. As of today many of GIMP's image editing filters now are ported to GEGL and GIMP 3 has usable non-destructive (re-editable) GEGL filters. Within GIMP exist a "GEGL Graph" filter that users can GEGL chain operations to do all sorts of interesting things including make third party GEGL filters plugins. Which is the newest part of GIMP's meta as seen here.
GEGL's avatar is a five limbed goat. It is little known fact that GEGL has four hidden Easter eggs in the GNOME desktop and GIMP over the years. Below I have listed all of them.
GEGL Easter Eggs in GNOME over the years
https://i.imgur.com/NEF3ocF.png
Easter egg 1. (2001 GNOME 1). Panel Properties in GNOME displays a image of GEGL
Easter Egg 2. (early 2000s Gimp). GEGL's from outer space in GIMP 2.2 - is a mini game that can be played similar to Space Invaders but with Wanda the fish shooting at GEGLs. It also included a GEGL Brush for Gimp.
Easter Egg 3. (2012 GNOME 3) Artwork in GNOME's mouse properties. A little girl is flying a GEGL kite and text reads. "five clicks GEGL time!". This image is vector art that was made in Inkscape. It is similar to the artwork found on many of GNOME.org's footers.
Easter Egg 4. (2020 GNOME 40) Artwork in GNOME's mouse properties. GEGL is depicted in the woods while a humanoid bear is driving a motorcycle towards it. It also displays the text "Five Clicks GEGL Time!" and it is also Vector art made in Inkscape.
Bonus mentions (NSFW aspects are description only): The three official art works of GEGL in developmental versions of GIMP
1. There is official artwork from the late 2000s of GIMP's avatar Wilbert painting GEGL the goat in a NSFW manner.
2. There is official artwork of GIMP's avatar wilbert in a cage and GEGL's avatar the goat as bondage enthusiast.
3. Not NSFW, but there exist official artwork of GEGL as a goat being in a bed about to fall asleep.
GEGL is very powerful free LIBRE software for creative individuals. It best excels in text styling and special effects as seen in third party GIMP plugins as seen here by Beaver as seen in the link below.
Licensing
License
Verified by
Verified on
Notes
License
Verified by
Debian: Matteo F. Vescovi <mfvescovi@gmail.com>
Verified on
8 September 2014
Notes
License: gpl-3
License
Verified by
Debian: Matteo F. Vescovi <mfvescovi@gmail.com>
Verified on
8 September 2014
Notes
License: lgpl-3
Leaders and contributors
| Contact(s) | Role |
|---|---|
| Øyvind Kolås | contact |
Resources and communication
| Audience | Resource type | URI |
|---|---|---|
| Debian (Ref) | https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/gegl | |
| Download | http://www.gegl.org |
Software prerequisites
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the page “GNU Free Documentation License”.
The copyright and license notices on this page only apply to the text on this page. Any software or copyright-licenses or other similar notices described in this text has its own copyright notice and license, which can usually be found in the distribution or license text itself.