When the Gimp starts up, you will see one taskbar entry for The Gimp and one for Layers and Channels but precious little else. To see the remainder of the menus you must begin work on a file, so click The GIMP to open it and choose File, Open. Browse to find the file to work with, click its name and click Ok. The file will open, a taskbar entry will appear for it, and you will find a set of typical graphics menus appear across the top of your image. These are the menus you'll work with most of the time.

Like Photoshop, GIMP supports layers and you can duplicate layers and build complex images by placing various pieces of an image on different layers. Use blend modes and opacity to vary how the layers interact with each other. The step by step example shows how to use these to subtly recolour an image. To create a new layer choose Layer, New Layer, type a name for it if desired and click Ok. To paste a clipboard selection into a layer, select the layer and choose Paste. Once you rename the pasted layer it behaves like any regular layer.