# Graphics software > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Graphics_software > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Graphics_software.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_software > Source revision: 1341134368 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) Type of application software This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Graphics software" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (April 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this message) [GIMP](/source/GIMP) image editor In [computer graphics](/source/Computer_graphics), **graphics software** refers to a [program](/source/Computer_program) or collection of programs that enable a person to [manipulate images](/source/Image_manipulation) or models visually on a [computer](/source/Computer).[1] Computer graphics can be classified into two distinct categories: [raster graphics](/source/Raster_graphics) and [vector graphics](/source/Vector_graphics), with further 2D and [3D](/source/3D_graphics_software) variants. Many graphics programs focus exclusively on either vector or raster graphics, but there are a few that operate on both. It is simple to convert from vector graphics to raster graphics, but going the other way is harder. Some software attempts to do this. In addition to static graphics, there are [animation](/source/Animation_software) and [video editing](/source/Video_editing_software) software. Different types of software are often designed to edit different types of graphics such as video, photos, and vector-based drawings. The exact sources of graphics may vary for different tasks, but most can read and write files.[2] Most graphics programs have the ability to import and export one or more [graphics file formats](/source/Graphics_file_formats), including those formats written for a particular computer graphics program. Such programs include, but are not limited to: [GIMP](/source/GIMP), [Adobe Photoshop](/source/Adobe_Photoshop), [CorelDRAW](/source/CorelDRAW), [Microsoft Publisher](/source/Microsoft_Publisher), [Picasa](/source/Picasa), etc.[3] The use of a swatch is a palette of active colours that are selected and rearranged by the preference of the user. A swatch may be used in a program or be part of the universal palette on an [operating system](/source/Operating_system). It is used to change the colour of a text or image and in video editing. Vector graphics animation can be described as a series of mathematical transformations that are applied in sequence to one or more shapes in a scene. Raster graphics animation works in a similar fashion to film-based animation, where a series of still images produces the illusion of continuous movement. ## History [SuperPaint](/source/SuperPaint) was one of the earliest graphics software applications, first conceptualized in 1972 and achieving its first stable image in 1973[4] Fauve Matisse (later [Macromedia xRes](/source/Macromedia_xRes)) was a pioneering program of the early 1990s, notably introducing [layers](/source/Layers_(digital_image_editing)) in customer software.[5] Currently [Adobe Photoshop](/source/Adobe_Photoshop) is one of the most used and best-known graphics programs in the Americas, having created more custom hardware solutions in the early 1990s, but was initially subject to various litigation. [GIMP](/source/GIMP) is a popular open-source alternative to [Adobe Photoshop](/source/Adobe_Photoshop). ## See also - [Comparison of raster graphics editors](/source/Comparison_of_raster_graphics_editors) - [Comparison of vector graphics editors](/source/Comparison_of_vector_graphics_editors) - [List of 2D graphics software](/source/List_of_2D_graphics_software) - [List of 2D animation software](/source/List_of_2D_animation_software) - [List of 3D animation software](/source/List_of_3D_animation_software) - [List of 3D modeling software](/source/List_of_3D_modeling_software) - [List of 3D rendering software](/source/List_of_3D_rendering_software) - [List of digital art software](/source/Digital_art#List_of_digital_art_software) - [Graphic art software](/source/Graphic_art_software) - [Image morphing software](/source/Image_morphing_software) - [Image conversion](/source/Image_conversion) - [imc FAMOS](/source/Imc_FAMOS) (1987), graphical data analysis - [Raster graphics editor](/source/Raster_graphics_editor) - [Vector graphics editor](/source/Vector_graphics_editor) ## References 1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** ["What is Graphics Software?"](https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/what-is-graphics-software/). *GeeksforGeeks*. 2022-08-09. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20230720155209/https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/what-is-graphics-software/) from the original on 2023-07-20. Retrieved 2023-10-18. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** ["Software Graphic: graphics software"](https://elearning.reb.rw/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=3834). *elearning.reb.rw*. Retrieved 2023-10-09. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** ["Software Graphic: Graphics Software"](https://elearning.reb.rw/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=3837). *elearning.reb.rw*. Retrieved 2023-10-09. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** Alonso, Bogar (2013-05-28). ["The 1970s Graphics Program That Spurred Space Exploration, Computer Picassos and Pixar"](https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-1970s-graphics-program-that-spurred-space-exploration-computer-picassos-and-pixar/). *Vice*. Retrieved 2023-10-09. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** [Macromedia Matisse](http://pages.swcp.com/rtoads/vivisect/software/matisse.html) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20170201140928/http://pages.swcp.com/rtoads/vivisect/software/matisse.html) 2017-02-01 at the [Wayback Machine](/source/Wayback_Machine), [Reign of Toads](http://pages.swcp.com/rtoads/) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20170211053135/http://pages.swcp.com/rtoads/) 2017-02-11 at the [Wayback Machine](/source/Wayback_Machine) v t e Computer graphics Vector graphics Diffusion curve Pixel 2D graphics Alpha compositing Layers Text-to-image 2.5D Isometric graphics Mode 7 Parallax scrolling Ray casting Skybox 3D graphics 3D projection 3D rendering (Image-based Spectral Unbiased) Aliasing Anisotropic filtering Cel shading Fluid animation Lighting Global illumination Hidden-surface determination Polygon mesh (Triangle mesh) Shading Deferred Surface triangulation Wire-frame model Concepts Affine transformation Back-face culling Clipping Collision detection Planar projection Reflection Rendering Beam tracing Cone tracing Checkerboard rendering Ray tracing Path tracing Ray casting Scanline rendering Rotation Scaling Shadow mapping Shadow volume Shear matrix Shader Texel Translation Volume rendering Voxel Graphics software 3D computer graphics software animation modeling rendering Raster graphics editors Vector graphics editors Algorithms List of computer graphics algorithms v t e Computer science This template follows roughly the 2012 ACM Computing Classification System Hardware Printed circuit board Peripheral Integrated circuit Very-large-scale integration System on a chip (SoC) Energy consumption (green computing) Electronic design automation Hardware acceleration Processor Size – Form Systems organization Computer architecture Computational complexity Dependability Embedded system Real-time computing Cyber-physical system Fault tolerance Wireless sensor network Networks Network architecture Network protocol Network components Network scheduler Network performance evaluation Network service Software organization Interpreter Middleware Virtual machine Operating system Software quality Software notations, tools Programming paradigm Programming language Compiler Domain-specific language Modeling language Software framework Integrated development environment Software configuration management Software library Software repository Software development Control flow Software development process Requirements analysis Software design Software construction Software deployment Software engineering Software maintenance Programming team Open source model Theory of computing Model of computation Stochastic Formal language Automata theory Computability theory Computational complexity theory Logic Semantics Algorithms Algorithm design Analysis of algorithms Algorithmic efficiency Randomized algorithm Computational geometry Mathematics of computing Discrete mathematics Probability Statistics Mathematical software Information theory Mathematical analysis Numerical analysis Theoretical computer science Computational problem Information systems Database management Information storage Enterprise information Social information Geographic information Decision support Process control Multimedia information Data mining Digital library Computing platform Digital marketing World Wide Web Information retrieval Security Cryptography Formal methods Security hacker Security services Intrusion detection system Hardware security Network security Information security Application security Human- centered computing Accessibility Extended reality augmented virtual Human–computer interaction Interaction design Mobile computing Social computing Ubiquitous computing Visualization Concurrency Concurrent computing Parallel computing Distributed computing Multithreading Multiprocessing Artificial intelligence Computational intelligence Natural language processing Knowledge representation and reasoning Computer vision Automated planning and scheduling Search methodology Control method Philosophy of Distributed Machine learning Supervised Unsupervised Reinforcement Multi-task Cross-validation Graphics Animation Rendering Photograph manipulation Graphics processing unit Image compression Solid modeling Applied computing Quantum computing E-commerce Enterprise software Computational mathematics Computational physics Computational chemistry Computational biology Computational social science Computational engineering Differentiable computing Computational healthcare Digital art Electronic publishing Cyberwarfare Electronic voting Video games Word processing Operations research Educational technology Document management Outline Glossaries Category Authority control databases: National Czech Republic 2 3 --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Graphics software](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_software) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_software?action=history)). 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