When you are finished working with an image, you will save the results. In fact, it is often a good idea to save at intermediate stages too. GIMP is a pretty robust program, but on rare occasions crashes have happened.

GIMP's native format XCF is special. It is the only format that can store everything about an image (with the exception of «undo» information). This is the reason that saving can only be done in this format. It makes the XCF format especially suited for storing intermediate results, and for saving images to be re-opened later in GIMP.

XCF files are not readable by most other programs that display images. Once you have finished editing your image, you can export it to the format of your choice. GIMP supports a wide range of formats. Most file formats that can be imported, can also be used for exporting.

There are several commands for saving and exporting images. They are listed in the section covering the File Menu. More information on how to use them can be found there.

GIMP allows you to export the images you create in a wide variety of formats. It is important to realize that the only format capable of saving all of the information in an image, including layers, transparency, etc., is GIMP's native XCF format. Every other format preserves some image properties and loses others. It is up to you to understand the capabilities of the format you choose.

Exporting an image does not modify the image itself, so you do not lose anything by exporting. See Export file.