"Now that high-quality digital cameras are affordable and
pocket-sized, photo stitching is becoming increasingly popular. A
good camera is no guarantee of a usable photographic panorama
– you need some software to help piece individual images
together in, for example, GIMP. The community has a solution for
this problem, and its popularity is growing to keep pace with the
popularity of stitching."
The introduction links to a PDF format article- ed.