diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..98c54df0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+# ignore png, gimp and pdf files
+*.xcf
+*.log
+*.aux
+*.idx
+*.jar
+*~
+distrib/tmp
+.DS_Store
\ No newline at end of file