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I understand that there is a new version of the GIMP available, although it appears that the only way of doing this is by compiling from source :P

Is there another way of getting it, or if I have to compile can I do that through the terminal or better still; a GUI?

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11 Answers 11

152

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, 14.04 LTS, 16.04 LTS, 17.10, 18.04 LTS

You can do this through the Terminal:

  1. Uninstall GIMP

     sudo apt-get autoremove gimp gimp-plugin-registry
    
  2. Add the following PPA

     sudo add-apt-repository ppa:otto-kesselgulasch/gimp
     sudo apt-get update
    
  3. Reinstall the latest GIMP

     sudo apt-get install gimp
    

Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and above

Steps 1 and 3 are the same. In step 2, use the following PPA.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/gimp
8
  • 17
    Why does GIMP need removed before being upgraded? I tried adding the PPA and updating without removing it, and it seemed to work fine. (also, apt-get autoremove does not remove configuration files without specifying --purge)
    – Shane S.
    May 30, 2012 at 19:33
  • 1
    Thanks for this. What will happen when Gimp 2.8 becomes part of the next Ubuntu release, 12.10? What steps should be followed to make everything "clean" again? Jul 11, 2012 at 11:29
  • 1
    @JohnJ.Camilleri just uninstall GIMP, remove the ppa from your system and install it from ubuntu's official repositories. Oct 28, 2012 at 15:37
  • 2
    why a simple sudo apt-get install gimp doesn't install latest (v2.10.12) but v2.8.22 (released on 8 May 2017)?
    – Yukulélé
    Nov 15, 2019 at 11:55
  • 1
    The same for me. I got 2.8.22, but not the latest
    – Temak
    May 16, 2020 at 16:55
24

Ubuntu 14.04 and later

To install the latest stable version of GIMP as a snap package in all currently supported versions of Ubuntu open the terminal and type:

sudo snap install gimp

Notes

  1. If you need an incrementally newer version than the latest stable version (e.g. GIMP 2.10.2 instead of GIMP 2.10.0) install it from the edge channel.

     sudo snap install gimp --channel=edge
    
  2. If you need GIMP to have full access to external media (such as USB flash drive, SD/MicroSD card, additional mounted hard drive and so on), run the following command:

     sudo snap connect gimp:removable-media
    
$ sudo snap connect gimp:removable-media
$ snap connections gimp
Interface                 Plug                  Slot                              Notes
browser-support           gimp:browser-support  :browser-support                  -
content[gnome-3-38-2004]  gimp:gnome-3-38-2004  gnome-3-38-2004:gnome-3-38-2004   -
content[gtk-2-engines]    gimp:gtk-2-engines    gtk2-common-themes:gtk-2-engines  -
content[gtk-3-themes]     gimp:gtk-3-themes     gtk-common-themes:gtk-3-themes    -
content[icon-themes]      gimp:icon-themes      gtk-common-themes:icon-themes     -
content[sound-themes]     gimp:sound-themes     gtk-common-themes:sound-themes    -
cups-control              gimp:cups-control     -                                 -
dbus                      -                     gimp:dbus-gimp                    -
desktop                   gimp:desktop          :desktop                          -
desktop-legacy            gimp:desktop-legacy   :desktop-legacy                   -
gsettings                 gimp:gsettings        :gsettings                        -
home                      gimp:home             :home                             -
network                   gimp:network          :network                          -
opengl                    gimp:opengl           :opengl                           -
removable-media           gimp:removable-media  :removable-media                  manual
unity7                    gimp:unity7           :unity7                           -
wayland                   gimp:wayland          :wayland                          -
x11                       gimp:x11              :x11                              -

enter image description here

13
  • What about access to external media (:removable-media plug/connector)? Is it classic Snap? Its extremely important for photographs with their flash cards.
    – N0rbert
    Jun 15, 2018 at 12:19
  • what about plugin-registry or gmic?
    – pLumo
    Jun 15, 2018 at 12:19
  • 2
    Ok so the version of Snapd mantained by "Snapcrafters" is the official version of GIMP on Ubuntu? it's what you are saying? Thank you
    – Polonio
    Jun 15, 2018 at 12:34
  • 2
    @Polonio, Install and use the version of gimp that works best for you, whatever the official status. (But be aware that the newest version might not be tested and accepted [yet] in Ubuntu.)
    – sudodus
    Jun 15, 2018 at 12:41
  • 1
    @Polonio why do hate snap so much? I don't understand. I use Ubuntu 18.10, and the only way to get "latest stable updated" app is snap. Apt can take many months to deliver those updates.
    – Pranav
    Mar 15, 2019 at 4:34
15

Ubuntu versions prior to 12.04

Currently there is no method to install Gimp 2.8 on any version below 12.04.

In terms of is it possible ...

Unlikely for the following reason:

The dependencies of the latest versions of Gimp require a-lot of the latest underlying libraries that you will not find by default in any version below 12.04. Thus, you will need to recompile and rewrite portions of the code to get it to compile. The further away you get from 12.04, the larger the change required.

A maintainer of the Gimp package (ppa:matthaeus123/mrw-gimp-svn) mentions in the description that it needs the latest Gnome-3 PPA as well as some other testing libraries. Both of these will not install on gnome-2 environments (below 11.10). Looking at the dependency lists for 12.04 version of Gimp, these are also not available in 11.10.

Will it ever be available in a PPA for versions below 12.04? Its probably safe to say unlikely unless there is an enterprising developer out there who wishes to port this to this.

Until then, UbuntuForums has an interesting thread on how to compile from source.


Thus - if you definitely want Gimp 2.8 - look to installing 12.04 + one of its many desktop environments.

3
  • Still it is therotically possible :p
    – Tachyons
    May 5, 2012 at 13:14
  • I've got Ubuntu Maverick and I do use GIMP 2.7 since more than one year. I guess the problem is only about GIMP 2.8 and the "not-supported-anymore" system.
    – user61097
    May 6, 2012 at 19:09
  • 2
    Installing Gimp 2.8 on Ubuntu 10.04 is very do-able since I just did it. The trick is building a newer GTK and a whole bunch of dependencies into /opt/gimp-2.8, using the prefix=/opt/gimp-2.8 option when compiling all dependencies. This will isolate GIMP and all of it's friends in a place where the other applications won't find it.
    – Nick
    Jul 23, 2012 at 3:23
8

Fortunatelly the availability of stable GIMP 2.8 also made gimp plugin registry (with the famous save for web plugin) easy to install.

Via http://www.webupd8.org/ :

GIMP 2.8 stable installation

If you're upgrading from an older GIMP version please visit the link and pay attention to the 'dist-upgrade' command http://www.webupd8.org/2012/05/gimp-28-stable-finally-available-for.html (also if you want to revert to GIMP 2.6.x)

If you're just installing GIMP for the first time on your current system install:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:otto-kesselgulasch/gimp
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gimp

GIMP Plugin Registry for GIMP 2.8 installation

http://www.webupd8.org/2012/05/install-gimp-plugin-registry-for-gimp.html

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:otto-kesselgulasch/gimp
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gimp-plugin-registry
2

Let us support this project.

http://portablelinuxapps.org/

I am able to download gimp2.9 and open a file rejected by earlier version of Gimp. And I am still using ubuntu 10.04 Lucid.

This is really a broken case with Linux systems because you need to upgrade your entire system just to be able to run the latest apps. I hope this will be solved soon and I hope we support projects like the above.

I am happy with my ubuntu 10.04 and i've have lots of configs here and development files... may have to way until 2016 to upgrade lol!

2

Answer as of June 2018, if you want Gimp 2.10

For Ubuntu 17.10 and later:

Add the PPA: https://launchpad.net/~otto-kesselgulasch/+archive/ubuntu/gimp and several packages will be updated/installed from it, nost notably Gimp itself, and gimp-plugin-registry that contains several useful plugins (resynthesize, etc...) that are much easier to install that way. If youa re n <=17.04, this PPA will give you Gimp 2.8.22.

For older versions (most notably 16.04):

  • The official way: you install a "flatpak" version, which is an application with is own set of dependent libraries. Instructions are available on the Gimp download page.
  • The unofficial way: you install an "AppImage" (which is another way to "containerize" the application). There are several builders for this, one version is here.

Both methods have their restrictions, in particular it can be difficult to add your favorite compiled plugins (script-fu and python plugins are usually OK).

4
  • 1
    This PPA is not longer updated. Mar 15, 2021 at 17:08
  • @danger89 Try this one instead. More info here. Didn't try this myself so I won't add it in the answer.
    – xenoid
    Mar 15, 2021 at 23:24
  • Actually Flatpack really worked well on my Linux Mint installation: flathub.org/repo/appstream/org.gimp.GIMP.flatpakref Mar 16, 2021 at 14:00
  • @danger89 You'll find small irritating restrictions with the flatpak version, because it is sandboxed. For instance, Gimp won't share its "most recent" list with other apps. It may also not be able to access mounted media. And adding binary plugins may prove difficult (there are companion flatpaks for some popular plugins).
    – xenoid
    Mar 16, 2021 at 16:48
1

To get GIMP 2.8 on Lucid 10.04.4 have a look at this:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=11946325

1

Ubuntu 16.10

apt install gimp

Quite easy now.

1

Here is the flatpak way of installing GIMP:

flatpak install flathub org.gimp.GIMP

Once installed you can run GIMP by using this command:

flatpak run org.gimp.GIMP

For me, GIMP would not run as a regular user because of permission errors. You can find the errors by running GIMP in terminal. The fix:

chmod 755 -R ~/.local/share/flatpak/
chmod 777 -R ~/.var/app/org.gimp.GIMP/

OPTIONAL

(gimp-2.10:2): IBUS-WARNING **: 11:23:31.019: The owner of /home/user123/.var/app/org.gimp.GIMP/config/ibus/bus is not user123!

The fix:

chown $USER ~/.var/app/org.gimp.GIMP/config/ibus/bus

This changes the owner of the bus directory. $USER in linux is the current logged in user (try echo $USER and see what you get).

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0

Ubuntu 16.10

In Ubuntu 16.10, you can easily install it from the terminal with the following command:

sudo apt install gimp

To upgrade an existing install of gimp, run the following command in the terminal:

sudo apt update && apt upgrade -y

If you would like to uninstall gimp but retain settings (if you plan on reinstalling some other time, for example), run the following command in the terminal:

sudo apt remove gimp

If you would like to uninstall gimp and remove settings, run the following command in the terminal:

sudo apt purge gimp

-1

this PPA works for me and it will give you last version available Note: this may get version still in development too

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:otto-kesselgulasch/gimp-edge

also you can go for the other steps down here

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gimp -y

this will display the current version of gimp

sudo gimp --version
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