GIMP

Resources

GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It can be used as a simple paint tool, photo retouching and general image manipulation.

Installation

root #emerge --ask media-gfx/gimp

If the GIMP help pages (documentation) is desired, then also emerge the app-doc/gimp-help package:

root #emerge --ask app-doc/gimp-help

USE flags

USE flags for media-gfx/gimp GNU Image Manipulation Program

`X`	Add support for X11
`aalib`	Add support for media-libs/aalib (ASCII-Graphics Library)
`alsa`	Add support for media-libs/alsa-lib (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture)
`aqua`	Include support for the Mac OS X Aqua (Carbon/Cocoa) GUI
`debug`	Enable extra debug codepaths, like asserts and extra output. If you want to get meaningful backtraces see https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Project:Quality_Assurance/Backtraces
`doc`	Add extra documentation (API, Javadoc, etc). It is recommended to enable per package instead of globally
`fits`	Enable support for loading/exporting FITS images
`gnome`	Add GNOME support
`heif`	Enable support for ISO/IEC 23008-12:2017 HEIF/HEIC image format
`javascript`	Enable javascript support
`jpeg2k`	Support for JPEG 2000, a wavelet-based image compression format
`jpegxl`	Add JPEG XL image support
`lua`	Enable Lua scripting support
`mng`	Add support for libmng (MNG images)
`openexr`	Support for the OpenEXR graphics file format
`openmp`	Build support for the OpenMP (support parallel computing), requires >=sys-devel/gcc-4.2 built with USE="openmp"
`postscript`	Enable support for the PostScript language (often with ghostscript-gpl or libspectre)
`python`	Add optional support/bindings for the Python language
`test`	Enable dependencies and/or preparations necessary to run tests (usually controlled by FEATURES=test but can be toggled independently)
`udev`	Enable virtual/udev integration (device discovery, power and storage device support, etc)
`unwind`	Add support for call stack unwinding and function name resolution
`vala`	Enable bindings for dev-lang/vala
`vector-icons`	Enable support for vector icons (experimental)
`webp`	Add support for the WebP image format
`wmf`	Add support for the Windows Metafile vector image format
`xpm`	Add support for XPM graphics format

Data provided by the Gentoo Package Database · Last update: 2024-12-12 11:04 More information about USE flags

A full list of all USE linguas can be seen by using the equery tool (part of app-portage/gentoolkit):

user $equery uses media-gfx/gimp

Plugins

For some GIMP plugins that are included in the Portage tree, please see the GIMP Plugins sub-article.

GIMP 3

To pull GIMP 3, edit your package.unmask:

FILE /etc/portage/package.unmask

=media-gfx/gimp-3.0.0_rc1

Unmask GIMP:

FILE /etc/portage/package.accept_keywords/gimp

media-gfx/gimp **
media-libs/babl ~amd64
media-libs/gegl ~amd64

Add the following USE changes:

FILE /etc/portage/package.use/gimp

media-libs/babl introspection
media-libs/gegl introspection

Finally, emerge GIMP:

root #emerge --ask --verbose =media-gfx/gimp-3.0.0_rc1

Troubleshooting

Non white on black fonts look terrible

Example of terrible looking fonts

If your non white fonts look terrible in GIMP, you might try to turn off sub-pixel hinting for GIMP. You can do this by creating a fonts.conf in the GIMP user configuration directory (e.g. $HOME/.gimp-2.8/).

FILE $HOME/.gimp-2.8/fonts.confTurns off sub-pixel hinting for GIMP

<fontconfig>
  <match target="font">
    <edit name="rgba" mode="assign">
      <const>none</const>
    </edit>
  </match>
</fontconfig>

External resources

Arch Linux Forum post - a proposed solution for wrong looking fonts in GIMP