Try the latest GIMP in any distro

GNU Image Manipulation Program - GIMP

Are you

in a Long Term Support GNU/Linux distribution and the current GIMP version sitting in the official repositories is ancient and you want to have a peack into development?
or you are in a non-LTS distro and the current GIMP version is not as ancient but still you want to try the newest and perhaps help with testing?

So this article is for you :)

¡This is not a tutorial on how to get the latest stable version of GIMP!

PPA

I’m skipping this because even using Personal Packages Archives (created by the community) you will still be slightly behind the latest builds. Nevertheless there are many tutorials on the web pointing to https://launchpad.net/~otto-kesselgulasch/+archive/ubuntu/gimp (for ubuntu) PPA where you will find Ubuntu source packages to be built and published as an apt repository by Launchpad.

Flatpak

Amazing way to get your software via this universal app format. Flatpak makes it easy to install software by bundling all the necessary dependencies as part of the app you are trying to get, in this case GIMP. And you can even install plugins there by placing them under:

~/.var/app/org.gimp.GIMP/config/GIMP/2.10/plug-ins
/app/share/gimp/2.0/plug-ins

well.. almost all of them because G’MIC still does not run under flatpak due to the lack of QT support which is a requirement for G’MIC plugin. Moreover you will still be slightly behind the development if your purpose is to just try and latest and help with testing, filing bugs etc..

Snaps

Same inconvinient as Flatpak.

Appimage (continues integration)

There is an AppImage that is built on CentOS 7, using a custom Docker container that provides all the required up-to-date dependencies. The whole build process is automated with Travis CI. A cron job is scheduled to run on a weekly basis and builds the git HEAD version of BABL/GEGL/GIMP. The updated AppImage package is automatically uploaded to the continuous release page. Ding Ding! You can now test easily a very recent version of GIMP and G’MIC works as well as the other plugins! And all these while having still your stable GIMP version installed side by side ;) Repository by aferrero2707

You can either add the plugins manually by Extracting the appimage or you can install via the bundle plugins release page

Manually

Start by heading over The release list and downloading the latest from within the Assets group;
In your terminal, navigate to the folder where you have the appimage for example: cd Downloads/
Then Extract the appimage with

./GIMP_AppImage-git-2.10.19-20200508-x86_64.AppImage --appimage-extract

You will now see a folder with name : squashfs-root. You can run GIMP from there by: 3.1 Making sure that the file has permission to be executed $ chmod a+x AppRun 3.2 Double clicking in it

Final step, download your plugins and place them under:

/home/[yourusername]/.config/GIMP-AppImage/2.10/plug-ins/

For example for G’MIC download the latest version from their website and copy the gmic_gimp_qt in the above location.

Automatically (installing the bundled version)

by Carmelo_DrRaw

I have re-introduced the AppImage packages that bundle several GIMP plug-ins, because several people have asked for them. It is still possible to install and update the plug-ins separately, as explained [here] (GIMP AppImage plug-ins moved to a separate repository 16). In this case they will take precedence over the bundled ones.

discussion over pixls.us website

Testing and reporting

Be kind and make sure you have searched before reporting a duplicated bug ; )
Head over GIMP.org/bugs it's a good place to start
Report or help other by adding valuable info: GIMP GitLab:Linux

Oh and of course you can also help by donating to the GIMP project:

GIMP.org/donating
Fund GEGL development by showing your support to Øyvind Kolås
Fund directly Jehan Pagès and the project ZeMarmot
Or simply by showing your appreciation either via mailing lists, socila media or direct email to the team : )

G'MIC:

G'MIC Donations

Header Image: Screenshot used in the Tools now grouped by default section from GIMP 2.10.18 Released - GIMP

Check the status of the CI build

Appimage is already in the AppImageHub

Try the new GIMP!