GIMP, a popular photo editor for Windows and Linux, is also available for the Mac! In 2012, GIMP was made available to the Mac platform as a standalone app. Here, we’ll dive into GIMP’s features, and discuss some alternatives.
While our cameras take great photos, they sometimes need fine-tuning. That’s where great photo editing software comes into play. Maybe the background blur isn’t quite what you were looking for, or you want to enhance the colors in a photo before sharing to social media.
The GIMP is a free image editing software run on the open source engine GEGL to alter pictures and for graphic design.GIMP means GNU Image Manipulation Program.This cross-platform application functions with Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems. Use GIMP for retouching pictures, composing images, constructing graphics, etc. GIMP for Windows. Updated on 2020-06-11: GIMP 2.10.20 installer revision 1 Slightly faster and smaller due to optimized build parameters Download GIMP 2.10.20 via BitTorrent Download GIMP 2.10.20 directly. The download links above will attempt to download GIMP from one of our trusted mirror servers.
GIMP 0.54 was released in January 1996. It required X11 displays, an X-server that supported the X shared memory extension and Motif 1.2 widgets.It supported 8, 15, 16 and 24-bit color depths, dithering for 8-bit displays and could view images as RGB color, grayscale or indexed color.It could simultaneously edit multiple images, zoom and pan in real-time, and supported GIF, JPEG.
The GIMP on Mac can be a little baffling, and this is a shame because it has a truly tantalising feature set. We review a powerful free photo editor by Keir Thomas, Contributor. XGimp is the app GIMP that runs remotely, so it has the same features: - Suite of painting tools including Brush, Pencil, Airbrush, Clone, etc. Sub-pixel sampling for all paint tools for high quality anti-aliasing. Extremely powerful gradient editor and blend tool. Supports custom brushes and patterns. Mac uploader for instagram. Full alpha channel.
![Windows Windows](/uploads/1/1/8/6/118604366/170840367.jpg)
But is GIMP a great photo editor? Is its feature-set really the best available for Mac users? Let’s dive right in.
What is GIMP?
GIMP stands for “GNU Image Manipulation Platform,” which highlights its origins as a Linux app. While Linux as a desktop operating system is typically left wanting for high-profile photo tools, the GIMP editor stands out as one of the best options for that platform.
GIMP for Mac is also popular! An open-source app, the GIMP photo editing software has a robust toolkit. You can edit the color and tone of photos, but also add filters. You can use GIMP for Mac to create original artwork, and as a tool for graphic design. One of GIMP’s main draws is its extensibility; you can use it with apps like Scribus, Inkscape, and SwatchBooker, or programmatically alter images using languages like Python, C, C++, Perl, and Scheme.
How to Download GIMP for Mac
Downloading GIMP is simple. First, head to the GIMP homepage. At the top of the screen, you’ll see ‘download’ on the menu bar, which is the direct link for the GIMP download for Mac (or GIMP OSX, if you’re on a legacy version of macOS); the word ‘download’ should also appear on the banner image up top, alongside the most recent version of GIMP on Mac.
Clicking either download button will take you to a new screen. Here, you can select a GIMP download from two sources: BitTorrent, or direct. Either option is fine.
Once the file is finished downloading to your Mac, head to your download folder and double-click the file named gimp-(file version)-x86_64.dmg. (The file version identifier is unique to each new version, but will look something like “2.10.14”.)
Once the file is opened and the download is complete, a new window named “GIMP 2.0 Install” will open. You’ll see an icon for the GIMP photo editor, and an arrow to an Applications folder. This is asking you to add GIMP to your list of Applications. Simply drag the GIMP icon to the Applications folder to do so.
GIMP Photo Editing Software: Key features for Mac users
Most will use GIMP as a photo editor, and the GIMP app is great for this purpose – so we’ll focus on that here. To open an image for editing in GIMP, got to File > Open in the menu bar when the GIMP app is open.
Find the file you want to edit (we suggest adding the images you want to edit to your desktop to make finding them simpler), and select “open” on the bottom right. Your image will open in the main GIMP window, ready for editing.
On the left side of the window, you’ll see various icons for things like adding blocks of text, or cropping the image. You can also draw or paint on your image. Below the icons, you’ll see options that change with the tool you have selected. Here you can do things like change the cropping size you want to use (handy if you’re trying to crop images for use on the web, or for social media), and fine-tune tools like the brush (it allows you to change the size and opacity of the brush head).
On the right side of the screen, you’ll see a “Mode” menu, where you can do things like edit the shading and color of an image. This is also where you’ll find a list of the layers you have for your image, which can be hidden or edited independently of one another.
GIMP on Mac is a powerful tool, but it’s a bit clumsy. Some may find its interface too difficult to master. One major feature of any photo editor is filters, and GIMP has them – but they’re buried int he menu up top. While “Filters” having a spot on the menu bar is great, it’s far different from other apps, and the granular options for altering those filters is not straightforward. You simply have to tinker with the filters a bit to find the effect you’re looking for.
Meet advanced GIMP software alternatives for Mac
If the GIMP app doesn’t sound like your cop of tea, there’s nothing to worry about. Though powerful, the app leaves many people looking for something more suitable to their needs.
This is when you should really consider what your needs are. It’s also where you should consider that you may not know what you even want! It’s okay – we’ve got you covered.
Photolemur for automatic AI enhancements
If you’re looking for a desktop app that helps you get the best out of the photos you’ve taken without a lot of fuss, Photolemur may be your best choice. It’s lightweight, but oh-so-powerful.
Photolemur prides itself on making life easier for its users. It bills itself as the “first fully automated AI photo enhancer.” Instead of leaning on granular controls to get you the best results, Photolemur uses artificial intelligence backed by machine learning to make your images better.
The app analyzes “millions” of details in your photos, and enhances each of those data-points. This behavior allows Photolemur to assess your image via its gathered data, and adjust each pixel to its maximum brilliance. It’s really sort of magical!
If more than two displays are connected to your Mac, you can specify that some displays use mirroring, showing the entire desktop, and other displays show the extended desktop (displaying the desktop across two or more displays). If you don’t see an Arrangement button, your Mac is only capable of mirroring. Computer display for mac mini. For example, if you have three displays, you can have two displays showing the same information and the third display showing the extended desktop.Use the task above to.Press and hold the Option key and drag one display icon onto another display icon to mirror those two displays.If you are playing a DVD on a television connected to your Mac, click the Arrangement button in Displays preferences and move the menu bar to the television.
Photolemur also lets you edit batches of images. Select the images you want to edit, and let Photolemur take over. This is a really great option if you’ve shot in low-light on a night out, but really need your pics to pop for sharing to social media.
If you were at an event, Photolemur also has a handy renaming option for edited images. That weekend getaway can be tagged and enhanced, all in one seamless action.
Another great benefit from Photolemur’s AI is its “Face Finish” feature. This AI-based editing tool automatically adjusts for things like skin smoothness, and removes imperfections. It also brightens and whitens your smile so you’re always looking great!
CameraBag Pro for the best photo filters
If filters are your thing, then CameraBag Pro should be your go-to app for photo editing.
CameraBag Pro has more filters than you probably know what to do with – and that’s a good thing. Rather than lean on AI or self-guided controls, CameraBag Pro hosts its image editing as filters.
The great part about this is it makes photo editing simpler; instead of fiddling with white-balance or shadows from the start, you simply scroll through a series of filters until your image looks right. If you like what you see, just use the filter!
And if you’re in-between filters for your image, CameraBag Pro lets you fiddle with the finer points, too. Things like exposure, contrast, and saturation can all be controlled within filters. It’s great for those times when you just need to adjust one small aspect of a filter to get the absolute best image possible.
And the coolest thing about CameraBag Pro’s filters is many of them are meant to mimic old-school film photographs. While Instagram made its name styling images after a polaroid, CameraBag Pro takes it to the next level with filters meant to mimic old Kodak, Fuji, and other manufacturer’s cameras. It’s the best way to make an image of something old look like it was from the same era.
Luminar Flex as a smart addition to your editor
Luminar Flex doesn’t eschew filters, and it has some AI mixed in as well – which might just make it one of the best photo editors around.
Quicktime player for mac codecs. Rather than use AI to enhance entire images, Luminar Flex uses it to make elements of an image pop. If the blue sky in your pictures wasn’t as brilliant as you’d like (or remember), Luminar Flex can enhance the blue hue of the sky to make it stand out.
As filters go, Luminar Flex has plenty to keep you satisfied. It boasts “pro-level” filters for things like color correction. The filters are easily accessible via a slide-out side menu, just like the other features of Luminar Flex. The app even guides you, letting you know which application is best for a filter.
“Luminar Looks” is one of the app’s most interesting features. It’s a set of professionally-inspired filters, which can be used as one-off filters for your images if you like. That alone is great – but you can also fine-tune each Looks filter and re-save it as your own.
![The Gimp For Mac The Gimp For Mac](/uploads/1/1/8/6/118604366/785541730.jpg)
Luminar Looks has a dedicated icon on the top bar of the app’s window, and filters show up at the bottom. After choosing one, you simply select the icon for the side-menu, and an “edit filter” button allows you to fine-tune Looks filters.
The aforementioned side-bar is called a workspace, and is where all your editing features live. Here, you can get a granular as you like with editing, and all filters are laid out as slider bars, making things much simpler. And if you just want to start over from scratch, there is always an option to simply ‘clear’ the workspace.
Luminar Flex’s editing features alone are top-notch, but it has one more trick up its sleeve. The app also doubles as a plugin for Photoshop, Lightroom, Elements, and Apple’s own Photos app. As a plugin, you get access to all of Lumina Flex’s filters, even those Looks you may have designed yourself!
Choosing the best photo editor for Mac
While GIMP for Mac is an excellent and robust photo editing app, Mac users will probably enjoy the powerful-yet-stylish Luminar Flex as a replacement. It’s a lot easier to use, and just plain has a better interface.
If you don’t need or want the fine-tuning photo editing software as your primary option, CameraBag Pro is a great choice. We really like that you can choose to edit aspects of a filter, and dismiss those edits if you decide against having them included in your final version.
If you really want sharp, basic photo editing, Photolemur is an excellent choice. We really enjoy its use of AI for editing photos without asking too much of you. Batch editing is also a great feature you may find yourself using often.
Of all the options discussed here, keep in mind only the photo editing GIMP workflow allows for creating images from scratch. If you’re looking for a photo editor that also allows you to create original artwork, GIMP is worth a look – but that’s a very small audience.
The Gimp For Mac
For pure, performant, engaging photo editing, any of the three GIMP alternatives mentioned here are great options. Best of all, all of them – CameraBag Pro, Luminar Flex, and PhotoLemur – are available as part of Setapp’s 7-day free trial period. In that week, you can give each of these apps a whirl to find out which is best for your needs.
Setapp lives on Mac and iOS. Please come back from another device.
Meantime, prepare for all the awesome things you can do with Setapp.
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Current Stable Version
The current stable release of GIMP is 2.10.18 (2020-02-23).
We think your OS is Well, we don't actually know. Either JavaScript is disabled, or I am not working quite right.. So I am showing you all the options.
Show downloads for GNU/Linux | OS X | Microsoft Windows | All
GIMP for Unix-like systems
If available, the official package from your Unix-like distribution is the recommended method of installing GIMP!
The flatpak build is new and has known limitations, though it will likely provide faster updates, following GIMP releases closely.
Therefore choose your installation medium according to your needs.
Therefore choose your installation medium according to your needs.
Flatpak build available in: i386, x86-64, ARM and AArch64.
Flatpak additional instructions
The flatpak link above should open your software installer and prompt you to install GIMP. Yet it may not work out-of-the-box on some platforms since the flatpak technology is new. If that is the case, ensure flatpak is installed and if clicking the link still does not prompt to install GIMP, then manually install by command line:
flatpak install https://flathub.org/repo/appstream/org.gimp.GIMP.flatpakref
Once installed, it will be made available exactly the same way as other applications (menus, desktop overview, or any specific application launch process used by your desktop).
If this is not the case, we suggest to report a bug to your desktop or distribution asking for proper support of flatpak. In the meantime, you can still run it by command line (not as the recommended method, only a workaround):
If this is not the case, we suggest to report a bug to your desktop or distribution asking for proper support of flatpak. In the meantime, you can still run it by command line (not as the recommended method, only a workaround):
flatpak run org.gimp.GIMP//stable
This installation will also provide regular update. You don't have to come back on this page and install again (it will not work!) when a new version of GIMP is released. Instead if your distribution and/or desktop has a good support for flatpak, it should propose to perform updates.
Once again, if your distribution does not have proper support, you can always fall back to using the following command line:
Once again, if your distribution does not have proper support, you can always fall back to using the following command line:
flatpak update
Systems without flatpak support
GIMP can also run on Solaris and is available for the BSD family of systems such as FreeBSD and OpenBSD.
Please refer to the documentation for your Unix-like system on the installation of software.
GIMP for macOS
Note: the currently available package provides GIMP 2.10.14 and has not yet updated to the latest version, GIMP 2.10.18. We're working on that, please check back later.
The download links above will attempt to download GIMP from one of our trusted mirror servers. If the mirrors do not work or you would rather download directly from our server, you can get the direct download here.
Supported OS: macOS 10.9 Mavericks or over
Since the 2.8.2 version, GIMP runs on OSX natively. No X11 environment is required.
Native build
The official GIMP 2.10 DMG installer (linked above) is a stock GIMP build without any add-ons. Just open the downloaded DMG and drag and drop GIMP into your 'Applications' folder.
The SHA256 hash sum for
gimp-2.10.14-x86_64-1.dmg
is: 52654d85f894834f6c134c724beff3eddf212a1bda317299314322cfeff97e52 Check it on VirusTotal: gimp-2.10.14-x86_64-1.dmg
Older Downloads
Previous installers for OSX can be found here: download.gimp.org.
Macports
An easy way to compile and install GIMP and other great Free software on your Mac is by using Macports. The installer allows you to choose from a large directory of packages. To install gimp using Macports, you simply do
sudo port install gimp
once you have Macports installed. Last we checked, the GIMP port file pointed to the current stable release and we have reports from people who've built GIMP successfully this way.
Homebrew
Homebrew is similar to Macports and provides packages (aka formulas) to install, either by compiling them from source or by using pre-made binaries. There are indications that there is now a formula for GIMP, installable with:
brew tap homebrew/cask && brew cask install gimp
. NOTE! Please be aware that it was announced recently that Homebrew is using analytics. To turn this off in homebrew then run:
You can read more about this on Brew Analytics.
brew analytics off
You can read more about this on Brew Analytics.
Fink
Fink is a package repository that offer mostly precompiled binaries. It provides the apt-get command known to e.g. Debian and Ubuntu users, and installing GIMP is as easy as
If there's no binary package, then
sudo apt-get install gimp
once you have installed the Fink installer. If there's no binary package, then
fink install gimp
will compile GIMP from source. Disclaimer: we haven't been able to determine if it is possible to install or build recent GIMP from Fink. Last we checked, GIMP 2.6.12 appears to be the most recent GIMP package that is offered there.
GIMP for Windows
Updated on 2020-03-24: GIMP 2.10.18 installer revision 2
Fixes GEGL issue #231, which caused corrupted images once the swap file size reached 2 GiB
Fixes GEGL issue #231, which caused corrupted images once the swap file size reached 2 GiB
The download links above will attempt to download GIMP from one of our trusted mirror servers. If the mirrors do not work or you would rather download directly from our server, you can get the direct download here.
Supported OS: Windows 7 or over
These links download the official GIMP installer for Windows (~200 MB). The installer contains both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of GIMP, and will automatically use the appropriate one.
BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file sharing system. It works by downloading GIMP from a distributed network of BitTorrent users, and may improve download speed dramatically. Choosing this option will download the torrent file for the GIMP installer. You may need to install a torrent client to make use of this file. Learn more..
Hash Sum
The SHA256 hash sum for
gimp-2.10.18-setup-2.exe
is: bf6ce59587e63e1e8bab923e7dfdaa0f2c8bd3ac4d0ced602f3c063f9e32465c Check it on VirusTotal: gimp-2.10.18-setup-2.exe
Older Downloads
- Previous v2.10 installers for Windows can be found here: download.gimp.org.
- Previous v2.8 installers for Windows can be found here: download.gimp.org.
GIMP User Manual
These links download language-specific Windows installers for GIMP's local help. By default, they will place the help files with your GIMP installation.
Note: GIMP uses online help by default. If you want to use this local help offline, you will need to change GIMP's help settings.
- In GIMP, select [Edit] > [Preferences] > [Help System]
- For 'User manual', select 'Use a locally installed copy'
- Under 'Help Browser', you can choose between your system's web browser and GIMP's help browser plugin (if available).
See the online help for more settings.
- Chinese Simplified (39 MB)
- Catalan (40 MB)
- Danish (39 MB)
- Dutch (39 MB)
- English (39 MB)
- English (United Kingdom) (39 MB)
- Finnish (39 MB)
- French (41 MB)
- German (41 MB)
- Greek (38 MB)
- Italian (43 MB)
- Japanese (39 MB)
- Korean (40 MB)
- Norwegian Nynorsk (35 MB)
- Portuguese Brazilian (40 MB)
- Romanian (39 MB)
- Russian (40 MB)
- Spanish (40 MB)
Source for version 2.10 (Stable)
GIMP releases available from gimp.org and its mirrors contain the source code and have to be compiled in order to be installed on your system.
For instructions, how to build GIMP from source code, please see this page.
GIMP 2.10.18 is now available at https://download.gimp.org/mirror/pub/gimp/v2.10/. You may want to read the Release Notes for GIMP 2.10.
Gimp Free Download Windows 10
To allow you to check the integrity of the tarballs, here are the hashes of the latest releases:
- gimp-2.10.18.tar.bz2 (sha256):
- 65bfe111e8eebffd3dde3016ccb507f9948d2663d9497cb438d9bb609e11d716
- gimp-2.10.16.tar.bz2 (sha256):
- cbf9fe9534b913a9487b00cd9710cbc569bfd71fdd2f8c321547701a7d70cbeb
- gimp-2.10.14.tar.bz2 (sha256):
- df9b0f11c2078eea1de3ebc66529a5d3854c5e28636cd25a8dd077bd9d6ddc54
- gimp-2.10.12.tar.bz2 (sha256):
- 7d80b58e0784120d57d327294f6a1fda281ff51a61935c2cd764da281acaac71
- gimp-2.10.10.tar.bz2 (sha256):
- 12d1f243265c7aee1f2c6e97883a5c90ddc0b19b4346cf822e24adbb6c998c77
- gimp-2.10.8.tar.bz2 (sha256):
- d849c1cf35244938ae82e521b92b720ab48b8e9ed092d5de92c2464ef5244b9b
- gimp-2.10.6.tar.bz2 (sha256):
- 4ec8071f828e918384cf7bc7d1219210467c84655123f802bc55a8bf2415101f
- gimp-2.10.4.tar.bz2 (sha256):
- ffb0768de14a2631b3d7ed71f283731441a1b48461766c23f0574dce0706f192
- gimp-2.10.2.tar.bz2 (sha256):
- 1cb0baaecdefe44d371a15f2739a1bcbce4682336b4ccf8eb7b587ce52c333eb
- gimp-2.10.0.tar.bz2 (sha256):
- 7fcc96fb88cb0a0595d2610f63a15dec245bb37bf9db527d37a24fb75e547de2
GIMP help files are available at https://download.gimp.org/mirror/pub/gimp/help/.
Please consider using one of the mirrors listed below.
Development snapshots
We now have a separate page for development versions of GIMP.
Want to check out the GIMP development release?
Get it on our development downloads page.
Get it on our development downloads page.
FTP and Web Mirrors
We had a server move a while back that caused us to lose our existing mirrors (moved from physical to virtual server and to an environment that doesn't allow FTP access). On the plus side, we are now able to offer rsync access to download.gimp.org.
If you are running one of the existing GIMP mirrors, or want to create a new one, please contact us to get your rsync credentials.