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GIMP from Source

The official distribution of the GIMP is the source code, distributed in tar files from the GIMP FTP site and its mirrors. The same source code can be compiled to create binaries for different platforms such as Linux, Windows, MacOS X, Solaris and many others.

• GIMP Source Code
• GIMP Requirements
• GIMP from Subversion
• Optional packages

Stable releases

Is recommended for most users. Pre-compiled binaries of the stable GIMP are usually available for many platforms (see the platform-specific pages for more details), so you do not even have to compile the code yourself.

Development releases

For those who want to check the progress towards the next stable release, and who want to help the developers by testing the code and reporting bugs. The development version contains more features than the stable version but it may crash from time to time so be sure to save your work often. If you are using this version, it is a good idea to subscribe to some of the GIMP mailing lists (gimp-user or gimp-developer) so that you can follow the discussions about new features and known bugs.

Subversion repository

This is for those who want to live on the bleeding edge. This will give you the latest version of the source code with the latest features, but also with the latest bugs (eeek!). The repository contains several versions of the code called "branches" so you can fetch the latest version ("trunk") or a stable version from a maintenance branch. If you intend to contribute to the development of the GIMP, then you should try using Subversion. As the code is constantly evolving and features are added (or removed) every day, you should have a look at the developers' site and subscribe to the gimp-developer mailing list if you compile the code from SVN.

GIMP Source Code

The GIMP source code is distributed as tarballs. It is available from the GIMP FTP site and its mirrors.

GIMP Requirements

All requirements below must be met to be able compiling GIMP from source. This list might change depending on the releases being worked on during development of GIMP. Look at the files INSTALL and README in the tarballs for details.

Stable version 2.2.x

GIMP from Subversion

We only recently migrated from CVS to Subversion. Due to this change, the following HOWTOs are somewhat outdated. We are looking for volunteers to update them.

• Get The Stable GIMP from CVS
• Build The Stable GIMP from CVS

See the platform-specific pages for additional requirements and instructions for each operating system.

To find out more about GIMP development, http://developer.gimp.org/ should answer the questions you have.

Optional packages

To make it easy for you to understand how to get GIMP and what is required to run GIMP, the list of packages has been done below. Not only is the list for the required packages but also for the packages that can be added to support other things like fileformats etc.