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GIMP

GIMP’s Official Snap Package: What Linux Users Need to Know

GIMP’s project-maintained Snap is built through CI. Learn how to install it, what version is current, and what to know about plugins and alternatives.

By ThatPainter Team 3 min read
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GIMP’s Snap package is now maintained by the GIMP project and built through its continuous-integration workflow. To install it, use sudo snap install gimp on a Linux system with Snap support enabled. As of 4 October 2026, the Snap Store lists GIMP 3.2.6 in the latest/stable channel and identifies the verified publisher as the GIMP team.

What changed when GIMP took over its Snap package?

GIMP announced the official upstream package on 17 October 2025. Before the handoff, the community project Snapcrafters maintained the Snap unofficially. Snapcrafters dates the transfer to 10 October 2025 and said existing users should notice no immediate change.

The key change was who maintains and produces the package: GIMP adapted its build scripts so its continuous-integration system could create the Snap. The project said its GNOME GitLab runners use Docker, while Snapcraft ordinarily relied on LXD. Its solution was to use Snapcraft’s --destructive-mode option with a snapcraft-rocks Docker image. GIMP said this made building the application and creating the Snap reliably and quickly possible on CI; the scripts can also be used for local builds.

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Official channel history

Milestone What it means
GIMP 3.0.6 The first version GIMP placed in the official latest/stable Snap channel, announced in October 2025.
GIMP 3.2.6 The stable version listed in the Snap Store on 4 October 2026; GIMP announced this release on 10 September 2026.

GIMP said future releases would be deployed to the stable Snap on release day. The project also announced a development counterpart in preview/stable for people wanting to try new features. At launch, an App Center bug could mean installing that preview required manual commands; that was a historical note, not confirmation of the App Center’s current behavior.

How to install GIMP as a Snap

  1. Check Snap support. Your Linux distribution must have Snap support enabled. The Snap Store provides distribution-specific setup guidance. Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and later have snapd installed by default according to Ubuntu’s installation guide; that statement applies to Ubuntu, not Linux distributions generally.
  2. Install the package. Open a terminal and run sudo snap install gimp.
  3. Use GIMP. Once installation completes, launch GIMP from your desktop’s application launcher. The Snap Store lists the package name as gimp.

The Store lists GPL-3.0+ and LGPL-3.0+ as the package’s licenses. Its listing identifies the GIMP team as the verified publisher.

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Can you install GIMP plugins with the Snap?

Yes, but compatibility depends on the individual plugin. GIMP says its official packages are “vanilla”: they do not include additional code beyond babl, GEGL, or GIMP sources. The earlier community-maintained Snap had included some third-party plugins.

To make plugin installation possible without breaking Snap’s strict confinement, GIMP describes a gimp-plugins interface developed by Will French. The project names GMIC and OpenVINO Snaps as examples of plugins available through their respective repositories. Follow the current installation and compatibility instructions in the repository for the specific plugin you need; the announcement does not establish that every third-party GIMP plugin works with the Snap.

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Is Snap the only official Linux package?

No. GIMP 3.2.6 is also offered as an official AppImage and Flatpak. GIMP lists Linux packages for x86 and ARM, with its downloads page specifying x86_64 and ARM64 for AppImage and Flatpak.

Format Architectures stated by GIMP What to consider
Snap 64-bit x86 and ARM Requires Snap support to be enabled on the distribution.
AppImage x86_64 and ARM64 One of GIMP’s official Linux options.
Flatpak x86_64 and ARM64 One of GIMP’s official Linux options; GIMP has described a Flatpak extension point for plugins.

Choose the format that fits your distribution’s available support and your preferred install and update workflow. If you depend on a particular plugin, check its own instructions before choosing a package. GIMP’s package announcements do not provide comparative performance or security tests, so they do not establish that one format is faster or safer than another.

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