GIMP Setup

One-command installer for the complete GIMP ecosystem on Linux: Flatpak GIMP 3, plug-ins, brushes, presets and extra features such as Photoshop-style shortcuts and fully local AI tools.

Companion project of linux-mint-setup, which runs this setup automatically as part of a full machine install. It also works standalone on any distribution with Flatpak.

Installation

Run everything with a single command:

git clone https://github.com/diegochagas/gimp-setup.git && cd gimp-setup && ./setup.sh

To preview the actions without changing anything:

./setup.sh --dry-run

The script is idempotent: run it again at any time to add what is missing. Each run writes a log to logs/.

Requirements

curl, unzip, jq, git, flatpak and python3 must be available. No sudo is required — everything installs to Flatpak and the user home.

This installs on top of whatever machine already runs Flatpak, so there's no separate hardware bar beyond what GIMP itself needs:

Resource	Minimum	Comfortable
RAM	4 GB	8 GB+ — large images with G'MIC, Resynthesizer and the LinuxBeaver GEGL filters all in play
Disk (free space)	~2 GB	5 GB+ — GIMP plus all the plug-ins/brushes/presets this script adds
CPU	64-bit CPU	—
GPU	None required	—

The AI plug-ins never run inference inside GIMP: WithoutBG needs a reachable server (local Docker/Mac app by default, per WITHOUTBG_SERVER_URL), and Generative Fill/AI Remove Selection/AI Restore Photo use a local ComfyUI server running FLUX.2 klein or Qwen-Image-Edit. That ComfyUI is the one heavy piece, and it is opt-in (COMFYUI_DIR, see Configuration): about 42 GB of disk and an NVIDIA GPU (the examples below were made on a 6 GB laptop GPU). Without it the GIMP install stays light, and the AI tools work against any ComfyUI you already run.

Configuration

Optional. Copy the example file and fill in your values:

cp config.sh.example config.sh

Variable	Purpose
COMFYUI_DIR	Where to install ComfyUI and its models (empty = do not install it)
COMFYUI_MODEL_SETS	Model sets to download: qwen, klein or both (default), empty = none
COMFYUI_PORT	Port of the ComfyUI user service (default 8188, localhost only)
COMFYUI_URL	ComfyUI server the AI tools use (default: COMFYUI_PORT on this machine)
WITHOUTBG_SERVER_URL	WithoutBG server used by the background removal plug-in (default: local)

COMFYUI_REPO, COMFYUI_GGUF_NODE_REPO and COMFYUI_TORCH_INDEX_URL (see config.sh.example) can point the ComfyUI install at a fork or another CUDA build.

WITHOUTBG_SERVER_URL and the ComfyUI address are written to ~/.config/PhotoGIMP/withoutbg-server-url and ~/.config/PhotoGIMP/comfyui-url on the host and inside the GIMP Flatpak sandbox, where every AI plug-in finds them (see docs/AI_PLUGINS.md).

config.sh is gitignored. Every variable also falls back to an environment variable of the same name, so a parent script can export COMFYUI_DIR=... and run ./setup.sh without creating a config.sh.

What setup.sh Does

The script stops if an unhandled command fails. It checks the dependencies, the internet connection and the Flathub remote, then installs all the features found in features/, in priority order. Everything the setup does — including the GIMP install itself — is a feature file.

Features

Every features/*.sh file is a self-contained part of the GIMP ecosystem: the GIMP install, plug-ins, resources, shortcuts, menu options. New features are added by dropping a new file into features/, without touching setup.sh.

A feature file defines:

FEATURE_NAME="My Feature"       # Display name for logs and summary
FEATURE_PRIORITY=65             # Execution order (lower runs first;
                                # optional, default 50)

feature_install() {             # The work, using setup.sh helpers:
    ...                         # run, print_info, file_exists,
}                               # install_flatpak_package,
                                # gimp_profile_dirs, SUMMARY, DRY_RUN...

Features must be idempotent and honor --dry-run (use the run helper for commands and guard direct file writes with DRY_RUN).

Included Features

Priority	Feature	What it installs	Docs
10	gimp.sh	Flatpak GIMP + G'MIC + Resynthesizer	GIMP.md
30	photogimp.sh	Photoshop-inspired interface and configuration	PHOTOGIMP.md
40	photoshop-keymap.sh	Photoshop keyboard shortcuts (shortcutsrc + controllerrc)	PHOTOSHOP_KEYMAP.md
40	comfyui.sh	ComfyUI + FLUX.2 klein / Qwen-Image-Edit models (opt-in, ~42 GB)	Local AI models
40	slos-gimpainter.sh	Painting brushes, dynamics and tool presets	SLOS_GIMPAINTER.md
50	linuxbeaver.sh	LinuxBeaver GEGL effect plug-ins	LINUXBEAVER.md
60	ai-plugins.sh	The four AI plug-ins (fully local) + shared settings	AI_PLUGINS.md

The order matters: GIMP is installed first; PhotoGIMP layers its configuration on top; the Photoshop keymap runs after PhotoGIMP on purpose so its shortcuts win; the AI plug-ins run last so their files survive the configuration overwrites.

GIMP (Flatpak) — features/gimp.sh

GIMP from Flathub with the G'MIC and Resynthesizer plug-ins. The plug-in branches follow the installed GIMP's major version (Flathub publishes them as branch 3, not stable). Resynthesizer adds Filters > Enhance > Heal Selection. See docs/GIMP.md.

PhotoGIMP — features/photogimp.sh

PhotoGIMP 3.0: a Photoshop-inspired interface and configuration for Flatpak GIMP. An existing GIMP 3.0 configuration is backed up to a timestamped folder first. See docs/PHOTOGIMP.md.

SLOS-GIMPainter — features/slos-gimpainter.sh

The SLOS-GIMPainter brush, dynamics and tool-preset package, registered in GIMP's gimprc. See docs/SLOS_GIMPAINTER.md.

LinuxBeaver GEGL Plug-ins — features/linuxbeaver.sh

The LinuxBeaver GEGL effect collection (Filters > Text Styling, Filters > Render > Fun, ...), with a manifest so reruns replace stale binaries cleanly. See docs/LINUXBEAVER.md.

Photoshop Keymap — features/photoshop-keymap.sh

Two layers, installed into every GIMP 3.x profile with timestamped backups (details and customization in docs/PHOTOSHOP_KEYMAP.md):

• Photoshop keymap for GIMP — the community photoshop-keymap-for-gimp (shortcutsrc + controllerrc, pinned to a commit and sanitized of a malformed upstream line). GIMP's shortcuts follow Photoshop's and show next to the menu entries like in Photoshop: Ctrl+Alt+I Image Size, Ctrl+Alt+C Canvas Size, Ctrl+L Levels, Ctrl+E Merge Down...
• Keymap Extras — extra bindings for GIMP-only actions, layered on top through the PHOTOSHOP_KEYMAP_EXTRAS array on shortcuts nothing else uses: Ctrl+Alt+E File > Overwrite and Ctrl+Alt+Shift+W File > Export As.

GIMP must be closed while this feature runs.

AI Plug-ins — features/ai-plugins.sh

The four AI plug-ins, installed as one feature (details in docs/AI_PLUGINS.md). Everything runs on this machine: no account, no API key, nothing is uploaded.

• WithoutBG — Tools > WithoutBG > Remove Background…. Cuts out the subject via the WithoutBG server set in WITHOUTBG_SERVER_URL and adds the matte as an unapplied layer mask.
• Generative Fill — Filters > AI > Generative Fill…. Fills the selection from a text prompt; also Image Generator. Vendored patched GIMP AI Plugin on the local ComfyUI models (FLUX.2 klein or Qwen-Image-Edit).
• AI Remove Selection — Filters > AI > Remove Selection (AI)…. Photoshop-style Remove tool from PhotoGIMP: Quick Mask-paint the object, run, gone. Same two local models.
• AI Restore Photo — Filters > AI > Restore Photo (AI)…. Repairs a scanned photo print (blotches, stains, scratches, specks, or chemical burns) with the photo-restore method: the model's pixels are kept only where the print was damaged, as a new layer whose mask you can paint. Same two local models.

The shared settings from config.sh (the server URLs) are written for all of them, host and Flatpak sandbox alike. Earlier versions also offered OpenAI, Google Gemini and Stable Diffusion WebUI; those were removed, and the setup deletes the API keys they had saved.

Local AI models (ComfyUI) — features/comfyui.sh

The AI tools run on a local ComfyUI server serving open-weight image models, with no accounts, credits or limits. This feature installs it; the whole feature is skipped unless COMFYUI_DIR is set in config.sh, because the models are tens of GB.

• Installs ComfyUI in COMFYUI_DIR with its own Python virtual environment and PyTorch built for CUDA (COMFYUI_TORCH_INDEX_URL, CUDA 12.8 by default). AMD64 only; needs an NVIDIA GPU with the proprietary driver (Driver Manager on Linux Mint) and python3-venv.

• Adds the ComfyUI-GGUF custom node, which loads quantized models: a 20B editing model then runs on a 6 GB card, keeping the rest of its weights in RAM.

• Downloads the model sets named in COMFYUI_MODEL_SETS (see assets/comfyui/models.tsv), each file verified against the SHA-256 Hugging Face publishes for it and marked as verified so later runs do not re-hash it. An interrupted download resumes on the next run.

  Set	Models	Size	Good at
  qwen	Qwen-Image-Edit-2511 (4-bit GGUF) + Qwen2.5-VL text encoder, VAE and the 4-step Lightning LoRA	~22 GB	Best quality: instruction edits that keep characters and text consistent. ~100 s per 1 MP image on a 6 GB GPU
  klein	FLUX.2 klein 4B (fp8) + Qwen3-4B text encoder and VAE	~12 GB	Three times faster (~35 s), lower quality on detailed art. The only one that also generates images from text

  Both are installed by default (about 34 GB of models plus 8 GB for ComfyUI and PyTorch, and it wants 45 GB free); name only one to save disk. Both are Apache 2.0, so they can be used commercially.

• Writes a comfyui systemd user service on 127.0.0.1:COMFYUI_PORT (8188 by default). It is deliberately not enabled at boot: it holds GPU memory while it runs.

ComfyUI has to be running while the tools are used — GIMP's Flatpak sandbox cannot start it; when it is down, the tools' error message shows the command that starts it. Start it before, and stop it when you are done: a loaded model keeps several GB of GPU memory and up to ~23 GB of RAM (Qwen) until the service stops.

systemctl --user start comfyui     # then open http://127.0.0.1:8188
systemctl --user stop comfyui      # frees the GPU and the RAM
systemctl --user status comfyui    # is it running?

Pick a model in the Remove Selection dialog or in Filters > AI > Settings; the model files are found by name in what the server has installed. Setup, timings and limits are in docs/AI_PLUGINS.md. To use a ComfyUI you already run instead, leave COMFYUI_DIR empty and set COMFYUI_URL.

In the ComfyUI web interface, open a workflow from Templates (for example "Qwen Image Edit"), pick the installed model files in the loader nodes, load an image, write the instruction and run. Results are saved in COMFYUI_DIR/output.

Scripts can also drive it through its HTTP API, and start the service themselves. That is what comic-skills does to erase text from comic pages without paying for an image API:

INPAINT=qwen COMFYUI_SERVICE=comfyui \
  ~/Projects/comic-skills/venv/bin/python \
  ~/Projects/comic-skills/clean-texts/scripts/clean_texts.py "<folder>" --backend local

The examples below were all made locally with these models on a laptop RTX 3050 (6 GB): 12–35 s per edit with FLUX.2 klein, 70–125 s with Qwen-Image-Edit.

Remove Selection (AI) — select the object (red = the Quick Mask selection), run, and the background behind it is rebuilt:

It also removes text or marks printed over a texture, continuing the print's own halftone pattern. What is selected: Auto tries the object method first and switches to the texture method by itself when the fill comes back flat:

Restore Photo (AI) — a scanned print goes in; the model's repair is added as a layer masked to the damage it fixed, the rest of the scan stays exactly as it was. Details and options in docs/AI_PLUGINS.md.

Generative Fill — the prompt replaces what is selected… (prompt: a sleeping orange cat curled up on the bench)

…or adds something new on the real background, kept whole inside the selection (prompt: a shiny golden five-pointed star, both models):

It also continues the picture into a blank border (white, transparent, or a canvas made bigger): select the blank part and prompt continue the image (or extend the background, continuar a imagem, fill). Details in docs/AI_PLUGINS.md.

Notes

• If GIMP has not been opened before the setup runs, the features that need an existing GIMP profile are skipped with a warning. Open GIMP once, close it, and re-run ./setup.sh.
• The GEGL plug-in directory must contain only .so files at its top level. Subdirectories or other file types may prevent GIMP from starting.
• The script downloads software from third-party projects, so review the feature files before running it.