GIMP

What you get out of this

GIMP is an image editing program that costs zero SEK and does most of what you will need on an ongoing basis in your business: crop product images so they are the same size, remove a messy background, fix an image that turned out too dark, put your logo on a photo, and save everything in the right size for the web.

It is not a program you learn in fifteen minutes. The tools are not where you guess they are, and the first thirty minutes can be frustrating. But anyone who knows the basics of GIMP avoids asking someone else for help every time an image needs fixing, and that is the difference between getting a product image swapped the same day and putting it off until next week.

Before you download: check which version you get

This section saves the most time of everything in the guide, because GIMP went from 2.10 to 3.0 and the difference is big. GIMP 3 can edit several layers at once, handles text better and simply looks different. Almost all instructions you find online apply to one or the other, rarely both.

The current stable version is 3.2.6, released in September 2026. But:

• On Windows you get 3.2.6 if you download from gimp.org. The right version straight away.
• On Linux Mint 22.3, sudo apt install gimp gives you version 2.10.36. Mint is based on Ubuntu 24.04 and does not have GIMP in its own package repositories, so you end up with Ubuntu's old package. It is a fully working program, but it is another generation.
• On Ubuntu 26.04 the same command gives you 3.2.2, so the right generation.

If you are on Mint and want GIMP 3: skip apt and use Flatpak. The instructions below show both paths.

Windows

1. Go to gimp.org/downloads and download the installer. It is called gimp-3.2.6-setup.exe and is just over 300 MB.
2. Run the file. Windows will probably show a warning that the file comes from the internet; click through via More information and Run anyway. The file is signed, but with a regular certificate and not the more expensive EV certificate, so SmartScreen does not yet have any trust stored for that particular signature.
3. Choose Install and leave the default settings as they are. The installation takes a few minutes.
4. Start GIMP. The first start takes time, sometimes half a minute, because the program builds up its settings. It is not frozen.

GIMP 3 requires at least Windows 10 version 1903. If you have an older Windows, you have to stick with GIMP 2.10, and it is still available in the archive at gimp.org.

Linux Mint

The fastest route, if you do not care which generation you get:

sudo apt install gimp

If you want 3.2.6, use Flatpak instead. Flatpak is already on Mint and Flathub is enabled from the start:

flatpak install flathub org.gimp.GIMP

You can also do the same thing in the Software Manager: search for GIMP, and where the entry comes in two variants, choose the one marked Flatpak. The panel shows the version number before you install, so check there.

If you already have 2.10 installed via apt, both can stay side by side without conflicting. They have their own settings. The only thing that happens is that you get two GIMP entries in the menu, and then it is wise to remove the old one once you know the new one works:

sudo apt remove gimp

There is also an AppImage on gimp.org, that is, a single file that you make executable and start. It requires Debian 13 or newer as a base, which Linux Mint 22 is not (it is based on Ubuntu 24.04), so the AppImage can act up on that particular combination. For a computer the company uses every week, Flatpak is easier anyway, since the updates take care of themselves.

The trap everyone falls into

You have fixed the image. You click File, Save. The file is now called produktbild.xcf and cannot be uploaded to the web shop, sent to the printer or posted on Instagram.

This is not a bug. XCF is GIMP's own format and it saves all layers, all text that can still be edited and the entire history. That is exactly what you want when you continue working tomorrow.

But to get a regular image out, you use File, Export as. There you type the file name with the right extension, that is produktbild.jpg or produktbild.png, and GIMP understands from the extension which format you mean. Next time Export without as is enough, and the keyboard shortcut is Ctrl and E.

Do both. Save XCF for yourselves, export JPG or PNG for the world.

Which one? JPG for photos, because the files become much smaller and a page with twenty product images needs to load quickly. PNG when the image has a transparent background or consists of text and sharp edges, for example a logo. If you save a logo as JPG you get a gray-white square behind it, because JPG cannot be transparent.

Four things to do with your product images

Crop to the same format. Choose the crop tool, check Fixed and type 1:1 in the box below. Drag the box across the image and press Enter. Do the same with all your product images, and they will sit neatly in a row in your shop instead of jumping up and down.

Resize. Image, Scale image. An image straight from your phone is often 4000 pixels wide, and that is about five times more than a web page needs. Set the width to 1200 pixels. The height follows automatically as long as the chain symbol next to it is intact. The file goes from four megabytes to a few hundred kilobytes, and the page loads accordingly.

Rescue a dark image. Colors, Levels. In the histogram, that is the jagged curve, you drag the right triangle inward until it meets where the curve begins. Then the middle one a little to the left. The image gets brighter without turning gray and washed out, which is exactly what happens if you only pull up the brightness.

Remove the background. A regular photo has no transparency built in, so add it first: Layer, Transparency, Add alpha channel. If you skip that step, the selection is filled with the background color instead of becoming transparent when you press Delete. If the product sits against a plain background: choose the fuzzy select tool, click in the background, press Delete. If you see a checkerboard pattern, the background is now transparent, and then you should export as PNG. If the background is busy, it goes faster with the scissors select tool, where you click around the product point by point and close the circle where you started.

Your logo on an image

Open the photo. Drag the logo file into the GIMP window, and it lands as its own layer on top. Move it with the move tool, resize it with the scale tool. If you want it discreet, drag Opacity in the layer panel down to around 60.

The layer panel is the whole idea behind GIMP. Everything sits in its own layer, and as long as you do not merge them you can move, change or delete one of them without touching the rest. If you cannot see the panel: Windows, Dockable dialogs, Layers.

When something goes wrong

Nothing happens when you paint or erase. You are probably on the wrong layer. Click the right layer in the layers panel first. This is the most common problem of all, and the solution is always the same.

You can only change a small part of the image. A selection is still active from earlier. Select, None, or Ctrl, Shift and A.

A window has disappeared. Windows, Single-Window Mode gathers everything in one window instead of several loose ones. It is almost always nicer.

The text can no longer be edited. The text layer has been merged with the image, probably via Flatten Image. It cannot be undone after the file has been saved and closed. That is why you save XCF.

The colors look wrong in print. GIMP works in RGB, which is the colors on a screen. Printers often want CMYK. Ask the printer what they want before you send the file, and expect that a bright blue or neon green never turns out exactly the same on paper.

The license

GIMP is under GPL-3.0-or-later. You may use it in your company, sell what you create with it and install it on as many computers as you want. The images you make are yours, and the program makes no demands on them.

Do you need help getting your product images in order? Get in touch.