GIMP Launches Official Snap Package for Ubuntu

Now you can install and use GIMP as Snap in Ubuntu Linux and its derivatives.

The GIMP team has come up with a great update for Linux users, especially those on Ubuntu, by rolling out an official Snap package straight from their Continuous Integration (CI) system. As shared in their recent announcement, this is a great usability feature, making GIMP super accessible across Linux distros.

The Snap package, a format that’s become quite the rage (and debatable!) for its ease of use and cross-distro compatibility, especially on Ubuntu. Snap packages are all about hassle-free installation, auto-updates, and tight security. By hooking Snap into their CI pipeline, the GIMP team ensured you get the latest stable releases without any delay.

To build the Snap and make it accessible, the GIMP team had to tackle some techy challenges, as their GNOME GitLab runners use Docker, while Snapcraft relies on Canonical’s LXD for containerization. They resolved this by using the --destructive-mode option with the snapcraft-rocks Docker image, making builds quick and reliable.

Earlier, the GIMP Snap package was looked after by the Snapcrafters community, a group that’s been doing solid work to bring popular software to Snap. Now, Snapcrafters kindly handed over the reins to the GIMP team. Now, the Snap package is officially under GIMP’s banner, sticking to their promise of keeping things “vanilla”—no extra code beyond babl, GEGL, or GIMP’s core.

One of the coolest bits about this Snap package is the gimp-plugins interface, crafted by Will French. Unlike the older Snap that bundled some third-party plugins, the official version keeps it clean and simple, following GIMP’s packaging mantra. This new interface works like the Flatpak org.gimp.GIMP.Plugin extension or MSIX modification packages, letting developers add plugins without messing with Snap’s strict security setup.

Download

The first official Snap, GIMP 3.0.6, is a joint effort by the GIMP team and Snapcrafters, now live on the latest/stable channel. You can download it from the Snap Store or GIMP’s download page at gimp.org/downloads.

Or, you can click below link to launch Software center of your Snap enabled Ubuntu (or derivatives).

snap://gimp

For the users who love testing new features, there’s a development version on the preview/stable channel.

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