PhotoGIMP: a Photoshop-style patch for GIMP 3

What PhotoGIMP actually changes, and who it is aimed at

PhotoGIMP targets one group: people who have used Adobe Photoshop and are now sitting in front of GIMP 3. The README describes it as a patch that makes GIMP look and feel more like Photoshop, and it lists four concrete changes. Tools are repositioned to mimic their Photoshop locations. Keyboard shortcuts follow Adobe's official documentation for the Windows version of Photoshop. Default settings are tuned so the canvas gets as much space as possible. A custom splash screen and a dedicated .desktop file give the application its own icon and name in the system menu.

That is the whole scope. It does not add adjustment layers, smart objects, Camera Raw, or anything else GIMP lacks. If you were hoping a patch would close the feature gap with Photoshop, this is not that. What it removes is the muscle-memory tax: the first week of hunting for the crop tool and pressing the wrong shortcut.

The project is GPL-3.0, written mainly in Python, and its last push to the repository was on 2026-09-05. Release 3.1 arrived on 2026-07-11, following 3.0 in March 2025 and a 2022 release labelled 2020.1. The gap between 1.1 and 3.0 is roughly three years, which tells you the project moves in bursts tied to GIMP's own major versions rather than on a fixed schedule.

A configuration overlay, not a plugin

The repository layout shows what PhotoGIMP is: a .config directory, a .local directory, an install.sh script, a scripts folder, and docs. There is no plugin binary, no GIMP extension, and nothing that registers itself inside the application. The Linux install method is literally unzipping an archive into your home folder so that files land in ~/.config and ~/.local. On Windows you copy a version-numbered folder into %APPDATA%\GIMP. On macOS you copy into ~/Library/Application Support/GIMP.

This design has a direct consequence. GIMP reads its configuration at startup, so PhotoGIMP works by replacing the files GIMP already wrote. That is why the requirements table insists you open GIMP once and close it before installing: the config folders have to exist before they can be overwritten. It is also why the installation section carries a warning to back up your GIMP settings first.

Because the patch lives in the user config directory rather than in the application itself, it is reversible in principle. Restore your backup and GIMP returns to its previous state. The README documents the backup step for each platform but does not document a rollback procedure, so the backup is the rollback.

One detail worth noting for anyone auditing the project: install.sh exists at the top level, but the README's installation instructions for all three platforms describe manual archive extraction. The shell script is not the documented path.

Installing PhotoGIMP on Linux and taking a first look

Start by installing GIMP 3.0 or newer, either from gimp.org or from Flathub, then open it once and close it. This creates the config folder PhotoGIMP needs. Before touching anything, back up your existing configuration:

cp -r ~/.config/GIMP/<version> ~/GIMP-<version>-backup

Replace <version> with the folder that actually exists on your machine, for example 3.0. Then download PhotoGIMP-linux.zip from the latest release and extract it into your home folder. The archive places files under ~/.config and ~/.local, both hidden. In most file managers Ctrl+H toggles hidden files so you can confirm the extraction landed where you expect. When your file manager asks about existing files, the README says to choose Replace or Overwrite.

If you installed GIMP from your distribution's package manager instead of Flatpak, the README states the config folder is in the same place, ~/.config/GIMP/3.0, so the same steps apply as long as GIMP is 3.0 or newer.

Open GIMP. You should see the PhotoGIMP splash screen and the rearranged tool layout. If nothing changed, the most likely cause is that the archive was extracted to the wrong level: the files need to merge into your home directory, not sit inside a new subfolder inside it.

Windows and macOS: same patch, different folders

On Windows, install GIMP from the official site, run it once, then close it. Download PhotoGIMP.zip, extract it anywhere, and open the extracted folder. The README warns that the configuration folder inside may be numbered 3.0, 3.1 or something like 4.2, so read the folder name rather than assuming. Copy that folder, press Windows+R, type %APPDATA%\GIMP and press Enter, then paste it there. Reopen GIMP to see the layout.

If you use Chocolatey, the README points to a package maintained by André Augusto:

choco install photogimp

The README does not state which GIMP version that package targets, so verify it against your installed GIMP before relying on it. There is also an optional photogimp.ico you can apply to the Start Menu shortcut under %appdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\GIMP 3.0.0 via Properties, Change Icon.

On macOS, the backup route is Finder, Cmd+Shift+G, ~/Library/Application Support/GIMP, then copy the GIMP folder somewhere safe. The README's macOS section is truncated in the repository text, so the exact extraction target is not spelled out here. The pattern from the other two platforms (config directory, version-numbered folder) is the reasonable expectation, but confirm it in the release archive before overwriting anything.

Where PhotoGIMP is the wrong tool

The largest limitation is the one the project itself advertises: PhotoGIMP overwrites GIMP's configuration files. Anyone with a curated set of brushes, tool presets, custom shortcuts or a theme they have tuned over years will lose that arrangement unless they back it up first and merge selectively. The README offers a backup command but no merge strategy, so restoring means going back to plain GIMP wholesale.

The version coupling is the second constraint. PhotoGIMP requires GIMP 3.0 or newer, and the Windows instructions show that the folder inside the archive is version-numbered. If your GIMP is 3.2 and the archive ships a 3.0 folder, you are pasting configuration written for a different point release. GIMP generally tolerates this, but the README does not promise it, and it does not document what to do when the numbers diverge. Anyone still on GIMP 2.10 is out of scope entirely.

The third point is conceptual. PhotoGIMP changes where things are, not what they do. It does not make GIMP behave like Photoshop for non-destructive editing, layer styles, or the filter ecosystem. A user whose real friction is missing features will install PhotoGIMP, feel at home for a day, and then hit the same wall. The patch is a transition aid, not a compatibility layer.

PhotoGIMP vs GIMP, and vs staying on Photoshop

PhotoGIMP versus stock GIMP is not really a comparison of two applications. It is the same application with a different default configuration. The README's own framing is that GIMP can do most of what Photoshop does and PhotoGIMP just makes it look and feel more like Photoshop. So the honest difference is familiarity: stock GIMP gives you GIMP's own tool arrangement and GIMP's own shortcuts; PhotoGIMP gives you Photoshop's positions and Adobe's documented Windows shortcut map. If you have never used Photoshop, PhotoGIMP's main selling point does not apply to you, and you are better off learning GIMP's defaults rather than a translation layer you will have to explain to anyone helping you.

Versus staying on Photoshop, the difference is licensing and cost, not layout. GIMP is free and open source, available for Linux, macOS and Windows, and PhotoGIMP is GPL-3.0. Adobe's application is commercial. PhotoGIMP cannot change that trade: it narrows the habit gap, but the feature gap and the file-format workflows around Photoshop remain where they were. If your work depends on Photoshop-specific features, a layout patch will not change that calculation.

A third option deserves mention because the README does not: simply remapping shortcuts and rearranging docks inside GIMP by hand. GIMP exposes both. PhotoGIMP's value is that someone already did the work and packaged it, which is worth more than it sounds if you have never used GIMP's preferences dialog.

Maintenance, upgrades and the GPL-3.0 licence

The repository was not archived and its last push was on 2026-09-05, two weeks before this writing, with release 3.1 on 2026-07-11. That is a healthy sign for a patch project, but the release history also shows long quiet periods: 1.1 landed in 2022 and 3.0 only in March 2025. Expect activity to follow GIMP's own release cadence rather than a steady drip.

Upgrade cost is low but not zero. Because PhotoGIMP is a set of files in your config directory, upgrading means re-extracting a new release over the old one, which again overwrites whatever GIMP has written since. If you have made your own tweaks on top of PhotoGIMP, you will redo them. There is no package manager path on Linux and no documented update command; the README's install instructions are the update instructions. On Windows the Chocolatey package offers an upgrade path, but its GIMP version target is not stated.

On licensing: PhotoGIMP is GPL-3.0, and the LICENSE file sits at the top level of the repository. The patch ships GIMP configuration files and assets such as icons and splash screens. Redistributing a modified build carries GPL obligations, and the Adobe-derived shortcut map is a separate question that the README does not address. That is a matter for your own legal review, not something this article can settle.

Editorial conclusion

Adopt PhotoGIMP if you are moving to GIMP 3 from Photoshop and want the tool layout and Windows shortcut map you already know. Skip it if you have a tuned GIMP configuration, if you depend on GIMP 2.10, or if you dislike the idea of a patch that copies files over your config directory. Before installing, run GIMP once so the config folder exists, copy ~/.config/GIMP/3.0 somewhere safe, and check whether the release you download actually contains a 3.0 folder, because the README warns that the extracted archive may carry a different version number.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. Diolinux/PhotoGIMP on GitHub
2. Issues
3. License: GPL-3.0
4. README
5. Releases