The GIMP team has announced a new official Snap package for Linux, marking a considerable change in how the wildly popular open source image editor is distributed. You see, GIMP can now be deployed directly from its continuous integration system, joining other modern packaging formats like Flatpak and MSIX.
Until now, the GIMP Snap had been maintained by the community-driven Snapcrafters project. That changes immediately, as the GIMP team takes full ownership, ensuring that all future releases will come straight from its official CI pipeline.
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Because GNOME’s GitLab CI environment already uses Docker for containerization, the team had to adapt Snapcraft’s tooling, which normally depends on Canonical’s LXD. By using –destructive-mode and the snapcraft-rocks Docker image, GIMP now builds cleanly and quickly across distributions. These build scripts are public, allowing anyone to reproduce the official Snap package locally.
Developers aren’t left out either. A new “gimp-plugins” plug interface, created by Will French, allows third-party plugin installation without breaking Snap’s confinement rules. This works similarly to Flatpak extensions or Microsoft’s MSIX modification packages. Two plugins, GMIC and OpenVINO, already use this system, with guides available on the GIMP developer site.
Version 3.0.6 is the first GIMP release available as an official Snap, co-produced by the GIMP and Snapcrafters teams. It’s now live on the “latest/stable” channel, while experimental builds will continue to roll out to the “preview/stable” channel for testers.
Linux users can install it today from the official GIMP Snap page.
