PhotoGIMP Setup: Make GIMP Feel Like Photoshop

PhotoGIMP is a free, community-built patch that rearranges GIMP 3 to look and behave like Adobe Photoshop, and today it is one of the hottest repositories on GitHub trending, adding more than 1,100 stars in a single day on top of roughly 15,000 total. If you learned image editing in Photoshop but do not want to pay a monthly Adobe subscription, PhotoGIMP remaps GIMP's tools, keyboard shortcuts, and window layout to the muscle memory you already have, and the whole setup takes about five minutes.

• PhotoGIMP is a configuration patch, not a separate program: it overwrites GIMP 3's settings files to mimic Photoshop's tool positions and shortcuts.
• It ships as a per-OS download for Windows, macOS, and Linux, plus a one-line Chocolatey install on Windows.
• Keyboard shortcuts follow Adobe's official Windows documentation, so the keys your hands already know land where you expect them.
• It is GPL-3.0 licensed and free, needs GIMP 3.0 or newer, and only touches config: your brushes, fonts, and plug-ins are left untouched.

What is PhotoGIMP and why is it trending?

PhotoGIMP is a patch maintained by Diolinux, a long-running Brazilian Linux community, that reconfigures GIMP to feel like Adobe Photoshop. It does not fork GIMP or add new editing features; instead it replaces a set of GIMP configuration files so the tool icons sit where a Photoshop user expects, the keyboard shortcuts match Adobe's defaults, the canvas opens maximized, and a custom splash screen greets you on launch. The current release, PhotoGIMP 3, shipped in March 2025 and targets GIMP 3.0 and newer. The repository now sits above 15,000 stars and is climbing the daily trending chart with more than 1,100 new stars today. The spike has a clear cause: GIMP 3.0 was a landmark release after years of development, and every wave of new GIMP users brings a wave of Photoshop refugees looking for a way to make the free editor feel like home. Adobe subscription fatigue does the rest.

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Under the hood, the patch replaces or adds config files inside GIMP's settings directory: shortcutsrc for the Photoshop key map, toolrc for tool ordering, sessionrc and dockrc for the panel layout, gimprc for canvas and grid preferences, plus a custom splash and a few UI tweaks. On Linux it also drops in a .desktop launcher and app icon so PhotoGIMP shows up with its own name in your menu.

How do you install PhotoGIMP on Windows, macOS, and Linux?

Two rules apply on every platform. First, install GIMP 3.0 or newer from gimp.org (or Flathub on Linux). Second, open GIMP once and close it before installing PhotoGIMP, because GIMP only writes its config folders on first run, and the patch needs those folders to exist so it can overwrite them. PhotoGIMP overwrites your GIMP settings, so back them up first if you have customizations worth keeping.

On Windows, download PhotoGIMP.zip from the GitHub Releases page (about 1.6 MB), extract it, and copy the 3.0 folder from inside it into GIMP's settings directory. Open the Run dialog with the Windows key plus R and paste this path to get there, then paste the 3.0 folder in and choose Replace when prompted:

# Windows: GIMP config folder (paste into Win+R)
%APPDATA%\GIMP

If you use the Chocolatey package manager, a community maintainer publishes PhotoGIMP as a package, so you can skip the manual copy entirely:

# Windows: one-line install via Chocolatey
choco install photogimp

On macOS, download the same PhotoGIMP.zip, extract it, and copy the 3.0 folder into GIMP's Application Support directory. In Finder press Cmd, Shift, and G, then go to the path below and paste the 3.0 folder inside, replacing files when asked. If an old 2.10 folder is present from a previous GIMP, delete it to avoid conflicts:

# macOS: GIMP config folder (Finder: Cmd+Shift+G)
~/Library/Application Support/GIMP

On Linux, the patch ships as PhotoGIMP-linux.zip (about 2.1 MB). Back up your existing GIMP config, then extract the archive into your home folder so it lands in the hidden .config and .local directories, replacing files when prompted. This works whether GIMP came from Flatpak or your distro's package manager:

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# Linux: back up your current GIMP settings first
cp -r ~/.config/GIMP/3.0 ~/GIMP-3.0-backup

Then extract the downloaded zip into your home folder (~) and overwrite when asked. Reopen GIMP and you should see the PhotoGIMP layout and splash. Removing it later is just as simple: delete the config folder and GIMP regenerates clean defaults on the next launch.

# Linux: uninstall by deleting the patched config
rm -rf ~/.config/GIMP/3.0

How does PhotoGIMP compare with Photoshop and plain GIMP?

PhotoGIMP does not close the feature gap with Photoshop; that is still GIMP underneath, without Adobe's newer AI fill and camera-raw tooling. What it closes is the muscle-memory gap, which for most switchers is the actual reason they bounce off GIMP in the first week.

What are the gotchas before you rely on it?

Four things to know before you commit. First, PhotoGIMP overwrites GIMP's configuration files, so if you have tuned shortcuts or a custom layout, back up the config folder before you patch, or you will lose that work. Second, it is strictly GIMP 3.0 and newer; the config format changed significantly from GIMP 2.x, so a 2.10 install will not work and can error if mixed in. Third, this is a cosmetic and ergonomic patch, not a feature upgrade: it does not add Photoshop's AI tools, and anyone expecting GIMP to suddenly match Adobe capability will be disappointed. Fourth, PhotoGIMP has no official website; the only trustworthy source is the GitHub repository, and download links that claim otherwise should be treated with suspicion. Reassuringly, the patch only touches config, so your brushes, fonts, gradients, and plug-ins survive the install untouched.

Our take

PhotoGIMP is one of those small projects that punches far above its code size, and the star count proves it. The hard part of moving off Photoshop was never GIMP's capability; it was the first hour of hunting for tools that moved and shortcuts that stopped working. By shipping a sane, Photoshop-shaped default in a five-minute install, PhotoGIMP removes exactly that friction and lets a switcher stay productive on day one. It will not satisfy a professional retoucher who leans on Adobe's newest AI features, and it should not pretend to. But for students, hobbyists, and anyone tired of a subscription for occasional edits, this is the fastest path to a free editor that feels like the one they already know. Back up your config, install GIMP 3 first, and you are five minutes from home.

Original analysis by GenZTech. Tool documentation: Diolinux/PhotoGIMP on GitHub.