The following article list down the best plugins for GIMP as for sure it is the most popular image editing application present for Linux and is also the biggest open source competitor which is present for Adobe Photoshop. Though there are a few differences in respect of the functionality and appearance of the two applications GIMP is often referred too the people who are new to Linux as the best alternative to the Photoshop. Many distributors of Linux often provide GIMP as an already installed application, but in case somebody feels that the installed version lacks some feature then they can easily add more features with the help of these Plugins and scripts.
These plugins are generally written in Python language or as a Script-Fu extension. Some of these plugins can be installed from repositories while some other have to be compiled but almost all of them are very easy to install. One just has to copy the plugin (with .py extension) or script file (.scm file) into your /home/$USERNAME/.gimp/plug-ins or /home/$USERNAME/.gimp/scripts folder, respectively, and restart GIMP.
Kindly Note: One needs to install Python support for GIMP (the gimp-python package; this should be available in the distro’s repositories) if one wish to use Python-Based plugins.
As already stated above this article will focus upon the Linux Version of GIMP but these plugins can also be used by Windows users; the instructions for installation can be founded on the plugin’s official website. All the GIMP plugins mentioned herein are completely free to download, install and use.
Layer via Copy/Cut
This plugin is really helpful for designers and for people who often work with layers. It introduces a function from Photoshop into GIMP. It has options for copying, Moving and cutting the selected areas from one layer or a group of layers, and also create new layers from selected areas. Once it has been installed, it can be accessed from the “Layers” menu.
BIMP – Batch Image Manipulation Plugin
This is one the best GIMP plugins- It is really very easy to use and is incredibly practical. It can help save time if one needs to edit multiple images at the same time. It can resize, crop, rotate, rename and watermark as many images as one wants, and further changes can be previewed in dialog of the plugin.
Beautify
This Plugin is the one which can aggregate several photo effects and editing options into a single, straightforward interface, and turns the given GIMP into a photo retouching studio. This can also be used to give the photos a dash of glamour, correct color and contrast issues, and apply Instagram-like filters to their selfies.
Contrast Fix
One has to admit that we quite often have a photograph that is badly lit. Whether the photograph taken is too dark or too bright this is the plugin that will come to your rescue. One can firstly experiment with the various settings provided for achieving the best results. One of the best features of the plugin is that one can run the plugin more than once on the same image.
Lensfun
This plugin is really useful to fix lens distortion in the images. It can detect the type of camera used and the lens which was used by reading the EXIF data, the same can also be changed by visiting the settings in the plugin dialog. Once installed it can be found in the Filters – Enhance menu.
Refocus
There are times when the photo you clicked came out to be blurry and out of focus because it was clicked in a hurry or the person clicking it had shaky hands. You need not to worry in such a case because this plugin will help you fix them in a special method called Fir Wiener filtering. In this you can adjust the parameters in the plugin dialog and preview what the image would finally look like.
Stitch Panorama
There are few standalone Linux tools that can be used for making panoramic images, but if you wish to directly make it in GIMP then this is the best. You can stitch together multiple images, and then perform blending, distortion matching and color correction if required.
UFRaw
It an amazing plugin for professional photographers to use. It has support in order to edit RAW images in GIMP, and it can also be used to control exposure, color balance and temperature, along with performing various image corrections. The plugin also has an option of batch workflow mode in which one can edit multiple images at once.
Liquid Rescale
It is a powerful plugin for GIMP that it lets one resize any image without making it distorted, along with removing selected parts of the image. If somebody is hands on with Photoshop’s Content-Aware Scaling feature, then one can easily understand what this plugin is meant for. It also has a helpful preview window present within the plugin dialog which can be used to interactively tweak the parameters. After it has been installed successfully, it can be found in the “Layers” menu.
Separate+
Separate+ is a simple plugin but is quite essential GIMP plugin, mainly because it is meant especially for designers. It helps you convert between different colorspaces (RGB, CMYK…), and then set the ICC profile of the monitor and further perform some color-related adjustments on the images.
G’MIC (GREYC’s Magic for Image Computing)
It is amongst the most popular GIMP plugin. It is an image processing framework which contains hundreds of presets, filters and effects which can be applied to the desired images. They can be accessed in the “Filters” menu, and if one would like to test G’MIC before installing it then there is a completely usable online version that can be used in the browser.
Resynthesizer
Resynthesizer is an exceptional plugin that every serious GIMP user should install. With this plugin, you can remove objects from photos, repeat textures for better tiling or seamless image healing, and transfer textures from one image to another. Have you heard of Content Aware Fill in Photoshop? Well, Resynthesizer is used for the same purpose, and apparently GIMP had it long before Photoshop.
Save for Web
It is an absolutely must have plugin for all the web designers, bloggers and anyone who needs to prepare visual materials for the Web. This plugin Web lets you compress, scale, smooth and crop images before uploading them, and hence ensures that they are not too big for the website on which it would be uploaded. This can be found in GIMP’s “File” menu.
Wavelet Denoise
This plugin can be used to reduce noise in the photos caused due to low light or incorrect camera settings. All you need to do is tweak the parameters and preview changes in the plugin dialog.
Watermark
Unfortunately, we often find content theft happening very often on the interest and it is virtually unstoppable. Thankfully there are a few ways which can at least try and protect the digital art and watermarks is one of them those methods. This plugin helps you add watermark texts to the images and provides for some basic adjustments to be made like size, font and position of the watermark. It can be found in the Script-Fu – MyScripts menu.
Elsamuko’s Filters
If you are a professional photographer this is a plugin which you cannot work without it can also prove to be really delightful for an average GIMP user. It includes the famous “National Geographic” photo effect that can give images a classy touch. It has an option of downloading and installing all scripts at once, or just choose the ones you like from the plugin website.
FX Foundry
It is yet another plugin with massive collection of effects and scripts to manipulate your photos, it can create its very own menu in GIMP from where all features can be accessed.
Script-Fu Bundle & GIMPressionist
This plugin gathers a bunch of different effects which can be used to turn the images into a paintings or to make them look sharper, add frames, modify saturation and a lot more. It comes with its own pre-sets and filters, but some scripts from the Script-Fu Bundle can be imported and controlled from it.
Palette Generator
This is another plugin which is very necessary for designers as it lets you easily generate colour palettes with the help of adjustable criteria.
Filter Pack
This is a plugin which comes with GIMP by default. This can be accessed from the “Colors” menu, and it helps you adjust color settings for the entire image or just for the part which is selected. One has to check the boxes under “Windows” this opens a separate window with variations of the image, and then you can click on each variation to apply (and also intensify) its effect on the image.
If you wish to download all the above stated plugins but don’t feel like installing them one by one then here is a suggestion present for you: Debian, Ubuntu and Arch users can easily install the gimp-plugin-registry package from their repositories. This package contains almost all the GIMP plugin which are present in the list including Liquid Rescale, Save for Web and the mighty FX Foundry.
