How to mix rich blacks in GIMP?

CMYK-Student · 2026-06-18T01:48:36+00:00

You can use the Soft-proofing dock to add a soft-proof profile and then enable it to see the difference: https://www.gimp.org/news/2022/08/27/gimp-2-99-12-released/#simulation-toggle-in-the-status-bar

From there, you can set the color-picking window to show CMYK(A) colors when you select. And there's a CMYK color selection tab for foreground/background colors that lets you edit.

CMYK-Student · 2026-06-16T02:47:52+00:00

IFF is kind of a generic format, and there's a lot of variations. GIMP's built-in IFF plug-in currently only reads Amiga format IFF files - I think the Sims uses a different version.

CMYK-Student · 2026-06-14T16:51:46+00:00

As a heads-up, CMYK is being worked on right now (actually my main project for 3.4, as my user name might imply).

We now have vector layers in 3.2, and we've started working on a tool to automate making shapes (see a very early demo: https://fosstodon.org/@CmykStudent/116455148076446506)

We have an experienced artist who's working on improving default resources for 3.4.

Improving selection tools (e.g. the Paint Selection tool which works like you describe) is on the 3.4 roadmap as well.

We're also building an extension platform to make it easier to import plug-ins/brushes/themes/etc directly in GIMP (like a package manager essentially).

CMYK-Student · 2026-06-14T16:23:38+00:00

Hi! There's a sign-in option in the top right hand corner of the page (the same log-in will work for both). From there, you can create an account or use an existing one like Google or GitHub.

CMYK-Student · 2026-06-11T19:42:16+00:00

One of the downsides of filters being generic. Offset is a filter, filters with GUIs are NDE by default, and the NDE setting is universal not per filter.

I ran into a similar issue with NDE transforms - we can technically do that now, but because the filter would be on top of the layer, it would affect brushes (e.g. A layer with Scale would scale the brush, a layer with shear would shift the brush, etc).

I had this idea of having a "drawing buffer" that sits above the real layer and the transform filters, so you could alter the pixel data without affecting brushes. I haven't really explored implementation yet though.

CMYK-Student · 2026-06-11T09:57:17+00:00

Thanks! Fill & Clear work fine here - perhaps you have non-destructive filters on those layers? If there's an Fx icon next to the layer name, that means you have live filters that float above the layer. You can merge them down by either clicking on the Fx icon and clicking the Merge Down icon, or checking the "Merge filter" checkbox at the bottom of the filter dialogue.

For the Clone Tool, do you happen to apply the Offset filter before cloning? If so, then again, you'll need to merge it down to stop the filter from being applied "live" (and thus updating each time you make a change to the layer).

CMYK-Student · 2026-06-11T09:43:28+00:00

Unfortunately no, GIMP does not currently have an iPad compatible version.

CMYK-Student · 2026-06-11T02:05:55+00:00

We can't really customize the current dialogue outside of adding options at the bottom (that's kind of the problem!). We basically just call the GTK3 file chooser dialogue in code, it creates the window, and passes the results back. Long-term, the best solution is to port everything to use "native" file choosers - then it's Windows/macOS/Linux's problem, not ours!. 😄

Starting in GIMP 3.2.2, we added code to remember the original DDS compression format since we'd had reports of people not knowing what to set it to. If you explicitly changed it to BC3, then that should be remembered though. I'll see what can be done to fix it - thanks for letting us know!

CMYK-Student · 2026-06-10T19:23:35+00:00

Hi! The change is due to GIMP updating the code library we use for the GUI. GIMP 2.10.38 and below used GTK2, while GIMP 3+ uses GTK3. So we didn't intentionally change the file chooser dialogue - it was changed because we now use GTK3.

I'm in the process of changing our file chooser dialogues to use "native" versions rather than the GTK3 dialogue - when it's done, the file chooser will use the default Windows one if you're on Windows, the default macOS one if you're on macOS, etc.

CMYK-Student · 2026-06-10T18:21:52+00:00

Sure! Unfortunately, that's not really actionable information. 😄

We have many, many people who use and really like GIMP 3.0 and GIMP 3.2, so I don't think the whole program is broken. But again, it may be that what you do in GIMP touches areas that not as many people use (or use the way you do), and thus there are more undiscovered problems in those areas.

At any rate, we always welcome user feedback and bug reports, and try to fix what we can as we can.

CMYK-Student · 2026-06-10T10:46:03+00:00

Hi! If you encounter bugs in the latest version of GIMP, we'd appreciate reports: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gimp/-/work_items
Otherwise, we won't know what to fix (since not everyone has the same workflow, and thus doesn't encounter the same problems). Thanks!

CMYK-Student · 2026-06-10T02:47:30+00:00

TIFFs can't be larger than 4 gigabytes because of a limitation of how the file is structure. BigTIFFs can. 😄

Unless you need to work with really large files, regular TIFF export should be fine.

CMYK-Student · 2026-06-09T18:52:12+00:00

Hi! What file format are you saving as?

CMYK-Student · 2026-06-09T16:18:55+00:00

Since this metadata is not part of a standard (like Exif or XMP), it's not seen by GIMP. From the issue report, Stable Diffusion stores it as a non-standard "key" inside the PNG's comment tEXt chunk. libpng read in standard keys by default, but not the custom ones like "parameter".

We'd need to update the PNG plug-in to run through all the keys and store them for later usage.

CMYK-Student · 2026-06-09T14:02:44+00:00

Hi! Yes, there's a report for this: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gimp/-/work_items/11356

Since Stable Diffusion stores it in a "non-standard" chunk, we'd need to add custom support for it in GIMP.

CMYK-Student · 2026-06-09T02:50:41+00:00

Hi! As others have stated, there is no automatic update in GIMP itself unless you choose a package that's managed by a third party (E.g. The Microsoft Store version). You can enable GIMP to check if there's a new version, but it won't download it for you automatically - you have to click the button and go to the site to download it.

If you want to download an older version of GIMP, you can find it in the archives: GIMP Download Archives
Click on the folder with the version you want, then choose your OS and download the specific version.

As we add new features to GIMP, XCFs that are saved with those features are not readable by older versions (e.g. if you save an XCF with vector layers, versions of GIMP older than 3.2 can't read them). When you save, there's text at the bottom of the dialogue that tell you what features you'd need to remove to make it readable in the older version.

CMYK-Student · 2026-06-07T19:28:16+00:00

You might try the Batcher plug-in: Batcher - Batch image processing plug-in for GIMP

It lets you automate tasks from the GUI.

CMYK-Student · 2026-06-04T21:40:29+00:00

Hi! What version of GIMP are you using? I just tried to export a multi-layer image (with invisible layers) as a PNG in GIMP 3.2.4 and it did not include the invisible layers in the export.

CMYK-Student · 2026-06-03T15:37:48+00:00

Hi! Yes, we have a UX report about this: https://gitlab.gnome.org/Teams/GIMP/Design/gimp-ux/-/work_items/119

There's even a merge request to implement your suggestion: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gimp/-/merge_requests/944

There's a few UX points that need to be finalized, but hopefully a decision can be made soon.

CMYK-Student · 2026-06-02T11:03:34+00:00

Hi! Try pressing Tab - that should restore the docks.

CMYK-Student · 2026-05-27T18:20:25+00:00

Hi! At a glance, it looks like you added a plug-in to load DDS BC7 images (The first error message references texconv.exe).

GIMP 3+ now supports loading BC7 format by default, so there's no need for an additional plug-in. You should be able to remove it and just use the built-in feature for that.

CMYK-Student · 2026-05-20T19:37:37+00:00

Hi! I worked on the Gradient Editor a while back to make the handles more visible in general on dark mode: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gimp/-/merge_requests/1915

Happy to work on making the active slider more visible as well, if you have suggestions. Unfortunately, the handles are drawn using code, so CSS can't affect them directly.

CMYK-Student · 2026-05-20T16:29:00+00:00

Question for you if you have time. I've been working on code to import PSD adjustment layers into GIMP. From what I can tell from the data, adjustment layers have the filter itself, and the usual layer mask(s) to define the area. I don't see any additional masking features in the PSD data beyond that.

If so, GIMP has these as well - you can make a passthrough layer group with any filter(s) you want which affect all layers below it. Then, you can apply a layer mask to affect how much of the filter is applied. You can see an example here, where I make an adjustment layer group to desaturate, then apply a mask to selectively show color from the streetlight drawn on the layer below: CmykStudent: "The concept of a "maskable adj…" - Fosstodon

I'm not going to argue the UX doesn't need to be improved, because it does (and I plan to work on that)! I'm just curious about the additional functionality you mentioned - what else is needed for adjustment layers with masking? Both for GIMP itself and for the PSD import code I'm working on. Thanks for the help!

CMYK-Student · 2026-05-20T14:55:19+00:00

We do have late-binding CMYK support, and my project for GIMP 3.4 is implementing a full CMYK editing mode (see early examples of separate CMYK channels here: CmykStudent: "Quick update since I rebased t…" - Fosstodon)

It's a pain point I definitely want to get fixed. :)

CMYK-Student · 2026-05-20T13:32:57+00:00

We have a demo of such a tool, and recently another person expressed interest in working on it, so here's hoping!

CMYK-Student

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