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To help those who are used to Photoshop, +Martin Owens has created a collection of GIMP 2.8 tweaks that make it more like Adobe Photoshop.

Gimp photohsop tweaks

The tweaks include Photoshop like toolbox icons, keyboard shortcuts, modified dockable dialogs and even a tweaked background color to match Photoshop.

These tweaks were created for GIMP 2.8 so if you use GIMP 2.9 (the latest GIMP 2.10 development builds), not everything will work. For instance, the keyboard shortcuts might not work properly and there's a minor glitch with the icons there's no icon for the new GIMP 2.9 Unified Transform Tool so the default one will be used instead:

GIMP 2.9 Photoshop tweaks

However, I've added installation instructions for both GIMP 2.8 and GIMP 2.9 so you can try this even if you're using the latest GIMP development build, but keep in mind the notes above.


GIMP Photoshop Tweaks: Installation


1. Download the GIMP Photosop Tweaks zip file from DeviantArt (there's a download link on the right) and place it in your home folder.

2. Make a backup of your current GIMP configuration (firstly close GIMP!):

- for GIMP 2.8:
mv ~/.gimp-2.8 ~/.gimp-2.8.old
- for GIMP 2.9+:
mv ~/.config/GIMP/2.9 ~/.config/GIMP/2.9.old

3. Install GIMP Photoshop tweaks

- for GIMP 2.8: simply extract the downloaded zip archive in your home folder (the arhive contains a .gimp-2.8 hidden folder with all the tweaks);

- for GIMP 2.9+: copy the downloaded .zip file to ~/.config/GIMP/ (".config" is a hidden folder in your home directory so press CTRL + H to see it), then extract it and a folder called ".gimp-2.8" will be created (again, this is a hidden folder so if you can't see it, press CTRL + H) - then simply rename this folder to "2.9". You should now have a new GIMP 2.9 configuration folder: ~/.config/GIMP/2.9 .

Update: this installation script does not support GIMP 2.10. What's more, the GIMP Photoshop icon theme doesn't work with the new GIMP 2.10. If all you're interested are the Photoshop keyboard shortcuts for GIMP though, HERE you'll find instructions for installing them on Windows, Mac and Linux - this works with GIMP 2.10.

How to revert the changes


Since we've backed up the original GIMP configuration folder, restoring the configuration to the previous state is very easy (firstly close GIMP!):

- for GIMP 2.8:
rm -r ~/.gimp-2.8
mv ~/.gimp-2.8.old ~/.gimp-2.8

- for GIMP 2.9+:
rm -r ~/.config/GIMP/2.9
mv ~/.config/GIMP/2.9.old ~/.config/GIMP/2.9

That's it.

first screenshot via Martin Owens @ DeviantArt