If you’re like most people, you probably use Gimp to create graphics and photos. But if you’re a professional photographer, you may also be interested in learning how to run the program from the command line. There are a few things you need before starting:

  1. A Gimp installation. You can find it on the Gimp website or on some other repositories. If you don’t have it, install it first.
  2. A GNU/Linux computer with an operating system that supports running commands from the command line (Linux is most likely what you’ll use).
  3. An editor that can be used to write code for Gimp (Gedit is a popular choice). For this article, we’ll use Emacs, but any editor will do.
  4. A text editor that can be used to write code for Gimp (Gvim is a popular choice). For this article, we’ll use Vim.
  5. An understanding of how Gimp works and how to work with its features from scratch (this article won’t teach you how to create graphics or photos using Gimp).
  6. A copy of the gimpmakefile file that contains all of the instructions needed to build and install GIMP on your computer from source code sources (you can find this file online or in some repositories).
  7. The gimpmakefile file itself (you can find it online or in some repositories). This file contains all of the instructions needed to build and install GIMP on your computer from source code sources; it doesn’t contain any user-friendly instructions!