Most often, you start GIMP either by clicking on an icon (if your system
is set up to provide you with one), or by typing gimp
on a command line. If you have multiple versions of the GIMP installed,
you may need to type gimp-2.2
to get the latest version. You can, if you want, give a list of image
files on the command line after the program name, and they will
automatically be opened by GIMP as it starts. It is also possible, though,
to open files from within GIMP once it is running.
In most operating systems, you can set things up so that various
types of image files are “associated” with GIMP, and cause
it to start automatically when icons for them are double-clicked.
Tip
If you want to cause a certain file type to automatically open in GIMP,
you should associate it with “gimp-remote”
(“gimp-win-remote” under Windows) rather than
with “gimp”. The gimp-remote program is an auxiliary that
comes with gimp. If gimp is not already running on the system when
gimp-remote is executed, it is started and the image given as argument
to gimp-remote is loaded. If gimp is already running, though, the
image is simply loaded into the already-running program.
3.1.
Command Line Arguments
Ordinarily you don't need to give any arguments when starting
GIMP, but here is a list of some that may at one time or anther be
useful. This is not a complete list; on Unix systems you can get
a complete list by running man gimp in a
terminal window.
-h, --help
Display a list of all commandline options.
-v, --version
Print the version of GIMP being used, and exit.
--verbose
Show detailed startup messages.
-d, --no-data
Do not load patterns, gradients, palettes, or brushes. Often
useful in non-interactive situations where startup time is to be
minimized.
--display display
Use the designated X display (does not apply to GIMP on Microsoft
Windows).
-s, --no-splash
Do not show the splash screen while starting.
--session name
Use a different sessionrc for this GIMP session. The given session
name is appended to the default sessionrc filename.
-g, --gimprc gimprc
Use an alternative gimprc instead of the default one. The
“gimprc” file contains a record of your preferences.
Useful in cases where plugins paths or machine specs may be
different.
-c, --console-messages
Do not popup dialog boxes on errors or warnings. Print the
messages on the console instead.
-b, --batch commands
Execute the set of commands non-interactively. The set of commands
is typically in the form of a script that can be executed by one
of the GIMP scripting extensions. When commands is
-, the commands are read from standard
input.
Published under the terms of the GNU General Public License
![[Tip]](../images/tip.png)
