Setting up GIMP

How to set up the GIMP on a Mac

This process will make your copy of GIMP behave like mine, which makes my instructions much more helpful.

1. Obtain the GIMP from gimp.lisanet.de. The page explains how to find out which version you need. When you click the link, your browser will download a disk image and it'll mount itself. A window will pop up showing GIMP and a Readme file. You need to move the GIMP to your Applications folder.
2. Eject the disk image and trash the DMG file if you want.
3. Open GIMP. The first time it starts up, it will take a long time to catalog all the fonts on your system. You just have to wait it out. Then it'll display a single window with icons for tools on the left, a blank gray square in the middle and some more icons on the right. All the little windows within the main one, containing things like brushes, tool options, and layers, are alternately called "tabs" and "docks." I'll call them tabs because OS X already has a dock.
4. If your version of GIMP isn't all in one window, you may be able to change that by going to Window > Single-Window Mode.
5. If you don't see a tab, like Layers or Tool Options, first click through the tabs on the screen in case one of those icons has what you're looking for. If not, go to the tab strip where you want it to appear (there are four by default) and click the little dark icon on the far right, like a triangle in a box. In the context menu that appears, go to Add Tab > [the tab you want]. The tabs I usually work with are Tool Options, Layers, Colors and Undo.
6. Similarly, you can remove tabs by opening the tab you want to remove, clicking the same triangular button from the previous step, and clicking Close Tab.