PhotoGIMP with a portable GIMP

#How a portable GIMP picks its settings folder

GIMP has a setting for exactly this: the GIMP3_DIRECTORY environment variable. When it is set, GIMP uses that folder for all its settings instead of %APPDATA%\GIMP\3.2 or ~/.config/GIMP/3.2. Portable launchers can set it to a folder inside the portable package before starting GIMP.

We checked this with GIMP 3.2.6: started with GIMP3_DIRECTORY pointing at an empty folder, GIMP reported that folder as its settings folder and created its usual files there (brushes, filters, fonts and the rest) directly inside it. Two things follow for PhotoGIMP:

• There is no version sub-folder. The files go straight into the folder GIMP names, not into a 3.2 folder inside it.
• The normal folder is ignored. Copying PhotoGIMP into %APPDATA%\GIMP\3.2 does nothing for a portable GIMP, which is the usual reason “nothing changed”.

#Find the folder

from gi.repository import Gimp; print(Gimp.directory())

#Install PhotoGIMP into it

1. Start the portable GIMP once, then close it

   The first start creates the settings folder with GIMP’s defaults.

2. Download and extract PhotoGIMP

   Get PhotoGIMP.zip from GitHub and extract it. You get a folder named 3.0.

3. Copy the contents

   Copy everything inside 3.0 into the settings folder you found, and replace existing files. Keep a copy of the folder first if you have customized this GIMP.

4. Apply the GIMP 3.2 fix if needed

   If the portable GIMP is 3.2 (Help → About GIMP), open toolrc, sessionrc and shortcutsrc in that folder with a text editor and make the three replacements from the GIMP 3.2 page.

5. Start the portable GIMP

   You should see the PhotoGIMP splash and a single column of tools. If the toolbox is still a grid, the fix was skipped or GIMP was open while you copied.

#Make your own portable GIMP (Windows)

If you only need GIMP with PhotoGIMP on a USB stick, you can set GIMP3_DIRECTORY yourself. Copy the GIMP program folder (for a per-user install, %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\GIMP 3) to the stick, create an empty profile folder next to it, and save this as start-gimp.cmd in the same place:

@echo off
set "GIMP3_DIRECTORY=%~dp0profile"
start "" "%~dp0GIMP 3\bin\gimp-3.2.exe"

Start GIMP once with it and close it, then copy PhotoGIMP into profile as above. %~dp0 is the folder the script is in, so it works whatever drive letter the stick gets. We verified GIMP3_DIRECTORY on Linux, and on Windows through GIMP Portable’s launcher, which uses the same setting (below). This exact script we have not run from a USB stick.

#PortableApps.com GIMP Portable: tested

GIMP Portable is a third-party package of GIMP from PortableApps.com. We downloaded GIMP Portable 3.2.6 Rev 3 (GIMPPortable_3.2.6_Rev_3.paf.exe), installed it with its own installer to C:\pa\GIMPPortable, and started it through GIMPPortable.exe on Windows Server 2025:

• The settings folder is GIMPPortable\Data\GimpAppData. The package’s launcher sets GIMP3_DIRECTORY to it (line GIMP3_DIRECTORY=%PAL:DataDir%\GimpAppData in its launcher settings), so there is no 3.2 sub-folder. %APPDATA%\GIMP stayed empty.
• Start it once first. The launcher fills Data from App\DefaultData. We started GIMP Portable once and closed it before copying anything, as with any GIMP.
• PhotoGIMP works there. We copied the contents of the zip’s 3.0 folder into Data\GimpAppData and applied the GIMP 3.2 fix. GIMP started with the Photoshop toolbox, and after two normal quits toolrc was still the fixed file (hashes).
• Not App\DefaultData. Some forum posts point there. It holds the starting files the launcher copies into Data on the first start, so changing it later has no effect.
• Use the installer. When we unpacked the .paf.exe with 7-Zip instead of running it, the launcher stopped with an “Integrity Failure Warning” and asked whether to start GIMP Portable in an unsupported state.

#Questions

Found something wrong or out of date? Tell us: hello@photogimp.org. We fix mistakes within a day.