GIMP 3 AI Plugins

A collection of Python-based AI plugins for GIMP 3 (GNU Image Manipulation Program), using the GIMP 3 Python API via PyGObject introspection.

Plugins

Plugin	What it does	How it works	Dependencies
Background Remove (bgremove/)	Removes backgrounds from images using AI	Exports layer → runs backgroundremover CLI → imports result as new transparent layer	backgroundremover (PyPI)
AI Upscale (upscale/)	Upscales images 4× using AI upscalers	Exports layer → runs PyTorch upscaler (3 backends) → imports result as new upscaled layer	torch, pillow, image_gen_aux / diffusers
AI Edit (aiedit/)	Edits images using text prompts via a diffusion model and vision LLM	Exports layer → runs sd-cli with a diffusion GGUF model + vision LLM → imports edited result as new layer	sd-cli (stable-diffusion.cpp), diffusion GGUF, vision LLM GGUF, VAE
SD Server (sd-server/)	Generates/edits images via stable-diffusion.cpp server API	Connects to sd-server HTTP API; supports txt2img, img2img, and Kontext/Boogu-style reference editing	sd-server (stable-diffusion.cpp), requests
Test Plugin (test_plugin/)	Minimal skeleton plugin	Hello-world GIMP 3 Gimp.PlugIn subclass	—

Security

Arbitrary command execution. Plugins for most applications can run any commands. This is not new. Open source relies on the community to find and fix bugs and exploits. You should always review new source code or test in a sandbox.

Don't download from untrusted places. The official locaiton for these plugins is https://github.com/themanyone/gimp-plugins

Requirements

• GIMP 3.0+ — these plugins use the GIMP 3 Python API (gi.require_version('Gimp', '3.0'))
• Python 3 — GIMP 3 ships with its own Python environment
• CUDA-capable GPU — strongly recommended for the upscale, image edit plugins.

Installation

Installer. The install.py installer (experimental) will attempt to install missing dependencies and put things in the right places. If something is not right, check Manual Install steps below & report issues.

3. Restart GIMP

After restart, plugins appear in the GIMP menus:

• AI Image: File → Create → AI Image...
• Background Remove: Filters → AI → Remove Background...
• AI Upscale: Filters → AI → Upscale...
• AI Edit: Filters → AI → AI Edit...
• SD Server: Filters → AI → SD Server...

Keyboard Shortcuts. Go to Edit -> Keyboard Shortcuts and type the name of the plugin.

Manual Install

Developers & power users may want fine-grained control & knowledge of install locations here:

AI Edit

The AI Edit plugin uses sd-cli from stable-diffusion.cpp (not a Python package). See aiedit/README.md for model downloads and setup.

Others. Other plugins have their own Python dependencies. The installer will attempt to install these dependencies with pip.

# For Background Remove
pip install backgroundremover

# For AI Upscale
pip install image_gen_aux diffusers torch pillow

# For SD Server
pip install requests

2. Place plugins in GIMP's plug-ins directory

The installer looks for the highest-numbered GIMP/xx.x/plug-ins directory. Install whichever plugins you need. If you have sd-server running, you might be able to get by with just bgremove and sd-server plugins.

git clone https://github.com/themanyone/gimp-plugins.git
cd gimp-plugins
ln -srf bgremove ~/.config/GIMP/3.2/plug-ins/
ln -srf sd-server ~/.config/GIMP/3.2/plug-ins/
# install additional plugins the same way

Plugin architecture

Every plugin follows the same pattern:

export layer as temp PNG → process (CLI or ML) → load result → new layer → copy pixels

See AGENTS.md for the full architecture guide and development notes.

SD Server

The SD Server plugin connects to a running sd-server instance from stable-diffusion.cpp via its HTTP API. It supports:

• txt2img — generate new images from a text prompt
• img2img — edit the current layer using a diffusion model
• Reference-based editing — Kontext, Boogu, Z-Image models (uses extra_images for reference conditioning)

Start the server first, then use the plugin from GIMP:

sd-server --diffusion-model path/to/model.gguf --vae path/to/vae.safetensors \
  --llm path/to/llm.gguf --llm_vision path/to/mmproj.gguf \
  --diffusion-fa --offload-to-cpu -v

The plugin auto-detects the loaded model and available features via /sdcpp/v1/capabilities. The model name is shown in the dialog.

API Compatibility. Works with many servers that implement the stable-diffusion API:

Endpoint	Purpose
/sdapi/v1/txt2img	Text-to-image generation
/sdapi/v1/img2img	Image-to-image / reference editing
/sdcpp/v1/capabilities	Model & feature detection

OpenAI-compatible servers. The plugin can also connect to any OpenAI-compatible /v1/images/generations endpoint (not just sd-server) — just point the Server URL field to any compatible API.

Background Remove

• This works with existing tools.
• Let's assume you have installed backgroundremover.

Don't want to use backgroundremover?

• Install any old command-line AI tool to remove backgrounds from images.
• You can use pip install rembg for example.
• Edit bgremove/bgremove.py and modify the command list to use a different CLI tool (e.g., rembg instead of backgroundremover).

AI Upscale

Try small images first. Then try 1024x1024 pixels to upscale to 4K resolution. Larger images will take a lot longer. And without enough VRAM upscale will fail.

The Upscale plugin prompts you to choose an AI model when you use the plugin in Gimp. And it allows you to save preferences. Models are downloaded automatically, so it might take some time to upscale your first image.

It is not necessary to edit upscale/upscale.py to:

• Change DEFAULT_MODEL or any key in MODEL_CONFIGS
• Add new upscaling models with appropriate config
• Tune inference parameters (tile_size, steps, noise_level, etc.) ...but you can!

AI Image

The aiimage plugin calls sd-cli from the command line. It's a bit more complicated to use. But it offers more flexibility and of course it doesn't require a server. Fomd the AI Image dialog under File -> Create.

Edit aiimage.py and set MODELS_PATH to where your models are. Or just enter the full path to each model into the dialog at runtime and save preferences. We are reusing our ComfyUI models but yours will be somewhere else.

Z Image Turbo.

Z Image Turbo is for fast image generation in 4-6 steps. We can't wait for a Z Image Edit model. Enter default model locations into aiimage/aiimage.py, or enter them into the dialog at runtime. Try small images first.

DEFAULT_DIFFUSION_MODEL = MODELS_PATH + "/diffusion_models/z-image-turbo-Q5_K_M.gguf"
DEFAULT_LLM = MODELS_PATH + "/text_encoders/qwen_3_4b.safetensors"
DEFAULT_LLM_VISION = ""
DEFAULT_VAE = MODELS_PATH + "/vae/ae.safetensors"

AI Edit models may also be used.

AI Edit

Like aiimage the aiedit plugin calls sd-cli from the command line. Find the AI Edit plugin under Filters -> AI.

Scale images down to 256x256 or lower for testing AI Edit. Editing large images takes longer. Default model paths may be edited into the top of aiedit/aiedit.py or enter the paths into the dialog at run time.

Boogu Edit.

This is a Kontext model. Kontext mode should be set automatically, and Guidance will be set to 0.0. You can change them but it is not recommended. You can also create new images with these. This model has worked well for adding characters and text to images.

DEFAULT_DIFFUSION_MODEL = MODELS_PATH + "/diffusion_models/boogu-edit-dit-Q4_0.gguf"
DEFAULT_LLM = LLM_PATH + "/Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct-UD-IQ3_XXS.gguf"
DEFAULT_LLM_VISION = LLM_PATH + "/mmproj-F16.gguf"
DEFAULT_VAE = MODELS_PATH + "/vae/ae.safetensors"

Flux 2 Klein.

This is an older & smaller img2img model. But it should work. Img2img mode should be set, and Guidance set to 3.5. Download these models and enter their locations into the image editing dialog and save it.

diffusion model: flux-2-klein-4b-Q4_K_S.gguf
clip_l: clip_l.safetensors
llm: Qwen3-4B-Instruct-2507-UD-Q4_K_XL.gguf
vae: flux2-vae.safetensors"

Customizing.

Presets are saved in ~/.config/gimp-plugins/aiedit/presets.json but you can load, save, and rename settings at runtime. You may also modify these plugins to show different defaults if you want.

License

This software is Copyright (2026) by Henry Kroll III (@themanyone) under GNU General Public License v3.0

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
[GNU General Public License](LICENSE) for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program.  If not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

For any other uses, contact the author.

Author

Henry Kroll III (@themanyone)

Thanks for trying out gimp-plugins!

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