How To › Software How to Install GIMP Themes Change the look and feel of GIMP Share Pin Email Print Software Graphic Design Documents Spreadsheets Presentations Desktop Publishing Databases Animation & Video By Sue Chastain Writer Sue Chastain is a former Lifewire writer and a graphics software authority with web design and print publishing credentials. She's also skilled in WordPress administration. our editorial process LinkedIn Sue Chastain Updated October 07, 2019 24 24 people found this article helpful Themes can be applied to the GIMP image editor to change the look of the whole program. Changing the GIMP theme is done through the Edit > Preferences window, in the Interface > Theme area. Menus and functionality will not change but the new appearance will provide a fresh look, and might even help spark some creativity or make editing easier. Some GIMP themes are made to change the color of the interface, and others are intended to mimic other programs like Adobe Photoshop. However, only a few themes are included with GIMP by default, and the official GIMP website does not provide theme downloads. If you can't find the theme you want with an online search, try looking through Gnome-look.org or GitHub. Extract the Theme Files GIMP themes contain multiple files, so they're always downloaded in an archive, often a ZIP file. You have to extract the contents from the archive before you can apply the theme to GIMP. Locate the archive on your computer. Select the file, and press Extract at the top of the window. Then choose Extract All just below. Choose where to extract the files, and then press Extract. Copy the Theme Folder to GIMP's Installation Folder With the GIMP theme extracted from its archive and ready to be used, it has to be copied to the correct folder within the GIMP installation directory so that the program will recognize it when it's time to select a theme. Copy the folder that was extracted. For example, if the files were extracted to a folder called gimp-dark, right-click it and select Copy. Because of how some themes are packaged, Windows might create one folder titled the name of the theme, and another folder inside of it that goes by the same name (e.g., a gimp-dark folder inside of another folder called gimp-dark). Copy the innermost folder, the one "closest" to the files. Open the GIMP themes folder. On Windows, the folder is located here: C:\Program Files\GIMP 2\share\gimp\themes\. On Mac, you can find it at: /Users/your-username/Library/GIMP/2.10/themes Linux users can find it at: ~/.config/GIMP/2.10/themes Right-click the empty space in the folder and choose Paste.Extract If Windows prompts you to provide credentials for an administrator's account, click Continue. Switch to a Different Theme in GIMP GIMP themes are listed in the Theme section of GIMP's preferences. It's there that you can pick any installed theme to apply to the program. Close and reopen GIMP if it was open during the previous steps. Having the program remain active during the copy/paste procedure prevents it from showing themes in the settings. Select Edit in the menu bar. Pick Preferences from the menu. Choose Theme from the left panel, directly under the Interface heading. Select the theme you want to use with GIMP. Themes populate automatically, so you can click through the list to see how each of them makes the program appear. Press OK. Continue Reading