GIMP is one of the most popular Photoshop alternatives. It’s open-source, lightweight and offers a lot of useful features. However, not all of them are available by default. To use GIMP to its full extent, you need to install gimp plugins. Today, I am going to talk about GIMP DDS plugin and will also explain the procedure to download and install them.
There are varieties of GIMP plugins available for different purposes. But finding and installing them is not everyone’s cup of tea. This is because many of them are outdated and doesn’t work as expected. So, first, let’s have a look at how to install GIMP DDS plugin.
How to Install GIMP DDS Plugin
After the removal of the GIMP Registry, finding a good and working plugin became a tedious task. There are various GIMP plugins which were very popular at a time but now being discontinued and not receiving any updates. But no worries, we have got you covered.
GIMP doesn’t support DDS file format by default. To work with Direct Draw Surface (DDS) files, you have to install a GIMP DDS plugin first. Just follow the steps below to learn how to download and install GIMP DDS plugin.
Note: I have tested this plugin on GIMP 2.8, it was working fine. But it may cause some issues with other versions.
1. Download the GIMP DDS Plugin
Just follow this link to download the required DDS plugin. The plugin hasn’t been updated after 2013 but works fine in most of the cases. Just choose the version according to your operating system (32 bit or 64 bit) and save the file.
2. Go to GIMP Plugin Folder
First of all, open This PC or My Computer (if you are running an older version of Windows). Navigate to Local Disk C -> Program Files (x86) -> GIMP 2.0 -> lib -> gimp -> 2.0 -> plug-ins.
Just verify one more time that you are in the right folder before moving to the next step.
3. Move the Downloaded File to GIMP Plug-ins Folder
Now, go the folder where you’ve downloaded the GIMP DDS plugin in the first step, unzip it and copy the dds.exe file to the GIMP plug-ins folder.
Once it’s done, you should be able to open DDS files on GIMP. If for some reason, it didn’t work. Just use the installer came with the file and follow the instructions.
Ending Words
That’s it for this article. I hope you have installed the GIMP DDS plugin successfully. If you use GIMP very often, just keep a copy of useful plugins before they disappear from the Internet. If you compare Photoshop vs GIMP, you’ll find GIMP is not as user-friendly as Photoshop, but it’s free and does most of the essentials tasks without any issue, so there’s no point in complaining.
This just simply doesn’t work anymore as the DDS plugin that’s downloaded from the Google Code Archive was last updated in 2013. GIMP is a great, but there’s no support for the DDS plugin as of 12/2021.