How to install the Glimpse image editor on Linux
Glimpse is an open-source image editor for Linux, Mac OS, and Windows. It is a fork of the GIMP image editor. The primary reason for Glimpse’s existence is that many in the open-source software community find the name “GIMP” offensive, and feel that this name makes it difficult to recommend the project in a workplace or schooling environment. Another reason for the forking is that the Glimpse project feels that GIMP moves too slow and takes a long time to implement new features and ideas.
Getting the Glimpse image editor up and running on Linux is not as easy as GIMP. The reason is that Glimpse is not as well-known and not available in main mainstream Linux distribution software repositories.
In this guide, we’ll take you through the process of installing the Glimpse image editor on the system. Open up a terminal window and follow along with the installation process that corresponds with your Linux operating system!
Arch Linux installation instructions
Arch Linux is one of the few Linux distributions to offer up an installable package of the Glimpse image editor, rather than merely pointing users to the Flatpak or Snap package stores to get the app working.
The way to get Glimpse working on Arch Linux is through the Arch Linux User Repository, a website that Arch Linux users can use to submit their packages for other users, including this Glimpse package. To start the installation of Glimpse via the Arch Linux AUR, open up a terminal window and use the Pacman package management tool to install both the “Git” and “Base-devel” packages. The/etc/sources.listse packages are required to interact with the AUR.
sudo pacman -S git base-devel
Once you’ve set up both the “Git” and “Base-devel” packages on your Arch Linux PC, the next step of the installation for Glimpse can begin. Using the git clone program, download the latest snapshot of Trizen. Trizen is a helper application that makes building and installing Arch Linux User Repository much easier. Without it, you’d need to build and install every single dependency manually.
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/trizen.git
When the latest Trizen snapshot is done downloading to your Arch Linux PC, use the CD command to move into the folder.
cd trizen
Inside of the Trizen folder, make use of the makepkg command to install the app on your Arch Linux PC. The installation of Trizen should be very quick.
makepkg -sri
With the Trizen AUR tool installed on your Arch Linux PC, the installation of Glimpse can begin. Using the trizen -S command below, install the latest Glimpse on your Arch Linux PC.
Note: if you have issues with the Glimpse AUR package on your system, be sure to read the comments on this page for troubleshooting purposes.
trizen -S glimpse-editor-git
Flatpak installation instructions
The Glimpse image editor is available as an easy to install Flatpak application in the Flathub application store. This method is the preferred way of installing Glimpse, as there is no source code to compile. Additionally, Flatpaks are widely supported, and even the most obscure Linux operating systems have support for the format.
To start the installation of Glimpse via the Flathub app store, you must install the Flatpak runtime. To do this, open up a terminal window and search for the “flatpak” package. Once found, install it the way you typically install programs. By installing the “flatpak” package, your Linux PC will have support for Flatpak.
Note: are you having issues getting the Flatpak runtime up and running on your Linux PC? Don’t worry! We can help! Follow along with our in-depth guide all about how to set up Flatpak on Linux.
Once the Flatpak runtime is up and running on your Linux PC, it is time to add the Flathub app store software repository to the Flatpak runtime on your system. Using the flatpak remote-add command below, add Flathub to your Linux PC.
flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
After running the remote-add command, your Linux PC will have access to the Flathub app store. From here, installing Glimpse is one command away. Using the flatpak install command below, get the app installed.
sudo flatpak install org.glimpse_editor.Glimpse
Snap package installation instructions
Those who are not fans of the Flatpak format will be glad to know that it is also possible to get the Glimpse image editor installed via the Ubuntu Snap Store. To start the installation, open up a terminal window. Then, with the terminal window open, use your package manager to install the “snapd” package. Alternatively, follow our in-depth guide on how to set up the Snapd runtime on Linux.
When you’ve enabled the Snapd runtime on your Linux PC, the installation of Glimpse can begin. Using the snap install command below, get the app working.
sudo snap install glimpse
