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1 July 2012

Installing GAP for Gimp 2.8 on Windows

The first step is to find and download the installer. Next we will extract the files from the installer and manually install the files in the user directory. As Gimp 2.8 is backwards compatible with plug-ins we will use the 2.6 windows installer for GAP.

Gimp plug-ins can either be installed into the user directory or into the program's installation folder. Putting the files in the user directory would mean that they are only available to that individual user whereas installing into the program’s installation folder the plug-ins would mean that they are available to all users. Installing into the user directory folder also makes it easier to manage and identify plug-ins that have been installed by the user rather than plug-ins that are distributed with Gimp.

To install the plug-in into the user directory folder follow the instructions below. To install into the program’s installation folder in step 3 set the destination folder to the gimp 2 installation folder. The default location for this is noted below.

C:\Program Files\GIMP 2

If Gimp 2.8 wasn’t installed in the default location this will need to be adjusted.

 

Step 1 – Download the file 


Download GAP-2.6 for Gimp 2.6-Windows from the link below.
http://photocomix-resources.deviantart.com/art/GAP-2-6-for-Gimp-2-6-Windows-135464357
Make sure you download the zip file using the button on the right of the page and not the source code linked at bottom of the text.

Step 2 – Extract the files 

 

Extract the zip file to your desktop and navigate inside the GAP .2.6_win folder.
This folder contains 5 folders and a text file describing how to install GAP.
For now we need to look inside the GAP-installer folder, we will come back to the others later.

 

Step 3 – Run the installer 

 

Double click on the installer to run it. If a UAC (User account control) dialogue box appears select ‘yes’ to continue.
Select your language then run through the installer. When it comes to selecting the destination folder the installer will NOT auto-populate with a destination folder as it is the 2.6 installer so we will need to manually move the files into the plug-ins folder later.
For now create a new folder on the desktop (this is probably easiest but the folder could be created anywhere), select this as the destination folder and then click install.
Once it complete click finish. If a message about the program not installing properly pops up just click cancel.
Now inside the new folder you created on your desktop there should have been two folders, lib and share installed.
If you look through the lib folder you will see a folder structure like the one shown below:

lib>gimp>2.0>plug-ins 

And inside the plug-ins folder is a series of exe files. These are the plug-ins that we need to place inside the Gimp 2.8 plug-ins folder.
Now if you look through the lib folder you will see a folder structure like the one shown below:

share>gimp>2.0>scripts 

And inside the scripts folder are a couple of script files that we will need to place in the Gimp 2.8 scripts folder.

 

Step 4 – Manually place files in the plug-in folder

 

As said in the previous step the plug-in files need to be placed inside the Gimp 2.8 plug-ins folder. So where is this located? If you navigate to:

C:\Users\Yourusername 

With ‘yourusername’ replaced with your actual username e.g. C:\Users\Andrew

You will see that amongst the other files are two folders relating to Gimp, .gimp-2.6 and .gimp-2.8. The one that we are concerned with is of course the 2.8 folder. It can be located here:

C:\Users\Yourusername\.gimp-2.8

Inside this folder look for the plug-ins folder then copy and paste the files from the plug-ins folder created earlier and paste them here.
Make sure to only to paste the exe files and not the folders.
Also in the .gimp-2.8 folder where you found the plug-in folder is a scripts folder.
Copy and paste the scripts from the scripts folder created earlier and paste them here.
Next start Gimp, a message will be displayed ‘Querying new plug-ins’ and you may see a series of command windows flick up on the screen for a fraction of a second.
When Gimp has fully loaded there will be a video entry on the top toolbar where the new plug-ins can be accessed from indicating GAP has been installed successfully.
Check out the documentation in the zip file provided for information on how to use GAP.

 

Step 5 – Installing the other animation scripts/plug-ins (optional)

 

Along with the GAP plug-in photocomix has also included some extra animation scripts and plug-ins as well as some documentation and tutorials. These are not part of GAP but can be useful when animating using Gimp.

In the original extracted file are the folders, EXTRA_ANIMATION_SCRIPTS, EXTRA-AUDIO-support and EXTRA-plugin-Animated_Cursor. The EXTRA_ANIMATION_SCRIPTS can be installed by copying the contents to the user directory in the same way as we did with the GAP scripts.

C:\Users\Yourusername\.gimp-2.8\scripts 

The EXTRA-plugin-Animated_Cursor can be installed by copying the contents to the user directory in the same way as we did with the GAP plugins.

C:\Users\Yourusername\.gimp-2.8\plug-ins 

To install the EXTRA-AUDIO-support you will need to navigate to

C:\Program Files\GIMP 2\bin 

And paste the files there.

68 comments:

  1. THIS WAS AWESOME, SO MANY THANKS.

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  2. Worked first time, many thanks.

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  3. I've been searching for this.It worked :)
    Thank You!

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  4. Thanks...I had to "move" the files rather than copy and paste??? I was getting shortcuts when I used copy and paste. Maybe windows 8?

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  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  6. when I click video the only drop down say "duplicate continue" have i done something wrong?

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    1. Nevermind, i reinstaled GIMP and GAP and it works now, thankyou c:

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  7. The link you post is there, but the link they give us to download is no longer existent, rendering this page completely and totally useless.

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    1. Indeed. I'm not finding this anywhere on the net. Anyone know of an alternate download location? ...maybe just send it to me...?!

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    2. I have updated the article slightly. I think that you may have been clicking the link at the bottom of the text rather than the link to the zip file on the right as this one still seems to be working. If not try pasting this link directly into your browser to download the file: http://www.deviantart.com/download/135464357/GAP_2_6_for_Gimp_2_6_Windows_by_photocomix_resources.zip?token=636f5b89c0d0c037a51226991573838fa41e5506&ts=1368973353

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    3. I have the same problem but i used the link with the zip file and did everything as said but it still says 'duplicate continue'

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  8. Thank you! Super helpful.

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  9. Thank you. Solved a nightmare.

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  10. Hi there, first of all, thanks, this helps me a lot.
    I have a problem when I make a gif, do you know how to fix this http://i.imgur.com/5aFGAJ9.png? Thanks before :)

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  11. SUPER helpful, thank you! I've been trying to install GAP for an hour now and almost gave up when I found your instructions! Many thanks!

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  12. i got to part where i need to open the lib file, but im lost at needing to find the 'share>gimp>2.0>scripts' part, i have no idea what that is, or how to find it, so now im lost and dont know how to finish installing it

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  13. Finally, someone on this topic that has helpful info, Thanks!

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  14. Thank you for sharing this ^^
    But I'm having some problems installing GAP to GIMP. I really didn't know what I did wrong cause I've followed all of your instructions and the "video" thingy that should show up besides filter didn't show up. :(

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  15. Thank you for this! I managed to install GAP, however when I try to open an MP4 file it keeps saying GIMP can't recognize the file. What could be wrong?

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  16. Thank you for this. This was truly a pain in the neck until I found your article.

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  17. Thank you so much for this article!

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  18. I had the devil of a time getting this to work before I stumbled onto this tutorial. However, I realized as I was reading this there was no need to go through the copying of files into GIMP's folders. It was when on Step 4 the author said "Make sure to only to paste the exe files and not the folders." I gave myself a much needed facepalm, realizing what I was doing wrong.

    Follow steps 1-3. When you get to step:

    4) navigate to the newly created directory with the lib and share folders. Depending on where you installed it path should look something like ...\lib\gimp\2.0\plug-ins. Copy the entire path of the plug-ins folder that was created when you installed Gap for Gimp.

    5) Open up GIMP itself. Click on "Edit" to open up its menu on the menu bar. Select "Preferences." When the Preferences window pops up scroll down to the last option on the left hand side that says "Folders." To the left of "Folders" there's a little triangle pointing to the right. Click on it and more than a dozen options open up. Click on "Plug-Ins." The "Plug-In Folders" window opens up to the right. Out of the four buttons at the top of that window click on the leftmost button to create a new path. Copy the full path containing the "\lib\gimp\2.0\plug-ins" that you copied in step 4) and paste into the path box. Press Ok. Close and reopen GIMP. Your plug-ins will now load when you reload GIMP. Wash, rinse, repeat with and Scripts you want to install.

    Anybody know how to get GIMP to look inside the folders? If so, this wouldn't even be necessary.

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  19. I did everything you directed me to, but when I tried to open up gimp in the end, this came up:
    http://i.imgur.com/fOGveZ3.jpg

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    2. Hi Teresa, did you solve this problem?
      Tks

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  20. Excellent! We all know how rarely the crap we find on the ethertubes is actually helpful. This showed up on my first Google Search results and worked like a charm the very first time. Brilliant.

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  21. I just want to join your many fans in thanking you for this excellent site. Very very helpful!

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  22. Very helpful tutorial, thanks!

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  23. Help, everything seems to have worked, I think. Only now, when Gimp is going through it's start up, I get the following. "The procedure entry point gimp_drawable_getthumbnail could not be located in the dynamic library libgimpui-2.0-0.dll.

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    Replies
    1. Hi there,

      I'm getting this as well. Did you find a way to resolve?

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  24. Ok so basically I do exactly what I'm supposed to do and move all the files to the right folders but when i try to open gimp it says "so and so" plug in has stopped working, and that windows has to close it so after about 50 of those notices come up gimp finally opens with the video tab but with only "duplicate continue" and I can't even click that so.. I guess you can say I'm pretty frustrated. I've uninstalled gap and gimp like 5 times each and it still won't work. What's making it not work?

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  25. Great post. Just what I was hoping for. Thanks a lot!!

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  26. I did exactly everything you said but when i open 'video' it says 'duplicate continue' why?

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  27. Seems to be working fine, although I am getting error from one of the additional plugins (optional step) ani.exe, something about gimp_drawable_get thumb not being located in libgimpgui-2.0-0.dll. Thanks man!

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  28. This is exactly what I needed, thanks.
    Though I'm getting the same error as Bart Fischer when Gimp opens after placing ani.exe in the plug-ins folder.

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  29. Yay! Thank you for making this so easy! Everything works perfectly, except when I start gimp, the ani.exe application doesn't work. Something about an entry point not being found? No idea what that means. :P
    But everything else works flawlessly. ^^

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  30. Andrew, thanks for making this process so easy for me. I tried several other ways to try and install GAP and then finally I came upon this blog: I was about to give up. Thanks again!
    Alfred Calleja - Australia

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  31. Hi! Thank you so much for the detailed explanation! I was wondering if this happened to anyone else: I'm fine up until the "querying new plugins" slide shown in Step 4. I get a notification saying the application was unable to start correctly, and then GIMP startup skips straight to installing extensions. Can anyone help? Thank you so much, it's really appreciated!

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  32. Typo? Shouldn't lib folder be share folder?

    "Now if you look through the lib folder you will see a folder structure like the one shown below:

    share>gimp>2.0>scripts"

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  33. thats was very very great...it worked perfectly for me...thumbs up

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  34. if you have just installed Gimp, and did not launched it yet, you can't find this folder:
    C:\Users\Yourusername\.gimp-2.8
    So, simply launch gimp once and exit from that.

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  35. Okay hi I don't know if you're still replying to this or not, but can you give similar instructions for installing gap for gimp on Mac?

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  36. I cannot find how to place the TUTORIAL_doc. When I open GIMP now I get s25.postimg.org/pgzulmpe7/this_went_wrong_so_now_try_to_install_it.png so it did not install correctly. What folder it TUTORIAL_doc in so I can manually place it. I'm Win10.

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. Hi Jem, did you solve the problem causing error when you open Gimp?

      Tks

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  37. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  38. is there any another gap software beside this, im looking for it for my assignment, but never got it.

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  39. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  40. hi everytime i want to export a gif that i made it keeps crashing what can i do

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  41. hi everytime i want to export a gif that i made it keeps crashing what can i do

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  42. Crashes as soon as I try to export here as well.

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  43. Hi, I have everything installed as indicated but when I want to extract the video I get an error message "Execution error for procedure 'gimp-file-load': Unknown file type" What can I do for to fix this?

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  44. Thank you! I got Video into the GIMP menu... lets see how it works now :)

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  45. Thank you so much!! This is really helpful and very straightforward.

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  46. You did what Gimp.org and deviantart failed to do

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  47. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  48. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  49. Thanks so much! Relatively easy to do and worked like a charm first shot. Thanks again!

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