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<h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a id="gimp-plugins"></a>8. Plugins</h2>
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<h3 class="title"><a id="id3315567"></a>8.1. Introduction</h3>
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<p>
One of the nicest things about Gimp is how easily its
functionality can be extended, by using plugins. Gimp plugins
are external programs that run under the control of the main
Gimp application and interact with it very closely. Plugins can
manipulate images in almost any way that users can. Their
advantage is that it is much easier to add a capability to Gimp
by writing a small plugin than by modifying the huge mass of
complex code that makes up the Gimp core. Many valuable
plugins have C source code that only comes to 100-200 lines or
so.
</p>
<p>
Several dozen plugins are included in the main Gimp
distribution, and installed automatically along with Gimp.
Most of them can be accessed through the
<span class="guimenu">Filters</span> menu (in fact, everything in that
menu is a plugin), but a number are located in other menus. In
many cases you can use one without ever realizing that it is a
plugin: for example, the "Normalize" function for automatic
color correction is actually a plugin, although there is nothing
about the way it works that would tell you this.
</p>
<p>
In addition to the plugins included with Gimp, many more are
available on the net. A large number can be found at the <a href="http://registry.gimp.org" target="_top">Gimp Plugin Registry</a>, a
web site whose purpose is to provide a central repository for
plugins. Creators of plugins can upload them there; users in
search of plugins for a specific purpose can search the site in
a variety of ways.
</p>
<p>
Anybody in the world can write a Gimp plugin and make it
available over the web, either via the Registry or a personal
web site, and many very valuable plugins can be obtained in this
way some are described elsewhere in the User's Manual. With
this freedom from constraint comes a certain degree of risk,
though: the fact that anybody can do it means that there is no
effective quality control. The plugins distributed with Gimp
have all been tested and tuned by the developers, but many that
you can download were just hacked together in a few hours and
then tossed to the winds. Some plugin creators just don't care
about robustness, and even for those who do, their ability to
test on a variety of systems in a variety of situations is often
quite limited. Basically, when you download a plugin, you are
getting something for free, and sometimes you get exactly what
you pay for. This is not said in an attempt to discourage you,
just to make sure you understand reality.
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<th align="left">Warning</th>
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<p>
Plugins, being full-fledged executable programs, can do
any of the things that any other program can do, including
install back-doors on your system or otherwise compromise its
security. Don't install a plugin unless it comes from a trusted
source.
</p>
</td>
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<p>
These caveats apply as much to the Plugin Registry as to any
other source of plugins. The Registry is available to any
plugin creator who wants to use it: there is no systematic
oversight. Obviously if the maintainers became aware that
something evil was there, they would remove it. (That hasn't
happened yet.) There is, however, for Gimp and its plugins the
same warranty as for any other free software: namely, none.
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<th align="left">Caution</th>
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<td colspan="2" align="left" valign="top">
<p>
Plugins have been a feature of Gimp for many versions. However,
plugins written for one version of Gimp can hardly ever be used
successfully with other versions. They need to be ported:
sometimes this is easy, sometimes not. Many plugins are
already available in several versions. Bottom line: before
trying to install a plugin, make sure that it is written for
your version of Gimp.
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