How to Install a DDS Plugin for GIMP (9 Steps)

By Andrea Helaine

DDS is a file format created by Microsoft for use in their Direct X SDK (Software Development Kit.) Direct X provides a library to standardize and ease the development of 3D applications, such as games. GIMP is a free image manipulation software similar to Photoshop. GIMP cannot create or open DDS files by default. You need the gimp-DDS plugin to do so.

Step 1

Close GIMP if you have it open.

Step 2

Go to the Gimp-DDS plug in website.

Step 3

Click on the "Gimp-dds-win32-2.0.9.zip" link under the "Featured" section on the left of the page.

Step 4

Save the file to your desktop.

Step 5

Go to the "Start" menu and select "Computer."

Step 6

Navigate to "Local Disk C:" then "Program Files" or Program Files X86" if you have a 64bits operating system.

Step 7

Go to "GIMP-2.0," then "lib," then "gimp," then "2.0," and finally "plug-ins."

Step 8

Double click on the " gimp-dds-win32-2.0.9.zip" file you downloaded and drag and drop the "dds.exe" file to the "plug-ins" folder.

Step 9

Reopen GIMP to be able to open DDS files.

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