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Linux-focused digital painting hard fork of GIMP. Streamlined for artists, AI-assisted development.

A simple color chooser written in GTK3 (like gcolor2)

Artbox is powered by the GNU Image Manipulation Program open source project. It is an artist adjusted version, and is also open sourced.

The current version of Artbox has proven extremely reliable. It has handled hundreds of hours of complex work without a single crash, including large compositions and repeated plug-in use. This stability comes from many performance and reliability fixes applied over time.

Artbox can still be rebased onto the latest GIMP if required, but recent upstream changes have moved in directions that don’t fit Artbox’s focus. Reintroducing instability without clear benefit isn’t worthwhile.

Artbox will now remain as a stable, maintenance-only project. Updates will be limited to essential fixes or build adjustments when necessary.

Development will continue in a new project, starting from the current Artbox codebase as a hard fork. This new fork will have a new name and a more focused direction. Without the need to maintain a rebase, I can simplify development and use AI-assisted refactoring to turn it into a lean, specialized digital painting application. File formats will remain compatible with Artbox and GIMP.

I want to thank the GIMP developers for their long-standing work and commitment to open-source graphics software. Artbox exists because of their efforts, and future development will continue to draw from upstream GIMP patches when they align with the goals of stability, simplicity, and painting-focused design.