GIMP Contact Sheet plug-in: professional results in seconds

Key points

• The Contact Sheet plug-in for GIMP 3 automates contact sheet generation with professional-grade quality control including selectable resolution, color profiles, and bit depth
• Sticky settings and unlimited configuration files eliminate repetitive setup, letting you switch instantly between different project requirements
• Automated thumbnail generation and grid layout free you from tedious manual work, so you can focus on image selection and editing
• Free and open source with no subscription or licensing fees

Creating contact sheets in GIMP: professional quality made simple

Key capabilities at a glance

The Contact Sheet plug-in transforms tedious manual layout work into a streamlined, automated process.

Print-ready quality control

One-click automation

Professional presentation

Designed for professionals, simple for everyone

Workflow efficiency

Advanced capabilities with intuitive controls that don’t require GIMP expertise.

Until now, GIMP 3 had no contact sheet solution

GIMP 3 offers powerful image editing capabilities. But creating a contact sheet in GIMP has required a completely manual approach: open each image individually, scale it to thumbnail size, position it precisely on a canvas, adjust spacing, add captions, and repeat this process 50, 100, or 200+ times. For a typical shoot with 300 images, this manual workflow can consume hours of mind-numbing repetitive work.

A basic script existed for GIMP 2.10. But it hasn’t been actively maintained in years.

Professional photographers, illustrators, and designers need automation that doesn’t sacrifice quality and control. They need print-ready output with precise colour management, flexible layouts that adapt to different projects, and reliable tools that integrate seamlessly into their existing GIMP workflows. Until now, that solution didn’t exist for GIMP 3.

Digital contact sheets: from darkroom to digital workflow

Contact sheets originated in film photography darkrooms. Film photographers place negatives directly on photographic paper and expose them to create a sheet showing every frame from a roll of film. This provides a quick visual reference for selecting images to print. It also serves as an archival record of the shoot.

Digital contact sheets serve the same purposes but with enhanced capabilities and multi-purpose flexibility. In digital workflows, contact sheets function as efficient visual databases for shot selection, client proof delivery via email or web galleries, portfolio reviews, and archival documentation. And they offer much easier image-selection control: you can click to cull the images to include.

For print workflows, digital contact sheets become physical client presentations, high-quality proof books, studio reference materials, and permanent archival records. Printed contact sheets support in-person client meetings, portfolio presentations, and studio organization systems where physical references remain valuable.

How to create a GIMP contact sheet in 3 steps

The Contact Sheet plug-in reduces contact sheet creation to the simplest workflow:

Step 1: Select your images

Click the file selection button and choose images from your file system using the plug-in’s dialog. Multi-select dozens or hundreds of images at once. Or individual files across different folders.

Step 2: Click OK

If your sheet formatting settings are already configured, that’s all you need to do. The plug-in handles thumbnail generation, layout calculation, and image assembly automatically.

Step 3: Done

GIMP opens a new image containing your formatted contact sheet, ready for sending or printing.

A major efficiency comes from the sticky settings system. Configure your preferred layout, resolution, color profile, font, and caption style once. Those settings persist between GIMP sessions indefinitely. Every future contact sheet uses your selected preferences automatically.

For photographers managing multiple project types, the plug-in supports saving and loading unlimited configuration files. Some examples:

• “Wedding Proofs” with 72 DPI sRGB output for email delivery
• “Product Catalog” with 300 DPI Adobe RGB for print catalogs
• “Portfolio Review” with custom caption formatting for portfolio presentations

Switch between completely different contact sheet configurations in a couple of clicks.

Diving into the GIMP contact sheet plug-in

Let’s take a tour through the plug-in, from sheet formatting controls to image selection and presentation.

Main plug-in window: sheet formatting controls

The main plug-in window provides comprehensive control over every aspect of contact sheet appearance and output quality.

Document design defines the sheets themselves

Paper size in cm or inches, margins, resolution, and background colour.

Layout controls define the grid structure

Specify row and column counts for custom grid dimensions. Thumbnail sizing adapts dynamically to fit your specified grid within the output dimensions. Spacing (horizontal and vertical gap width) provides precise control over blank space between images.

Colour settings ensure print-ready results

Colour mode determines whether the contact sheet is in colour or black and white/greyscale. Bit depth options (8-bit for standard work, 16-bit for maximum tonal range) match your print specifications. Color profile selection includes sRGB for digital delivery and web use, Adobe RGB for professional print workflows, and CMYK profiles.

Caption customization

Font selection lists all installed system fonts. Also, you can choose font size and colour.

Every setting configured in this window saves automatically. Close GIMP, return tomorrow, and your preferences are exactly as you left them. No re-configuration, no lost settings, just immediate productivity.

File selection

The file selection dialog lets you choose which images appear in your contact sheet. Navigate folders, check boxes next to files and folders you want to include, and the plug-in remembers your selections as you browse.

• Checkbox selection: click checkboxes next to individual files or entire folders.
• Location dropdown: jump quickly to common folders like Pictures, Documents, or Desktop.
• Current folder display: shows where you are and counts selected files in real-time.
• Deselect all: clear all selections if you want to start over.

How to select files:

1. Navigate to a folder using the location dropdown or by opening folders in the tree.
2. Check boxes next to image files you want to include.
3. To include all images in a folder, check the folder itself.
4. Browse to other folders. Your selections persist across navigation.
5. Click OK when finished, or Deselect all to clear and start over.

The interface displays file and folder listings appropriate to your operating system. Selections accumulate as you navigate, so you can gather images from multiple locations before generating your contact sheet. The selected file count updates immediately as you check and uncheck items, keeping you informed of how many images you’ve chosen.

Info dialog: helpful tips and known issues

The Info dialog is as a built-in reference guide, with essential troubleshooting information and practical tips for working with the plug-in. Access it from the main plug-in window to find answers to common questions and solutions to potential issues:

Settings dialog: plug-in functionality configuration

The Settings dialog manages plug-in behavior and functionality, distinct from sheet formatting settings configured in the main window.

Version 1.0 includes the “Check for update” button to ensure access to the latest features and fixes. This manual check respects user preferences about automatic network connections and plug-in behavior. Also, the plug-in automatically checks for updates once a week. If you don’t want that automatic update check, untick “Automatically check for updates weekly”.

Version 2.0 roadmap will expand the Settings dialog with additional functionality controls. Exactly what those settings should be is under evaluation. Customisable contact sheet titles? Copyright notices? Include metadata in captions? What settings would improve your contact sheet workflow? Suggestions are most welcome. Feature requests drive development priorities.

Why switch from Photoshop’s Contact Sheet II

Photoshop users accustomed to the Contact Sheet II script will immediately feel at home in GIMP Contact Sheet plug-in. It offers the same functionality in a friendlier and easier to use format.

And of course, Photoshop’s Contact Sheet II requires a pricey Adobe Creative Cloud subscription. The GIMP Contact Sheet plug-in is free and open source, with no licensing costs, subscription fees, or usage limitations.

Professional use cases for GIMP contact sheets

Automated, professional-quality contact sheet generation delivers immediate value for photographers, illustrators, designers … indeed, any visual creative.

See my blog post about contact sheets generally.

What languages is the plug-in available in?

This plug-in contact sheets in GIMP 3 is available in the following languages. You don’t have to do anything to see it in your language. GIMP will automatically load the correct version of the plug-in (provided you follow the installation instructions below).

If you have any suggestions to improve those translations, please leave a comment below.

install the GIMP Contact Sheet plug-in

How to install

This plug-in is supported on Linux and Windows. It may work on the latest versions of macOS. The plug-in only works with GIMP 3. It does not work in GIMP 2.

If you want to be notified of any updates to this plug-in, please leave a comment below. I’ll use your email to notify you. And if you have any suggestions for enhancements, please also include them in a comment below.

If you run into any problems with any of the steps below, please let me know in the comments below.

1. Download the plug-in

Download the Contact Sheet plug-in as a ZIP file. You’ll extract it as described below in the next section:

contact-sheet-v3.zip

2. Copy the downloaded file to where GIMP looks for plug-ins

This is something you have to do for every plug-in you add to GIMP 3.

Find where GIMP looks for plug-ins:

1. Open GIMP if it’s not already open and select Edit > Preferences in the GIMP menu.
2. In the Preferences dialog, scroll down the list on the left until you find Folders, then click on the expand icon in front of the word to expand that list.
3. Scroll down the list of folders and select Plug-ins.
4. Still in the Preferences dialog, on the Plug-in Folders panel on the right, to locate your plug-in folder(s). You can use the folder that’s listed for your user name or add a new one.
5. Click on the “Show file location in the file manager” to open your computer’s file manager.
6. Copy the .ZIP file you downloaded into that folder and extract it there. You should see a subfolder named “contact-sheet-v3”. The plug-in is inside that folder (see the note below for why it should be in its own subfolder). Don’t move it, just leave it in that subfolder.
7. Files downloaded from the internet or transferred across systems may not retain their “executable” flag, especially on UNIX-based systems like Linux. Windows 11 treats plug-in .py files as executable automatically. The .py file needs the correct permission to be executed as a script. It’s a quirk of the different operating systems’ security models.
   • Linux:
     You should be able to right click on the .py file and set the permission to allow it as an executable (see below for an example screenshot). Or you could set it in your Terminal app with the command chmod +x [PATH TO WHERE YOU EXTRACTED THE PLUG-IN FOLDER]/contact-sheet-v3/contact-sheet-v3.py. For example, with GIMP 3 I extracted the plug-in folder into a subfolder of Documents, so the command would be chmod +x "Documents/GIMP plug-ins/contact-sheet-v3/contact-sheet-v3.py".
   • macOS:
     You may be able to right click on the .py file and set the permission to allow it as an executable (see below for an example screenshot). Otherwise, follow these instructions from Apple.

There are two files in the contact-sheet-v3 folder that need to be marked as executable: contact-sheet-v3.py and helpers.py. Do not mark any other files in that folder as executable.

3. Register the plug-in with GIMP

Now you have to register the plug-in with GIMP: just close and re-open GIMP.

If all has gone according to plan, you should find a menu entry called Layer > Mask > Mask blur (Gaussian). If not, please leave a comment below.

4. Optional: create a keyboard shortcut

If you want to assign a keyboard shortcut to a luminosity mask menu item, go right ahead:

These instructions are the same as for my other GIMP plug-ins (Interactive luminosity masks, Frequency separation, Dodge and burn …). Only the plug-in names are changed.

Why it’s important to follow these steps

GIMP version 3.x requires that every plug-in must live in a folder with exactly the same name as the plug-in file. So for example, you add the subfolder where you’ve saved the plug-in file to the list of folders where GIMP looks for plug-ins, and that folder needs to be named exactly the same as the plug-in with that subfolder.

So for this situation, when you unzip the plug-in download, you should see a folder named “contact-sheet-v3” and that folder should contain a file, “contact-sheet-v3.py”. There will be other folders and files in that folder. Except for helpers.py (which you may need to mark as executable), leave all those other files alone.

This is an example of how working with free software isn’t entirely free—you have to do some of the work that other systems automate, and put your thinking cap on. Bear in mind that GIMP is developed and maintained by volunteers who donate their time and talents as and when they can. So sometimes documentation lags behind development.

Key takeaways

• The Contact Sheet plug-in reduces hours of manual work to a 30-second automated process
• Print-ready output with proper color profile management
• Sticky settings remember your formatting preferences
• Free and open source with no subscription or licensing fees