Indstillingsdialogen kan tilgås fra hovedmenuen via Redigér → Indstillinger. Det giver dig mulighed for at tilpasse mange aspekter af den måde, GIMP fungerer på. De følgende afsnit beskriver de indstillinger, du kan tilpasse, og hvad de påvirker.

All of the Preferences information is stored in a file called gimprc in your configuration folder, so if you are a “power user” who would rather work with a text editor than a graphical interface, you can alter preferences by editing that file. If you do, and you are on a Linux system, then man gimprc will give you a lot of technical information about the contents of the file and what they are used for.