GIMP TEX Plugin

Open and export League of Legends .tex texture files in GIMP. Works on GIMP 2.x and 3.x, Windows, Linux, and macOS.

Open and export League of Legends .tex texture files in GIMP. Made by Frog.

Works with GIMP 2.x and GIMP 3.x on Windows, Linux, and macOS.

Download: github.com/RitoShark/Gimp-Tex-Plugin/releases

What you need before you start

GIMP 2.10 or GIMP 3.x installed
A .tex file to test with (any League texture works)

Install with the installer (Windows)

Download GIMP_TEX_Plugin_Setup.exe from the latest release.
Run the installer. It auto-detects your GIMP version.
Follow the prompts and click Install.
Restart GIMP if it was open.

The plugin is ready when GIMP shows .tex as a supported format under File > Open.

Install manually (GIMP 3.x)

Use this if you're on Linux, macOS, or you prefer not to run the installer.

Download the GIMP 3 zip for your OS from the latest release.

Extract it into a folder called gimp3_tex_plugin inside your GIMP plug-ins directory:

Platform	Plug-ins directory
Windows	`%APPDATA%\GIMP\<version>\plug-ins\gimp3_tex_plugin\`
Linux	`~/.config/GIMP/<version>/plug-ins/gimp3_tex_plugin/`
Linux (Flatpak)	`~/.var/app/org.gimp.GIMP/config/GIMP/<version>/plug-ins/gimp3_tex_plugin/`
macOS	`~/Library/Application Support/GIMP/<version>/plug-ins/gimp3_tex_plugin/`

Restart GIMP.

If the plugin doesn't show up, run chmod +x gimp3_tex_plugin.py in the folder you extracted.

Install manually (GIMP 2.x)

Download the GIMP 2 zip for your OS from the latest release.

Extract it into your GIMP plug-ins directory. This puts gimp2_tex_plugin.py directly in plug-ins/ and the shared files in plug-ins/gimp2_tex_libs/.

Platform	Plug-ins directory
Windows	`%APPDATA%\GIMP\<version>\plug-ins\`
Linux	`~/.config/GIMP/<version>/plug-ins/`
Linux (Flatpak)	`~/.var/app/org.gimp.GIMP/config/GIMP/<version>/plug-ins/`
macOS	`~/Library/Application Support/GIMP/<version>/plug-ins/`

Restart GIMP.

If the plugin doesn't show up, run chmod +x gimp2_tex_plugin.py.

Info

Not sure where your plug-ins directory is? In GIMP, open Edit > Preferences > Folders > Plug-Ins.

Open a `.tex` file

Open it from File > Open and pick your .tex file.
Or drag and drop a .tex file into GIMP.

Export as `.tex`

You have two options.

Quick export. Go to File > Export As, set the filename to end in .tex, click Export. This uses your last-used settings (defaults to DXT5 with dithering).

Export with options. Go to File > Export as .tex (options)... A dialog opens where you pick the compression format and other settings.

Export options explained

Compression format

Format	What it does
DXT1 (BC1)	4:1 compression. No alpha channel. Smallest file size for solid textures.
DXT5 (BC3)	4:1 compression. Full 8-bit alpha channel. Use this if your texture has transparency.
BGRA8	Uncompressed 32-bit BGRA. Largest file, no quality loss.

DXT1 and DXT5 need image dimensions divisible by 4. If yours isn't, the plugin tells you the nearest valid size.

Error diffusion dithering

Spreads quantization error across neighboring pixels during DXT compression. Reduces banding on gradients and smooth color transitions.

Recommended: On. Big quality boost for almost no cost.

Only works with DXT1 and DXT5. BGRA8 is uncompressed so it doesn't need dithering.

Error metric

Controls how the plugin measures color differences during DXT compression.

Metric	What it does
Perceptual	Weights colors by how the human eye sees them (green > red > blue). Looks better to most people.
Uniform	Treats all channels equally. Better for non-photographic textures.

Recommended: Perceptual for most textures.

Only shows up when dithering is on.

Generate mipmaps

Builds a full mipmap chain using Lanczos3 resampling. Each level is half the resolution of the one above it, down to 1x1.

Recommended: Off unless you know the texture needs mipmaps. Most League textures get resized at runtime, so mipmaps add ~33% file size for no visual gain.

Supported formats

Format	Load	Export
DXT1 (BC1)	Yes	Yes
DXT5 (BC3)	Yes	Yes
BGRA8	Yes	Yes
Mipmaps	Yes	Yes

Uninstall

Installer (Windows). Open Windows Settings > Apps > Installed Apps, find GIMP TEX Plugin, click Uninstall.

Manual install. Delete the plugin files from your plug-ins directory:

GIMP 3.x: delete the gimp3_tex_plugin folder.
GIMP 2.x: delete gimp2_tex_plugin.py and the gimp2_tex_libs folder.

Restart GIMP.

If something goes wrong

Plugin doesn't show up after manual install. Check that the files have execute permission. Run chmod +x gimp3_tex_plugin.py (or the GIMP 2 version) and restart GIMP.
Can't find the plug-ins folder. Open Edit > Preferences > Folders > Plug-Ins in GIMP.
Image won't export as DXT1 or DXT5. Resize so width and height are both divisible by 4. The plugin tells you the closest valid size.

Credits

TEX format handling based on LtMAO by tarngaina.
DXT compression ported from Microsoft DirectXTex (MIT License).
Linux testing by MartynasXS.

Edit on GitHub →

GIMP TEX Plugin

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