Load and export League of Legends .tex texture files in GIMP.
Supports GIMP 2.x and GIMP 3.x.
Download from Releases:
| File | Description |
|---|---|
GIMP_TEX_Plugin_Setup.exe |
Installer — auto-detects GIMP version(s) |
GIMP3_TEX_Plugin.zip |
Manual install for GIMP 3.x |
GIMP2_TEX_Plugin.zip |
Manual install for GIMP 2.x |
Run the .exe and follow the prompts. Restart GIMP.
Extract the GIMP 3 zip 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/ |
The release downloads already have the correct permissions. If the plugin isn't detected, run chmod +x gimp3_tex_plugin.py.
Extract the GIMP 2 zip into your GIMP plug-ins directory. This places 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/ |
The release downloads already have the correct permissions. If the plugin isn't detected, run chmod +x gimp2_tex_plugin.py.
After manual install, restart GIMP.
Note: If you're not sure where your plug-ins directory is, check Edit > Preferences > Folders > Plug-Ins inside GIMP.
If installed via the installer (Windows): Open Windows Settings > Apps > Installed Apps, find "GIMP TEX Plugin", and click Uninstall.
If installed manually: Delete the plugin files:
- GIMP 3.x: delete the
gimp3_tex_pluginfolder from your plug-ins directory - GIMP 2.x: delete
gimp2_tex_plugin.pyand thegimp2_tex_libsfolder from your plug-ins directory
Restart GIMP.
File > Open and select a .tex file, or drag and drop.
Quick export — File > Export As, set the filename to .tex, hit Export. Uses your last-used settings (defaults to DXT5 with dithering).
Export with options — File > Export as .tex (options)... Opens a dialog where you can configure compression settings before exporting.
| Format | Description |
|---|---|
| DXT1 (BC1) | 4:1 compression. No alpha channel. Best file size for opaque textures. |
| DXT5 (BC3) | 4:1 compression. Full 8-bit alpha channel. Use for textures with transparency. |
| BGRA8 | Uncompressed. 32-bit BGRA. Largest file size, no quality loss. |
DXT1 and DXT5 require image dimensions divisible by 4. If your image isn't, the plugin will tell you the nearest valid size.
Applies Floyd-Steinberg dithering during DXT compression. This reduces visible banding on gradients and smooth color transitions by spreading quantization error across neighboring pixels within each 4x4 block.
Recommended: On. The quality improvement is significant on most textures with minimal performance cost.
Only available for DXT1 and DXT5 formats (BGRA8 is uncompressed and doesn't need dithering).
Controls how color differences are measured during DXT compression:
| Metric | Description |
|---|---|
| Perceptual | Weights color channels by human visual sensitivity (green > red > blue). Produces results that look better to the human eye. Based on BT.709 luminance coefficients. |
| Uniform | Treats all color channels equally. May be preferable for non-photographic textures. |
Recommended: Perceptual for most textures. Use Uniform only for textures where mathematical accuracy matters more than visual quality.
Only available when dithering is enabled.
Generates a full mipmap chain using Lanczos3 resampling. Each mipmap level is half the resolution of the previous one, down to 1x1.
Mipmaps are used by the game engine for level-of-detail rendering. When enabled, the file size increases by roughly 33%.
Recommended: Off unless you know the texture needs mipmaps. Most League of Legends textures get resized in real time.
| Format | Load | Export |
|---|---|---|
| DXT1 (BC1) | Yes | Yes |
| DXT5 (BC3) | Yes | Yes |
| BGRA8 | Yes | Yes |
| Mipmaps | Yes | Yes |
- TEX format handling based on work by LtMAO
- DXT compression ported from Microsoft DirectXTex (MIT License)
- Thanks to MartynasXS for Linux testing