saving in gimp in a non xcf format

**guine** · November 11th, 2013

Im sure this has been discussed before but Im not having any luck finding it in search, but is there any way that you can change gimp so you can save in formats other than xcf? I know you can export to other formats but getting all the messges about not saving images and and exporting to rewrite existing files because you can't just save gets annoying when you're trying to edit a lot of photos and you're getting these messages every time you work on an image and want to save(using xcf would not be a good solution for me because I like being able to work on images in other programs in my workflow).
Thanks

**Toz** · November 11th, 2013

Here is the save/export specification that gives the rationale for the way that things are. And here is a good thread that discusses it - where you can read about the controversy surrounding the decision.

For times when I need to make a quick, simple change to an image, I use Pinta.

**SeijiSensei** · November 11th, 2013

If you open a non-XCF image in 2.8, you'll see that one of the export options in the File menu is to save back to the same file name. I, too, found the change in 2.8 where "Save" = "XCF" and "Export" = "Everything else" a bit annoying at first, but now it's second nature to me.

**Buntu Bunny** · November 11th, 2013

I agree with SeijiSensei, it takes some getting used to, but after that it's not a problem. OTOH, with 2.6 and earlier, I often had some mix-up in how I wanted to save things.

**guine** · November 12th, 2013

Well that export option makes it better, if I can figure out how to make the wouldn't you like to save message that pops up when you close only pop up if I hadn't saved or exported the image since my last change Id be very happy. I don't really care that they changed what they call what Im doing, but it would be better if it didn't pop up all these messages for doing things how I used to.

**The Cog** · November 12th, 2013

I have to agree that it is very irritating to have to have an argument with a bit of software every time I want to save a file in the same format as I opened it in. I gave up using gnumeric because I was fed up with having an argument with it every time I edited a .csv file. If I can find a suitable replacement, gimp will also be out on its ear for the same reason.