Color Selection Dialog

NatashaQuick · **Joined:** Oct 30, 2025 **Posts:** 2

GIMP Version: 2.8.14
Operating System: Windows
OS Version: Win 11
GIMP Experience: Basic Level

I updated gimp the other day and now when I open the color selection menu it shows the colormap/color history and then I have to click on the edit box to get to the regular dialog. I'll attach a pic.

Basically I want this to go away forever.

sallyanne · **Posted:** Thu Oct 30, 2025 3:21 am **(#2)**

I assume you have clicked on your foreground colour to change the colour. If the paint palette (mine is at the end) at the top is selected you will get this. There should be 4 others to choose from.
Wilber will give you a choice of colours and each colour you select from the rainbow will show up that colour from black to white;
CMYK brings up a CMYK dialog
Water Colour - choose the colour picker in that dialog to choose which colour you want.
Wheel - Shows a triangle in the midst of a circle of colours. Each point of the triangle points to the amount of each channel that is needed to make a certain colour.

I don't think you can get rid of the paint palette, just do not click on it for now. Might come in handy one day

rich2005 · **Joined:** Mar 04, 2011 **Posts:** 2610

I cannot see any quick way of getting around that dialogue. It is because the image is indexed colour and those are the available colours in the colour-map. Guessing the developers consider it an enhancement to stop users selecting an invalid colour.

The obvious - change the colour mode to RGB

Other ways, in place of FG/BG, the dockable dialogue Colors is like the older colour select, but you can select a none valid colour - shows with that little "out-of-gamut" magenta corner in the FG/BG colours.

Attachment:

picker.jpg [ 75.67 KiB | Viewed 1057 times ]

Wallace · **Posted:** Thu Oct 30, 2025 2:42 pm **(#4)**

When I install a "new" GIMP version,
I always rename my user profile folder.
This will allow the "new" version to install all the setting it requires,
without conflicting with any previous settings.
Once the new version launches and everything works as it should.
That's when I start to slowly migrate my resources from the old profile into the new one,
that was created for the updated version.

This could be happening if leftover settings are conflicting,
or if the installation didn’t complete properly.

Here’s a quick “clean start” method:

1. Close GIMP.

2. Go to

`C:\Users\<YourUsername>\.gimp-2.8`
change/rename this folder to something like `2.8_backup`.

3. Restart GIMP.
This will create fresh settings/new user profile folder.

NatashaQuick · **Joined:** Oct 30, 2025 **Posts:** 2

Thanks for all the help, i had RGB set as colormode and docked the FG/BG color dialog already but that does help.

I thought it might be settings conflict like Wallace is saying but I think it sounds more like the new version thinks it's helpful to put up that colormap when the image is indexed color. This actually explains why earlier I had set a color for the paint/pencil and when I tried to draw it turned to something else.

Those magenta triangles were there when I first opened the image and I've never seen that before.

I just wanted Wilber to show up as default when I click to change foreground color, but it looks like the colormap is there for a reason. I appreciate all of you!