Install nip4 with Homebrew, scoop, dnf, Nix

Project links

• Homepage
• Upstream docs
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• nip4
• snip

Project history

nip4 is explicitly a reworking of nip2 for GTK4 and the vips8 image-processing API. The libvips post for nip2 users says nip2 was mostly finished around 2000, had its last major feature around 2005, and became difficult to maintain because libvips-7, GTK2, and goffice-0.8 aged out. nip4's stated goals include loading and processing all nip2 workspaces, using GTK4, switching to libvips-8, simplifying the interface, and improving distribution across Linux, macOS, and Windows.

The libvips progress post on October 19, 2024 described work to complete nip4, remove old vips7 code, and make it run the old nip2 test suite. A March 12, 2025 post announced a test release working on Linux, Windows, and macOS, and a March 20, 2025 introduction presented nip4 as mostly done. A June 3, 2026 post described a newer batch mode built around `snip`, the command-line interpreter for the nip4 language.

Adoption history

nip4 adoption follows libvips rather than a mass desktop-app path. The libvips homepage calls nip4 the official libvips GUI and places it in an ecosystem where libvips itself powers image processing in projects such as sharp, Mastodon, imgproxy, MediaWiki, and others. nip4 is for people who need interactive construction of large image-processing pipelines, not for casual photo editing.

On 2026-07-01, Homebrew listed nip4 9.1.5 with 965 installs over 365 days. That is small in absolute package-manager terms but credible for a GUI scientific/media tool with recent cross-platform packaging.

How it is used

The GUI workflow is spreadsheet-like: load images into cells, apply toolkit operations or edit formulas, reorder and duplicate columns, open live image windows, and exploit libvips demand-driven evaluation so enormous images can be inspected interactively. The introduction emphasizes that only pixels needed for the display are computed until a final save or batch run.

`snip` is the package-nerd hook. It can evaluate expressions, run scripts, load nip4 or nip2 workspaces, patch them, save results, and apply a workspace to many files from the shell. That makes nip4 more than a GUI package: it also exposes a scriptable batch engine for pipelines developed interactively.

Why package nerds care

nip4 is significant as a rare GUI-plus-CLI package where the GUI is a visual programming environment and the CLI executes the same model. It also marks a migration point for libvips: completing nip4 helps retire the old vips7-dependent nip2 path.

Timeline

• {'date': '2000', 'event': 'libvips post says nip2 was mostly finished around this time.'}
• {'date': '2005', 'event': "libvips post says nip2's final major feature landed around this time."}
• {'date': '2024-10-19', 'event': 'libvips progress post described nip4 completion work and vips7 removal goals.'}
• {'date': '2025-03-12', 'event': 'nip4 test release announced for Linux, Windows, and macOS.'}
• {'date': '2026-06-03', 'event': 'libvips post described the newer `snip` batch mode.'}

Related projects

• libvips
• nip2
• snip
• vipsdisp

Sources

• https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/nip4
• https://github.com/libvips/nip4
• https://www.libvips.org/
• https://www.libvips.org/2024/10/19/nip4-Progress.html
• https://www.libvips.org/2025/03/12/nip4-for-nip2-users.html
• https://www.libvips.org/2025/03/20/introduction-to-nip4.html
• https://www.libvips.org/2026/06/03/nip4-batch-mode.html