Can I write a stand alone python script using gimp commands?

You could use something like portable gimp this would allow you to have gimp be shipped with your program with no additional instalation required by the user. You could then have functions in your python library run gimp operations Using gimps python scripting feature. Look at this answer for an example doing this.

If GIMP is installed, you could try batch mode. Another alternative is to use gimp-fu.

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