- The GIMP 3.0 release date is almost here, after a long wait
- Open source image editor is a major rival to Photoshop
- New logo and tons of features for loyal users
The long-awaited release of GIMP 3.0 is coming, according to the team behind the open source Photoshop alternative.
The GNU Image Manipulation Program, formerly known as the General Image Manipulation Program, unveiled a release candidate version of the platform on November 6.
“We are very excited to share the first release candidate for the highly anticipated GIMP 3.0,” the developers said in a blog post announcing the release. “We’ve been working hard to get this done since our last development update, and we’re looking forward to everyone finally seeing the results.”
GIMP 3.0 version
The announcement follows years of speculation about the release of the latest version of the Photoshop-like tool, with GIMP 2.0, released in March 2004.
There have been regular updates since then, including GIMP 2.4X and 2.6X in 2007, 2.8X in 2022, and the most recent release, GIMP 2.10X, from 2018 to present.
The developers behind the tool said that the software version is almost complete and will be released to the community after final testing and bug testing is completed.
“If user feedback reveals only minor and easily fixed bugs, we will fix those issues and release the result as GIMP 3.0,” the developers said.
“However, we hope and expect that a much larger audience will try out 3.0 RC1, including many people who have previously only used 2.10.”
“If larger bugs and regressions are discovered that require more substantial code changes, we may need to publish a second release candidate for further testing.”
What this means is that, provided there are no significant issues noted by users, the release of GIMP 3.0 is imminent, or at least within the next few months.
What to expect with GIMP 3.0
What can users expect from the new release? First up is a new logo, designed in collaboration between Aryeom and other contributors.
Developers said the iconic Wilber logo, created in 2008 by Jakub Steiner for GIMP 2.6, remains a “fantastic logo” but “design trends have changed a bit over the past sixteen years.”
Elsewhere, the interface will remain recognizable to many users, but has been given some TLC, helping it scale better to high-resolution screens. A large number of icons have also been converted to scalable vector graphics, improving the overall quality and scalability of assets.
“One of the key improvements of the GTK3 port is that the vector UI icons now scale more clearly based on your preferred settings,” the developers said.
“However, our Legacy icon theme was mainly raster PNGs, so it couldn’t take advantage of the GTK3 scaling system. Contributor Denis Rangelov took on the extended challenge of recreating the Legacy tool icons as SVGs.
The biggest changes in GIMP 3.0 are mainly in the backend and will help improve plugin compatibility for users who still rely on older versions of the platform.
Similarly, a public GIMP API has also been built that allows users to port GIMP 2.0 plugins and scripts to the newer version.
“Another task that needed to be completed before the 3.0 release was finalizing the public API.”
“Since the API is now stable, plugin and script developers can start porting their 2.10 scripts based on this release.”