- GIMP 3.0 release date is nearly here after a long wait
- Open source image editor is a key Photoshop rival
- New logo and host of features coming 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, previously 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 long-awaited GIMP 3.0,” the developers said in a blog post announcing the release. “We’ve been hard at work since our last development update to get this ready, and we’re looking forward to everyone finally being able to see the results.”
GIMP 3.0 release
The announcement follows years of speculation over the release of the latest version of the Photoshop-style tool, with GIMP 2.0 released in March 2004.
Since then, there have been frequent updates, including GIMP 2.4X and 2.6X in 2007, 2.8X in 2022, and the most recent release, GIMP 2.10X, from 2018 until now.
The developers behind the tool said the software version is nearing completion and set to be released to the community after final testing and bug testing has been completed.
“If user feedback reveals only small and easy to fix bugs, we will solve those problems and issue the result as GIMP 3.0,” the developers said.
“However, we hope and expect a much larger audience to try out 3.0 RC1 - including many people who have only been using 2.10 up until now."
“If larger bugs and regressions are uncovered that require more substantial code changes, we may need to publish a second release candidate for further testing.”
What this means is that, providing there are no significant issues flagged by users, the release of GIMP 3.0 could be imminent, or at least within the next few months.
What to expect with GIMP 3.0
So, what can users expect to see with the new release? First off, there’s a new logo, designed in collaboration between Aryeom and other contributors.
Developers said the iconic Wilber logo, which was created by Jakub Steiner for GIMP 2.6 in 2008, remains a “fantastic logo”, but “design trends have changed a bit in the last sixteen years”.
Elsewhere, the interface will remain recognizable for many users but has been given a bit of TLC, enabling it to better scale to high-resolution displays. A raft of icons have also been converted to scalable vector graphics as well, improving the overall quality and scalability of assets.
“One of the major improvements from the GTK3 port is that the vector UI icons now scale more cleanly based on your preference settings,” developers said.
“Our Legacy icon theme was mainly raster PNGs however, so it could not take advantage of the GTK3 scaling system. Contributor Denis Rangelov took on the extensive challenge of recreating the Legacy tool icons as SVGs.
Notably, the biggest changes in GIMP 3.0 are on the backend and will help improve plugin compatibility for users still relying on older versions of the platform.
Similarly, a public GIMP API has also been built to allow users to port GIMP 2.0 plugins and scripts to the newer version.
“Another task that had to be finished before the 3.0 release was finalizing the public API.”
“Since the API is now stable, plug-in and script developers can begin porting their 2.10 scripts based on this release.”
