Photoshop FOSS alternative GNU Image Manipulation Program 3.0 nearly here
- Reference: 1731692053
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/11/15/gimp_30_release/
- Source link:
GIMP 3.0 has [1]reached Release Candidate 1 , meaning that it's almost ready for its first major version update in 20 years. GIMP 2.0 appeared in March 2004, and GIMP 1.0 back in 1998.
Development has been slow: The Register [2]reported on version 2.99.8 over three years ago, and [3]celebrated its quarter century in 2020 – so we won't recap the full history again.
[4]
Originally the General Image Manipulation Program, later renamed the GNU Image Manipulation Program, GIMP is a very influential app in the FOSS world. It started out as the work of [5]two Berkeley student programmers : Spencer Kimball wrote most of the editor, while roommate Peter Mattis mostly built the GIMP Toolkit, Gtk, which is now the basis of the GNOME desktop – as well as Xfce, MATE, Budgie, and the bulk of graphical Linux apps today. Gtk has long left its progenitor behind and is now up to Gtk 4, but GIMP 3 uses Gtk 3.
[6]
GIMP 3 acquiring a screenshot of itself, in meta-ironic fashion - click to enlarge
The Reg FOSS desk is very much not a graphics guru, and all we ever use GIMP for is resizing, cropping, and converting images. This version revamps several core features we've never seen or touched, so we will leave it to you, dear reader, to decide on their value.
Layer handling has been rewritten: layers now automatically resize, and layer effects are now non-destructive, which is a big deal to image editors because it means you're not changing the layer in the original file and you revert to it at any time. So you can fix it 2,000 incremental changes later when the undo function just won't play ball.
[7]
[8]
Color space handling has also been reworked, and now the program only converts colors when it must; it should therefore be better for work targeted at print reproduction, which was a weakness in older versions, especially compared to its commercial rival Photoshop. It now has better font management, snapping is more flexible, and stroke management is better.
[9]An awful lot of FOSS should thank the Academy
[10]Bitwarden's FOSS halo slips as new SDK requirement locks down freedoms
[11]FOSS funding vanishes from EU's 2025 Horizon program plans
[12]GIMP 2.99.8 is here but what's happened to 3.0? If only stuff would not break all the time
If you haven't looked at it in a few years, it's simpler than it was: all of those floating palettes are now combined into a single window, and there's also a much-improved welcome screen to help you get started. On Unity, it uses the global menu bar, but you can also optionally combine the title and menu bars, if you prefer that sort of thing. We wish more apps made that an option: we can't abide [13]Client-Side Decorations (CSD) ourselves.
The UI simplification was much needed, and we're happy to see that the original GIMP has outlasted its offshoots [14]GIMPshop and that app's successor [15]GIMPHOTO . MacOS offshoot [16]Seashore is still around, though.
Since this is a test release, it's quite possible there will soon be newer RCs. Don't expect to see this in a stable distro yet. We suggest installing it using a package manager that will let you easily uninstall it again: there is a [17]snap package (look under Channels for preview/stable 3.0.0-RC1 ) and a Flatpak package (instructions on the [18]development page ). There are Windows and macOS downloads available as well. ®
Get our [19]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.gimp.org/news/2024/11/06/gimp-3-0-RC1-released/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2021/10/21/gimp_2998/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2020/11/23/gimp_turns_25/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZzfSjNJudNbAEDmQc2zm-gAAABI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[5] https://web.archive.org/web/19990417052141/http://www.linuxworld.com/linuxworld/lw-1999-01/lw-01-gimp.html
[6] https://regmedia.co.uk/2024/11/15/gimp-on-gimp.jpg
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZzfSjNJudNbAEDmQc2zm-gAAABI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZzfSjNJudNbAEDmQc2zm-gAAABI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/01/aswf_foss_oscars/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/24/bitwarden_foss_doubts/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/17/foss_funding_vanishes_from_eus/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2021/10/21/gimp_2998/
[13] https://wiki.gnome.org/Initiatives/CSD
[14] https://sourceforge.net/projects/gimpshop.mirror/
[15] http://www.gimphoto.com/
[16] https://github.com/robaho/seashore
[17] https://snapcraft.io/gimp
[18] https://www.gimp.org/downloads/devel/
[19] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
I do use GIMP and I have mixed feelings that "Layer handling has been rewritten" as it's taken me about a decade to get my head around it. If it's now more intuitive, that would at least be a positive for the future - at the cost of some unlearning in the short term.
But
Is it imperative that The Register use JPG for screenshots?
Another chance
> The UI simplification was much needed
If so then I might give GIMP another go.
This was for me, the single biggest problem with it. I'm not an everyday graphics user, so having to navigate GIMP's badly designed UI turned what should have been easy jobs into an annoying chore.
It is something that should have been fixed years - decades - ago. But I suppose UIs are not as sexy as diddling about with complex, obscure, functions. And much more difficult to get right.
Re: Another chance
Every time I ask someone complaining about GIMPs "badly designed UI" how is it badly designed, they either don't know or turns out it's just not Photoshop.
Care to break that streak?
This is welcome news. I use GIMP a fair bit for retouching and enhancing dodgy images. I still get lost when some box or other disappears from where it has been for the last three years because I accidentally hit some arbitrary control combo I shouldn't have. What is the toy called? How the f*** can I search for its recovery spell if I don't know which spell to search for? Will be nice to get past all that at last.
Ah, GIMP
The only program since the MS-DOS 3.0 days to not offer to save when you exit. It just warns you're about to lose changes.
So user friendly. At least they did a good job of making the UI even more hostile than Photoshop.
It's the worst part of using Linux on a daily basis.
Re: Ah, GIMP
1. It does, at least, warn you that if you continue you're going to lose any changes you made. It doesn't just silently discard them. The difference between "do you want to save first" and "if you continue, you'll lose changes" is just a couple clicks. (And you DO save regularly and obsessively anyway, right?)
2. Yes, the UI definitely needed work. But considering the price difference between GIMP and Photoshop (free vs $$$), the choice for a home user has always been obvious.
3. You're using GIMP on a daily basis? And if one program's poor UI is "the worst part of using Linux on a daily basis", I'd say that's a major win. Compare to Team's UI (can't open a file while chatting with someone about it), Outlook (keeps opening a web browser alongside the desktop software), OneDrive (lost ALL a colleague's files - twice)...
Re: Ah, GIMP
> The difference between "do you want to save first" and "if you continue, you'll lose changes" is just a couple clicks.
And now we see why the GIMP UI is crap. There ya go. Exhibit A. Thank you for making my point.
> You're using GIMP on a daily basis?
No, I use Linux on a daily basis. Unfortunately. Photoshop doesn't run on Linux. I still remember the one time I had to draw a bunch of arrows pointing to stuff. I'm still paying for therapy from that. Now it's "I'll draw a straight line pointing to it, and that's the best you're getting"
Re: Ah, GIMP
Weird, for many years I used GIMP and Photoshop and I always said Photoshop was alarmingly unintuitive compared to GIMP. Which was annoying because Photoshop could do more overall (working with RAW files for example) but I took that to be the natural consequence of more powerful software.
Haven’t used either very much lately, Lightroom has replaced them for what I mostly do.
call to commentards
Apparently there are people out there that use Gimp to do useful stuff. How did you find out how to use it?
I tried GIMPShop some years ago simply because you could follow Photoshop tutorials, which are easily findable.
In case it's not obvious, I'm not a graphic designer. Pinta is nearer my level, to be honest.
-A.
I like GIMP
I'm not a frequent user, but despite it's quirks I like it. :-)
I can't disagree more about CSD
In the old days when we had 4K screens, menu bars didn't matter, with the newer 1080p screens I think this is still, mainly, the case.
As we get leading edge and move to 1024*768 it's going to get more important to save a dozen pixels.
I've personally seen in the development labs of major CRT leaders 640*480 and cutting edge 320*240 screens that will be coming down the line to the masses.
This is where every pixel will count and CSD will really be critical to get the best from this new technology.
I don't use GIMP a whole lot but I am quite excited to soon have non-destructive layer effects.