It may seem like the next significant version of the open-source image editor The GIMP has been under development endlessly, but know that the excitement for its debut has been growing even longer – however, the wait is nearly at an end.
Today, a release candidate for GIMP 3.0 was officially announced. This allows enthusiastic creatives eager to discover the new features Wilber has in store to experience them firsthand, with fewer bugs and issues than during the development and beta stages.
This article will not delve into a detailed account of the most impressive new features in GIMP 3.0, as I plan on covering that in greater detail closer to the final stable release since it will take weeks to sift through years of change-logs to highlight the exciting elements.
Nevertheless, there are numerous noteworthy changes to explore.
The updates include a wide range of features such as new colour management tools, a complete GTK 3 UI, non-destructive layer effects, enhanced onboarding, various canvas snapping options, and an innovative ‘merge menu and titlebar’ feature for those who prefer CSD.
Revamped welcome screen and layer effects in GIMP 3.0 RC
Additionally, to address a common concern among users transitioning to GIMP from Photoshop and other similar raster image editing software, GIMP 3.0 introduces an expanded set of stroke selection options. However, there remains no option to apply a stroke either inside or outside of a selection.
Ultimately, GIMP 3.0 represents a significant advancement for dedicated users of what is often referred to as a ‘free Photoshop alternative’, now offering substantially improved capabilities for opening PSD files, amusingly enough.
In addition, there are numerous smaller enhancements aimed at improving user experience. While these individual changes may not spark overwhelming excitement, collectively they contribute to a noticeably smoother and more enjoyable experience for users.
How long will GIMP 3.0 take to transition from release candidate to stable version? Hopefully, it won’t take too long, and the additional wait time is sure to be worthwhile.
However, if you’re comfortable dealing with any remaining minor imperfections, you can try GIMP 3.0 RC1 by downloading the source code and compiling it yourself, or you can access the --preview/stable channel for the GIMP Snap, which you can install on Ubuntu by executing:
sudo snap install gimp --channel=preview/stable
It’s important to remember that although release candidate builds are typically very close to the final stable version, they still serve as a testing milestone. As such, there may be certain issues that could lead to the release of an additional release candidate in the future – I understand that you’re likely aware of this, but it’s worth emphasizing.
- The eventual stable release will carry the version number 3.0, but in the About dialog for the release candidate build, you might still notice version 2.99.x ↩︎