19 ms·

GIMP 3.0

1312 points by wicket 2y ago

jasonjamerson 2y ago
I opened GIMP once. I won't do it again until somebody compares a UI update to Blender's big one. 2.9?
- garbagewoman 2y ago
  They are completely different cultures that have been on very different paths: not going to happen
  - stuaxo 2y ago
    There are just far more people involved in Blender.
    - calf 2y ago
      I was going comment how much I enjoy using Blender's UI and not GIMP, though both are OSS.
- account42 2y ago
  Your loss.
mixmastamyk 2y ago
Yeah! Non-destructive editing is huge. I learned graphics editing with Paint Shop Pro back in the day and easily transitioned to Gimp successfully in the late 90s. Been using it exclusively for twenty years and slowly but surely (haha) keeps getting better. The new widgets are kinda nice too. They've had the RCs in Fedora for a while. (If you're here to shit on gimp because it doesn't work like adobe, please take it outside, or slashdot.)
- free_bip 2y ago
  Is your last comment referring to users friendliness? If so, that's a valid critique.
  - bigyabai 2y ago
    It's valid, but in many ways it's like Emacs users saying there are easier macros for the invocations that Vim users depend on. I use both and neither are user friendly. If you rely on Photoshop for casual edits then I truly pity you. Your money has been better spent funding Affinity Photo for years now, Creative Cloud is a lost cause. CS6 is much better, but practically antique at this point.
  - somat 2y ago
    The problem is that many time the person will say "The gimp ui is terrible" and they mean "the gimp ui is different than the photoshop ui" Basically in order to have a meaningful conversation you need to figure out how to enumerate your grievances before you say them.
    - mossTechnician 2y ago
      Photoshop has enjoyed the positive bias that comes from almost universal ubiquity, and all the support they will receive online or from friends. Colloquially, "Photoshop" just means to edit an image. "Gimp" could be something quite rude to anyone who isn't familiar with the software.
- eMPee584 2y ago
  Paint Shop Pro was awesome.. slick UI and great UX..
  - senectus1 2y ago
    I miss it so much...
xtagon 2y ago
Non-destructive editing sounds great!
- jfengel 2y ago
  That's huge. It is a massive gap in its capacity.
zaruvi 2y ago
I thought I'd never see the day! At long last, I'll be able to use non-destructive editing. Hopefully they'll adopt a more sane release strategy going forward.
- interroboink 2y ago
  I actually prefer the "when it's done" model rather than the "train leaving the station" model, for software like this. I feel it better allows for broad-scope changes, which may touch large swaths of a codebase, to more fully gel/mature before being released. For something that I might only update once every few years anyway (ie: not very security-critical), it seems worthwhile to reduce the overhead of release process/logistics for the developers, letting them spend that time on features/fixes instead. Or maybe there was another model you were suggesting? What do you find non-sane about the current one?
  - LukeShu 2y ago
    They basically stopped doing the previously-usual updates for a 7 years to focus on porting to GTK+ 3; GIMP was very tied to GTK+ 2. There were a bunch of much-anticipated features (esp. non-destructive editing) that were finished but couldn't be released because it was half-way through the big GTK transition. Hopefully the now-impending port to GTK 4 will be a lot smoother and won't be such a disruption to their ability to ship the features they've been working on.
    - deaddodo 2y ago
      Just to expound on this point: > GIMP was very tied to GTK+ 2 People seem to forget that GTK was originally created for GIMP, Gnome came around and co-opted it since it was more free (libre) than QT. GTK3 was a full rewrite divorced from the GIMP development cycle so broke a huge chunk of things GIMP put in place specifically for their code styling. Thus the long development cycle.
      - thayne 2y ago
        Then Gtk4 broke a bunch more stuff, and Gtk5 will probably break even more.
Carrok 2y ago
I’ve been using GIMP as long as I can remember, more or less. Say what you will about the UI/UX but it remains top tier free software. So glad to see this.
- shadowgovt 2y ago
  How do you get it to paste without popping a new layer into existence that you have to deal with and decide to anchor or tear off into its own thing?
  - balamatom 2y ago
    C-v C-h
    - blooalien 2y ago
      Kudos! Am a huge proponent of learning the most useful hotkey combinations for any software one uses even semi-frequently. Such a massive time-saver.
      - stuaxo 2y ago
        The removal of hotkeys and icons from menus was an act of vandalism. You used to be able to learn a program by simply running the mouse across the menus to see the hotkeys and icons too.
        balamatom 2y ago
        PSA: It's not vandalism when it's the people in power who are destroying the nice things - that's called design.
    - shadowgovt 2y ago
      Excellent! How did you find that key combo?
      - 2y ago
amelius 2y ago
When will we get DL stuff in Gimp? E.g. diffusion, superresolution, etc.
- balamatom 2y ago
  Can we please not? Though if you really, really wanna, well I just looked and the top 2 search results were plugins for that sort of thing. The things people'll do for GitHub stars these days... Guess you could try putting those on? In which case we wish you good hunting!
- xena 2y ago
  It has a plugin API. Should be easy to implement should you want it.
  - amelius 2y ago
    I want it out of the box, no installation hassles.
    - sgt 2y ago
      You can get it out of the box, you'll just need to implement it first.
      - amelius 2y ago
        I mean, if you want to compete with commercial products then the least you can do is listen to your audience.
        xena 2y ago
        You should provide that feedback to the GIMP project: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gimp/-/issues https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gimp/-/issues
        sgt 2y ago
        Gimp was never about competing with a commercial product. It's to build a usable product that the developers like. If others want to use it, great.
dskhatri 2y ago
I too have been using the wonderful GIMP for years. The BIMP (Batch Image Manipulation Plugin for GIMP) is super useful in batch processing a large number of images in GIMP.
idle_zealot 2y ago
> Making pro-quality text got easier, too. Style your text, apply outlines, shadows, bevels, and more, and you can still edit your text, change font and size, and even tweak the style settings. This is a game-changer. I tried to use GIMP to typeset comic translations many years ago, and the workflow was so terrible I had to resort to a few extra tools, complicating my workflow. I'll have to try the new text editing to see for sure, but it sounds like typesetting is now comparable to what's offered in proprietary editors.
- Carrok 2y ago
  So excited to try this. I had the exact same experience.
- geenat 2y ago
  Agreed, surprisingly capable in 3.0 compared to latest krita or inkscape. Krita 5.3 is supposed to get a major overhaul for text as well (real time preview, on-canvas editing).
  - specproc 2y ago
    I get it's a painting program first and foremost, but Krita's text tool is shameful. Glad to hear.
- fumufumu 2y ago
  [dead]
- throwanem 2y ago
  Can it render text at better than 72dpi? It couldn't when I last checked a couple years ago, and that seems like the kind of fix that would belong in a major release. GIMP has always been useless for my workflows, professional and personal, for that reason, and Photoshop's just a far higher quality and more useful piece of software. But with that fixed I think at least I could recommend GIMP in something close to good conscience for folks who can't yet afford anything better. Although really, even there the UI is so bad that Photopea would still be preferable, webapp or no. At least that knowledge transfers. Time spent learning GIMP is just wasted.
geenat 2y ago
3.0 is big for GIMP. Lots of features to make it viable for simple Desktop Publishing and YouTube thumbs. Created a quick poster: https://i.imgur.com/pPgy255.png https://i.imgur.com/pPgy255.png Stuff that needs work: * UI/UX: "Tool->GEGL Operation..." is too much friction for such a common operation- just pop it up when you click on the "FX" button in the layers window. * UI/UX: Naming. Drop shadows and glow are currently not discoverable (its squirreled away in the generic "GEGL Styles"). * UI/UX: "Move Tool" should act like a common entry point to other tools if you're not dragging. Switch to "Transform Tool" if I single click an image layer. Switch to the "Text Tool" if I single click a Text layer! Please! * UI/UX: Copying/pasting layer styles does not work. Users can overlook many issues if you can duplicate/destroy layer styles easily. Preset system is cumbersome. Idea: Presets usable from the Layers window directly (could be just add/apply presets) would help a lot, but just copy/paste would probably be better. * BUG: Layers often clip GEGL Glow. Again could be worked around by just easy copy/paste of layer styles. See clipping present on "GIMP Halloween Party" text in my image.
- chirau 2y ago
  May I ask a not so smart question... What is the big deal with thumbnails for YouTube videos. Like, I am always hearing about these thumbnails as if they can make or break a video/channels outcomes.
  - Conan_Kudo 2y ago
    Because they can. The thumbnails are the first impression of a video, and if it isn't attention-grabbing, the video suffers.
  - danielheath 2y ago
    At the end of a video, youtube shows thumbnails for several "suggested next videos". The thumbnail, video name and channel name are the only bits of information potential viewers see - if your thumbnail isn't good, they aren't even going to _start_ your video, let alone keep watching it.
    - 2y ago
rascul 2y ago
> Updated graphical toolkit (GTK3) for modern desktop usage. Are distros going to drop GTK2 now?
- progmetaldev 2y ago
  Unless they are focused on decreasing bloat, I don't think that this will happen. There are lots of utilities and other software that still uses GTK2. I doubt that GIMP was the last tool left to prevent dropping GTK2. I found this from ArchLinux, search for "gtk 2": https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Uniform_look_for_Qt_and_GTK_applications https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Uniform_look_for_Qt_and_GTK... Plus you can search for "GTK 2" dependencies. Some sites seem hopeful to move to GTK 4, while others wish they could move to 3, and some talk about upcoming 5.
  - stuaxo 2y ago
    Without GIMP using it any more releases is unlikely.
- TingPing 2y ago
  Debian and RHEL already did.
  - badsectoracula 2y ago
    I don't know about RHEL but gtk2 is still in Debian unstable[0]. A reverse dependency search shows 340 packages relying on it (200 direct dependencies). [0] https://packages.debian.org/sid/libgtk2.0-0t64 https://packages.debian.org/sid/libgtk2.0-0t64
    - Lammy 2y ago
      And FreeBSD Ports has 434 extant ports which depend on it https://www.freshports.org/x11-toolkits/gtk20/ https://www.freshports.org/x11-toolkits/gtk20/
    - TingPing 2y ago
esskay 2y ago
And sticking with tradition, zero screenshots of it on the announcement post.
- pndy 2y ago
  > » READ COMPLETE RELEASE NOTES « There are some. At first glance it doesn't seem to be that much different from 2.10 that I have installed in Manjaro
- mixmastamyk 2y ago
  The new GTK widgets are a little flatter and have a bit more padding, but otherwise not much new to see. The headline feature is non-destructive.
jayzalowitz 2y ago
It blows my mind that the cockroach db founders started this 29 years ago. Amazing to see this release.
- lollollollollol 2y ago
  I couldn’t tell you what the benefit of cockroach db is or what it’s used for, but I’ve been using Gimp for the majority of its life.
  - lionkor 2y ago
    Distributed postgres
- oblio 2y ago
  That's super funny, never knew that. Amazing that they still work together 30 years later.
fishcrackers 2y ago
[dead]
bhouston 2y ago
Gimp is amazing and like Blender has replaced my use of proprietary tools in the area of 2D and 3D editing. My wishlist for GIMP 4 is to see AI tooling integrated by default: - Image generation that will do completions based on prompts on arbitrary areas. Something like this: https://www.adobe.com/ca/products/photoshop/generative-fill.html https://www.adobe.com/ca/products/photoshop/generative-fill.... - AI super-resolution. There are a lot of options now that can dramatically improve sharpness, akin to Topaz Gigapixel: https://www.topazlabs.com/gigapixel https://www.topazlabs.com/gigapixel - Meta's segment anything integrated so that there is no need to painstakenly select objects. https://segment-anything.com https://segment-anything.com (Does it support sub-pixel fuzzy selections?). It would also label everything in the model, which leads to... - Built-in model context protocol (MCP) support to allow for automated control by agentic AI. (See what is possible with Blender: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqgKuLYUv00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqgKuLYUv00) Of course it should only download the models the first time someone needs them.
- emkoemko 2y ago
  do we really need to add AI to everything?
  - bhouston 2y ago
    These 4 features are AI related but each of them have separate strong use cases. Looking at popular commercial tools like Adobe Photoshop and Topaz tools for inspiration is just logical -- it means there is clear demand for these features among users.
    - Twirrim 2y ago
      > it means there is clear demand for these features among users. No, it just means executives want to add AI to things. So many of these "But with AI" are not lead by customers but by executives wanting to make sure their product isn't seen as behind the times.
      - 2y ago
James_K 2y ago
I wonder if you can move text properly now? It's always been that you have to click on the black part of the letter and it's really fiddly to get a pixel perfect click.
- ponorin 2y ago
  There already has been an option to move the selected layer regardless of where you click on.
  - gitaarik 2y ago
    Oh yeah? How??
    - ponorin 2y ago
      https://docs.gimp.org/2.6/en/gimp-tool-move.html https://docs.gimp.org/2.6/en/gimp-tool-move.html in 4.3.2. Options: > Move the active layer > Only the current layer will be moved. This may be useful if you want to move a layer with transparent areas, where you can easily pick the wrong layer. note that version 2.6 was relesed in 2008.
      - James_K 2y ago
        So they have a half-baked solution written in a random menu instead of just having it work properly by default? Well that's fine then. Seriously though, the text clickable area should be a bounding box of each line. Having to click the text layer is probably the same effort as fiddling around trying to get the exact location. Software should be welcoming by default, rather than hostile until you read every sub-menu to find the key shortcut that makes it bearable. It's bad UX in the same way not having a shape tool was bad UX. Sure you can look up "how to draw circle" and find out that you use the circle selection and stroke tool, but that's not intuitive for anyone.
        ponorin 2y ago
        > So they have a half-baked solution written in a random menu instead of just having it work properly by default? i fail to see how an option for moving (visible by default), in a move tool, is "a half-baked solution (..) in a random menu." you don't move around text with a text tool, so where else should it be? > Seriously though, the text clickable area should be a bounding box of each line. gimp allows an arbitrary bounding box size for text layers. this enables, among other things, to conform text into a specific bounding box (i.e., no need to manually press enter to keep text inside a specific area). calculating the hit point with a bounding box instead of the content will invite even more confusion as people complain that text layer keeps moving when "i pressed the other thing." also because people often praise krita for being the sane one, without apparently having used either of them for more than 5 minutes, krita has 3 different "move" tools and 2 different resize tools for text, each doing different things. probably the most confusing decision on krita is to make "mouse pointer tool" vector only. the program does tell you to use the move tool when you try it, but they could have just... make bitmaps movable with the "mouse pointer." nothing i can think of prohibits them from doing this. also krita's move tool defaults to moving the selected layer without a visible option to change this behaviour, unlike gimp. so gimp is actually better even by your standard.
whalesalad 2y ago
Any tips for someone who’s been using photoshop for 20 years? Last time I tried gimp it was brutal even with the compatibility key bindings enabled.
- geenat 2y ago
  The workflows are still very rough, see my comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43394200 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43394200
- cadamsdotcom 2y ago
  My main tip would be: give it a try! It’s free! And it’s all new and shiny! The biggest cost you incur is your time to try it, which isn’t that much more than the time it takes to type out an internet comment. Second tip: if you get stuck, there is SO much content on youtube these days, you’re bound to find a guide or some help just by searching. Good luck and enjoy free software!
  - whalesalad 2y ago
    Ya I get all that. Was more curious if there are people who have switched and have suggestions for config/plugins/setups that make the transition easier.
    - mixmastamyk 2y ago
      I personally wouldn't do that. In the days when I moved operating systems or the new one was a big UI change, I'd force myself to use it exclusively for a full week at least. In practice, it meant taking some tutorials and searching up how to do the simplest things. Annoying but you get the hang of it after suffering several days. Still, I'd wait for 3.0.5+ or so.
    - cadamsdotcom 2y ago
      You're bound to stumble over stuff that doesn't work how you're used to. But, the friction for trying it yourself has never been lower. Writing more internet comments is comfy but won't bring you closer to answering your question.
synergy20 2y ago
gimp is a bit complicated for casual use for common and simple needs, wish there is a much simplified version. would be even nicer if there is one click passport mode, picture improvement mode, etc, something like what mobile phone photo apps provide.
- jijji 2y ago
  Gimp is about as complicated or less than Photoshop which is what it's replacing... as a matter of fact there's even a Photoshop UI interface template that sits on top of gimp that makes it act exactly as Photoshop... so what are you talking about specifically
- keithnz 2y ago
  not sure how simple you want, but pinta is quite a nice small and fast image editing program
Beijinger 2y ago
CMYK Support?
- Joel_Mckay 2y ago
  https://www.gimp.org/docs/userfaq.html#i-do-a-lot-of-desktop-publishing-related-work-will-you-ever-support-cmyk https://www.gimp.org/docs/userfaq.html#i-do-a-lot-of-desktop... Yes, sort of since 2022... =3
- mixmastamyk 2y ago
  I see it in the color picker and tiff, jpeg, psd export dialogs. Looks like a yes.
- cmyk_student 2y ago
  Right now you can import/export CMYK JPEGs, TIFFs, PSDs, and JPEG-XL. You can also soft-proof to simulate print, and the color picker/selector can be set to show CMYK values for your assigned profile. A full CMYK mode is on my TODO list now that 3.0 is out. :)
thisgoodlife 2y ago
Can it draw basic stuff like circles, arrows, and lines now?
- geenat 2y ago
  Circle: Ellipse select -> Bucket fill Line: Rectangle select -> Bucket fill -> Transform There should be some basic arrows but there doesn't seem to be.
  - fngjdflmdflg 2y ago
    You also need to check "Fixed aspect ratio" in the Ellipse select options, otherwise you will get an ellipse instead of a circle.
    - geenat 2y ago
      I just use shift, but that's photoshop muscle memory for ya.
      - fngjdflmdflg 2y ago
        I tired that originally and it did not work. The issue was that I pressed shift before clicking. After testing, MS paint and Photopea both support clicking shift before starting the selection to create a circle. Krita does nothing if you hold shift before selecting. I don't have PS right now so I don't know what that does. Seems unintuitive to me.
    - eitland 2y ago
      Or you can use the right modifier key. Haven't used Gimp in a long time, but try holding down ctrl, shift or alt while doing the circle (or rectangular for that matter) select. One is for aspect ratio, one is for center from starting point and the last I cannot remember. IIRC the same goes for combining selections: modifier keys can be used to add, subtract or make intersections.
KnuthIsGod 2y ago
Needs a new user interface and a new name. Krita is not as excruciating as the gimp.
ryukoposting 2y ago
Non-destructive editing is a huge shift for GIMP that's really exciting to see. I'm quite happy with Rawtherapee so I don't know if I'll go back to GIMP, but the fact that you won't have to create a bazillion extra layers with backups of your work will be a huge step forward.
farts_mckensy 2y ago
New gimp just dropped.
rat87 2y ago
I hope ArsTechnica brings back their long form gimp reviews for this release. I know they stopped doing them but it seems like this release is pretty special
- mixmastamyk 2y ago
  I looked it up and it seems the writer stopped writing for Ars about ten years ago. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2009/01/gimp-2-6-review/ https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2009/01/gimp-...
jijji 2y ago
I think the big features in the future for gimp are going to be AI related image features.... I'm not sure why they didn't mention any of that but that's the obvious thing for me would be AI related image manipulation using prompt guided AI... for example passing the image into llama3.2-vision would be a step in the right direction
tasuki 2y ago
> Making pro-quality text got easier, too. Style your text, apply outlines, shadows, bevels, and more Those... are not "pro-quality" things but cheap gimmicks. Good that they're introducing non-destructive editing! I've long moved to DarkTable for photo editing. Photo editing never seemed like GIMP's goal.
- paulryanrogers 2y ago
  Gimp does seem to be half way between a photo editor and a drawing/painting program. For me, the swiss-army knife approach they support is good enough. And it saves me from having to wrangle two or three other tools.
anymouse123456 2y ago
Congrats and thanks for all the hard work. I'm an occasional/light user of image editing software and Gimp has been my go-to for years now. I really appreciate all the work you've put into small UX details and performance over the past 3-5 years. It shows.
Blackthorn 2y ago
Nice, now we can have plugins again thanks to having a stabilized API.
ChrisArchitect 2y ago
Can we fix this link? Surely they don't want a staging server out there https://www.gimp.org/news/2025/03/16/gimp-3-0-released/ https://www.gimp.org/news/2025/03/16/gimp-3-0-released/
tlhunter 2y ago
> Copying and pasting now creates a new layer by default rather than a “floating selection”, which many users found confusing. Floating layers can still be created with the “Paste as Floating Data” option for those who prefer that workflow. Oh thank god
modzu 2y ago
gimp is dead. long live krita
system2 2y ago
I've been a Photoshop user for over 2 decades. I install GIMP every few years to test to see how far it has progressed. This Ui took me back to the 1990s (almost Windows 3.0). I wish the shortcuts were similar to Photoshop so the transition for people who don't want to pay for Photoshop would be easier. For free software, I can't complain. I am certain so many unpaid hours were poured into it.
renewiltord 2y ago
Oh wow they have Apple Silicon builds now. The last I tried they were woefully slow. This is great news. For all it's flaws it's been a really useful application over the years and I do miss it now that I'm on the M-series Macs. But now I know I don't have to.
29athrowaway 2y ago
GTK 3 was released in 2011. The upgrade took 14 years. GTK 4 was released in 2020. I hearby declare the GIMP / GTK 4 challenge: use AI to migrate GIMP from GTK 3 to GTK 4. The prize: a drawing of a seven legged spider.
cytocync 2y ago
[dead]
typon 2y ago
Gotta love these guys for keeping at it for 26 years. Much much love
starkparker 2y ago
Oh, good. The toilet paper template is still there.
ziml77 2y ago
I just opened this up on macOS and the very first thing I noticed is that the bold font rendering in the UI looks like shit. The letters are all squished into each other. Is this just something weird with my system? GIMP 3.0 has been in testing for long enough that it's hard to believe this is a widespread issue that wouldn't have been found and fixed before release.
- sunaookami 2y ago
  GIMP is notoriously bad on macOS so no surprise. It's unfixable. Just buy Affinity Photo if you need a professional software.
- cmyk_student 2y ago
  Unfortunately we don't have as many macOS testers so we tend to get less feedback. However, it looks like it's an issue in one of the dependency libraries - there's discussion at https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gimp/-/issues/12736#note_2372962 https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gimp/-/issues/12736#note_2372...
  - ziml77 2y ago
    Huh. I genuinely didn't expect photo editing software to be lacking users on macOS. I hope the GTK team figures out how to consistently load the right font here. A lot of great work seems to have gone into GIMP 3, so it's a shame that a bug like this makes it look unpolished.
joeevans1000 2y ago
Oh yes... yes... yes. I hate to be enthusiastic about this for a lame reason... but I can't believe the bloated labyrinthine expensive hellscape of Photoshop. With the myriad extra software one needs to install just to make it work. Thank YOUUUUUUU!!!! > This is the end result of seven years of hard work by volunteer developers, designers, artists, and community members Gratitude!
Duanemclemore 2y ago
I was so eager to get non destructive editing on Linux that I downloaded it and compiled it from source when it was still in beta. That is the biggest game changer of 3.0 if you ask me.
pjdesno 2y ago
Does the UI still suck?
- bongodongobob 2y ago
  Yes.
  - gitaarik 2y ago
    But why does the UI suck actually? Is it because most people are used to Photoshop, and GIMP works similar but different enough to be very confusing and annoying? That's been at least my experience. But I haven't used Photoshop in years now and got pretty much used to GIMP by now, for the once in a while that I use it. And now I don't really have the annoyances anymore. I actually know pretty well how to do most basic stuff, and some handy keyboard shortcuts. And now GIMP doesn't feel that clunky anymore.
    - Xaphiosis 2y ago
      People keep rolling out this defence over and over in this thread, but look at those who started on anything else. For example, I've never used Photoshop, but moved from MS paint level to Paint Shop Pro (I think 6? 7?) and had to learn that from scratch. The experience was mostly intuitive, things were more or less where you expected and did what you expected, and there was solid help available under the help menu. I have tried to use GIMP on dozens of occasions, and it always surprises me in the worst ways, or bounces me off to search the web for a howto. Simple things like: I want to select a rectangle, move/resize the selection, then crop the image to that selection. Or I want to arrange two images side-by-side for comparison, crop to the smaller one, to export a side-by-side. Pretty much every attempt at doing something other than colour curve adjustment has resulted in a faceplant. Eventually I gave up switched to Krita.
      - mixmastamyk 2y ago
        I started with PSP and Gimp's crop tool works as expected. Drag where you want, adjust edges, then mouse click in the center. Overall, it works similarly to MacPaint from '84 and even has the same CUA keybindings.
otar 2y ago
I got so used to GIMP back in my Ubuntu Linux days that I don’t bother installing Photoshop or other image editor on my Mac. Besides, Adobe is an ugly company with shady billing/retention tactics…
- yieldcrv 2y ago
  The gulf is sooooo wide now though GIMP is still trying to reach parity with CS6 days from 20 years ago, all for the gold star of saying “we did it guys”
  - kilpikaarna 2y ago
    Photoshop was basically done at CS6 (which was less than 15 years ago), so why not? I know the copy I'm keeping around to avoid Adobe rent-seeking is eventually goong to stop working on new OS versions.
    - yieldcrv 2y ago
      We discuss emulators all the time here, so there would be less scrutiny if they just say that they are an aspiring CS6 emulator
      - consteval 2y ago
        Emulator means something pretty specific, it’s a ground-up piece of software with similar functionality. Not a PS emulator.
nomilk 2y ago
Usually I'd strongly bias toward OSS. But gimp's ux is just so bad, I'd sooner use (_vomits_) adobe knowing I'll have to wrestle a bear in order to cancel my subscription. But there's no need. Figma, while not OSS, is free, and it does have acceptable UX. I'm a newb who occasionally needs to brush up an image or combine multiple images for my startup. I got more done in figma in thirty minutes than in gimp in 3 hours, and was much less frustrated. I could never find the relevant button (or sometimes even pane) in gimp. If you already learned gimp, use it, but for anyone else it's false economy - the time you lose fighting its UX outweighs the feelgood/freedom of using OSS.
- bongodongobob 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - nomilk 2y ago
    I suspect many who make software would never do what adobe does (deliberately make it difficult for customers to leave). Entirely subjective, of course, but I consider Adobe's retention strategies very sleazy (although not uncommon). That said, can also see the utility in making deals with the devil: if it means getting your own software done faster and better, then it might be worth it, even if it feels gross.
    - bongodongobob 2y ago
      When I tried to cancel my subscription they offered me a free year of everything. I took it and then cancelled when it was done. 0 issues.
      - nomilk 2y ago
        Nice work. I've never subscribed to Adobe products, so I haven't experienced it first hand. My thinking is if your software is great, you shouldn't need lock-in contracts or adobe-like tactics. (I've dodged similar subscription models like economist magazine and masterclass purely due to the utility of the subscription being outweighed by the knowledge I'd one day have to endure a frustrating process to unsubscribe).
SuperNinKenDo 2y ago
>Making pro-quality text got easier, too. Style your text, apply outlines, shadows, bevels, and more, and you can still edit your text, change font and size, and even tweak the style settings. Life changing. Worth relearning a workflow just for this, no contest.
Dwedit 2y ago
Anyone know how to get the Resynthesizer plugin working in Gimp? It works in version 2, but I can't get it working in version 3.
- JohnTHaller 2y ago
  "Porting to GIMP 3 is in progress. The "resynthesizer3" branch is ready for initial trials with GIMP 3.0rc2. Porting of plugins from GIMP 2 to 3 is not complete. Testing is not complete. An MS Windows build is not tested and not in the repo." https://github.com/bootchk/resynthesizer https://github.com/bootchk/resynthesizer
freetime2 2y ago
How do GIMP's selection tools stack up against Photoshop these days? I'm not an expert in either, but a long time ago I remember struggling to select a person in a photo in GIMP. And then my friend demo'd the new-at-the-time subject selection tool that made it trivial.
- freetime2 2y ago
  Just to clarify - the subject selection tool my friend showed me was in Photoshop. And seeing as how masking/selection is such an important part of image editing, I think more efficient selection alone would be worth the subscription cost for anyone who frequently edits photos.
- ZoomZoomZoom 2y ago
  GIMP should port and adapt Darktable's parametric masking and get ahead of Adobe.
wetpaws 2y ago
[dead]
rjurney 2y ago
I'm really tired of shelling out $90/month for Photoshop, Illustrator and Acrobat...
- bongodongobob 2y ago
  So choose a less expensive plan.
  - rjurney 2y ago
    There isn't one for those three apps.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
galaxyLogic 2y ago
It has a nice start-image with sunset and stylizised clouds. Can anybody tell or guess how those clouds were created? I've been looking for such an effect for some time now, basically emphasizing edges and contours.
- hrnnnnnn 2y ago
  They look hand-drawn to me.
sathley 2y ago
GIMP needs a badass new logo for the new version.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
Mashimo 2y ago
> Making pro-quality text got easier, too. Style your text, apply outlines, shadows, bevels, and more, and you can still edit your text, change font and size, and even tweak the style settings. I remember wanting this 2015 .. finally.
wtcactus 2y ago
I think GIMP could become a big proper competitor to commercial photo editors just like Blender did on the 3D space, as soon as they go the Blender way and do a complete overhaul of the UX/UI like Blender did. I remember, for years and years, trying Blender and quitting it due to the terrible UX choices. Likewise, I also remember the devs and some older users on the internet trying, at every turn, to tell us how much superior Blender UI/UX was, that all the people were wrong and they were right. They weren't right, of course. Then the team at Blender finally accepted it, they did a complete redo of the UX/UI and now Blender is winning prizes at the Oscars. The same could happen to GIMP if they just accepted the UX is terrible. I'm saying this, totally agreeing that these devs did a fantastic job and that they don't owe us anything. This is open source, of course. But, this level of stubbornness, is preventing GIMP from being used by a lot more people that want to finally ditch Photoshop.
- hahamaster 2y ago
  It's probably a lot of work.
- tomovo 2y ago
  For Blender it wasn't just the UI, it was great leadership, direction, focus and decision making that got it where it is today. This culture started attracting more talent in both users and new developers.
- mixmastamyk 2y ago
  Gimp UI is like every image editor since 1985, and uses CUA keybindings. It has nothing to fix on the level of Blender’s drag with wrong mouse button mistakes.
make_it_sure 2y ago
GIMP UX is terrible, sorry. One of the worst UX I used.
- shadowgovt 2y ago
  It's at an unfortunate saddle-point of off-the-beaten-path and undiscoverable. Contrast Blender, which does its own thing too but has an infobar at the bottom continuously trying to give context-appropriate hints for the current keybindings. Meanwhile, there's a keyboard shortcut for "anchor floating layer." Where will you find it? Not by hovering the button that anchors floating layers, that's for sure.
dusted 2y ago
> Updated graphical toolkit (GTK3) for modern desktop usage. I'm scared, they already started messing with the toolbox stuff (putting multiple icons under the same button and then changing the icons too to make it entirely impossible to find anything).. "modern desktop" has taken on a different meaning for me, it's all about making it look neat at first glance, then entirely undiscoverable, removing any affordance in sight, burger menus, ribbon menus.. f...
- 0x69420 2y ago
  for starters, toolbox grouping and icon theme changes are reversible in settings, and in fact the "legacy" icons have gotten a lot of love in 3.0. they look nice at high dpi now! (it's a shame we moved away from the tango aesthetic in linux land too early because god the style can look so right and crisp on hires screens) having used all the 3.0 RCs up till now, i can assure you all gtk3 has done is made life nicer on all major platforms. for gimp's faults (now markedly fewer) it's an image editor, a thing with a distinct purpose and pretty immediate feedback on indulgent changes nuking productivity. the cancerous low-information-density, look-over-feel trends that we associate with new gtk versions by way of gnome's visionless bikeshedding blessedly does not translate to this new gimp. pinky promise. go use it. you'll like it.
  - dusted 2y ago
    Yeah, I don't buy this "we just hid the nice way behind an option" explaination, I've been stung by that too many times to ignore it.. It means "this gonna get dead" and the argument will be "oh, nobody uses it" yeah, because, you can only want a nice thing back if you knew it existed to begin with, eventually, most users either never knew it was there, or assumed it went away, and eventually, forget it entirely, and then it's gone.
    - Andrex 2y ago
      Open Gimp's settings dialog. I don't think you have to worry about settings disappearing in newer releases. Which, major releases of Gimp are so slow anyways, if it was a realistic worry for this software specifically (it's not), it would probably be 10+ years before such a change hit stable.
PetitPrince 2y ago
I hope they keep the ball rolling and we get a similar renaissance like what we had with Blender.
voidUpdate 2y ago
Honestly, I've never really understood the hate towards the GIMP UI. Maybe it's because I'm a programmer so I'd probably end up creating a UI like it, but generally things are where I'd expect them to be. Sure, there's a learning curve but it's not that steep, and I do have to google how to do things sometimes but then I have to do that in blender too
mdtrooper 2y ago
When I heard that version 2 was 21 years old. I felt old like when you hear that the Matrix movie is 26 years old.
hoseja 2y ago
GIMP is such a joke. Really one of the worst examples of "FOSS" corruption. Touted as a flagship, moribund and useless.
ulrischa 2y ago
Does somebody know if there are any AI features in GIMP?
barcoder 2y ago
For several years I struggled to learn GIMP and other FOSS creative tools. That was until I finally stopped my Adobe subscription and had no choice to learn. AI has made the process much easier too, no need to read documentation or look at a video to find the tool or technique.
dvh 2y ago
Does it support saving jpeg and PNG files yet? I mean open jpeg, change something, press Ctrl+s, done.
- YoshiRulz 2y ago
  File > Overwrite
rckt 2y ago
They should start a Kickstarter campaign to introduce a complete UX overhaul. I want to pay for it. I want to have an intuitive way to do stuff.
- cmyk_student 2y ago
  We actually set up a dedicated UX repo for people to present design issues and discuss. The goal is to develop good designs that can then be implemented by programmers. If you're interested in contributing to the discussion, the repo is here: https://gitlab.gnome.org/Teams/GIMP/Design/gimp-ux/-/issues https://gitlab.gnome.org/Teams/GIMP/Design/gimp-ux/-/issues
gherard5555 2y ago
Did they add a circle option ?
EarthIsHome 2y ago
Can you draw arrows easily yet?
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
helij 2y ago
Congrats to GIMP devs and everyone involved. I love GIMP and have been using it for decades.

GIMP 3.0

1312 points by wicket 2y ago

jasonjamerson 2y ago

I opened GIMP once. I won't do it again until somebody compares a UI update to Blender's big one. 2.9?

garbagewoman 2y ago
They are completely different cultures that have been on very different paths: not going to happen
- stuaxo 2y ago
  There are just far more people involved in Blender.
  - calf 2y ago
    I was going comment how much I enjoy using Blender's UI and not GIMP, though both are OSS.
account42 2y ago
Your loss.

mixmastamyk 2y ago

Yeah! Non-destructive editing is huge. I learned graphics editing with Paint Shop Pro back in the day and easily transitioned to Gimp successfully in the late 90s. Been using it exclusively for twenty years and slowly but surely (haha) keeps getting better. The new widgets are kinda nice too. They've had the RCs in Fedora for a while. (If you're here to shit on gimp because it doesn't work like adobe, please take it outside, or slashdot.)

free_bip 2y ago
Is your last comment referring to users friendliness? If so, that's a valid critique.
- bigyabai 2y ago
  It's valid, but in many ways it's like Emacs users saying there are easier macros for the invocations that Vim users depend on. I use both and neither are user friendly. If you rely on Photoshop for casual edits then I truly pity you. Your money has been better spent funding Affinity Photo for years now, Creative Cloud is a lost cause. CS6 is much better, but practically antique at this point.
- somat 2y ago
  The problem is that many time the person will say "The gimp ui is terrible" and they mean "the gimp ui is different than the photoshop ui" Basically in order to have a meaningful conversation you need to figure out how to enumerate your grievances before you say them.
  - mossTechnician 2y ago
    Photoshop has enjoyed the positive bias that comes from almost universal ubiquity, and all the support they will receive online or from friends. Colloquially, "Photoshop" just means to edit an image. "Gimp" could be something quite rude to anyone who isn't familiar with the software.
eMPee584 2y ago
Paint Shop Pro was awesome.. slick UI and great UX..
- senectus1 2y ago
  I miss it so much...

xtagon 2y ago

Non-destructive editing sounds great!

jfengel 2y ago
That's huge. It is a massive gap in its capacity.

zaruvi 2y ago

I thought I'd never see the day! At long last, I'll be able to use non-destructive editing. Hopefully they'll adopt a more sane release strategy going forward.

interroboink 2y ago
I actually prefer the "when it's done" model rather than the "train leaving the station" model, for software like this. I feel it better allows for broad-scope changes, which may touch large swaths of a codebase, to more fully gel/mature before being released. For something that I might only update once every few years anyway (ie: not very security-critical), it seems worthwhile to reduce the overhead of release process/logistics for the developers, letting them spend that time on features/fixes instead. Or maybe there was another model you were suggesting? What do you find non-sane about the current one?
- LukeShu 2y ago
  They basically stopped doing the previously-usual updates for a 7 years to focus on porting to GTK+ 3; GIMP was very tied to GTK+ 2. There were a bunch of much-anticipated features (esp. non-destructive editing) that were finished but couldn't be released because it was half-way through the big GTK transition. Hopefully the now-impending port to GTK 4 will be a lot smoother and won't be such a disruption to their ability to ship the features they've been working on.
  - deaddodo 2y ago
    Just to expound on this point: > GIMP was very tied to GTK+ 2 People seem to forget that GTK was originally created for GIMP, Gnome came around and co-opted it since it was more free (libre) than QT. GTK3 was a full rewrite divorced from the GIMP development cycle so broke a huge chunk of things GIMP put in place specifically for their code styling. Thus the long development cycle.
    - thayne 2y ago
      Then Gtk4 broke a bunch more stuff, and Gtk5 will probably break even more.

Carrok 2y ago

I’ve been using GIMP as long as I can remember, more or less. Say what you will about the UI/UX but it remains top tier free software. So glad to see this.

shadowgovt 2y ago
How do you get it to paste without popping a new layer into existence that you have to deal with and decide to anchor or tear off into its own thing?
- balamatom 2y ago
  C-v C-h
  - blooalien 2y ago
    Kudos! Am a huge proponent of learning the most useful hotkey combinations for any software one uses even semi-frequently. Such a massive time-saver.
    - stuaxo 2y ago
      The removal of hotkeys and icons from menus was an act of vandalism. You used to be able to learn a program by simply running the mouse across the menus to see the hotkeys and icons too.
      - balamatom 2y ago
        PSA: It's not vandalism when it's the people in power who are destroying the nice things - that's called design.
  - shadowgovt 2y ago
    Excellent! How did you find that key combo?
    - 2y ago

amelius 2y ago

When will we get DL stuff in Gimp? E.g. diffusion, superresolution, etc.

balamatom 2y ago
Can we please not? Though if you really, really wanna, well I just looked and the top 2 search results were plugins for that sort of thing. The things people'll do for GitHub stars these days... Guess you could try putting those on? In which case we wish you good hunting!
xena 2y ago
It has a plugin API. Should be easy to implement should you want it.
- amelius 2y ago
  I want it out of the box, no installation hassles.
  - sgt 2y ago
    You can get it out of the box, you'll just need to implement it first.
    - amelius 2y ago
      I mean, if you want to compete with commercial products then the least you can do is listen to your audience.
      - xena 2y ago
        You should provide that feedback to the GIMP project: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gimp/-/issues https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gimp/-/issues
      - sgt 2y ago
        Gimp was never about competing with a commercial product. It's to build a usable product that the developers like. If others want to use it, great.

dskhatri 2y ago

I too have been using the wonderful GIMP for years. The BIMP (Batch Image Manipulation Plugin for GIMP) is super useful in batch processing a large number of images in GIMP.

idle_zealot 2y ago

> Making pro-quality text got easier, too. Style your text, apply outlines, shadows, bevels, and more, and you can still edit your text, change font and size, and even tweak the style settings. This is a game-changer. I tried to use GIMP to typeset comic translations many years ago, and the workflow was so terrible I had to resort to a few extra tools, complicating my workflow. I'll have to try the new text editing to see for sure, but it sounds like typesetting is now comparable to what's offered in proprietary editors.

Carrok 2y ago
So excited to try this. I had the exact same experience.
geenat 2y ago
Agreed, surprisingly capable in 3.0 compared to latest krita or inkscape. Krita 5.3 is supposed to get a major overhaul for text as well (real time preview, on-canvas editing).
- specproc 2y ago
  I get it's a painting program first and foremost, but Krita's text tool is shameful. Glad to hear.
fumufumu 2y ago
[dead]
throwanem 2y ago
Can it render text at better than 72dpi? It couldn't when I last checked a couple years ago, and that seems like the kind of fix that would belong in a major release. GIMP has always been useless for my workflows, professional and personal, for that reason, and Photoshop's just a far higher quality and more useful piece of software. But with that fixed I think at least I could recommend GIMP in something close to good conscience for folks who can't yet afford anything better. Although really, even there the UI is so bad that Photopea would still be preferable, webapp or no. At least that knowledge transfers. Time spent learning GIMP is just wasted.

geenat 2y ago

3.0 is big for GIMP. Lots of features to make it viable for simple Desktop Publishing and YouTube thumbs. Created a quick poster: https://i.imgur.com/pPgy255.png https://i.imgur.com/pPgy255.png Stuff that needs work: * UI/UX: "Tool->GEGL Operation..." is too much friction for such a common operation- just pop it up when you click on the "FX" button in the layers window. * UI/UX: Naming. Drop shadows and glow are currently not discoverable (its squirreled away in the generic "GEGL Styles"). * UI/UX: "Move Tool" should act like a common entry point to other tools if you're not dragging. Switch to "Transform Tool" if I single click an image layer. Switch to the "Text Tool" if I single click a Text layer! Please! * UI/UX: Copying/pasting layer styles does not work. Users can overlook many issues if you can duplicate/destroy layer styles easily. Preset system is cumbersome. Idea: Presets usable from the Layers window directly (could be just add/apply presets) would help a lot, but just copy/paste would probably be better. * BUG: Layers often clip GEGL Glow. Again could be worked around by just easy copy/paste of layer styles. See clipping present on "GIMP Halloween Party" text in my image.

chirau 2y ago
May I ask a not so smart question... What is the big deal with thumbnails for YouTube videos. Like, I am always hearing about these thumbnails as if they can make or break a video/channels outcomes.
- Conan_Kudo 2y ago
  Because they can. The thumbnails are the first impression of a video, and if it isn't attention-grabbing, the video suffers.
- danielheath 2y ago
  At the end of a video, youtube shows thumbnails for several "suggested next videos". The thumbnail, video name and channel name are the only bits of information potential viewers see - if your thumbnail isn't good, they aren't even going to _start_ your video, let alone keep watching it.
  - 2y ago

rascul 2y ago

> Updated graphical toolkit (GTK3) for modern desktop usage. Are distros going to drop GTK2 now?

progmetaldev 2y ago
Unless they are focused on decreasing bloat, I don't think that this will happen. There are lots of utilities and other software that still uses GTK2. I doubt that GIMP was the last tool left to prevent dropping GTK2. I found this from ArchLinux, search for "gtk 2": https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Uniform_look_for_Qt_and_GTK_applications https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Uniform_look_for_Qt_and_GTK... Plus you can search for "GTK 2" dependencies. Some sites seem hopeful to move to GTK 4, while others wish they could move to 3, and some talk about upcoming 5.
- stuaxo 2y ago
  Without GIMP using it any more releases is unlikely.
TingPing 2y ago
Debian and RHEL already did.
- badsectoracula 2y ago
  I don't know about RHEL but gtk2 is still in Debian unstable[0]. A reverse dependency search shows 340 packages relying on it (200 direct dependencies). [0] https://packages.debian.org/sid/libgtk2.0-0t64 https://packages.debian.org/sid/libgtk2.0-0t64
  - Lammy 2y ago
    And FreeBSD Ports has 434 extant ports which depend on it https://www.freshports.org/x11-toolkits/gtk20/ https://www.freshports.org/x11-toolkits/gtk20/
  - TingPing 2y ago

esskay 2y ago

And sticking with tradition, zero screenshots of it on the announcement post.

pndy 2y ago
> » READ COMPLETE RELEASE NOTES « There are some. At first glance it doesn't seem to be that much different from 2.10 that I have installed in Manjaro
mixmastamyk 2y ago
The new GTK widgets are a little flatter and have a bit more padding, but otherwise not much new to see. The headline feature is non-destructive.

jayzalowitz 2y ago

It blows my mind that the cockroach db founders started this 29 years ago. Amazing to see this release.

lollollollollol 2y ago
I couldn’t tell you what the benefit of cockroach db is or what it’s used for, but I’ve been using Gimp for the majority of its life.
- lionkor 2y ago
  Distributed postgres
oblio 2y ago
That's super funny, never knew that. Amazing that they still work together 30 years later.

fishcrackers 2y ago

[dead]

bhouston 2y ago

Gimp is amazing and like Blender has replaced my use of proprietary tools in the area of 2D and 3D editing. My wishlist for GIMP 4 is to see AI tooling integrated by default: - Image generation that will do completions based on prompts on arbitrary areas. Something like this: https://www.adobe.com/ca/products/photoshop/generative-fill.html https://www.adobe.com/ca/products/photoshop/generative-fill.... - AI super-resolution. There are a lot of options now that can dramatically improve sharpness, akin to Topaz Gigapixel: https://www.topazlabs.com/gigapixel https://www.topazlabs.com/gigapixel - Meta's segment anything integrated so that there is no need to painstakenly select objects. https://segment-anything.com https://segment-anything.com (Does it support sub-pixel fuzzy selections?). It would also label everything in the model, which leads to... - Built-in model context protocol (MCP) support to allow for automated control by agentic AI. (See what is possible with Blender: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqgKuLYUv00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqgKuLYUv00) Of course it should only download the models the first time someone needs them.

emkoemko 2y ago
do we really need to add AI to everything?
- bhouston 2y ago
  These 4 features are AI related but each of them have separate strong use cases. Looking at popular commercial tools like Adobe Photoshop and Topaz tools for inspiration is just logical -- it means there is clear demand for these features among users.
  - Twirrim 2y ago
    > it means there is clear demand for these features among users. No, it just means executives want to add AI to things. So many of these "But with AI" are not lead by customers but by executives wanting to make sure their product isn't seen as behind the times.
    - 2y ago

James_K 2y ago

I wonder if you can move text properly now? It's always been that you have to click on the black part of the letter and it's really fiddly to get a pixel perfect click.

ponorin 2y ago
There already has been an option to move the selected layer regardless of where you click on.
- gitaarik 2y ago
  Oh yeah? How??
  - ponorin 2y ago
    https://docs.gimp.org/2.6/en/gimp-tool-move.html https://docs.gimp.org/2.6/en/gimp-tool-move.html in 4.3.2. Options: > Move the active layer > Only the current layer will be moved. This may be useful if you want to move a layer with transparent areas, where you can easily pick the wrong layer. note that version 2.6 was relesed in 2008.
    - James_K 2y ago
      So they have a half-baked solution written in a random menu instead of just having it work properly by default? Well that's fine then. Seriously though, the text clickable area should be a bounding box of each line. Having to click the text layer is probably the same effort as fiddling around trying to get the exact location. Software should be welcoming by default, rather than hostile until you read every sub-menu to find the key shortcut that makes it bearable. It's bad UX in the same way not having a shape tool was bad UX. Sure you can look up "how to draw circle" and find out that you use the circle selection and stroke tool, but that's not intuitive for anyone.
      - ponorin 2y ago
        > So they have a half-baked solution written in a random menu instead of just having it work properly by default? i fail to see how an option for moving (visible by default), in a move tool, is "a half-baked solution (..) in a random menu." you don't move around text with a text tool, so where else should it be? > Seriously though, the text clickable area should be a bounding box of each line. gimp allows an arbitrary bounding box size for text layers. this enables, among other things, to conform text into a specific bounding box (i.e., no need to manually press enter to keep text inside a specific area). calculating the hit point with a bounding box instead of the content will invite even more confusion as people complain that text layer keeps moving when "i pressed the other thing." also because people often praise krita for being the sane one, without apparently having used either of them for more than 5 minutes, krita has 3 different "move" tools and 2 different resize tools for text, each doing different things. probably the most confusing decision on krita is to make "mouse pointer tool" vector only. the program does tell you to use the move tool when you try it, but they could have just... make bitmaps movable with the "mouse pointer." nothing i can think of prohibits them from doing this. also krita's move tool defaults to moving the selected layer without a visible option to change this behaviour, unlike gimp. so gimp is actually better even by your standard.

whalesalad 2y ago

Any tips for someone who’s been using photoshop for 20 years? Last time I tried gimp it was brutal even with the compatibility key bindings enabled.

geenat 2y ago
The workflows are still very rough, see my comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43394200 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43394200
cadamsdotcom 2y ago
My main tip would be: give it a try! It’s free! And it’s all new and shiny! The biggest cost you incur is your time to try it, which isn’t that much more than the time it takes to type out an internet comment. Second tip: if you get stuck, there is SO much content on youtube these days, you’re bound to find a guide or some help just by searching. Good luck and enjoy free software!
- whalesalad 2y ago
  Ya I get all that. Was more curious if there are people who have switched and have suggestions for config/plugins/setups that make the transition easier.
  - mixmastamyk 2y ago
    I personally wouldn't do that. In the days when I moved operating systems or the new one was a big UI change, I'd force myself to use it exclusively for a full week at least. In practice, it meant taking some tutorials and searching up how to do the simplest things. Annoying but you get the hang of it after suffering several days. Still, I'd wait for 3.0.5+ or so.
  - cadamsdotcom 2y ago
    You're bound to stumble over stuff that doesn't work how you're used to. But, the friction for trying it yourself has never been lower. Writing more internet comments is comfy but won't bring you closer to answering your question.

synergy20 2y ago

gimp is a bit complicated for casual use for common and simple needs, wish there is a much simplified version. would be even nicer if there is one click passport mode, picture improvement mode, etc, something like what mobile phone photo apps provide.

jijji 2y ago
Gimp is about as complicated or less than Photoshop which is what it's replacing... as a matter of fact there's even a Photoshop UI interface template that sits on top of gimp that makes it act exactly as Photoshop... so what are you talking about specifically
keithnz 2y ago
not sure how simple you want, but pinta is quite a nice small and fast image editing program

Beijinger 2y ago

CMYK Support?

Joel_Mckay 2y ago
https://www.gimp.org/docs/userfaq.html#i-do-a-lot-of-desktop-publishing-related-work-will-you-ever-support-cmyk https://www.gimp.org/docs/userfaq.html#i-do-a-lot-of-desktop... Yes, sort of since 2022... =3
mixmastamyk 2y ago
I see it in the color picker and tiff, jpeg, psd export dialogs. Looks like a yes.
cmyk_student 2y ago
Right now you can import/export CMYK JPEGs, TIFFs, PSDs, and JPEG-XL. You can also soft-proof to simulate print, and the color picker/selector can be set to show CMYK values for your assigned profile. A full CMYK mode is on my TODO list now that 3.0 is out. :)

thisgoodlife 2y ago

Can it draw basic stuff like circles, arrows, and lines now?

geenat 2y ago
Circle: Ellipse select -> Bucket fill Line: Rectangle select -> Bucket fill -> Transform There should be some basic arrows but there doesn't seem to be.
- fngjdflmdflg 2y ago
  You also need to check "Fixed aspect ratio" in the Ellipse select options, otherwise you will get an ellipse instead of a circle.
  - geenat 2y ago
    I just use shift, but that's photoshop muscle memory for ya.
    - fngjdflmdflg 2y ago
      I tired that originally and it did not work. The issue was that I pressed shift before clicking. After testing, MS paint and Photopea both support clicking shift before starting the selection to create a circle. Krita does nothing if you hold shift before selecting. I don't have PS right now so I don't know what that does. Seems unintuitive to me.
  - eitland 2y ago
    Or you can use the right modifier key. Haven't used Gimp in a long time, but try holding down ctrl, shift or alt while doing the circle (or rectangular for that matter) select. One is for aspect ratio, one is for center from starting point and the last I cannot remember. IIRC the same goes for combining selections: modifier keys can be used to add, subtract or make intersections.

KnuthIsGod 2y ago

Needs a new user interface and a new name. Krita is not as excruciating as the gimp.

ryukoposting 2y ago

Non-destructive editing is a huge shift for GIMP that's really exciting to see. I'm quite happy with Rawtherapee so I don't know if I'll go back to GIMP, but the fact that you won't have to create a bazillion extra layers with backups of your work will be a huge step forward.

farts_mckensy 2y ago

New gimp just dropped.

rat87 2y ago

I hope ArsTechnica brings back their long form gimp reviews for this release. I know they stopped doing them but it seems like this release is pretty special

mixmastamyk 2y ago
I looked it up and it seems the writer stopped writing for Ars about ten years ago. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2009/01/gimp-2-6-review/ https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2009/01/gimp-...

jijji 2y ago

I think the big features in the future for gimp are going to be AI related image features.... I'm not sure why they didn't mention any of that but that's the obvious thing for me would be AI related image manipulation using prompt guided AI... for example passing the image into llama3.2-vision would be a step in the right direction

tasuki 2y ago

> Making pro-quality text got easier, too. Style your text, apply outlines, shadows, bevels, and more Those... are not "pro-quality" things but cheap gimmicks. Good that they're introducing non-destructive editing! I've long moved to DarkTable for photo editing. Photo editing never seemed like GIMP's goal.

paulryanrogers 2y ago
Gimp does seem to be half way between a photo editor and a drawing/painting program. For me, the swiss-army knife approach they support is good enough. And it saves me from having to wrangle two or three other tools.

anymouse123456 2y ago

Congrats and thanks for all the hard work. I'm an occasional/light user of image editing software and Gimp has been my go-to for years now. I really appreciate all the work you've put into small UX details and performance over the past 3-5 years. It shows.

Blackthorn 2y ago

Nice, now we can have plugins again thanks to having a stabilized API.

ChrisArchitect 2y ago

Can we fix this link? Surely they don't want a staging server out there https://www.gimp.org/news/2025/03/16/gimp-3-0-released/ https://www.gimp.org/news/2025/03/16/gimp-3-0-released/

tlhunter 2y ago

> Copying and pasting now creates a new layer by default rather than a “floating selection”, which many users found confusing. Floating layers can still be created with the “Paste as Floating Data” option for those who prefer that workflow. Oh thank god

modzu 2y ago

gimp is dead. long live krita

system2 2y ago

I've been a Photoshop user for over 2 decades. I install GIMP every few years to test to see how far it has progressed. This Ui took me back to the 1990s (almost Windows 3.0). I wish the shortcuts were similar to Photoshop so the transition for people who don't want to pay for Photoshop would be easier. For free software, I can't complain. I am certain so many unpaid hours were poured into it.

renewiltord 2y ago

Oh wow they have Apple Silicon builds now. The last I tried they were woefully slow. This is great news. For all it's flaws it's been a really useful application over the years and I do miss it now that I'm on the M-series Macs. But now I know I don't have to.

29athrowaway 2y ago

GTK 3 was released in 2011. The upgrade took 14 years. GTK 4 was released in 2020. I hearby declare the GIMP / GTK 4 challenge: use AI to migrate GIMP from GTK 3 to GTK 4. The prize: a drawing of a seven legged spider.

cytocync 2y ago

[dead]

typon 2y ago

Gotta love these guys for keeping at it for 26 years. Much much love

starkparker 2y ago

Oh, good. The toilet paper template is still there.

ziml77 2y ago

I just opened this up on macOS and the very first thing I noticed is that the bold font rendering in the UI looks like shit. The letters are all squished into each other. Is this just something weird with my system? GIMP 3.0 has been in testing for long enough that it's hard to believe this is a widespread issue that wouldn't have been found and fixed before release.

sunaookami 2y ago
GIMP is notoriously bad on macOS so no surprise. It's unfixable. Just buy Affinity Photo if you need a professional software.
cmyk_student 2y ago
Unfortunately we don't have as many macOS testers so we tend to get less feedback. However, it looks like it's an issue in one of the dependency libraries - there's discussion at https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gimp/-/issues/12736#note_2372962 https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gimp/-/issues/12736#note_2372...
- ziml77 2y ago
  Huh. I genuinely didn't expect photo editing software to be lacking users on macOS. I hope the GTK team figures out how to consistently load the right font here. A lot of great work seems to have gone into GIMP 3, so it's a shame that a bug like this makes it look unpolished.

joeevans1000 2y ago

Oh yes... yes... yes. I hate to be enthusiastic about this for a lame reason... but I can't believe the bloated labyrinthine expensive hellscape of Photoshop. With the myriad extra software one needs to install just to make it work. Thank YOUUUUUUU!!!! > This is the end result of seven years of hard work by volunteer developers, designers, artists, and community members Gratitude!

Duanemclemore 2y ago

I was so eager to get non destructive editing on Linux that I downloaded it and compiled it from source when it was still in beta. That is the biggest game changer of 3.0 if you ask me.

pjdesno 2y ago

Does the UI still suck?

bongodongobob 2y ago
Yes.
- gitaarik 2y ago
  But why does the UI suck actually? Is it because most people are used to Photoshop, and GIMP works similar but different enough to be very confusing and annoying? That's been at least my experience. But I haven't used Photoshop in years now and got pretty much used to GIMP by now, for the once in a while that I use it. And now I don't really have the annoyances anymore. I actually know pretty well how to do most basic stuff, and some handy keyboard shortcuts. And now GIMP doesn't feel that clunky anymore.
  - Xaphiosis 2y ago
    People keep rolling out this defence over and over in this thread, but look at those who started on anything else. For example, I've never used Photoshop, but moved from MS paint level to Paint Shop Pro (I think 6? 7?) and had to learn that from scratch. The experience was mostly intuitive, things were more or less where you expected and did what you expected, and there was solid help available under the help menu. I have tried to use GIMP on dozens of occasions, and it always surprises me in the worst ways, or bounces me off to search the web for a howto. Simple things like: I want to select a rectangle, move/resize the selection, then crop the image to that selection. Or I want to arrange two images side-by-side for comparison, crop to the smaller one, to export a side-by-side. Pretty much every attempt at doing something other than colour curve adjustment has resulted in a faceplant. Eventually I gave up switched to Krita.
    - mixmastamyk 2y ago
      I started with PSP and Gimp's crop tool works as expected. Drag where you want, adjust edges, then mouse click in the center. Overall, it works similarly to MacPaint from '84 and even has the same CUA keybindings.

otar 2y ago

I got so used to GIMP back in my Ubuntu Linux days that I don’t bother installing Photoshop or other image editor on my Mac. Besides, Adobe is an ugly company with shady billing/retention tactics…

yieldcrv 2y ago
The gulf is sooooo wide now though GIMP is still trying to reach parity with CS6 days from 20 years ago, all for the gold star of saying “we did it guys”
- kilpikaarna 2y ago
  Photoshop was basically done at CS6 (which was less than 15 years ago), so why not? I know the copy I'm keeping around to avoid Adobe rent-seeking is eventually goong to stop working on new OS versions.
  - yieldcrv 2y ago
    We discuss emulators all the time here, so there would be less scrutiny if they just say that they are an aspiring CS6 emulator
    - consteval 2y ago
      Emulator means something pretty specific, it’s a ground-up piece of software with similar functionality. Not a PS emulator.

nomilk 2y ago

Usually I'd strongly bias toward OSS. But gimp's ux is just so bad, I'd sooner use (_vomits_) adobe knowing I'll have to wrestle a bear in order to cancel my subscription. But there's no need. Figma, while not OSS, is free, and it does have acceptable UX. I'm a newb who occasionally needs to brush up an image or combine multiple images for my startup. I got more done in figma in thirty minutes than in gimp in 3 hours, and was much less frustrated. I could never find the relevant button (or sometimes even pane) in gimp. If you already learned gimp, use it, but for anyone else it's false economy - the time you lose fighting its UX outweighs the feelgood/freedom of using OSS.

bongodongobob 2y ago
[flagged]
- nomilk 2y ago
  I suspect many who make software would never do what adobe does (deliberately make it difficult for customers to leave). Entirely subjective, of course, but I consider Adobe's retention strategies very sleazy (although not uncommon). That said, can also see the utility in making deals with the devil: if it means getting your own software done faster and better, then it might be worth it, even if it feels gross.
  - bongodongobob 2y ago
    When I tried to cancel my subscription they offered me a free year of everything. I took it and then cancelled when it was done. 0 issues.
    - nomilk 2y ago
      Nice work. I've never subscribed to Adobe products, so I haven't experienced it first hand. My thinking is if your software is great, you shouldn't need lock-in contracts or adobe-like tactics. (I've dodged similar subscription models like economist magazine and masterclass purely due to the utility of the subscription being outweighed by the knowledge I'd one day have to endure a frustrating process to unsubscribe).

SuperNinKenDo 2y ago

Dwedit 2y ago

Anyone know how to get the Resynthesizer plugin working in Gimp? It works in version 2, but I can't get it working in version 3.

JohnTHaller 2y ago
"Porting to GIMP 3 is in progress. The "resynthesizer3" branch is ready for initial trials with GIMP 3.0rc2. Porting of plugins from GIMP 2 to 3 is not complete. Testing is not complete. An MS Windows build is not tested and not in the repo." https://github.com/bootchk/resynthesizer https://github.com/bootchk/resynthesizer

freetime2 2y ago

How do GIMP's selection tools stack up against Photoshop these days? I'm not an expert in either, but a long time ago I remember struggling to select a person in a photo in GIMP. And then my friend demo'd the new-at-the-time subject selection tool that made it trivial.

freetime2 2y ago
Just to clarify - the subject selection tool my friend showed me was in Photoshop. And seeing as how masking/selection is such an important part of image editing, I think more efficient selection alone would be worth the subscription cost for anyone who frequently edits photos.
ZoomZoomZoom 2y ago
GIMP should port and adapt Darktable's parametric masking and get ahead of Adobe.

wetpaws 2y ago

[dead]

rjurney 2y ago

I'm really tired of shelling out $90/month for Photoshop, Illustrator and Acrobat...

bongodongobob 2y ago
So choose a less expensive plan.
- rjurney 2y ago
  There isn't one for those three apps.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]

galaxyLogic 2y ago

It has a nice start-image with sunset and stylizised clouds. Can anybody tell or guess how those clouds were created? I've been looking for such an effect for some time now, basically emphasizing edges and contours.

hrnnnnnn 2y ago
They look hand-drawn to me.

sathley 2y ago

GIMP needs a badass new logo for the new version.

deleted 2y ago

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Mashimo 2y ago

wtcactus 2y ago

I think GIMP could become a big proper competitor to commercial photo editors just like Blender did on the 3D space, as soon as they go the Blender way and do a complete overhaul of the UX/UI like Blender did. I remember, for years and years, trying Blender and quitting it due to the terrible UX choices. Likewise, I also remember the devs and some older users on the internet trying, at every turn, to tell us how much superior Blender UI/UX was, that all the people were wrong and they were right. They weren't right, of course. Then the team at Blender finally accepted it, they did a complete redo of the UX/UI and now Blender is winning prizes at the Oscars. The same could happen to GIMP if they just accepted the UX is terrible. I'm saying this, totally agreeing that these devs did a fantastic job and that they don't owe us anything. This is open source, of course. But, this level of stubbornness, is preventing GIMP from being used by a lot more people that want to finally ditch Photoshop.

hahamaster 2y ago
It's probably a lot of work.
tomovo 2y ago
For Blender it wasn't just the UI, it was great leadership, direction, focus and decision making that got it where it is today. This culture started attracting more talent in both users and new developers.
mixmastamyk 2y ago
Gimp UI is like every image editor since 1985, and uses CUA keybindings. It has nothing to fix on the level of Blender’s drag with wrong mouse button mistakes.

make_it_sure 2y ago

GIMP UX is terrible, sorry. One of the worst UX I used.

shadowgovt 2y ago
It's at an unfortunate saddle-point of off-the-beaten-path and undiscoverable. Contrast Blender, which does its own thing too but has an infobar at the bottom continuously trying to give context-appropriate hints for the current keybindings. Meanwhile, there's a keyboard shortcut for "anchor floating layer." Where will you find it? Not by hovering the button that anchors floating layers, that's for sure.

dusted 2y ago

> Updated graphical toolkit (GTK3) for modern desktop usage. I'm scared, they already started messing with the toolbox stuff (putting multiple icons under the same button and then changing the icons too to make it entirely impossible to find anything).. "modern desktop" has taken on a different meaning for me, it's all about making it look neat at first glance, then entirely undiscoverable, removing any affordance in sight, burger menus, ribbon menus.. f...

0x69420 2y ago
for starters, toolbox grouping and icon theme changes are reversible in settings, and in fact the "legacy" icons have gotten a lot of love in 3.0. they look nice at high dpi now! (it's a shame we moved away from the tango aesthetic in linux land too early because god the style can look so right and crisp on hires screens) having used all the 3.0 RCs up till now, i can assure you all gtk3 has done is made life nicer on all major platforms. for gimp's faults (now markedly fewer) it's an image editor, a thing with a distinct purpose and pretty immediate feedback on indulgent changes nuking productivity. the cancerous low-information-density, look-over-feel trends that we associate with new gtk versions by way of gnome's visionless bikeshedding blessedly does not translate to this new gimp. pinky promise. go use it. you'll like it.
- dusted 2y ago
  Yeah, I don't buy this "we just hid the nice way behind an option" explaination, I've been stung by that too many times to ignore it.. It means "this gonna get dead" and the argument will be "oh, nobody uses it" yeah, because, you can only want a nice thing back if you knew it existed to begin with, eventually, most users either never knew it was there, or assumed it went away, and eventually, forget it entirely, and then it's gone.
  - Andrex 2y ago
    Open Gimp's settings dialog. I don't think you have to worry about settings disappearing in newer releases. Which, major releases of Gimp are so slow anyways, if it was a realistic worry for this software specifically (it's not), it would probably be 10+ years before such a change hit stable.

PetitPrince 2y ago

I hope they keep the ball rolling and we get a similar renaissance like what we had with Blender.

voidUpdate 2y ago

Honestly, I've never really understood the hate towards the GIMP UI. Maybe it's because I'm a programmer so I'd probably end up creating a UI like it, but generally things are where I'd expect them to be. Sure, there's a learning curve but it's not that steep, and I do have to google how to do things sometimes but then I have to do that in blender too

mdtrooper 2y ago

When I heard that version 2 was 21 years old. I felt old like when you hear that the Matrix movie is 26 years old.

hoseja 2y ago

GIMP is such a joke. Really one of the worst examples of "FOSS" corruption. Touted as a flagship, moribund and useless.

ulrischa 2y ago

Does somebody know if there are any AI features in GIMP?

barcoder 2y ago

For several years I struggled to learn GIMP and other FOSS creative tools. That was until I finally stopped my Adobe subscription and had no choice to learn. AI has made the process much easier too, no need to read documentation or look at a video to find the tool or technique.

dvh 2y ago

Does it support saving jpeg and PNG files yet? I mean open jpeg, change something, press Ctrl+s, done.

YoshiRulz 2y ago
File > Overwrite

rckt 2y ago

They should start a Kickstarter campaign to introduce a complete UX overhaul. I want to pay for it. I want to have an intuitive way to do stuff.

cmyk_student 2y ago
We actually set up a dedicated UX repo for people to present design issues and discuss. The goal is to develop good designs that can then be implemented by programmers. If you're interested in contributing to the discussion, the repo is here: https://gitlab.gnome.org/Teams/GIMP/Design/gimp-ux/-/issues https://gitlab.gnome.org/Teams/GIMP/Design/gimp-ux/-/issues

gherard5555 2y ago

Did they add a circle option ?

EarthIsHome 2y ago

Can you draw arrows easily yet?

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

helij 2y ago

Congrats to GIMP devs and everyone involved. I love GIMP and have been using it for decades.