At long last, the first release of GIMP 3.0 is here! This is the end result of
seven years of hard work by volunteer developers, designers, artists, and community members (for reference, GIMP 2.10 was first published in 2018
and the initial development version of GIMP 3.0 was released in 2020). With GIMP 3.0 you can do more than ever before, more easily, more quickly!
While we can’t cover every single change in GIMP from 2.10, we want to highlight some of the biggest ones as you start exploring this new release.
Highlights¶
-
Need to tweak a filter you applied hours ago?
New in GIMP 3.0 is non-destructive editing for
most commonly-used filters. See the changes in
real time with on-canvas preview. -
Exchange files with more applications, including
BC7 DDS files as well as better PSD export and
many new formats. -
Don’t know how big to make your drawing?
Simply set your paint tool to expand layers automatically as needed. -
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. -
Organizing your layers has become much easier with the ability to
27 Comments
mixmastamyk
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.)
xtagon
Non-destructive editing sounds great!
zaruvi
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.
Carrok
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.
amelius
When will we get DL stuff in Gimp? E.g. diffusion, superresolution, etc.
dskhatri
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
> 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.
geenat
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 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.
rascul
> Updated graphical toolkit (GTK3) for modern desktop usage.
Are distros going to drop GTK2 now?
esskay
And sticking with tradition, zero screenshots of it on the announcement post.
jayzalowitz
It blows my mind that the cockroach db founders started this 29 years ago.
Amazing to see this release.
fishcrackers
[dead]
bhouston
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….
– AI super-resolution. There are a lot of options now that can dramatically improve sharpness, akin to Topaz 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 (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)
Of course it should only download the models the first time someone needs them.
James_K
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.
whalesalad
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.
synergy20
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.
Beijinger
CMYK Support?
thisgoodlife
Can it draw basic stuff like circles, arrows, and lines now?
jasonjamerson
I opened GIMP once. I won't do it again until somebody compares a UI update to Blender's big one. 2.9?
KnuthIsGod
Needs a new user interface and a new name.
Krita is not as excruciating as the gimp.
ryukoposting
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
New gimp just dropped.
rat87
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
jijji
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
> 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.
anymouse123456
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
Nice, now we can have plugins again thanks to having a stabilized API.