After 6 long years, GIMP has finally released version 2.10 using the Generic Graphics Library (GEGL) for high bit depth processing. This release comes with a brand new interface, better integrated color management, a new unified transform tool for scaling, rotating, and correcting perspective, and many other improvements and tools.
takyon: More detailed release notes and NEWS file.
High bit depth support allows processing images with up to 32-bit per color channel precision and open/export PSD, TIFF, PNG, EXR, and RGBE files in their native fidelity. Additionally, FITS images can be opened with up to 64-bit per channel precision.
Multi-threading allows making use of multiple cores for processing. Not all features in GIMP make use of that, it's something we intend to work on further. A point of interest is that multi-threading happens through GEGL processing, but also in core GIMP itself, for instance to separate painting from display code.
GPU-side processing is still optional, but available for systems with stable OpenCL drivers.
[...] Some of the new GEGL-based filters are specifically targeted at photographers: Exposure, Shadows-Highlights, High-pass, Wavelet Decompose, Panorama Projection and others will be an important addition to your toolbox.
The WebP lossy image format, which is now supported by GIMP, was updated by Google to v1.0.0 on April 2.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 27 2018, @08:31PM (4 children)
Just Too Late (as opposed to Just In Time) for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. I find the distros are horribly atrocious in even trying to keep up with even the major software like GiMP or LibreOffice. Oh yes, just add the ppa to your Ubuntu or Mint, but the average user should not have to fiddle under the hood. I will be closely watching my Manjaro install to measure the lag time.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by KiloByte on Friday April 27 2018, @08:40PM (2 children)
A brief look shows it needs at least some polishing. For example, the toolbars rapidly get narrow as you do operations you wouldn't expect to resize them — and this is just a trivial interface issue. I guess there's plenty more that will become obvious only with more testing.
You don't put major releases of big software packages like Gimp into a LTS at the last minute for a reason.
Ceterum censeo systemd esse delendam.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 27 2018, @09:49PM (1 child)
That is of course correct! But the timing, the timing. I guess by the time 18.10 season arrives, we may get lucky. "All new interface" is a scary term nowadays, especially in the open-source / Linux world. Far too many poor examples of developers breaking previously working software with half-baked "new" ideas. My fresh install of 18.04 snap-ped to v2.8.22. Flatpak is yet-another-standard, sigh. Also to consider is what will happen to G'MIC and suchlike, and any custom scripts.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 28 2018, @12:35AM
G'MIC was (thankfully) recoded in QT so not very much. I always had a preference for Gtk and think Vala is a grossly underrated and underused language but the Gnome developers need to meet us halfway on this. No chance! If I were currently developing any GUI app today, no question it would be in QT/C++.
(Score: 4, Informative) by fyngyrz on Saturday April 28 2018, @12:54AM
No OS X version yet. Hopefully one will come along. Always fun to noodle through yet another image manipulation system, see what they're up to.
My company used to sell WinImages [ourtimelines.com] for Windows which I now make freely available, and I'm also working on this [ourtimelines.com] for OS X, also free.
I'm thinking about doing a modern general image manipulation system openly (I'd open it on github, probably) under Qt, which would provide (relatively) easy generation of OS X, Windows and Linux versions, using some of the tech from WinImages. Lots of good stuff in there to be mined.
It's a pretty good sized job, but then again, I've already done it once and I have the source code, so... I'm very tempted.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by maxwell demon on Friday April 27 2018, @08:50PM (17 children)
After my past experience with brand new interfaces, I fear for the worst.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Kromagv0 on Friday April 27 2018, @09:02PM (2 children)
Having been on the 2.9 branch for a while (need it for processing high bit depth images) it isn't too bad and a bit more similar to Photoshop so I assume it would be that UI. That said while a new interface it isn't like what MS did with the ribbon or with metro where it just became painful. I guess I will need to go and update things and run the stable branch now and see what if anything has changed from the older 2.9 branch version I was on. Now if we could have adjustment layers life would be grand.
T-Shirts and bumper stickers [zazzle.com] to offend someone
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 28 2018, @02:06AM (1 child)
FFS, yes, adjustment layers and nondestructive editing! I switched to Linux on my home desktop over a decade ago and swear adjustment layers were "just around the corner" even then.
From the snail's pace development and from commentary I've read, including qzm's comment below, there must be something seriously wrong with the culture of the project. I seriously hate to pick on a GPL project, and no I couldn't do it better. But come on, talk about a project with widespread interest that should be attracting all kinds of developers...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 28 2018, @02:26AM
Adjustment layers was doable in old code bases: as special blend modes that ignore layer pixels, and process the stack below with Levels, Curves, etc code. That is probably what PS did (and maybe does), or it looked a lot like how it worked. https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=79025 [gnome.org]
It was hackable then (2002), just make sure it's nice in the XCF format, and later implement it "perfect" when you have GEGL or whatever.
But no, GIMP devs want perfection in first try. They scared developers when FOSS was the "in" thing (2000s or so, after 2008 most people has to care about keeping a job and change to one that doesn't pay shit, meaning less free time... and then Cloud and Mobile stole Desktop thunder).
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Friday April 27 2018, @09:06PM
> past experience with brand new interfaces
GIMP would be quite unusable if half of the controls were replaced by white space.
But I'll wait until the .1 or .2, because I've never seen a new interface come without significant -and usually obvious- oops.
(Score: 2) by qzm on Saturday April 28 2018, @12:17AM (8 children)
I wonder if they have discovered an even more annoying way to handle files than their previous 'You MUST save in our own format, because we, not the user base, know best, but we will let you export in any format, however we wont let you have a hotkey for that, and we will complain about changes not saves even if you do that'
GIMP development was taken over by a bunch of 'We know betters' who decided Gimp was a photo retouching application and had to work the One True Way, which was their way, a long time ago - so a huge number of developers ended up walking away (including myself) in disgust, and development crawled almost to a halt.
I will probably give the new one a spin, just in case, but it is sad to think what could have been, if they had not messed up the project so strongly.
(Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Saturday April 28 2018, @12:24AM (7 children)
I like it. That is the way it should be done. Use their own format for layers, etc. and just export as PNG/WUTEVR when you need to, likely at the end. Takes all of 2 minutes to figure this system out. I'm sure that I've seen other software take a similar Export/Save approach.
And what do you know, there is a hotkey for export.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 28 2018, @02:15AM
Before, the system had "save a copy" and you could save XCF and save copies in WUTEVR. Or save WUTEVR and not care about XCFs for that file. But they had to force everyone with their "We Know Better" SuperPower... and including conditions (was it exported already?), so we got Overwrite (yay, yet another command to eat a shortcut). Now "save a copy" is mostly worthless (=duplicate and save that) except for (maybe, I don't remember) a bit less typing while picking filename.
A fucking mess inflicted into everyone, because some were unable to self organize. Oh, BTW, XCF doesn't save everything... where is the undo stack? So XCF must be in the Export group too. :P
BTW, have they finally added timed auto saves? It was on topic when all the "save/export is serious business" took place (new in 2.7/2.8), it was still not fixed even if old by then (2.6 was released in 2008, editors had it for decades). https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=138373 [gnome.org] It seems they didn't, 2004-2018 and counting.
Someone did a hack in Perl or Python (comments 50, 45 and others, GIMP devs want the thing "perfect", so hacks don't count). I had forgotten they even said Gimp was stable (comment 17), so it was not prioritary to code autosave... what about hardware issues (comment 32)? Or something killing GIMP, like the desktop or OOM killer (maybe self inflicted, maybe other program triggers it and Gimp is sacrificed... see comment 26)? Yeah, "We Know Better" over and over.
Now you know why GIMP lost steam, people got something called life or/and got pissed. Years ago they got offers to be paid, but the core was opposed, now, a bit late, some GIMP devs are OK with getting paid for the job. TLTL.
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Saturday April 28 2018, @06:13AM (2 children)
Takes all of two minutes to fix it properly [shallowsky.com], too.
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 2) by qzm on Saturday April 28 2018, @06:31AM (1 child)
Ah yes, the 'proper' way.
Just install a plugin, which also needs another plugin, which works on some version/OS combinations of gimp and tends to be somewhat touchy (the python stuff.)
Then use the rather 'interesting' hotkey remap to get it hooked, along with hacking some xml files to hide the old menus (optional of course).
Or they could have just given people the freedom to decide if they wanted to use xcf by not forcing save to it, and perhaps kept some of their developer base, and not taken
over half a decade to move up one minor version number.
Yes, I know, endless complaining about something, but when you put a ton of work into a project then see it hijacked by people who appear to hate their own community,
and insist on doing stupid things 'because they know better' it makes you bitter.
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Saturday April 28 2018, @08:13AM
Not my first choice, but better than any of gimp's options. My point was that a quickly installed kludge is at least as good as what the current gimp developers provide.
This would have been my preferred Plan A.
I never contributed directly to the project (not a coder, never got experienced enough to help with documentation) but I did get a few people to start using it - despite the name; I don't recommend it to anyone any more.
I'd like to get away from it because of fearless leader's attitude, but Krita doesn't yet do everything I need (or I haven't found it yet).
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 2) by qzm on Saturday April 28 2018, @06:21AM (1 child)
Excellent, so your position is also that it was correct for them to turn their back on a strong majority of their users, and force a 'solution' on people who also used the software in other workflows where such a way of operating was a bit pain in the arse, for reasons that can only be seen as political?
Remember, before that there was exactly ZERO problem for either kind of workflow, and they gained no extra functionality for doing things 'their right way', they just removed the ability for others to do things other ways.
Oh, and since you decided to smartarse it up a bit at the end.
a hotkey for 'Export' is not the issue, and is of no value. I suggest you actually try, open a png file in gimp 2.10.xx (just tested RC1), make a change, then look for the key that will save that change back to the same file without you needing to interact with a dialog box.
Ctrl-S wants to force it to XCF - which is no use as it is not the original file, and is not compatible with any other uses...
Ctrl-E? closer than it once was, but it opens the export dialog, which you must then press enter on, and confirm an overwrite, and then confirm the format options.
So basically they are saying 'do everything in XCF, which of course no other software will access, or we will make your workflow more annoying'
What have they gained over letting Ctrl-S just save in the opened file format, other than an attempt to force people to work in one specific way?
If I wanted an xcf file, I would just save it as an xcf file, you know.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 07 2018, @06:42PM
You can add a keyboard shortcut to File->Overwrite (…) it does not pop-up any dialog box, just saves in the same format as the source image.
Then Ctrl+Q to quit, and then Ctrl+D to dismiss the „save as xcf…, bla bla bla…” prompt.
(Score: 2) by rleigh on Saturday April 28 2018, @07:42AM
It might work for some people, but for me it's undesirable and unhelpful. My editing needs are usually as simple as: open a PNG/JPEG/TIFF, make some edits, save back in the same format as a new file or the same file. XCF is never, ever, used by me. This might not fit the intended idealised workflow envisaged by the GIMP developers, but it's what I actually need myself to get my jobs done. By forcing the user to jump through a few extra hoops to do this fairly trivial activity, it makes GIMP a bit unpleasant to use. And historically it did work nicely.
XCF might be "richer" with more features and capabilities, but that's not a reason to make all other formats second-class citizens. I don't need those capabilities, and by forcing it as the only choice for saving, it's a net negative for people like me.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 28 2018, @12:26AM
Still not arrived in arch. The previous UI updates where they tried to make GIMP function within the Windows MDI paradigm just made things confusing if not retarded. Sane window managers already let you manage windows, the only one that didn't is the explorer shell native to an OS called "Windows". Application developers should not be fixing problems with the underlying window manager. They shouldn't be confusing "export" with "save as" when exporting from a raster image editor means something other than a raster image format. I always liked GIMP, GEGL is okay (although they could fix the retarded XML requirement for CLI use) but, for the love of the raster graphic gods, stop trying appease Windows photoshop pirates.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 28 2018, @02:53AM
Are they talking about Single Window? The monochrome themes? Probably you can still use the multi window mode as PS did in Mac, or GIMP did for ages. It's a crutch for people with window managers that suck, or those that don't care about multiple app workflows, just one app & full screen. Themes should be replaceable if you don't like them (from the screenshots, they got infected by flatness...).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 28 2018, @05:39AM (1 child)
I just checked 2.10 out and there's still no way to hide the tabs bar when working with a single image.
Good job guys.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 30 2018, @06:04PM
What did you personally do to make it happen?
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 27 2018, @10:09PM (2 children)
Did Ethanol-fueled name this software program?
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 28 2018, @12:16AM
Nah, safe to say that ET is innocent (for once) - this software was named after your dad!
(Score: 5, Touché) by takyon on Saturday April 28 2018, @12:19AM
This LAME complaint belongs in the previous century.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Lester on Saturday April 28 2018, @11:49AM
The boys in charge of GTK love tinkering with software, but not shipping real software. They suffer of a severe case of CADT [jwz.org]. In a astonishing article, Gtk 4.0 is not Gtk 4. [gnome.org] (the title alone is a good clue of level of their mind confusion) they say:
Wonderful! Software will have to be rewritten each two years. In fact much less, in GTK world backward compatibility is a joke, themes written for GTK 3.18 fail in GTK 3.20. [gnome.org]. With API in permanent Beta state, most of software will not be rewritten for new versions, developers will stick in one GTK version for years while new version keep popping out. You will have no application in current version, 2 applications in current-1, 10 in current-2 and 50 in current-3.
(In this article why do we keep building rotten foundations? [wordpress.com] there are more insightful remarks about "Gtk 4.0 is not Gtk 4")
GIMP is a good example of what's going on and the future.
GIMP, once the flagship of GTK, after seven years of GTK+3 is still using GTK+2, with no clear roadmap to 3.0. So my guess is that they will stick on GTK+2. And if they ever release a version for GTK+3, probably it will happen when GTK+4 and GTK+5 is already out. And they will never move from GTK+3, they will stop chasing the moving target of GTK, its not only high resources demanding, it is impossible . So many developers will. Developers will have to stagnate in one version, and many will move to QT.
Lazarus [lazarus-ide.org] is a RAD for developing graphic application for WIN32, GTK, QT, Cocoa. They have GTK+2 implemented and they are facing the problem of developing for GTK+3. In this thread [nabble.com] this is the feeling:
GTK team is killing GTK and Gnome. Sad.