Today, the GIMP 3.0 arrives, front-loaded with big new features, major UI changes, and much-needed workflow buffs.

This release has…

These span everything from new colour management tools, GTK 3 UI, non-destructive layer effects

Non-destructive editing in GIMP 3.0 is another big change. It answers a long-requested call from creatives wanting to experiment, ideate and test filters, effects, and adjustments to their work without losing the original.

In addition to letting users stack multiple filters on top of each other, GIMP 3.0 only

Elsewhere, GIMP 3.0 brings improved onboarding, adds canvas snapping options, and includes a ‘merge menu and titlebar’ option for lovers of streamlined header bars (aka CSD).

GIMP 3.0 also includes an expanded set of stroke selection options (albeit continues to lack the ability to draw stroke on the inside or outside of a selection).

Finally, a new logo: the iconic Wilber mascot is now flatter and simplified and the icon, per the GIMP devs, ‘doesn’t simulate depth’ (the version of Wilber in my hero graphic at the head of this post is wearing a crown – that isn’t part of the mascot).

Plus, hundreds of smaller quality-of-life changes are included. Most of those won’t generate unbridled excitement on their own but the sum total of ’em will deliver to an all-round smoother, more enjoyable end-user experience.

So as it stands, GIMP 3.0 is a significant upgrade sure to impress long-time users of the oft-described ‘free Photoshop’ rival—now boasting improved support for opening PSD files, no less.

As GIMP 3.0 stable release is comprised of changes spanning several years, it’d be difficult for me to namecheck every change here. There’s more to this release than just the features I spotlight. The best way to see if the latest release will work for you, is to actually try it!

RC 1

RC 2

  • GEGL Filter API lets devs apply filter effects immediately or as a non-destructive effect
  • BMPs now imported losslessly, plugin supports BMPs with RLE24 and Huffman compression
  • Windows build can open images through Windows Shortcuts (.lnk files)
  • Improved compatibility with older XCF files
  • Python console:
    • gains ctrl + r and ctrl + s shortcuts to search command history
    •  Page Up and Page Down now let you scroll history

RC 3

  • Support for loading 16-bits-per-channel LABPSDs (PSD)
  • PSD export dialog now uses GIMP’s built-in metadata export features (PSD)
  • Saving CMYK merged images properly (PSD)
  • Easier to load images from Google Drive and other remote or cloud platforms
  • Support for ic05 icon types and ARGB icon formats
  • Thread safe: When changes are made to an image (such as painting), the image projection needs to be “flushed” to display new changes to the screen. Some aspects of this process were not “thread-safe”, which means that when your computer used multiple threads to speed up the work, they might conflict with each other and cause a crash. This was observed in our auto-expanding layer feature. Jehan fixed the function to be entirely thread-safe. However, changes to multi-threading can leave some well-hidden bugs, so more community testing would be helpful.

Big thanks Dominic!